simon reynolds: classic or dud

And he's now blogging about it, and about other music again.

Quite a good record, that new Backyardigans album, but really this is wishful thinking beyond rationality.

Reading Energy Flash I'm realizing it has the same kind of odd disjunction that bothered me about Rip It Up. Each chapter functions perfectly on its own, but in order to pull that off there's constant reiteration of previously established facts. It gets tiresome.

Also a nitpick with both books: he covers the UK scenes first and with greater enthusiasm, so when he gets to the US he seems to have run out of steam and just be playing Big Musical Movement Narrative Mad Libs. "(Originator 1) met (Originator 2) in high school, and before long (Originator 3) fell in with the duo and they started farting around with analog synthesizers...."

Doesn't first wave US house/techno/garage precede any UK discussions in Energy Flash? Actually i'm basing this on reading the US version Generation Ecstasy, which maybe was differently structured, but I remember it trying to follow a reasonably chronological order (within limits: a lot of stuff was happening concurrently obv).

I agree that it's pretty clear that the coverage of UK hardcore and jungle is more excited and exciting than the coverage of any US stuff - I suspect a lot of that was cribbed from articles he'd written at the time of the music's emergence, so there's a less scholarly feel to the coverage (in that sense your above criticism would sort of apply - only to the order of writing rather than presentation).

One thing I do remember really liking was the too-brief coverage of US Garage where he talks about the Strictly Rhythm and Nu-Groove records he really likes. I wanted more on that, perhaps because it's an area of music that you don't often see broken down in that romantic-formalist way (usually it's all either deflating discussions of hi-hats and programmed bass or pipecockian evocations of soul).

In general, SR's relative disinterest in house (compared to other dance musics) seems to conflict with his excellent capacity to capture in words what makes a house track (that he likes) really great.

no longer very grimey simeys top 10 of 2008 from fact mag:

01- Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend [XL]
02- Blackout Crew 'Put a Donk On It' [All Around the World]
03- Giggs Walk In Da Park [SN1]
04- Portishead Third [Mercury]
05- The Backyardigans 'Almost Everything is Boinga' [Nick]
06- Crystal Castles 'Courtship Dating' [Last Gang]
07- Gang Gang Dance 'Dust' [Social Registry]
08- Moon Wiring Club Shoes Off and Chairs Away [GAS]
09- Beck 'Gamma Ray' [Interscope]
10- Skull Disco Soundboy's Gravestone… [Skull Disco]

ew

Grimey can drop to that

"09- Beck 'Gamma Ray'"

really?

i haven't heard this.

but five gets you ten he was hating on beck in '93-6 when he didn't totally suck.

05- The Backyardigans 'Almost Everything is Boinga'

What on earth is this?

Nick Jr TV show soundtrack

has reynolds talked about giggs anywhere before? (or indeed any ilm stuff besides clueless marcello bollocks?)

i can understand why he'd latch on to him in terms of it being a big underground uk event (kinda, i guess, i dunno? the freestyle, and whatever old dr dre offcut it was on were totally ubiquitous, moreso than 'bongo jam' or anything, but as a theoretical return of uk hiphop, or giggs as the uk's first indigenous grassroots jeezy figure, or whatever anything else it is that people are supposing it all might mean, i have deep reservations about the lot of it) but... is he actually into it? living in new york, having the tastes that he does - why?? simey really do be grimey huh.

especially since he's pointedly choosing giggs over any funky house or even let's say the trim mixtape (for which one could just as easily transplant weezy for jeezy were you indeed inclined to that particular piss-weak argument.)

i mean, i should also probly make it clear i think giggs is fucking terrible. he sounds just like probly-not-even-playing-football-any-more's shabazz baidoo when he was doing his mc terminator comedy schtick. (which was just him talking like arnie.)(which everyone thought was rubbish, obv.)

01- Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend [XL]
02- Blackout Crew 'Put a Donk On It' [All Around the World]
03- Giggs Walk In Da Park [SN1]
04- Portishead Third [Mercury]
05- The Backyardigans 'Almost Everything is Boinga' [Nick]
06- Crystal Castles 'Courtship Dating' [Last Gang]
07- Gang Gang Dance 'Dust' [Social Registry]
08- Moon Wiring Club Shoes Off and Chairs Away [GAS]
09- Beck 'Gamma Ray' [Interscope]
10- Skull Disco Soundboy's Gravestone… [Skull Disco]

what the fuck is all this bullshit

Baidoo is now at Croydon Athletic xp

i thought this dude was up on juvenile and aaliyah back when all the other rock critics were bangin out to uh beck and portishead

That was before hauntology happened.

Although yeah, for a guy who was riding for Weezy back in 98, this helpfully explains what happens to people when they get a mortgage.

05- The Backyardigans 'Almost Everything is Boinga'

Right about that one.

I can't tell you how confusing this thread became in the 30 seconds before I realised Shabazz Baidoo wasn't actually the gay dude who got kicked out of Big Brother a few years back.

i had that same moment pondering why reynolds would ever have smacktalked danny wilson, dude had a good run at barnsley

oh come off it

guy decides his favorite records of 2008 aren't predominantly hip hop, world continues to revolve, don't be cunts about it

somewhere someone is bitching pointlessly at how much dom likes los campesinos -- "see, this is what happens when people have a student loan"

guy decides his favorite records of 2008 aren't predominantly hip hop, world continues to revolve, don't be cunts about it

― thomp, Monday, December 15, 2008 9:50 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i've got some questions

are any of them hip-hop?

who the fuck is thomp?

what the fuck are these records anyway?

hahaha, blackout crew. kudos simey.

xpost. Giggs is a UK rapper http://www.myspace.com/trapstargiggs

imo a very shit UK rapper.

> are any of them hip-hop?

probably not.

> who the fuck is thomp?

this isn't a clubroom

> what the fuck are these records anyway?

vampire weekend - popular preppy rock band. you may have heard of them.

blackout crew - absolutely ridiculous british rappers explaining that all music sounds better when you put a donk on it; you'd loathe it; he's being uh populist

skull disco - bristol dubstep people, vaguely 'intellectual' end of it

ridiculous british rappers otm, you want to put a donk on that mate

put a thomp on that

05- The Backyardigans 'Almost Everything is Boinga'

ROLLING TODDLERPOP 2009 THREAD

i thought this dude was up on juvenile and aaliyah back when all the other rock critics were bangin out to uh beck and portishead

― ladies and gentlemen, mr. biff_tannen (and what), Monday, December 15, 2008 4:34 PM (6 hours ago)

he spent solid time pre-rave deep into the cure and the smiths etc

hes making my enjoyment of 'put a donk on it' being so fukkin stupid a lot less fun -- like i suspect he actually thinks this shit is better than all american rap

nah im sure he likes it as a critique of british pop or something

hmm well -- i think its still pretty lolzy -- i have to take back the implication that 'donk' is fukkin stupid, i actually think its quite smart

jesus christ you are not just overthinking Put A Donk On It, you are overthinking your own entitlement to consider whether it is smart or stupid

get a grip quicksmart (and put a wicked donk on it!)

b-b-b-b--b-b-b-BBASSLINE!

you are overthinking your own entitlement

Nancy Dell'Olio on Newsnight the other night to thread...

Saw his hip hop book in a bookshop in Camden that sells every book for £2, I bought a book about Trojan Records instead because it had a free CD with it. If only Simey had included a free CD with his book.

There was a free CD with the first run of Energy Flash which was arguably better than the book.

i bought the hip hop book for £2 and haven't looked back, though it does include unedited blog posts about 'college dropout' and divers other non-essential items.

Did any grime artists get GS in to do mixtape shoutouts? Missed opportunity imo.

The Wire 300: Simon Reynolds on the Hardcore Continuum #1: Hardcore Rave (1992)

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/issues/issue105/main/TechnicalEcstasy.jpg

xpost - what bookshop is that?

When British youth first encountered the term Acid House they misconstrued it. In Chicago, acid came from ‘acid burn’, slang for ripping off someone’s idea (by sampling it). But in Britain, it was assumed that ‘acid’ meant psychedelics

that "acid burn" thing was written by a clueless nme or mm journalist in '87 who was having his leg pulled by some chi-town producers.

oh great, reynolds tries to make dance music fit in with tired critical theory memes pt. 94.

titchy -- i've seen it in numerous places, including unsworths on euston road.

that's not really a meme, it's just plain wrong.

i have the book actually (the bring the noise one right?), i just wanted to know where you can get books on trojan for 2 quid!

Simon Reynolds is dead.

Dead serious about dance music.

What a lamestain.