Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ucbvax!EDDIE.MIT.EDU!Love-Hounds-request
From: Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.music.gaffa
Subject: Re: the KaTastrophic state of music in our time
Message-ID: <644@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 22-Jan-87 08:01:14 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-amt.644
Posted: Thu Jan 22 08:01:14 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Jan-87 06:27:57 EST
References: <8701212341.AA14099@udenva.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Love-Hounds@EDDIE.MIT.EDU
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 58
Approved: love-hounds@eddie.mit.edu
Summary: And don't forget...

Really-From: bc@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (bill coderre)

In article <8701212341.AA14099@udenva.UUCP>, Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU writes:
 >For the sake of argument (and out of a profound sense
 >of desperation), IED challenges anyone reading this to name ONE record
 >made since the early Seventies that attains a level of thematic and
 >musical complexity, multi-level meaning and sophisticated cohesion of
 >music and production comparable to that achieved by Kate Bush since 1982.
 >IT CANNOT BE DONE! SUCH MUSIC DOES NOT EXIST!
 
"Blore" regrettably forgot Brian Eno, perhaps the most obvious
example. It still amazes me that whenever I find someone doing a cover
of an Eno tune (serious musicians I respect, mind you, like Birdsongs
of the Mesozoic), you can actually say, "Wow, what a great cover --
but Eno did this and that and the other thing which make it much
superior." Eno pretty much cannot play any instruments, but knew
enough about tape recorders, and had a severe case of artists'
discipline, which made him produce 4+ records of the best pop music
ever. (I base this on the fact that it's >10 years later, and not too
much that I've heard comes close.)

And don't forget the non-mainstream stuff that also just happens to be
equally complex as this Miss Bush. Two immediate examples are Pere Ubu
and Matching Mole.

Pere Ubu's "The Modern Dance" remains brilliant like no other.
Whenever I listen to it, after these thousand or so times I've heard
it, it still picks me up and shakes me. Scary, enrapturing, a dark and
wonderful look at things. What might now be called "deathrock"
(although it has nothing to do with death or despair), it had all the
noisy guitars and tapes of breaking glass years before the
competition. Available on Italian (Base Records) import, good quality
vinyl, $7 new or so. If you like that, then be sure to check out
"Terminal Tower" which is a collection of their rarities, mostly from
an impossibly out-of-print EP "Datapanik in the Year Zero". *That's*
on Twin/Tone records, a pretty big label, and freshly printed. Should
be easy to find. (The other Pere Ubu records are entirely different,
more resembling poetry with accompaniment, so I've skipped them, even
though I happen to like them.)

Matching Mole has one of the most complicated name-stories in history.
Several members of Soft Machine (which you should also check out)
splintered off and produced "Matching Mole's Little Red Record",
brilliant subversive communist mood music, with nice hooks. You catch
yourself humming along, then you go "But wait! What are they saying?"
then you figure it out.... Oh yeah, the name story. Well, "Soft
Machine" *en Franc,ais* is "Machine Molle" <=sounds=like=> "Matching
Mole." This record is readily available around Boston for $3-$4 for a
good used copy.

Well, I'm sorry I'm not coherent right now, but I'm sure you get the
idea. Bands, for the most part, do not have their collective head up
their collective posterior. They know about how to craft records, and
many opt to make their sound unique. Some more than others, sure,
but.... If Mr IED is filled with "desperation[sic]" at not hearing
anything else as "good" as Kate Bush, perhaps he should open his ears
and listen to something else. It's too bad that it's tough to find
this stuff on the radio, but hey,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bc