theo parrish s/d

who buys all the hed kandi stuff? i wish i had worked in a music store @ one pt so i could play anthropologist. those comps have great shit on them! max that lovebirds song i told u about last night is on one of those

i mean vahid you could try to not be weird and homophobic about it

or... trans-ophobic.

LGBTQphobic

tiestophobic

ill stop

it was beavis & rupaul all over again

don't think i'm not trying, max!

if someone plays this in a set do u presume the dj may be gay?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9EgOoYrt8

i don't think so. that was a big hit in britain. rocky & diesel!

does my admission deserve its own tuomas-esque thread of self-discovery: y/n?

well what we're not telling you is that the hot singer from h&la is actually... pipecock

after shaving his neck beard

http://b0.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/00122/06/60/122420660_l.jpg
FULL CIRCLE

is that our boy thomas w/ theo

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=1027158&albumID=0&imageID=1163190

lol @ first comment

i think the funniest thing about this thread ... i finally got around to listening to this newish theo album and the worst part of the way pipecock talks about the record is that hes really not doing it justice ... its really good, but he seems entirely unable to make it sound interesting or vibrant

like, i want to hear people talk about it and what they like about it! why is that so wrong?

xpost yeah i was going to say the same thing about mike's breakdown of the basic channel sound. like, i can't imagine anybody wanting to pick up a basic channel record on the recommendation that "they took the 808/909 detroit drum programming and ran minimal synth/dub influences through todd terry's sampler".

i'm jealous because i don't have any pictures w/ famous people. i met the dudes from the hague once (legowelt, orgue electronique and bangkok impact) but i didn't have the presence of mind to get a picture with them. actually, i think someone did take a pic but i never got a picture. danny wolfers had the most hilarious dry sense of humour, he probably insulted himself about 10 times in a 20-minute conversation.

I must have done something right, you shut up after I explained myself.

** insert dot gif punchline here **

http://kscakes.com.nyud.net:8080/LolCats/Uploads/Saved/your-wish-has-been-granted.jpg

i have a picture of myself with the RZA and one with krs one and those are the only famous people pics i have

ive got one with gorilla zoe

"Again I think this is real, but the sense of disenchantment is caused as much by an underlying contempt for the material as it is the by the disappearance of spiritual - that is, if we didn't identify value solely or primarily with the spiritual (or "soul", or "genius", or "self-expression") then we wouldn't crash so hard when these spectral presences turn out to be chimeric stand-ins for material things.

-- Tim F"

you still have no proof of this. in fact, i think your belief in this is way less based in reality than my view that something that cannot be determined is.

"actually mike that is not at all what i'm getting at!

i was wondering whether the music of theo parrish could inspire such a reaction from a crowd that size. there certainly seems to be something about the type of music that lends itself to that sort of ecstatic crowd spectacle and response.

i am not that interested in what tiesto is doing, although i am certain that theo parrish and jeff mills could jump around like a monkey too, and i'd hardly think less of them for doing so. i am more interested in the crowd dynamic, of 10,000 europeans (it looks like that anyway) pumping their fists in the air together to techno music.

that seems very antithetical to the sound of theo parrish or the sound of jeff mills. but is that just prejudice? could "the bells" do that? or "ebonics"? how about "condor to mallorca"? what about an ugly edit?

-- moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 26 July 2008 05:30 (Yesterday) Link"

the shit i have seen theo parrish do is much more interesting than this. ditto with jeff mills. how is this Tiesto video different from seeing a stadium rock band saying "put your hands in the air"? it really isn't.

"what packaging and promotion? I've never seen an ad or a blurb for Tiesto in my entire life, yet he sold out a 10,000 capacity venue in Dublin quicker than any artist has ever done.

there is no packaging and promotion, just nothing! it's mystifying."

you just arent looking in the right places. it is there.

"this is kind of insane......isn't Tiesto actually one of the more successful dance DJs in the US anyway?

-- Ronan"

with mainstream white audiences who otherwise like "pop" music......

"Anyway, pipecock, just so you know I wasn't implying that parties in detroit are like that, I was implying that parties of detroit fanatics outside detroit quite often are..."

that is just another form of people misinterpreting a culture. they may like good music, but if they don't want to get down and dirty then they need to fuck off.

"For me the hinge of this is that I feel that to enjoy dance music, and most importantly to enjoy NEW forms of dance music as they emerge, you have to TRY to enjoy them.

I can quite happily say that I don't enjoy french nu-rave electro because I've been to a lot of parties, listened to a lot of the music, and genuinely tried to have a good time."

i only wish that i could live in a bubble where i never got to experience or hear the music i dont like. unfortunately, that is almost all i get to see. and man, does it suck. that nu-rave crap makes the hipster kids go bananas, it makes me walk out the door.

"I'm happy doing this because I don't believe that what has gone before is a good predictor of what may happen in the future."

now that is an extremely interesting viewpoint, one that i am not sure anyone would agree with.

"That's why I place no value in an Aristotelian approach to "working out" what makes good music. Surprise and innovation is always possible, change is always possible. So if your entire framework for approaching music is based on history, you negate the possibility of change. For example you really enjoy disco you could infer that it's live musicians and gay new york culture that create great music, and therefore shut yourself off from ever enjoying techno."

but of course that is not what happened for me, nor for the culture that created techno music. people seem so willing to assign some kind of closedmindedness to it when in all actuality that culture is what consistantly birthed the hot new shit. and it still is, only on a much smaller scale now compared to 20 years ago.

"So while a shared culture can create a scene and create great music, if LISTENERS adopt too dogmatic an adherence to one cultural interpretation of what's good, they shut themselves off to a huge amount of possible great music and fun/inspiring/emotional nights out in clubs."

but the deep house and techno nights fulfill a much wider spectrum of emotions simply because they encompass such a wide range of sounds. comparing what gets played in a typical mnml deejay's set to what theo parrish plays, how can you say that theo's approach limits anything in any way? it doesnt make sense. in fact i think the argument for SOUL music is that non-soul music excludes a huge amount of possible great music and fun/inspiring/emotional nights out in clubs.

"And despite not having any skills in that area myself, I'd hazard a guess that one of the things that can cause stagnation in artists is this exact same dynamic (e.g. Masters at Work)."

my own theory of MAW sucking is quite different in fact, i think their problem is that they were not content making "only" dance music. they want people to view them as legitimate musicians outside of the culture from which they came, so they hire on all these latin musicians and whatnot to impress people who dont understand shit anyway. and they fail on almost all levels! my favorite MAW track from the past couple of years was "Kiss" because it was simple and banging. though i do like louie's "cerca de mi" as well, that is one of the few exceptions for their newer style of music.

"I'm not sure that's the exact same thing as "subjectivity" but to frame it in terms of positive cliches, you could say that what the two have in common is having an "open mind" and "listening without prejudice". I'd really prefer not to have to rule out 90% of what's out there because it was made in the wrong city, with the wrong equipment and most importantly by the wrong sort of people with the wrong ideas about music.

-- Jacobw"

but that isn't how it is done. the ruling out comes after hearing the music, the pattern it takes happens to fall along those lines for a large group of people. for some (say, a bunch of the usual posters on deephousepage) it seems like they do take a hard line viewpoint like that. but i think their attitude is worthless anyway, and not founded on the principles that made Larry Levan such a captivating deejay in the first place even though all of those guys would say that they are followers of him.

i think it is funny that i get labeled a purist despite the fact that i say anything goes, as long as it is funky and has soul. the eclecticism and mixing style of people like Hardy, Levan, Humphries, etc are what made the music interesting, not some strict adherance to a set genre. theo parrish is unquestionably following in their footsteps, much moreso than many who claim to be doing the same. these are the kinds of artists i am interested in. how is that dogmatic in any way? Shake and Theo play almost none of the same records, but i think they are both very similar in what they do. they GET IT. they know what it takes to be an interesting deejay. "pusists" in techno and house do not like what they do. but what they do captures the original feeling and intent, and THAT is what counts.

"i think the funniest thing about this thread ... i finally got around to listening to this newish theo album and the worst part of the way pipecock talks about the record is that hes really not doing it justice ... its really good, but he seems entirely unable to make it sound interesting or vibrant

like, i want to hear people talk about it and what they like about it! why is that so wrong?

-- deej"

i am against record reviews like that. in fact, i would say almost every one that was done like that ended up being disappointing to me. i prefer someone to just say what it is that they are doing and i base what i want to listen to on that. for examples, i saw a review about the black keys where it basically boiled down to "white guys playing raw black music produced by Danger Mouse" and that sold me. someone could wax poetic about what makes it so great for 3 pages and i wouldnt even give a shit.

can i also state here that i fucking hate lester bangs? is that alright with the ILM crowd? that shit is how not to write about music 101.

let me expand a bit....

when it comes to movie reviews, i don't read them until AFTER i see a movie. and what i do is learn the taste of the reviewer by comparing my thoughts on the film to theirs after seeing it, and thus i form a mental profile of them. when a movie in a genre that i trust their word on comes out, i look at the headline of the review to see if it is positive or negative. that is all i use to judge whether i am going to see it or not. they could describe it however they wanted, and it wouldnt change shit. discussing art for me comes down to knowing the taste of the person who is talking about it, and seeing if they say "good or bad". end of story. if you want to know how vibrant the record is, there is only ONE way to do that: LISTEN TO THE RECORD.

you are fucking bizarre dude

why are you posting on a message board??

i mean really if "discussing art" is just the exchange of "good/bad" between people whose taste you trust why do you waste your time crafting these intricately irrational multi-sentence responses to tim and vahid?

also honestly i dont want to be all that mean but you sound like the least fun person on the planet

with mainstream white audiences who otherwise like "pop" music......

based on purely anecdotal evidence this isnt true at ALL, tiesto fans that i meet tend to be rockist in the exact same ways that you are, just replacing a snobby attitude toward euro-house with a snobby attitude toward top 40 pop

seriously tho if this is true:

someone could wax poetic about what makes it so great for 3 pages and i wouldnt even give a shit.

why are you here? isnt ilm just a lot of waxing poetic about what makes music great??

like i wonder if maybe the reason people call you closed-minded is because you never change your mind about shit because you dont want to listen to other people?

"i mean really if "discussing art" is just the exchange of "good/bad" between people whose taste you trust why do you waste your time crafting these intricately irrational multi-sentence responses to tim and vahid?"

because i like to argue. it is one of my weaknesses.

"also honestly i dont want to be all that mean but you sound like the least fun person on the planet"

you know, just the other day i was wondering whether people found me fun enough. not.

"based on purely anecdotal evidence this isnt true at ALL"

youre right, theyre all inner city black people who also listen to public enemy.

"tiesto fans that i meet tend to be rockist in the exact same ways that you are, just replacing a snobby attitude toward euro-house with a snobby attitude toward top 40 pop"

and these are obviously equal.

"why are you here? isnt ilm just a lot of waxing poetic about what makes music great??"

just like anywhere else, i know whose taste i trust and i use their reccomendations to check out other things. just because i dont post in a thread doesnt mean i dont read them. i post in a bunch of non-dance threads too when it is about music that i like.

"like i wonder if maybe the reason people call you closed-minded is because you never change your mind about shit because you dont want to listen to other people?

-- max"

i listen to people whose taste i trust. if people whose taste is shit call me closed minded i am not exactly crying about it. but when it flys directly in the face of what i am about, it makes me question whether these people only have bad taste or if they just have no fucking brains whatsoever.

ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I'm always pleasantly surprised by Tiesto singles when I have to review them. Even the ones with BT singing! They sound so immersive. Not that I follow his music or even really listen to those singles once I've reviewed them, but I always enjoy the process more than I expect to.

Is it worth even noting the boringness of the argument that minimal DJs play too narrow a range of music? Most of the big DJs (Luciano, Villalobos, M.A.N.D.Y. etc.) are very diverse. It seems to me that the range of music DJs in any style play can vary dramatically - there are stylistically narrow deep house DJs and stylistically broad "deep house" DJs (who are playing not just deep house but stuff that chimes in with it). But anyway, even if DJs have a narrow range, what of it? It can be good or bad. I started to write something on this but then remembered that I'd written on this before, so here's one I prepared earlier:

"The problem with eclecticism as a ruling aesthetic is that there's always going to be someone more eclectic, more well-versed, more impossibly enthused about every little crevice of the broad expanse of musical history than anyone else. But these DJs are rarely good because they don't know how to construct a framework within which that eclecticism can be understood, so it becomes meaningless to the audience - I saw a pretentious DJ at a Melbourne International Arts Festival gig thing the other night who thought she was blowing everyone away by serving Brazilian prog-jazz after early 80s jazz funk after ol skool hip hop after pleasant deep house after 60s British pop but in truth the event was utterly vibeless. The music itself was fine but there was no discernible thread, no axis upon which momentum could be built.

By contrast when hip hop "let the world in" it did so by disciplining the world to its own ruling ethos; had it been subservient to the world outside it would not have been nearly as distinctive or exciting. Early 90s ardkore techno was similar: anything with a hook was fair game, but at the same time sampling classical strings or old reggae did not equate to becoming those things, to losing the music's identity as ardkore. And this has always been the creative friction which exists within genres, the struggle (between adherence to genre and transcendence of it) which makes a lot of the best music. This is all really obvious stuff but I'm slowly getting to a point:

The mistake I can occasionally make when thinking about this is in assuming that the music which flings open its borders to the most possible outside ideas while preserving its identity is consequentially the music that is most exciting, most vital - the cosmopolitan sound of current dancehall is a good example of this. But I think this is not necessarily the case; it might be equally true to say that music which has much stricter, more severely defined genre boundaries generates just as much friction in its smaller, more subtle infractions and excursions into the outside world. The friction generated is at least partially based on the balancing of the forces on both sides ("for genre", to keep the music's identity coherent; "against genre", to expand or vary that identity). It's like, in a comedy of manners tension is generated in the ambivalence over how far certain characters can break certain circumsribed rules while hanging onto their reputation; this is less obviously dynamic than a film about war where lives and countries hang in the balance, but the tension generated can be the same.

A good mono-genre DJ set is a bit like that comedy of manners: the DJ lays out a broad framework of expectations - the rules - in the overall stylistic coherence of his set, but said coherence is challenged by constant minor disruptions of this coherency, moments of "letting the world in". However there is usually a natural limit to how far these disruptions can go: if they topple the rules governing the set, they also topple the context in which they can be seen to be disruptive, and that particular tension generated collapses (only to be replaced by a new set of rules in which such major infractions were permitted). Sometimes the ground covered by these rules and the infractions against them can be incredibly small objectively, but to focus on that overlooks the fact that what we're talking about is essentially a game between the DJ, the records and the dancers/listeners, and there's a reason why friendships have been destroyed forever by "mere" games of Monopoly - the stakes cannot be measured by some external arbitration process, they exist in the minds of the participants."

I'm fucked right now after being out seeing Dan Selzer play hours ago, it's Sunday at 12.35, I feel unaffected by this thread I have to say. FWIW.

tonights play list has planetary assault systems, john cooper clarke, johnn d.

that wasn't ronan! it was a cherry blossom

Speaking of critical takes on minimal, I really enjoyed Simon Reynolds' suggestion on his blog that minimal has less "peaktime" moments (or rather, its peaktime moments are less peaktime) than in other dance styles because its audience is made up of people with (relatively) creatively fulfilling day jobs, so the "work hard/play hard" dichotomy doesn't apply to them so much. That compresses the argument a lot so go read the piece before you call him immediately out as bullshitting.

Not sure if i agree with his argument but it's an interesting idea. I wish that more attempts to be critical of entire styles of music were as thoughtful, rather than just lapsing into cliched generalizations.

i think it is funny that i get labeled a purist despite the fact that i say anything goes, as long as it is funky and has soul.

how can ANYONE possible discuss anything with you when you keep using words at the crux of your argument but refuse to actually define them in any meaningful way?? "I say anything goes, as long as it is gooberbunken and has blurnbobbins"

Theo Parrish - Blurnbobbins Control

2008 Rolling Gooberbunken and Blurnbobbins Thread (Finally Fixed for Pipecock)

Gooberbunken: Has it peaked?