Simon Reynolds - C or D

Simon--Jesus god this Soundmurderer fella knows his shit, dunn'e?

talking of which SoundMurderer mix-Cd on Violent Turd -- 60 tks of ragga-jungle circa 94 in just over an hour -- the best jungle mix ever? meaning therefore the best dance music mix ever?

When is this COMING out??!? I don't see it listed on Tigerbeat6's website at all!! What's on it? Who mixed it?

But the good one-man genres always inspire a following, no?

Track 1 (30:48)
Cobra: “R.I.P.”
Remarc: “R.I.P.”
Remarc: “R.I.P. (Remarc Remix)”
Remarc: “Sound Murderer”
Remarc: “Sound Murderer (Loafin in Brockley Remix)”
Cutty Ranks: “Original Ranks (Just Jungle Remix)”
Kemet Crew: “Truth Over Falsehood”
Dennis Brown: “Rebel with a Cause (Bizzy B Remix)”
Johnny Jungle: “Killa Sound (Krome & Time Remix)”
DRS + Kenny Ken: “Everyman (AWOL Remix)”
DJ Rap ft. Outlaw Candy: “Intelligent Woman”
Kemet Crew: “Vibe Out”
Krome & Time: “License Remix”
General Degree: “Papa Lover (Stretch Remix)”
Rude & Deadly: “Lightnin and Thunda”
Shy FX: “Who Run Tingz (T Power Remix #1)”
Shy FX: “Who Run Tingz (T Power Remix #2)”
Remarc: “Thunderclap”
Cutty Ranks: “The Return (Bizzi B & Ruffkut Rmx)”
Tek 9: “Pushing Back (Remix)”
DJ Hype: “Bad Man”
Capone: “Massive”

Track 2 (22:33)
Shy FX: “Simple Tings (10” Mix)”
New Blood: “Worries in the Dance”
Prizna ft. Demolition Man: “Fire (AWOL Mix)”
Simpleton: “Coca Cola (Remix)”
Garnett Silk: “Flip Flop”
Salt Fish & Ackee: “The Gunman”
Barrington Levy: “Here I Come (Remix)”
Physics N Tricks: “Crazy Tings (Remarc Remix)”
Simpleton: “Unity (Remarc Remix)”
Darren H & the Punisher: “All Massive (Remix)”
Ninjaman: “Murder Dem (Lewi Remix)”
L Double: “All Massive”
DJ Rescue: “Untitled #1”
Pure: “Anything Test (Zinc Remix)”
Da Matrix: “Come Een”
Trinity: “I Selassie I”
Krome & Time: “Studio 1 Lik”
Chuckleberry: “Bad Man”
Run Tings & Liftin Spirit: “Come Easy”
Marvellous Cain: “CB4”
Squarepusher ft. MC Twin Dub: “Full Rinse”

Track 3 (15:48)
Psychokenisis: “Secret Place”
The X: “New Dawn (ST Files Remix)”
T.J.C.: “Raw”
B.L.I.M.: “Jeamland (Trace Remix)”
Dom: “Drones”
Nookie: “The Prelude”
Decoder: “Fog”
DJ Rescue: “Untitled #2”
Kemet Crew: “Powering Through”
DJ Gunshot: “Wheel Up”
Solution: “What Can I Do”
Souljah: “2-1-2”
Northern Connexion: “Bounce”
2 Player: “Extreme Possibilities (Wagon Christ Remix)”
Plug: “Cheesy (Aura Mix)”
Shy FX: “Dubplate”
Cyche-Outs: “Kaos Future to Kuranka (Fukakuteisei Mix)”

But my main criticism with regard to Reynolds' theory that techno was heading for an elitist dead end is that it's pretty ironic to see it becoming more populist/popular than EVER in its entire history.

which is then their downfall, no?

no but seriously, often if something's a real good then it inspires loadsa imitators andn if you're reall really INTO that something good then seconddivision secondhand versions of it are going to be just peachy, the more the merrier. but coming as a ahem dilettante outsider to jeff mills's particular fanaticism, it seems like the sonic bases of minimal techno are too narrow to sustain more than a few folk. whereas the gloomcore template actually seems to have more possibilities, but maybe i am too "inside" that sound to be objective

also,
>re each twist and turn of genre-fracture being the one to liberate >mankind bring peace freedom harmony and lemondade oceans
i don't think i ever say anything like that, in fact there's a thread of doubt and ambivalence running through the whole thing that it's all a massive waste of energy, that the euphoria is going nowhere and signifies nothing. i never was one of those this will change the world, it's a revolution in human consciousness types, that side of rave always seemed a bit silly and hippie, it's what put me off it the scene til the harder darker techno came in circa 91. but if the impression is of excessive urgency and the writer being convinced that this area is the most passion-deserving and thought-provoking musical phenom of the Nineties, fascinating both in its broadest contours and implications as well as its smallest details-- well that's what i was feeling.

as a music formation, rave is/was as vast as rock or rap -- as a convert, there's a sense in which you like all of it, the whole cultural project of it feels like a Cause that Stands For Something and that you Stand By (cf hip hop) , but then of course there's particular bits you really really love and think are the leading edge of it. so in writing that bk, i'm trying to big up the whole thing while work out which sectors are most taking it forward.

listening to SoundMurderer --glorious barrage of mash-up amen rinse-outs and snarerushes and sublow skank bass and ragga battle cries -- it's hard for me to imagine how anyone who heard this music in its time could fail to respond to it as a Call, a summons, an energy signal.

it's still more far out than anything that followed, no matter how everyone from drill n bass to the splatterbreaks Scud-types tried to make it weirder and more fuckedupe -- although that said Scud also has a great record out with Panacea under the name The Redeemer called Hardcore Owes Me Money -- their own tribute to h-core/early jungle samplemania slathered over more modern d&b beats

If dance genre = plateau, then a "perfected" genre = a singularity, collapsed in on itself and inaccessable but permanantly deforming the musical landscape around it? I like this metaphor since it captures the jungle is dead -- > jungle is everywhere paradox.

All in all, I think Germany's importance in the advancement of electronic music is overlooked in the British media. When talking about Germany's role in this people talk about Love Parade, Low Spirit and how things went big/mainstream there, but the other side of the story is often forgotten. First of all, the German trance/rave boom made people in more remote countries (like mine) turn their heads to electronic music and make their own bastardization of it. Secondly, a scene that big is bound to create a bunch of underground artists, pioneers and explorers. But because some people still think Teutonic dance music is a joke, that it equals with rigid hordes stomping to a Nazi no-soul beat, the German scene is belittled or ignored.

A good case in point is the scene in Cologne. It had a big part in creation of the current electro craze (with Mouse on Mars, Kerosene, Jammin' Unit, Khan, etc.), it helped to rescue digi-dub from becoming new age music (with Incoming! Records, Nonplace Urban Field & co.), and also gave birth to a number of brilliant but unclassifiable acts, like Air Liquide or Love Inc. Out of these, only Mouse on Mars has gotten the attention they deserve, probably because they appeal to indie/rockist sensibilities. However, the grounding work done by Jammin' Unit, Dr. Walker, Kerosene, Khan, Mike Ink, Burnt Friedmann and others seems to be largely ignored. All of the above mentioned acts were taking place already in the mid-nineties, but since Britain has always had it's own preoccupations, I guess they were lost there.

it is worth mentioning that vath, zaffarano, tanith, westbam etc regularly played huge parties in britain, and, initially at least, alongside mills, beltram, hawtin, angel, wild etc

i think the with the demise of hardcore in britain, that it can be overlooked that a lot of that audience switched over to the emerging german/dutch hybridized techno/trance sound of harthouse, bonzai, important etc, and the way that melded with american stuff like red planet, axis, synewave, UR etc

but again, yes, this applies to the way the euro sound caught on in britain, rather than in europe itself, and i'd love to read a similar book that concentrated exclusively on germany

1)It's created in the US.
2)It's imported in the UK, where it becomes big.
3)It's mutated into million different subgenres by the UK producers.
4)Then, maybe a small chapter or an epilogue about it going worldwide.

Reynolds doesn't claim that his is the complete story, but he also doesn't say it's just the British story. I mean, Reynolds does write about foreign scenes as well, but mostly about the stuff he himself fancies. To be objective you'd have to at least acknowledge the impact the German scene has had on electronic music.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/dubplate/

Second most frustrating thing about ILM: seeing a new thread when it pops up and thinking "Oh I'll have to check that out later" and then coming back after an hour and realizing it's too lengthy to digest. Most frustrating thing about ILM: seeing the same thread revived a year after it started and being reminded of the first time you said you'd have to read it later.

(Then almost immediately thought of the acrimonious debates earlier this year about a certain mud-hut dwelling young lady whose publicity shots invariably depict her crouching on a jungle tree branch; that bizarre net-spectacle of folks who disdain the concept of authenticity engaged in frantic authentication!)

Perhaps someone can clue me in to what he's talking about with regards to M.I.A. here? He is referring to her right? I can't recall a single publicity shot where she's dwelling in a "mud-hut" or crouching on a "jungle tree branch". She appears in a jungle themed setting for the "Amazon" video. How exactly are anti-authenticity types "engaged in frantic authentication"? It would seem to me that so many of her detractors are *obsessed* (perhaps unconsciously) with where she's from (not speaking of Sri Lanka here, but with her art school/class origins? forgive me, I'm only an American here). Is there some assumption that everyone who likes her is somehow reveling in some kind of 1950s cliched exoticism?

As for the phrase above, I've always thought it was originally reversed and very American - i.e. it's not where you're from (place, class etc), but where you are now, where you've brought yourself (by the bootstraps) to. The inversion as quoted just seems like a moderately clever play on the original phrase and something that would mainly make sense in NYC (as in, which suburb do you represent etc).

Sorry if this is the wrong place to bring this up, but I don't have time to figure out dissensus.

Also, could someone please give a layman's account of Simon's nu-rockism idea?