Bands you keep trying to like but can't get into

Not enough grime and human misery to match my experience of Montreal hospitals.

lol

Sunday November 8th
10pm (U.K. time)

Green Gartside and @rhodri will be our hosts for a @LlSTENlNG_PARTY featuring @scrittipolitti’s work of genius, Cupid & Psyche 85

Join us pic.twitter.com/fJ46PGObri

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) October 8, 2020

i do not associate autechre with hospital hallways or sterility and coldness. they are wayyyyy too fonky for that

Yeah, that's what I don't really get out of it.

for me even at their furthest out they have an undeniable sense of groove, always some rhythmic pocket their spiderwebs of percussion are weaving around, always the product of two people who seem to really love both boom bap and acid, and each album is like here is the latest unrecognizable collision/evolution of that

I enjoy the first two Autechre albums, for sure, and appreciate up through (but not including) Confield.

Autechre remind me of that Flying Lotus tweet, paraphrased: "I spent 10% of my time using Ableton to realize my ideas, and 90% of my time fighting Ableton to make it actually sound good". I appreciate the craft of what they're doing from Confield onward, but wish that the sound world wasn't so "sounding like Max/MSP" all the time.

I listened to the entire NTS collection and it was stuffed with interesting ideas, I was interested in it but never immersed. I was sitting there wishing there was some outboard device with the specific intention of replicating something like the Nord Modular but using analog circuitry-- could such a thing be designed to interface with what Max/MSP does? Something that would rely on outboard sound generation? idk.

All in all I find it more rewarding to listen to random Buchla improvisations on Youtube-- effectively the same deal, but sonically far more enriched.

Also, too-- I think of RDJ's "return to analog" Analord series, and how, although it was uneven, it functioned as an excellent "reset" and made me appreciate Syro that much more. I'd love to hear Autechre do something like that? but they seem generally to be in the business of doing their own thing ha

that pretty much sums up my take on Autechre as well, thanks!

great post, fgti

i still enjoy their new work a bunch, but i get where you're coming from for sure. it does seem hard to imagine autechre doing a Analord style "reset", not because they're incapable of it but because their MO very much seems to be iteration toward...the omniaudiosphere, or something

omniaudiosphere = automated generative always morphing endless, etc

i find their project kind of fascinating and they seem to be doubled-down on it when almost all of their IDM peers have reinvented themselves many times over. so i'm cool with seeing how far they can push it, at the expense of a new direction

Well, the “hey you guys realize we can just shit interesting sounds at this point” vibe of NTS was pretty illuminating— and mind-bogglingly impressive

But it somewhat reminds me of a similar vein-that-has-been-mined in music history: tone row-based serialism. I could, too, shit material with that process, and always find ways of making it “interesting”— it’s like, once a utopian form of autogeneration has been invented, it becomes obsolete— enduring music needs to overcome obstacles, not be factory-created?

At the same time, a close friend of mine started shaking and crying when he met Autechre and there is literally no other musician for whom he’d have that reaction

So maybe it’s just “not for me” heh

Do you mean integral serialism? Bc I don't think of regular 12-tone row-based music as factory-generated/autogenerative at all.

Whatever it's called, I always forget the specifics of the terms

Guys, take it on over to Rolling Music Theory Thread

Should have obscured that a bit, I'm off my game today.

I was actually just wondering what you meant fwiw. I write and play music with 12-tone rows - the rows are just repertoires of pitch material for me, like the notes and chords of a given key are in tonal music. Integral serialism, where every musical element is serialized, is another kettle of fish. There are def Boulez/Stockhausen/Babbitt pieces I love listening to but yeah, not something I play or write.

I am also baffled by ISB love. It goes like this: Critics compare them to bands and sounds I adore, I try for a while to get into them, find that I dislike everything that they do, and wonder what those critics here that I cannot.

Lol ridiculous misspellings in that post, apologies

to agree with points above, find ISB not my thing with a couple of exceptions but love COB

I consider myself an Incredible String Band fan, but sometimes the singing or the whimsy (or the whimsical singing) is totally off-putting.

I like ISB, but don’t play them often. Definitely have to be in the right mood. I’m actually a bigger fan of their latter-day stuff, play Hard Rope and Silken Twine way more often than Hangman’s.

What’s the problem with the International Submarine Band?

I can't stop misreading as "IBS".

Lol

Fair enough, that's what they sound like.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer and The Smiths and Morrissey and anything Bernard Sumner sings on and The Clash and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order for starters!

That's a heavy list.

The one that many people find surprising, knowing me and my tastes, is my inability to get into The Fall. I just don't get it.

"Critics compare them to bands and sounds I adore"

Who are ISB compared to? Was listening to Wee Tam last night, and I love the way they can shape a bunch of lyrics (esp in their longer tracks) and then put in an instrument or sounds that are almost thrown in from nowhere into this ever-growing music. The sitar can sound so integrated, whereas with other groups it's part of an arrangement.

Maybe it's just lazy critics-- back in the New Weird America shit, ISB were often mentioned in reviews of Espers and Wooden Wand and more ornate chamber folk stuff. I was just unable to hear it, and tbh hated that second Espers album, but I've tried to come back to ISB since and they've never taken

I've tried listening to Radiohead (especially Kid A) many times over the years and while they are certainly a band I respect, I'm about to give up on actually enjoying their music. I just think I might have to reckon with the idea that I dislike Radiohead in general, though I liked A Moon Shaped Pool at the time for whatever reason

It’s Radiohead for me as well. I just gave Kid A another shot, and apparently I’ll just never hear what others hear.

i think u have to be a sad youth to start with them honestly, dont know any other way

otm

u cd try thinking about how much your parents dont udnerstand u or how hard it is to talk with people u r sexually attracted to or how much capitalism sucks and -- i repeat -- u r not fucking, that is a major source of consternation

I’ve seen Radiohead twice (Bends and HTTT eras) and both times I thought they were outstanding, totally felt they were worthy of being an era-defining band - and yet I don’t have any interest in listening to their music at home

Maybe it's just lazy critics-- back in the New Weird America shit, ISB were often mentioned in reviews of Espers and Wooden Wand and more ornate chamber folk stuff. I was just unable to hear it, and tbh hated that second Espers album, but I've tried to come back to ISB since and they've never taken

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Sunday, 11 October 2020 bookmarkflaglink

From my vague recollection of that new weird America stuff ISB...isn't that, no.

Which might explain why I can't get into it! That first Espers album is sick, and I love Wooden Wand and a lot of the more free-floating, noisy New Weird America stuff.

Radiohead for me too; I make an effort every few years, most recently in response to that Guardian article about their influence on black music. I made a 4-hour playlist for a long solitary car journey and sat through the whole thing, when it ended I flipped to the radio just as "Time Is Tight" by Booker T and the MGs was played - the feeling of relief was amazing, it was like putting the car into a higher gear.

tbf, "time is tight" would probably have that effect 95% of the time.

Radiohead are very much in that Porcupine Tree vein of "they're clearly very good at this but I find it hard to enjoy this at all"

^ that's a really good comparison

Also, maybe we are veering off topic a bit here, but since someone mentioned New Order: I love New Order but every time I put on a Joy Division record I am bored to tears

I love Joy Division, but I have a hard time getting into any New Order beyond their singles.

Similarly, I like The Cure's singles, their poppy and eclectic songs, but albums like Pornography and Disintegration are completely lost on me.

Sparks keep coming up on my Discover Weekly and just no - viscerally no.

Recent Sparks, old, none whatsoever? They're one of my favorite bands of all time, but I certainly get how Russell's voice is a turnoff for many.

Sparks keep coming up on my Discover Weekly and just no - viscerally no.

Agree (but not with the "keep trying to like" part from the thread title). Very few acts are as Not For Me as Sparks.

Very few acts are as Not For Me as Sparks.

cosign

I’m not a huge fan but I dig number 1 in heaven and terminal jive a lot. and “amateur hour”. and “cool places” with jane wiedlin.

Recent Sparks, old, none whatsoever? They're one of my favorite bands of all time, but I certainly get how Russell's voice is a turnoff for many.

I think I've mainly heard older Sparks. It's strange how quickly I have to turn them off: something to do with the voice, the hyperactive bombast, the archness.

It's strange how quickly I have to turn them off: something to do with the voice, the hyperactive bombast, the archness.

Yep. All of this.