Simon Reynolds

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SR: "doesn't Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad & The Queen supergroup project sound just a tiny bit like a middlebrow take on h****ology?"

Next time I see this word I am going to throttle someone!

'-ology' - as though it were an actual field of study, rather than an excuse for basket-case pseuds like k-punk to wibble on for page upon page - when all they're really saying is "IT'S A BIT SPOOKY THIS INNIT"

― braveclub (braveclub), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

otm

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

Re: the pirates thing, though, surely this can be explained by his living abroad?

― braveclub (braveclub), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

if only there was some way of accessing information about foreign countries, perhaps via some kind of computer interface, before writing articles...

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

"hauntology" is the worst word ever, yes

(apart from the one which l jagger keeps saying which i'm not even going to type here)

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

What the hell is hauntology?!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

hauntology > overtired

― vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

fuck knows. something to do with stuff which is like between being and not being, but not in an existentialist way, about echoes of the past, but not in a nostalgic way, etc.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 15:55 (nineteen years ago)

Basically the Blissblog/Dissensus/Wire/Resonance mob prefer their musicians to be safely dead.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

Momus nails it obliquely on the head here.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Back up. Hauntology is an actual term somewhere?

(Side note, meantime -- I'll be back in the UK in early March for a week kthxbye.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, I'm totally confused now...

(x-post)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

Stop spamming Ned.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

Momus nails it obliquely on the head here

...a bit rich from the man responsible for 'Suicide Pact'!

― a nuclear-powered carrot (braveclub), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

Stop spamming Ned.

Yeah, leave me alone you penis-extenders!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:05 (nineteen years ago)

WHY HAVE YOU NOT REPLIED URGENTLY TO URGENT REQUEST FOR TRANSFER OF $50,000,000,000 OF DOLLARS FROM GOVERNMENT NIGERIA?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

.............. mah, siete dei rosiconi! ;-)

― minerva estassi (minerva estassi), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

I did and they did things to me.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

http://halflives.adc.rmit.edu.au/haunt/hl033.html

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

http://apawboy.blogspot.com/2006/12/bogus-man-slight-return-focussed-his.html

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

I reckon they actually nicked 'hauntology' off Rentaghost. Next person to use it gets Claypoled.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/images/2006/01/11/rentaghost_jester_150_150x180.jpg

Hiya Simon!

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 26 January 2007 09:01 (nineteen years ago)

HEY STOP HATING ON MY DAD!

― kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

"hauntology" is the worst word ever, yes
(apart from the one which l jagger keeps saying which i'm not even going to type here)

-- lex pretend (lexusjee...),

How soon they forget the terrors of cuddlestein mountain

― Frozen Field with Fox Man (688), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

it's from derrida

and surely no better/worse than the rave-as-temporary-autonomous-zone bullshit reynolds keeps coming back to

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

"bullshit" meant in a not entirely uncomplementary way

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.gosleepgo.com/files/ghost_dad_ver2.jpg

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

on metal/dubstep/noise:

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazzandjop06/0706,reynolds,75737,.html

reynolds vs pdf fite!

And here's the original Phil Freeman screed--received first as an irate email, then published on his blog

I love this bit where he parodies the supposed attitude of me and my friend:

'Folks gotta stop expecting US and UK mainstream pop to give them everything they need…. "This pablum you're spoon-feeding me sucks! I demand you spoon-feed me a higher grade of pablum!"...'

Yeah right that's me, sucking languidly on the teat of the Kapitalist Pop Industry! Whereas my diet this decade has mostly been either ruffage like grime or the audio-gourmet equivalent of artisanal cheeses (Ghost Box, Mordant, Ariel P, et al)....

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

my dad is better than your dad, face facts.

― kieran reynolds (kieran reynolds), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 23:27 (nineteen years ago)

I think what makes Reynolds' article better than you think it's gonna be is the fact that he remains ambivalent about metal/dubstep/noize. The rather flimsy evidence of e.g. Burial making it to 86 on P&J would be actively painful if it was used to back up enthusiastic "it's a revolution!" proselytizing.

That said as usual (as in, as is usually the case with this kind of article rather than for Reynolds specifically) the trend cuts both ways - you could just as easily write an article saying the rock crit world is more pro-pop than ever (e.g. JT winning best single on the Pitchfork poll) or more typical-indie than ever (all those new bands like Tapes'n'Tapes and I dunno who and I dunno what) - and come up with enough evidence to make each argument appear compelling.

The only argument it would be difficult to make is that rock crit is particularly pro-dance at the moment. I think this is at it's lowest ebb in ages, yeah? Maybe it's because people got tired of writing "Dance Is Dead" articles.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 8 February 2007 07:07 (nineteen years ago)

I think what makes Reynolds' article better than you think it's gonna be is the fact that he remains ambivalent about metal/dubstep/noize.

isn't this more "be thankful for tiny mercies" though? and if he had proselytised on behalf of metal or noize it would have come across as even more phony than reynolds usually does, because he is no more into either of those than i am.

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:45 (nineteen years ago)

you still get lone loonies claiming merit for Paris Hilton's CD

What does lone loony Lex think about this?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

scott storch must be really annoyed that people are writing that album off. much more so than paris, who probably doesn't give a fuck either way

― Friendly Tree (688), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:51 (nineteen years ago)

Reynolds reads more and more like Ian MacDonald every day ("We live in cold, dark times") but there's nothing new here, just Reynolds juggling the same weary balls and not really showing much evidence of engaging with any music in 2006 other than that which gets past the Customs gates at Dissensus.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:55 (nineteen years ago)

thing is marcello i don't know which "lone loony" reynolds is referring to. me? tom ewing who voted paris as his no 1 album in the p&j poll? frank kogan? and there are many more besides who'll rep for that album. i doubt any of them care what some conservative indie rock journalist whose trademark is smug, condescending, phony bullshit thinks.

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

as for the endless "current music sucks" whinge, it happens every year - Am I the only person bored by 2005 (six months In, obv)? - all these fucking grandads moaning and groaning from the sidelines.

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:58 (nineteen years ago)

Go Lex go!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:58 (nineteen years ago)

there are many more besides who'll rep for that album. i doubt any of them care what some conservative indie rock journalist whose trademark is smug, condescending, phony bullshit thinks.

the people doing the repping are wrong. paris is a racist who can't sing.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 8 February 2007 09:33 (nineteen years ago)

She can sing pretty much exactly as well as pop icon Kylie. The racist video's put me right off her, though - if I listen to her music now that's what I see.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 8 February 2007 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

What's your current position on S Club?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

Thank God Lex is here to save us from endless critics whose sole schtick is "everything was much better at some undefined point in the past" oh wait.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 8 February 2007 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

as ever wtf are you on about?

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 February 2007 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

p hilton was caught on film calling two black gentlemen an unacceptable synonym

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

no, i mean dom

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 February 2007 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

i think he means "everything was much better when the paris hilton album came out"

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:00 (nineteen years ago)

the idea that things are better now than they ever have been is going to be very hard to maintain logically. unless things just get better and better as time passes, i suppose.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:00 (nineteen years ago)

That your critical outlook, or at least the critical outlook you pretend to have in order to get attention, is based around two things:

1) x act isn't paying sufficient respect to the bands who came before them
2) pop music should be more like it was in 1999, I refuse to engage with any developments in it since then

xxxxp

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:01 (nineteen years ago)

but it's...not, in any way? i mean have you actually read my writing?

the idea that things are better now than they ever have been is going to be very hard to maintain logically. unless things just get better and better as time passes, i suppose.

not nec "better than" but "as good as"

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

embarrassingly i cannot remember any pop music from 1999. what was it like again?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

Not bothered really! Probably cos I liked S Club less in the first place. A lot of what I liked about the Paris album was its frothiness, its treating pop as a big game of let's pretend. Not really having much clue about or interest in PH herself beyond the basic facts - heiress, famous-for-being-famous, porn tape - meant that her perceived horribleness didn't spoil that for me. But actively watching the horribleness on YouTube ruins it, because it overwrites the frothiness with a very concrete image and memory.

Great big xpost, but Marcello did ask.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

I would have no idea really if music is getting better or worse.

But I guess more qualified statements like "I didn't hear much new music I liked this year" make it harder to sell papers.

Pop from 1999!!! "Baby One more Time", "Bills, Bills, Bills", "Sweet Like Chocolate", "Red Alert", "Caught Out There", "Genie In A Bottle", "Give It To You"...

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

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Simon Reynolds - C or D