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I think OS are probably quite interesting but if they were done for a
larf to get the creative juices flowing then surely the message
is "MAKE YOUR OWN SET" not "Wait for Eno to reissue them that you may
sit at the feet of the master" - so maybe it's the purchasers I'm
calling hippies for their embrace of this guru-concept. More
generally, OS seem to me to take a key trope of Eastern mysticism
(the koan) and redeploy it in secular fashion. So 'hippie-influenced'
might be nearer the mark. OS are revered among art-rockers in a way
that Yoko Ono's instructional artworks aren't, though both seem to me
to be doing similar things (who here would shell out €€€€ for an
edition of 'GRAPEFRUIT'?)
― Tom, Monday, 17 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Hehehe. I just see someone like Kevin Shields sitting cross-legged in
the middle of his purpose built studio, constructing his own set of
Oblique Strategies cards out of glue and cardboard. Perhaps this
accounts for the delay with MbV's difficult follow-up album......
― Trevor, Monday, 17 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
"More generally, OS seem to me to take a key trope of Eastern
mysticism (the koan) and redeploy it in secular fashion."
Absolute bunkum. In what way precisely does a strategy like "Play
your instruments left-handed" constitute a koan? Or even, for that
matter, "Honour thy mistakes for their hidden intentions?"
Sounds pretty self-explanatory to me. The latter is an especially
useful one in a song-writing context - by giving a mistake made in
playing credence, it can add an unexpected twist to a particular
progression.
Eno and Schmidtt devised Oblique Strategies to save time in the
studio, as a method of bypassing a creative impasse, especially
useful when studio bills start mounting up. So you see, OS was a
practical solution to a practical problem. I don't see how Eastern
mysticism enters into it at all.
As an aside, I think if Oblique Strategies had been devised in a non-
rock setting then no-one would have batted an eyelid.
― Trevor, Monday, 17 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
"Honour thy mistakes..." is exactly the kind of thing I'm thinking
of, but yeah, probably koan was the wrong word. Chicken Soup For The
Musician's Soul, perhaps?
― Tom, Monday, 17 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
"are they art? *ducks and runs away, very fast*"
Well I reckon you're out of firing range by now, so I'll have to
content myself with saying...
OS aren't art per se, they're a conduit for art.
― Trevor, Monday, 17 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
seventeen years pass...