Eeep. You probably won't like me much--I made an edit of "Raindance". I agree it's a great track, fantastic atmosphere and very underrated, but I wanted to get as many artists represented as possible (and let people seek out the full versions of the tracks I edited, if they'd like). I still left about 5 minutes of the track ; )
I hope no one will mind that I did an edit of Crispy Ambulance's "The Presence".
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 06:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― joel nelson (joel nelson), Sunday, 6 March 2005 06:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Crispy Ambulance is my second fave band ever, but the Presence is the kind of song you can do an edit of and it wouldn't be too offensive. I can understand where you were coming from. Don't worry about it. Remember I'm here to hear the stuff I HAVEN'T heard.
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Sunday, 6 March 2005 06:54 (nineteen years ago) link
Yep, I got yours this time. Did you get my reply?
For vinyl transfers, I'm not very high-tech, I admit. I just use Soundforge for pretty much all my wav capturing/editing. Then I manually clean clicks and pops, if it's close to a clean rip. I don't trust "auto" cleaning filters--even running Soundforge's "pop" seeker, it almost always finds elements that aren't clicks/pops. So it's just the tedious task of listening close and watching close--but I like looking at waveforms, so it's ok. If the vinyl is irretrevably vinylly, then I just leave it that way.
Before anyone gets the wrong idea---about 15% of the stuff in this set is indeed mp3-sourced or from friends' vinyl. I'm too young to have been "in the right place at the right time," or to have the money to afford multi-hundre-dollar 7"s. And some of the tracks (mainly on the 'Cassette' mix) are sourced from Chuck Warner's rips. I tried to limit the set only to what I owned for a while, but there were some great things I just didn't want to leave out. The vast majority, for better or worse, I've spent the money on over the years.
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 06:57 (nineteen years ago) link
I only did edits in very judicious ways. Where I could, I even pulled off "seamless" edits, rather than resorting to fade-outs, etc.
I've never met anyone whose second favourite band was Crispy Ambulance before. Are you a big Crepescule/Fac Bel fan in general?
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 06:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Sunday, 6 March 2005 06:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― joel nelson (joel nelson), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:07 (nineteen years ago) link
interesting peeps have responses to the mixes themselves. the ilm cdrgo's being mp3 discs tends to make them "resources" rather than playlists i think (i rarely listen to 10 hours at a go...nate's discs are an exception as they work as folders) so your decision to go with 80 min discs entices this response...deliberate?
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:12 (nineteen years ago) link
Fac Bel yes, Crepuscule some, but not as much.
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:15 (nineteen years ago) link
Well, I'm quite sorry not to be able to answer that question. I DID actually go through a little phase with Popol Vuh sometime last summer. Can't recall if I heard Nosferatu theme in the process. Seems like I read about that album, though, or a lot of people liked it or something. I remember Nosferatu more as an old horror movie I saw in my childhood than anything else. Older than Popol Vuh, and no music comes to mind.
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:22 (nineteen years ago) link
deliberate
Not to entice response, no, but to facilitate listenability/accessibility, yes, definitely. Numerous people who got the 1st Edition have told me they love the set, and yet haven't gotten around to the mp3-CD. 181 tracks on one disc is a little prohibitave. I always focused on the mixes--the 'Briefcase' was a means I came up with to allow myself to focus on making the best flowing, most listenable and cohesive mixes possible, and yet still include all the stuff that was great/good/significant but didn't flow.
Some of the "sounds" of the mixes are pretty obvious--the 'Amplifier' disc is clearly the more "rock" disc. But some of them--the 'Flame,' the 'Icicle,' the 'Brain' are a little less analogous to genre. So I'm curious how others think they hold up as individual mixes. I have found that with the exception of a couple of them, they stand as individual mixes with any others I've made, even with all the time/sound "restrictions". Maybe it's like a sonnet--you have to try harder in ways than with free verse, but sometimes it can facilitate a big payoff.
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 07:28 (nineteen years ago) link
did you get my e-mail, i.m.? i sent it out last night german time and didn't get a reply.
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Sunday, 6 March 2005 11:33 (nineteen years ago) link
I did indeed get your email, and I sent you a reply.
I wonder if I'm being filtered into people's spam boxes, somehow?
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 16:22 (nineteen years ago) link
Sure none of you real writers want to salvage its readability with a cogent anecdote or insightful analysis?
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― jsg, Sunday, 6 March 2005 16:45 (nineteen years ago) link
Yes, and replied. Looks like I may have to swith email providers for this project. What a pain.
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 16:51 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm using a new email address. The lycos one seemed to be giving people trouble. So now be on the lookout for a message from soundslike1981@gmail.com instead.
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 17:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― chris andrews (fraew), Sunday, 6 March 2005 20:15 (nineteen years ago) link
I will send out a mass email to those on each list (separately) so that you'll know your status with certainty. I apologise to anyone who didn't end up on the reserve list because of email problems.
You will not need to reply to the email I send, it's just FYI. If you haven't received notification by Tuesday night (U.S. CST) and you feel you should've been on one of the lists, then email me and we'll sort it out.
Thanks
― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:46 (nineteen years ago) link
Here's the updated version of my "essay," I'm very open to any suggestions or criticisms, bearing in mind that I'm far from being a writer/critic myself:
1 9 8 1
My first idea of how to introduce this set was with a pretentiously lofty-sounding question: "what do we do when we realise Pandora's box really can't be shut?" This was supposed to set me up to cogently persuade you that the music found on this set provides an answer: that when our belief in a fundamental order is broken, survivors resolve to make a beautiful mess. I wanted to argue that a lot of this music belongs to a noble lineage of "outré" and progressive popular art made by people trying to restore hope and meaning (and fun) amidst the smoking embers of classicism, modernism, and post-modernism. I wanted to say something pithy about how the shattering of the notion of discrete, monolithic cultures not only enabled this music, but made it necessary. I'd even have set the stage with Thatcher, Reagan, wasteland suburbs, post-industrial economic shifts, the dole, the rise of fundamentalism and yuppiedom and anti-disco rockism. My imaginary essay would’ve made you think you were reading a collaboration between Simon Reynolds, Brian Eno and George Orwell.
But the truth is, I was in diapers in 1981. I didn't start my daily worrying about Grandpa Reagan’s nuclear winter until '87 at the earliest. As far as underground music is concerned, I have about a decade of experience with the stuff. My parents were kindly hippies spinning Joan Baez and James Taylor records. They imbued me with a sense that music was deeply important, but didn't have much of its sonic or cultural breadth to share. Presently, I "know" about as much about music as could be expected of any musically obsessed twenty-four year old who owns only a couple hundred jazz records, a hundred hip-hop records, overuses Skip James on mixes, and only heard his first Talking Heads album as a junior in high school. The point is, I don't have any special insight enabling me to write cool, authoritative, impressively linernotish liner notes. When it comes down to it, I put this set together as a way to avoid having to put in words what is so great about this music. After all, the music puts it best.
This set inevitably reflects my biases as its curator. Indeed, I chose to emphasise certain spheres and leave others out entirely (for someone else to anthologise, hopefully). Still, I hope the set has depth and breadth enough to allow you to decide the "best," "most important," "coolest" sounds. I realise you may even disagree with me that 1981 was worth all the trouble. Personally, I think something was happening from about 1978 to 1982 that is noteworthy in the history of pop music. There was an earnest expansiveness and playfulness regarding the boundaries (or absence thereof) between genres and between "art" and "pop". And I think 1981 may have been the most diverse year of the period, if not the most intense. But nothing I can say will convince you—only the music can.
A portion of these tracks sound undeniably dated (if charmingly so,) and will probably trigger nostalgia even if you've never heard them before. Progressive (in pop terms) as these particular tracks were at the time, they established the paradigm for the infamous "sound of the 80s," and by extension the cartoonish aesthetic currently revered by college freshmen too young to actually remember the decade. However, I believe that the majority of the music comprising this set’s “sound of the 80s” would set a fire were it released today. The paradigm in which many of these musicians operated was expansive enough that a lot of today's "progressive" music is still exploring it (in just the way that many of 1981's best bands were working through Can, Kraftwerk, Sun Ra, the Velvet Underground, et al).
Investigating threads of Influence and innovation; glowing about "prescience;" and dividing the thieves from the originals are games which can arguably enhance musical enjoyment. But I hope you'll first take this music on its own terms. I came into my interest in “the post-punk period" slowly. Till I was about 17 I bought the hype that punk was the Sex Pistols, whom I didn't especially like, and therefore I skipped ahead to Yo La Tengo and the Pixies. It was only after I stumbled through a couple dozen records that I started to notice ’79, ’82, 1981. Any conscious, intellectual concept of a "movement" came only after I first felt the music without analysing it. Though I've become fascinated with the "culture" this music evinces, I'm not pained by not having "been there": the music stands on its own, even without a perfect understanding of its context.
On to the indisputable facts: 411 tracks, 366 bands, almost 21 hours of sound, touching most elements of the post-punk, art-pop, new wave, hardcore, no wave, d.i.y., new romantic, power-pop, dancepunk, art-punk and electropop spheres. Nine of the discs are audio CDs, carefully sequenced along sonic or emotional themes. The tenth disc is an mp3 "appendix" containing tracks by 130-plus bands that didn't fit the main mixes, most of whom are just as good as those on the main CDs. While it may also be a resource, I hope this set is above all a good spin.
For some of you, there is little new here. For a good many, this may be all the "post-punk" you'll ever want. I don't need to change your life, I just want to play you some music; so if you enjoy any of it, my effort has been worthwhile. My secret hope, however, is that for a few of you, this set will be a further step toward a deep, passionate addiction to music you might not have known existed. The event called music doesn’t truly occur without both passionate performance and passionate listening; you turn chaos and noise into meaningful beauty by listening well.
― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 March 2005 05:44 (nineteen years ago) link
Thanks for the words of support. I think I will leave my intro in, if for no other reason than to maintain the DIY-ness; but it would be fun to add a few bits from those who "were there". There's some usable space in the booklet going to waste ; )
― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 7 March 2005 05:49 (nineteen years ago) link
Regards.
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:09 (nineteen years ago) link
You're on the reserve list, no worries.
― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 7 March 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 7 March 2005 18:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 7 March 2005 20:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:57 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, they are partly apologetic--but they're also "clever" ways of suggesting some of the loftier things I think may be the case re: this music, without having to actually "proclaim" any of it to be so. In other words, I think there's a lot of interesting stuff to say about the music/period/atmosphere/culture, but I'm not in a position to say it properly. But usually that's what "massive box set" liner notes do--they provide a sage setting of the stage; so I thought I'd have a bit of fun with the conundrum I faced. Just some silliness to fill the space--which is why I tried my best to get a proper writer to give me something to fill it with instead ; )
― I.M. (I.M.), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 17:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago) link
I really can't. It'd be shit. It's all a sketch in my head, anyway. You've read enough of my garble over the years to know it's not self deprecation for me to say I can't write.
Even if I could say it all properly I'm not sure I'd want to--kind of why I included "links" and other suggested reading material at the back of the booklet, to let the listener decide for themselves whether "what happened" and "what it's all about" matter.
― I.M. (I.M.), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 17:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dad, Friday, 11 March 2005 04:32 (nineteen years ago) link
I haven't read it yet obviously (because it's not released,) but in talking with Simon Reynolds a little, it looks like my set will provide a pretty reasonable soundtrack to his upcoming post-punk tome 'Rip It Up and Start Again' (which sounds like it will be more fantastic than I'd imagined).
I'm still taking waiting list requests, at soundslike1981@gmail.com : )
― I.M. (I.M.), Friday, 11 March 2005 05:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:48 (nineteen years ago) link
If you have not received an email from me but feel you should have, drop me a line at the address below.
Thanks.
― I.M. (I.M.), Friday, 25 March 2005 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 25 March 2005 21:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Friday, 25 March 2005 23:36 (nineteen years ago) link
Amazing.
I mean, it will be a lot more amazing in a few months after I have a chance to listen to it all. 21 HOURS!
― don weiner, Saturday, 26 March 2005 20:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Saturday, 26 March 2005 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Saturday, 26 March 2005 22:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― tylerw, Saturday, 26 March 2005 22:45 (nineteen years ago) link
All to say--I'd love to hear any thoughts/criticisms/suggestions/ideas/anecdotes/etc. those of you who get this thing have. I've spent a good while with the music, and especially with the stuff on the set, and I still love it all--not burned out yet. So I'm curious what people who *haven't* spent such an intense time with it think.
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 27 March 2005 01:28 (nineteen years ago) link
I've bought materials for another 50 copies, so I guess I'm committed to at least that many. But it may still be another 2-4 weeks before I can get to all the "waiting list" people. It's just a very time-consuming process.
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 27 March 2005 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― stephen morris (stephen morris), Sunday, 27 March 2005 01:36 (nineteen years ago) link