Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release

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"Complaining" about the lack of bass in modern music such as The Field or SMD is like "complaining" about 303s being too bleepy. It's the nature of the medium and people are exploring it to find what can be done with it. At the very least, it gives the music a distinctive sound that is very "now". Looking back on the history of popular music, that's generally a good thing.

what a load of nonsense.

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link

the field and simian mobile disco are a medium now? or even any way similar to each other?

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:32 (sixteen years ago) link

CUT THE MIDRANGE
CUT THE BASS

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:33 (sixteen years ago) link

i think "tinny, overcompressed 'dance music' that sounds best on low-res mp3s" is almost certainly a genre at this point

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link

neither the field nor SMD sound remotely "now". if we're comparing bassless music then cassie's 'me & u' beats both of them hands fucking down.

What exactly does he do though? Play records?

well, yes, but when dance artists play dance records people are generally meant to dance.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link

jess that sounds like you're describing MIA

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:35 (sixteen years ago) link

wait, which MIA?

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:35 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.americasveterans.org/gif/pow-tall.gif

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:36 (sixteen years ago) link

anyway beyond the facile bass/no bass red herring, the reason this sucks is that it sounds like the bad bits of electroclash, which first emerged about 5 years ago.

it's electrohouse minus the dance music, braxe minus the disco, just a big messy load of crap for the "omg electro rock! i am a cool indie now!" audience.

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:38 (sixteen years ago) link

bird flu MIA

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link

i would lump her in there too, yes!

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link

I gotta say I like the fact that it's somewhat sloppy/messy. There's tons of micro-managed ultra-sleek music around, expecially dance music, so why not make room for some of this?

As for the indie fan thing, I don't know or care about that.

― everything, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:47 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah, there's too much of that "music that doesn't sound like shit" going about. It's a real bummer.

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link

x-post nobody's stopping them from making it, people can like what they want.

dance acts like this make albums when they've stopped being interesting and have to milk their sound to ads and people who want to like "all types of music". in SMD's case I never found them interesting anyway.

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link

"so much good music around! why not make room for some crap?"

xp!

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link

fwiw i think a big reason this shit gets hype and other better dance music doesn't is because they have really good PRs

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:52 (sixteen years ago) link

That's a good one!

― everything, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:54 (sixteen years ago) link

God Ronan, you're such a snob, hating on this supposed audience. I don't care about who their audience is. I'm unlikely to ever see them in a live setting anyway. I've only ever listened to this on laptop speakers myself and it sounds just fine.

― everything, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:58 (sixteen years ago) link

The Southall baiting continues unabated!

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 19:00 (sixteen years ago) link

shut your blab and dance, you faggots

― elmo argonaut, Thursday, 10 May 2007 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link

qed

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:37 (sixteen years ago) link

you guys just don't like them cause theyre white!

― somuchsomuch24, Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:44 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh boy.

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link

It's not a house record, or even really a dance record. I mean, this stuff is explicitly designed for people who like the idea of dance music (cool bleepy noises, beats, erm that's it) without the reality (ie repetition, long build-ups, no song stuctures, tracks that last more than five minutes).

Taking it as a dance record is missing the point, this stuff has virtually no function outside being 'cool noise', which is all well and good as long as you think the noise in question is cool. I think I do, for now.

It's The Beat is rubbish though, worst thing on the album.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:47 (sixteen years ago) link

i think the bad rap that "people who like everything" get is totally unfair.

― aaron d.g., Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link

I mean, this stuff is explicitly designed for people who like the idea of dance music (cool bleepy noises, beats, erm that's it) without the reality (ie repetition, long build-ups, no song stuctures, tracks that last more than five minutes)

these people are fucking lame then!

i think the bad rap that "people who like everything" get is totally unfair.

i like everything, i mean i probably have the most varied taste of anyone on this thread, i just like everything to be what it is rather then a horrid indecisive messy hodgepodge.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:55 (sixteen years ago) link

i probably have the most varied taste of anyone on this thread

Lex, meet 'self-awareness'.

Also, this ISN'T an indecisive hodgepodge. It knows EXACTLY what it wants to be. Just like electroclash did five years ago! And the people who are comparing it unfavourably to 2002-electro would have done exactly that if they'd been a) older and b) listening to dance music for years, in 2002.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 22:58 (sixteen years ago) link

matt who else do you know who follows house/techno, r&b and teenpop as much as i try to??? and i pretty much like most other genres except the tiny irrelevant one of indie rock.

it's a mess, is what it is, and it sounds shit. shit music for shit people.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:00 (sixteen years ago) link

Argh, that's terribly phrased. What I'm saying is that everyone I knew who was into house music from 1998-2001 absolutely slated electroclash and even early electrohouse for exactly the same reason this album is being slated.

Which is fine if you think it's shit, but comparing SMD unfavourably to electroclash is a bit silly.

(Alex there are more than four genres in the world)

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:04 (sixteen years ago) link

yes i know. i don't have time to actually pay attention to the others but i am open to every one of them. except ONE.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:04 (sixteen years ago) link

Country?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:05 (sixteen years ago) link

Folk?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:05 (sixteen years ago) link

You're into metal, Lex?

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:05 (sixteen years ago) link

lol, xposts.

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:05 (sixteen years ago) link

Thrash metal?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:05 (sixteen years ago) link

i like some folk!

metal = boys with guitars

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:06 (sixteen years ago) link

What jazz albums have you enjoyed this year Lex?

― everything, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:06 (sixteen years ago) link

What's your favourite Beethoven string quartet?

― jim, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:07 (sixteen years ago) link

i said i don't have time to follow every genre. i don't know much about jazz but i like the little i do know.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:07 (sixteen years ago) link

can you all fuck off, actually?

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:07 (sixteen years ago) link

I should probably go to bed anyway. Goodnight, cowboy.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:11 (sixteen years ago) link

you are so fucking delusional lex

― cutty, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:14 (sixteen years ago) link

well, you're a dumb cunt

― lex pretend, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:14 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't quite get why "Hustler" isn't considered proper dance music with perhaps some rough edges - but not really that rough. Would it sound so out of place mixed into your average house track???

― Spencer Chow, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:15 (sixteen years ago) link

depends on your definition...

I'd be ambivalent about this stuff if I didn't live in a world where it is inescapable.

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:23 (sixteen years ago) link

though I'd still think it was crappy. I preferred when Kitsuné made stuff that sounded like Braxe/Falke.

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:23 (sixteen years ago) link

The thing is, that kind of stuff *is* still being made too (by the hipster house contingent), it's hardly either/or.

― Spencer Chow, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:27 (sixteen years ago) link

Lex you're banned from my Wendy House. for three months.

Matt you knew me in 2001 (just about) and i liked house AND electroclash just fine. although you may not have realised because we were probably dancing to 'Stock Car Racing Is Magic' with you at the time.

it's far too much effort for me to actively dislike SMD (Justice too) but i'll still lament the judgement on distinctive bass as non vogue across the board (i moaned about this on the Rufige Kru/Goldie essential mix thread too). i'm sure SMD still sounds good on a big club system, probably more than The Field. it's still got punch. i do like how pronounced the 'BEAT' is in 'it's the beat' even if it's such played out 'ohhh weren't Technotronic fab' tomfoolery. it's poppy but maybe just too knowing/self-aware.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:32 (sixteen years ago) link

x-post I dunno, I really dislike "D.A.N.C.E." too, if that's what you mean? It is just so eager to please and has the much discussed "let's all jump up and down" feeling!

Mostly when I hear this stuff I get a gut reaction to turn off the stereo, the same way I would if Maximo Park or something comes on, just, the noise and structure of it.

There's no depth to it, and I don't mean that minimal house is the only music that gives this either. I am not in a very good place for happy music these days unfortunately.

― Ronan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:33 (sixteen years ago) link

xpost to my "people who like everything get an unfair bad rap" post (yeah that was a long time ago, I got interrupted by dinner)

I'm referring more to people who don't necessarily "know" a lot about the music they listen to; the type of person who doesn't really read music criticism and such, but loves a relatively wide range of music. There's a view that's prevalent in music communities such as this that people should know all about the genres they listen to in order to properly love the music, which suggests that only a small portion of the population really loves music, and that's ridiculous to me. (Of course, for the people who are interested in the details and background of what they're listening to, that can certainly be a part of their enjoyment!)

― aaron d.g., Thursday, 10 May 2007 23:37 (sixteen years ago) link

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