theo parrish s/d

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?

gooberbunken house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this [Started by J@cob, last updated 3 hours ago] 9 new answers

gooberbunken isn't something you can define, it's something you just instinctively feel and know. maybe if you were an active participant in the culture of blurnbobbins music, this wouldn't be so hard for you to understand, deej.

get some damn gooberbunken asshole

bitchesdon'tknowboutmyblurnbobbins.jpg

well fuck are you all that stuck on your next retort?

i actually met some people this weekend that would've deserved a pipeock/winston double dragon style beatdown

me: "oh is this on a mix?"
indie longhair: "NO! this is the original VINYL"
ME: "keep rolling that stone up the hill, hypocritical apolitical fuckwit"

same guy gave a nice npr style historical soundbite about sharivari when someone asked him what track was playing

well The Big One will kill all of these skinny longhaired indie guilt ridden hypocritical fucks

i mean, i think they're mostly in california

DNFTT

THE RINK

-- am0n, Sunday, May 27, 2007 11:16 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

norman connors - i dont need nobody else

off 'take it to the limit' album

Excellent find deej.

I was sure it was a Marvin sample. I always pass up the many Norman Connors albums I find and don't recognize at the used store. I'll be grabbing this one if I come by it.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/166958678ad6185e/

smdh @ clusterfuck upthread

thanks. just rejoice that our long digital nightmare is finally over.

So really though, 2008 was a pretty great year for Theo.

5 new releases:
Sound Sculptures 2xCD
Chemistry / Untitled One 12"
Goin' Downstairs Part 1 / Goin' Downstairs Part 2 12"
Love Triumphant / Space Bumps 12"
Kuniyuki - Remixed Vol.1 12"

5 represses/re-releases:
Solitary Flight 12"
Sound Signature Sounds CD
Took Me All The Way Back 12"
You Forgot / Dirt Rhodes 12"
Norma Jean Bell - Do You Wanna Party? / Late Night Show 12"

All somewhere on the scale of great to mind blowing for me. Nothing much else to say. Just bored at work and figured this s/d should be updated. Supposedly the LCD Soundsystem remix is still in the pipeline. Anything else for 2009?

Sound Signature Sounds CD

^this is awesome

iloveokra.blogspot.com/2008/11/theo-parrish_14.html

this guy lovingly puts together 2 (ridiculously poorly mixed) sets of all theo parrish tracks. really great for me as i'd never really listened to him before. there's also a moodyman one on his site.

at a guess 'this guy' might be matt2?

not sure about the rigidly chronological sequencing but can't complain about the selections.

Yep it's me and all complaints about mixing are completely justified. I do those as part of a radio show I do but our turntables have no pitch controls and I'm poor-to-horrific under any circumstances. So it can turn into quite a mess. I probably shouldn't even try or even consider what is done mixing but oh well at least you get to hear the tunes.

uh, ha. oops. sorry. :-[

i definitely appreciate the mixes. maybe just let the songs play or mix one out and start the next instead of letting them play over each other for multiple seconds.

Nah, no need to apologize. I agree. They're even hard for me to listen to sometimes :).

Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry

chemistry starts off really well, then disappointingly plateaus/turns into an extended coda. can't stand the b side. my least favourite of his 12"s this year.

Sound Signature Sounds CD

^this is awesome

― eman, Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:21 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

this is one of the best house music cds ever imo. does anyone own a copy of the pieces of a paradox record with "ebonics" and "dusty cabinets"? i really need to know if the latter is any longer than the cd version, feels like that track should be twice as long. that's up there w/ "phylyps trak ii" and "throw" in terms of dizzying house music hysteria

"chemistry starts off really well, then disappointingly plateaus/turns into an extended coda.

― resolved"

gimmme some of what you're smoking.

"this is one of the best house music cds ever imo. does anyone own a copy of the pieces of a paradox record with "ebonics" and "dusty cabinets"? i really need to know if the latter is any longer than the cd version, feels like that track should be twice as long. that's up there w/ "phylyps trak ii" and "throw" in terms of dizzying house music hysteria

― rio (r1o natsume)"

i dont know about the CD version, but the 12" version of "Dusty Cabinets" is at least 10 minutes long, i've ridden that one out in the mix many many many times. still possibly my favorite theo jam, though both Chemistry and Love Triumphant have entered into contention. 08 was definitely a great year for theo.

rio: yes the 12" version is signifantly longer than the cd one.

pipecock: i really wish i liked chemistry more, but it just doesn't go where i wanted it to from the samples. the first three minutes are the best by far.

his edit of sylvester's "dance" is a total headfuck. i literally dizzied out. no kididing. i had to get away from the computer for a while. never want to listen to it again definitely.

THE RINK

yes!

this might be my fav of the ugly edits. theo at his late night hazy best and that big ass kick drum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HEqpnXC7Yo

and slightly ot, but the andres album from last year was pretty awesome

when andres hits, he hits hard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23shQ3IjIL4

what's the rink?

never mind!