Worst "genre" created by a journalist part 4534547668686 : 'Hypnagogic Pop' by David Keenan.

Is "moanwave" the name for every drone/noise act that shoves the microphone up close and cups it and goes "wauhhhheerrrrrrrrr-rrrr-rrr" into it over some polite bowing and clattering of Tibetan bowls and little tinkly bells?

microphone technique is correct. Could be tinkly bells, bowls and bowing action ... could be guitar drone ... could be pretty much anything that is a) repetitive and b) demonstrative of minimal technical aptitude on an instrument

xp thomp - not me ... my "power-skim" left me with the impression that it is new age hippy drone mixed with melodic 80s fluff.

Yeah the gamelany stuff is pretty much just not as good (except Pacific Rat Temple maybe?). Most of James Ferraro's work is not like that though.

remember "subterranean metal"?

no

protip: use the contextual clues of this thread to figure out what it was!

Sunn 0))

if u google it savage pencil seems to implicitly accept "yes, that was just a made-up label for the sake of getting wire readers to pay attention". which it is nice, that he admits it.

i've read the keenan article, tho' i don't have it to hand right now - he is gd, as you might imagine, on the relationship between dreaming states and memory and music, less good on how this 'hypnagogic pop' somehow manages to escape the dread 'monoculture of conformity' blahblah that we're apparently mired in by referencing, say, the ST ELMO'S FIRE s/t

that article is reaaaaalllly thin, i'm actually amazed The Wire didn't tell Keenan to bugger off with this

but yeah...telling

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Yeah but the problem is he is basically shoehorning them all into some made-up genre in order to give them a coherence that they don't actually have.

― anagram, Monday, July 20, 2009 3:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

im not sure that's really a problem? like isnt that something all music writer should do... connect non-obvious dots?

there's a difference between seeing what others don't see and seeing what isn't there

otm some dude. The dots are not actually connectable, so he just looks silly when he tries to do it.

i agree—i've never heard of any of these bands, though, so i have no idea if there's no there there. and maybe he DOES find something interesting that you know, is conveyed by the actual article and not the cover line.

REMAKING THE PAST is a big theme with the wire tho

Just retagged Emeralds - What happened as Hypnagogic Pop.

fyi

somebody say "moan-wave?"

i think all of the people who care enough about this to be pissed off should pick something to tag as hypnagogic pop that slavish wire-followers will wind up listening to

meanwhile i guess er i will be listening to keith tippett

hm

All Pussyfooting

Tagging Electric Red Hypnagogic right now.

Music to fall asleep to? Damning with faint praise, innit?

lol moan wave

moan wave made me remember "new weird america" ...

new weird america was keenan too no?

pls to help find MADLIB scans

xp. New weird america was keenan and also not half as obnoxious as hypnagogic pop.

largely because he was riffing on something already described and it made some sort of sense rather than just making up a term and lumping some folk in with it.

I bet some of the folk felt pretty lumped in, if only by the law of averages... some ppl are guaranted to be butthurt at any attempt to describe their music

but like I said upthread, I feel like it does make a sort of sense FWIW

I'm not saying there wasn't lumping in done with New Weird America, just that it was a less arbitrary lumping in than hypnagogic pop.

Aren't all genres created by journalists, after a fashion?

I still think "gay fascist muscle disco" should take off

assumed this was already a thing

I put "hypnagogic pop" into a band's one sheet today for the hell of it.

But really, I don't get the claim that Skaters music has the same effect on the listener as Emeralds. I like em both for what they are but I don't see the similarity. Emeralds have that vast, tranquil Schulze-ish thing going on and Skaters produce the same feeling as when you realize your toast is burning and decide, fuck it, I'm eating it anyway.

Weren't Skaters the ones who were ripping people off with their mail order stuff? Or was that just one of the two guys, or am I misremembering something?

I think dude was just late on shipping something once, they both seem like stand up dudes.

I'm glad someone is finally taking a stand against people making up categories in music on an internet message board where almost no one has actually read the piece in question but intend to just as soon as someone else gets off their ass and uploads it for them.

where else would someone take this stand?

exactly!

this piece is not so long that you couldn't adequately skim it at the newsstand fwiw

haha or you could just buy the damn mag

and since I bought the magazine, I had read it before starting this thread..

David Keenan is Wire's Julie Burchill, he's the guy employed as much to wind up the subscribers as for any other reason.

He described Wolves In The Throne Room as emo and fuzzpop about four issues ago. If it's not Derek Bailey or something that he totally respects, he just pulls it out of his arse.

But really, I don't get the claim that Skaters music has the same effect on the listener as Emeralds. I like em both for what they are but I don't see the similarity. Emeralds have that vast, tranquil Schulze-ish thing going on and Skaters produce the same feeling as when you realize your toast is burning and decide, fuck it, I'm eating it anyway.

― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Their fans are pretty much the same 200 people though.

If it's not Derek Bailey or something that he totally respects, he just pulls it out of his arse.

Whiney OTM

why are we surprised that music critics are total and complete wastes of time?