DJ RUPTURE'S TOP 5 PROBLEMS WITH TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR LISTS

Naive creature. I could show you credit card bills that would stun you.

Whoa. And here I've been reading the Village Voice all these years, thinking "where do they come up with this stuff? Are they on drugs?"

Meanwhile, back in the rest of the world, we kick the ball over the fence and then get pleasantly surprised when next door's cabbage patch grows pretty flowers. There is no conspiracy.

this is such a weak comparison imo. me not caring about Anticon has nothing to with what rules they do or do not break, trust me Mr. Rupture.

WOW!!! That's me... except for the well-paying day job... and the honor... and the voting... and the savings............

do critics really not buy a lot of CDs? Enlighten me. This is a serious questions. I'm naive here, people.

Can't speak for anyone else, but this critic buys a lot of CDs. And vinyl. I'm not the promosexual I used to be. And even then, I was spending loads on music. But I was DJing more then, too.

Here's a stock response to anyone who criticizes how the music media work. If there's a conspiracy being outlined above, I missed that, too...

This is seriously fucked up: http://www.negrophonic.com/2009/charles-holgate-and-the-publicity-game/

thats pretty shady, ive always heard Zzzonked were one of the few clued up music publicists working out of london. Thats said, a brief stint in music PR was one of the grimmest things i've ever done. I'd been involved with running some long term successful events but 90% of the time i was being hassled by my boss who knew shit all about music to try and punt out albums to mags/websites which would have no interest. It was genuinely embarrassing, the whole industry is ran by clueless public school kids who can afford to spend a year as an intern and start on 12k simply because it'll impress folks back in the shires

I didn't know that dude was an MC - I got a mailout from him about FWD>> the other day which was written in, uh, grime MC parlance, which I found slightly odd and uncharacteristic at the time

Also I 'unno who Beccy Lindon is but she sounds like a douche and/or someone who can't read properly

nomad doesnt strike me as a public school boy based on what ive heard of his show with plastician but that rupture blog entry was v interesting. wonder what happened.

Comments are closed.

not only that, article has been removed.

probably for the best. even if it's all true, i don't think it looks that professional to post it publicly like that (although i guess it got the desired result).

So what was the deal with this?

Can someone post the original article here?

I missed it on the blog.

musician/publicist beef

here's a google cache, up for a little while.

basically he got money and a couple of hundred promo CDs from the label that put out rupture's recent mix CD. then he didn't return calls or emails for six months, and when they finally got a hold of him he couldn't explain the promo work he'd done or where the CDs had gone. rupture's blaming him for not getting the mix CD into any magazines, shops or online review sources.

more curious about the comments box, personally.

(although i guess it got the desired result).

It probably got a threatening cease-and-desist letter. It was a facsinating post, tho.

not that i want to be the guy sticking up for publicists on the thread but--theres two sides to every story, and based on my experience/understanding disagreements like this are fairly common in the industry

here's what's up now:

CHARLES HOLGATE AND THE PUBLICITY GAME

EDIT: I just had a long, slightly surreal phone conversation with Charles Holgate, the original topic of this post. Charles requested that I take down this blog entry & associated comments and wait until the end of the month, by which time my core concerns should have been resolved. I’m happy to oblige and hope everything works out.

Thanks and sincere apologies to the commentors - should this discussion re-open, your comments will be intact. I feel awkward truncating an open discussion, I never delete comments on here; in the years of Mudd Up! this is the only time a post has been put on pause.

this just sounds like a case of a very busy/lazy (delete as appropriate) press officer failing to really get on the job then going awol cos he knew he fucked up.

the good news is that by checking dj rupture's blog i found this great south african bleep'n'rap mixtape

this just sounds like a case of a very busy/lazy (delete as appropriate) press officer failing to really get on the job then going awol cos he knew he fucked up.

or pr has sent to wrong sites/mags, only for the mixtape to be met by a 'meh!'

and no follow up calls, no re-mailing out, no follow up emails, not even a report made up of fake feedback to send to the record label! what sort of pr dyou call that? ;)

viral stealth PR campaign

i deal with many a pr who never chase me up.
they're the best.

lol

Guest List: Best of 2008
Guest List by Pitchfork

DJ/rupture
1. Various Artists: Gaza Lords Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (compiled by Mode Raw)
New eerie synthed-up reggae, lots of Stephen "Di Genius" production, plus all these amazing singjays. Hot. And very useful now that Jamaican vinyl production fell off practically overnight. You can hear Mavado's huge influence in the younger generation of MCs who bend otherworldly melodies into gangsta-sufferation lyrics. Long live hood synthetics! Tunes by B.o.B and Boy Better Know push this international.

2. Paavoharju: Laulu Laakson Kukista
Forget High Places and other neo-hippie loopers; this is the real deal, goth like the Brothers Quay, with incredible nonlinear post-production. Uncanny religious or pseudo-religious Finnish digital-handmade weirdness. Very romantic. Sounds the way memory feels.

3. Maga Bo: Archipelagoes
Low-end whooomp from Rio's finest via African collabs. Hiphop, ragga, taarab, bass.

4. Various Artists: Urban Rai 2008
37 recent rai hits? With a bunch of Maghrebi rap and R&B for good measure?! Yes please. Usually when I buy this music in Paris I'm looking for less popular stuff, and the Arab girls make fun of me.

5. Balla et Ses Balladins: The Syliphone Years
Gorgeous 70s guitar music from post-independence Guinea. You've had 30 years-- don't sleep now.

6. Squincy Jones: Nintendub
Last summer Neil Landstrum and I were playing at this insane rural festival in Ireland where our tent's manager-person had lost the power of speech and was last seen wandering away with a vodka bottle and a distant look. Anyhow Neil said something like, "Dubstep? I call it snoozestep!" The further you go from London the less respect yoou have for "dubstep." The best is when we slap American rap on top, preferably singsong chants or shouting from the dirty South. Crunkstep! Says Squincy of his free mix: "I'm very proud of it. It combines three of the raddest things to ever happen to music: Dubstep, 8bit Nintendo Loops, Rap."

7. Toumani Diabate: The Mande Variations
Mr. Diabate was responsible for the most incredible concert performance I saw all year. He also wins the "Best Dressed Performer of the Year Award", brother looked downright royal in his celestial blue fly-traditional Malian robes.

8. Various Artists: Give Me Love: Songs of the Broken Hearted, Baghdad 1925-29
This was a good year for what I call "scratchy old stuff"-- CD compilations of 78s. This one sounds lovely, and the curatorial focus is on-point. In a short time a city can swing from open to closed, from something fluid and made of multiples to occupied, divided, entrenched. What awaits us?

#4 My fourth problem with top 10s is my lack of a problem. People ask me to write Top 10 lists, I oblige.

Oh. I rescind my LOL.

he should work on making lists that aren't tl;dr

stop posting

I read it

xpost

whiney did you actually laugh out loud when you saw that he had written a top 10 list

whiney I did post on your link to your 'best of 2008' post and I got a list of 150 records from a single year with absolutely no further information about them, that is far better an example of -too long didn't read- then Rupture's concise & enthusiastic top 8 list

as for the PR guy the only excuse I can imagine is some kind of illness and as someone who's seen PR rates for independent releases increase at the same rate that sales decline, I appreciate his 'unprofessional' post

no, that's what "actual lol" is for

I thought that's what ol was for

"more curious about the comments box, personally."

Me too. Sounds like this got out of control fast.

whiney, i don't get it, what's funny about rupture's list?

and really? blurbs of a sentence or two have achieved TLDR status?

what happened? i'm confused.

also, the post is back up on jace's blog.
and we have beccy lindon to thank for "grindie": http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/grindie-music-what-happens-when-indie-and-grime-collide-442277.html

Thanks a lot Beccy. You're the best!

it just didnt feel like he was maintaining the vibe

yeah ok this is a thing -- the one time i saw him dj i did think he maintained a vibe, and i danced and kept dancing, and the people around seemed to be doing the same, but it's true that it was ~eclectic~. But unless I'm going out to a house or techno night I don't really expect the music to stick to one groove or one theme? And while recognising stuff is pretty fun, it isn't exactly essential. (also i fucking hate the whole 'cheese' thing)

idk, i really like dancing, so.

Ned: A Gargled Revive Lion

This I can see.

i love /rupture's original post. great think-piece by a respectable musician (which, i suppose, is simply par for the course for his writing). if i were to respond, in the midst of making my own year-end albums list, it'd be as such:

# 3. First off: pretty much nobody who bothers to write up a "top X albums of the year" list actually buys albums.

agree this is lame. which is why i don't put albums on my year-end list that i haven't gone out of my way to buy, listen through and absorb thoroughly (i.e. at least 4-5 times, often many more).

#1 My first problem with top 10 music lists is that applying hierarchies to artistic endeavors is absurd at best. It's like talking about the weather using superlatives ("April 9th was the best sunny day of 2004!").
I'm not into dudes with big record collections pretending they can build a canon, or even wanting to try.

agree. what if it's not positioned as canon-building, or applying a hierarchy, but more along the lines of, "here's a snapshot of what i really enjoyed listening to in 20xx"?

#4 My fourth problem with top 10s is my lack of a problem. People ask me to write Top 10 lists, I oblige. Everybody needs filters. Everybody has new stuff to learn from people whose tastes they trust.

precisely. i read year-end lists to learn what people i trust have enjoyed in a given year (and then explore many of those albums myself). i write my own lists because lots of irl family/friends/acquaintances are well aware i have a deep, long-standing interest in music, and are curious what i've been listening to, or would recommend. for me, it's a basic crowd-sourcing exercise, in both directions.

#6 Problem number six: why start & stop at music? I want to see anybody's Top 10 Scary Pieces of Legislation Passed in 2004. Or the Top 10 Non-imaginary Threats to Healthy Democracies in 2004.

The Top 10 Everything of 2010
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2035319,00.html

btw the ned raggett anagrams in this thread are A+

I definitely see things in relation to Italian chain restaurants in a new light.

one thing that's changed since rupture's original statement is that it's a lot easier for the likes of me to listen to a lot more albums (and if it wasn't for this i would probably not have maintained half the interest i do in EOY lists and album-centric criticism generally).

I think rupture was more interesting when pop actually reflected somewhat aspects of his aesthetic - "get ur freak on", "oochie wally" etc - this acted as the pop flavor to his sets without being all underscored "look, cheesy pop music!"

the replacement of that stuff by dubstep in the stitching together role reduces not just the recognition quotient but also the colour and, I think, the thematic intensity, though I did quite like Uprooted or whatever it was called.

I liked hearing him drop a track from the new Gil Scott Heron album when I saw him

didn't his last album come out earlier this year -- Solar Life Raft? i'll find a spot for that at year's end, it's really good!

I liked hearing him drop a track from the new Gil Scott Heron album when I saw him

― o tannenbaum, o judge (crüt), Thursday, December 16, 2010 3:36 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thats cool but w/ his asethetic id rather he drop like 'the bottle' or something ... production on the new one is too close to his stuff as is

Yeah Solar Life Raft is from earlier in the year. It's kind of Uproot Jr, I guess, but pretty much inferior in every way.

hey, you're mean

Sorry, I generally really like /rupture and his mixes, but that one struck me as being filled with pretty ho hum tracks.

http://pitchfork.com/news/44101-new-release-nettle-el-resplandor-the-shining-in-dubai/

Interesting concept. On Sub Rosa!

nice

Nicely sharing all of his major (minus the 58.46 one) mixes from 2001-2012:

http://www.negrophonic.com/dj-rupture-mixes-free-download/

This stuff still sounds fresh to my ears after all these years.

haha i was like 'oh jeez do we seriously have to talk about his stupid meta list EVERY december?'

Hahaha this was the /rupture thread with the most recent posts so I just used it. Sorry.

s'cool

sick

genuinely the most teeth rattling bass i've ever experienced was Rupture at Primavera a few years back. I was way too hungover to deal with it. Remember he played some Four Tops remix that was very sick

I think his remarks could withstand some more discussion. I don't see anyone saying it in this thread but I'm sure it's been said here before, if not by me then someone else. The LP is a format designed primarily for marketing purposes. It is a way to tack on extra value to a collection of singles, basically. It's also very limited by physical constraints.

Sure some artists manage to break out of the limitations of this format but increasingly few, I'd say 99.9% of albums contain a significant amount of filler. I guess I do have an issue with ADD because I find it really hard to take anymore. I'd rather hear 10 original songs with unique perspectives from 10 artists than 10 songs by 1 artist, with 8 of them being a watered-down rehash of the original concept. I've listened to a total of maybe 2 albums this year honestly. One would probably get some love from fans of /rupture -- Romanian Dan Habarnam's uniquely heavy and cosmic take on minimalist bass music, released on dBridge's exit records. And of course the other one was Jiaolong.

So...any recommendations on top mixes to check out from what /rupture is offering? Thanks for putting those up.

Gold Teeth Thief and Uproot are the "famous" ones. I like Minesweeper Suite and Porque Soy Sonidero Y Voy A Muchos Lugares a lot too.

...in honour of the original post, we should probably rank all the mixes...

Gold Teeth Thief was pretty formative for me, and later on I listened to Uproot & Solar Life Raft a bunch when they came out. Change the Mood is a dope 2012 club set, and has the most personal association for me (there's a great remix of one of my tracks on there for one). Looking forward to going through some of the ones I've missed.

Alright in order of personal preference:

Gold Teeth Thief
Porque Soy Sonidero Y Voy A Muchos Lugares
Minesweeper Suite
58.46 Mix (not available on the site because apparently Jace doesn't love it)
Uproot
2004 Post-Election Mix (also not on the site)
Low Income Tomorrowland
Bidoun Sessions (Mutamussik mix on same CD just below Minesweeper Suite for me though)
Secret Google Cheat Codes
Cumbia Mix for BBC1
Solar Life Raft

Everything up to Secret Google Cheat Codes is excellent and got quite a bit of play. The 2011-12 mixes I don't much recall. I have some other things of his (a great hour long set from Maida Vale from 2002, a 90 minute one for Resonance FM from 2004, a live set from 2005 I think, 3 hours of ambient mixes he did for a WFMU giveaway) that are all worthwhile as while. And his WFMU radio show (despite me no longer having the time/energy to listen much to it) is generally great too.

#6 Problem number six: why start & stop at music? I want to see anybody's Top 10 Scary Pieces of Legislation Passed in 2004. Or the Top 10 Non-imaginary Threats to Healthy Democracies in 2004.

Lol