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 Now online (2)Bremzen big ...and 237 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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I really don't like music reviews. I don't think that music reviewers should ever give reviews, as a reviewer of low-ranked music obviously doesn't understand that music. For instance: At barcode magazine, they gave untilted a 3.something and they gave basement jaxx a 8.something for where's your head at. I am not saying that one is better than the other, but this reviewer obviously doesn't get untilted. I would personally rank where's your head at lower than untilted, as that music I don't understand as much. The same reason this reviewer should not review untilted is the same reason I should not review country music. I think, at most, a reviewer should describe what the music sounds like and MAYBE compare it to similar works (if any are available, for instance, incunabula and amber are probably similar enough in style to compare them). Though comparing it to similar stuff walks a fuzzy line which should be avoided. It all seems like a way for the reviewer to exert their ego through their superior musical taste. |
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I hate reviews |
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I like reviews... cos they talk about music... I just dont give them any credit... simply read them when I am bored |
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Sometimes, I get the review stuck in the back of my head when I listen to the album, and I think it makes it somewhat less enjoyable. Especially if its a bad one. |
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I dont read reviews at all. I dont mind writing down my thoughts for peers though. But i take reviews with a grain of salt if i actually do read them. But i dont let people decide anything for me and could care less what someone thinks about music. |
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yes, i agree. i know what you're saying. fuck my vowel keys are broken. sometimes reviews are useful... like if i were to ask a tolstoyed for example, he's someone who could tell me something interesting or rate an album and he'd be correct. but i agree, reviewers who don't know the subject they're writing about are painfll obvious and total scm. especally pitchfork. |
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pitchfork drives me nuts. it seems like random bullshit hey wrote for their crrent clleg paper and they just insert bits of it into their reviews. lke, here's m idea of a pitchfork review (i will use the internet and copy/paste to tell this joke to you): Autechre - Untilted CD - 1 and 1/2 stars The morning sun warmed the air that April day. It was Thursday around nine a.m. when I arrived at the Shelter Insurance building. I looked around Kathy's office noticing her diploma from the University of Oklahoma and a couple of certificates for the insurance company hanging on the wall. I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. The accident had happened only two days before when. An 82 year old man made a left turn in front of a high school student who had a new Mustang. Kathy said, "This case appears to be clear as to who is at fault, but if the student was speeding he could be held partly at fault." The police report stated that the Mustang laid 47 feet of tire marks, 40 of which were before impact and 7 after impact. The police report noted that the older man received a ticket and the student did not. It was clear to me that the older man was at fault. Kathy was still not certain the student was not speeding. No as i said "Im Tim Shaw selling the Tasaki Meat knife from Japan". Jess began to say something when the man interuppted saying "but wait theres more, like this fabulous fruit peeler, which also has functions for cutting carrots, mashing potatos, scrambling eggs and more!" Sal and Jess looked at each other and began to laugh and laugh and laugh! |
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I like that you used goran for this. Sometimes i ask him to recommend me something because i know his taste is great. Most music reviewers just seem to want to exercise their new found vocab |
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yes, right. anyway, i think it's time to change my avatar for boctober month. i need something a little more festive. what do you think? should i use my reserve avatar now? |
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:O whoa! You've had this one for so long! Change is always good! |
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not that long... i've had several similiarly-styled avatars this year, maybe they blended together? :) ok, let me try and find it... |
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<--- haha.. it's really ugly! but look at the t-shirt. it's a winner. happy halloween, panda!!! |
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ace! I like the color scheme! |
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it's a zombie wearing a Ministry t-shirt |
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thanks! :D |
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i think a lot of them are annoying and way too autobiographical, but i also think it's interesting to think and argue about why a piece of music is good or bad. the goal should be to find new ways to appreciate more music and good reasons for loving the music you love, but it does take some fighting and discussing to get there, and there do seem to be a lot of people with too narrow a mind. i think it all depends on what basic value scheme the person is writing from. some people love poet musician lyricists, some love studio wizards, some love beathunters and party music ... so i try to go to an appropriate source for the music reviews i read, for whatever type of music i want to read about. |
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The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason. John Cage |
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Yes, I did just fucking quote John Cage, bitch! |
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i remember someone saying that critics are people who tried to be writers, musicians, artists and they were no good at it, so they got a job picking apart the works of others. don't remember who said it though... |
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Reviewers walk the thin line between a job paid by advertising revenue and contemporary criticism. Good reviews are usually reserved for up and coming threats to the status quo (these are future sponsors) or record labels that pay the bills by advertising in said publications (or supplying free guest-list and drugs at a gig). This is the result of our world economy and I think the end result is culturally relevant. Reviewers are on point and say what they mean within the confines of their livelihood. Very bold. This "meaning" can be inferred by said reviewers friendship with the artist, belief in the artist, experience with the artist, and rent money. |
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conner_bw, i second that |
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I don't read ANY ''professional'' reviews anymore, I pretty much get 100 percent of my recommendations and second opinions from messageboards and people I trust. And even then I don't really take their ''ratings'' particularly seriously, just their descriptions. Not that I think there's anything wrong with pro reviews. |
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Regarding the top post in this thread. What you mean to say is, as long as we agree with your point of view then we understand electronic music, and the minute we don’t agree with your point of view we don’t understand electronic music. You say that we gave Basement Jaxx 8/10 and Autechre 3/10, and then indicate that our opinion is flawed on this basis. First, both artists represent completely different genres of electronic music, so to make any comparison between how the two are rated is nonsensical. Second, even if you were right, why is your opinion any more valid than ours? If you actually try reading the Autechre review objectively, and not just getting angry because we didn’t like something that you like, you might discover, but not necessarily agree, that we give quite valid reasons as to why we did not like it. Basically, we often find Autechre pretentious and are questioning if there is anything to understand behind their art at all. That in itself demonstrates a willingness to understand the derivation of their music. One thing is for sure, there is NO advertising on Barcode and NOBODY tells us what to write or feature – so you can be sure that any review you read is as unbiased as our subconscious allows. We do also make a great effort to DESCRIBE the music, so readers can get some idea of its content. Perhaps if you had read more site content you would have realised this immediately, but you obviously didn’t bother. BARCODE |
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"we often find Autechre pretentious and are questioning if there is anything to understand behind their art at all." you shouldn't write reviews of stuff you're not sure about then maybe. or try and make it sound neutral. or even publish two different reviews, though that isn't always possible. i mean, you could say it totally blows if you liked their early art for example..but in that case you would probably find that they evolved greatly with untilted. it's always good not to write about albums you don't really know. imo. |
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objective reviews don't exist, get a grip. |
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To say the music has evolved greatly is a pointless remark - every piece of music an artist creates is an evolution from a previous piece of work - or an evolution of someone else's work that has infiltrated their subconscious. Sometimes the experience is positive, sometimes negative - depending entirely on how you observe the evolution. In our opinion, it hasn't evolved, in your opinion it has. Somehow you are implying you understand the evolution behind Autechre's music better than we do, based on what? Your opinion? Just because you have listened to 10 of their albums does not mean you necessarily understand their music better than somebody who has heard one song! So really you are not moving anywhere with this. |
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calling music "pretentious" always baffles me. |
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I agree with your original post completely. When I read most reviews it seems like the reviewer is just trying to be clever, rather then tell me anything about the bloody music. Reviews should be more helpful and descriptive (not as in "it sounds like a twitching robot fucking a diamond table" descriptive, I mean useful descriptions and comparisons.) IMO. |
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Yeah, I understand the dichotomy. But usually I think what it implies in this context is that they artist is trying too hard to achieve a certain goal; therefore the music is not naturally/creatively induced. |
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you said you often question if there's anything behind their art. in that case why do you still bother listening to their music? because they're a hyped band and you need to write about their work because other people/reviewers think it's relevant? i mean, if i found something empty and meaningless i wouldn't write about it. to me personally untilted is on a new level, but ofcourse that's my subjective opinion. and ofcourse, you don't need to hear all their work to judge on a new album, but then you can't really judge whether it has evolved or not. autechre is unique and there's no reference you could compare their work too. you can see what they're doing if you know a lot about electronic music..that is if music alone does nothing for you. |
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it is a bit baffling, and usualy it's the reviewer who somehow magically becomes pretentious by saying such a thing. |
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radiohead ARE pretentious though. |
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"I must confess that I have never really figured out the attraction of Autechre, and I’m not sure there really is anything to figure out" WTF |
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I bother listening because you never know when an artists music will change - and also because it's sent to me. One minute you say they're evolving, the next you're telling me not to bother listening to their music because it won't evolve or it's not necessary because you don't have to hear their past to make a judgment. You don't have to know anything about electronic music to see what Autechre are doing. Again, this implies that you think you know more about electronic music than another simply because you've heard more of it. But maybe you never understood it in the first place. |
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the pretence needed to be those guys is just too much |
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does there have to be anything behind the art, and if there is, how the fuck do you suggest you "grasp" it without it being explicitly there? you get what you get. |
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how can you judge music if you heard just part of it? and i said nothing like what you're implying there..you twisted everything i said. |
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that wasn't supposed to follow qrter but rather the other guy |
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Here's another email I got regarding the review: Thank you! Finally someone who sees Autechre's music for what it really is... less than mediocre!! I have never understood the attraction of Autechre?? I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned their introduction to the music world "...were just in the right place at the right time..." If they came out 'now' as brand new artists - fucking 'bye, bye!' - No one would ever know they came and went. Your review put into words (so perfectly I might add) everything I have always thought and felt about Autechre... great writing!! mike |
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:) |
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I've never heard of Barcode magazine. Do they have giveaways and competitions? |
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thanx i can stop trying to work it out, though it sort of nearly could in a way. |
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in other words, using any "meaning" you were expecting to be somewhere and that you aren't able to find as an "objective reason" for discrediting art is pretentious (in the sense that you in this pretension portray yourself as one who would be able to grasp any such meaning if the meaning was there). |
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Jesus fuck, you champion that spiel as being somehow "a voice of reason". If they came out now... what hypothetical nonsense, the "now" of electronic music would be different if they hadn't come out "then" as they have played an influential role, whether you like them or not, so it's.. impossible to speculate about. You've no more right to run a music fanzine than take charge of my socks. |
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I didn't champion anything. I just threw you a bone and you reacted rather aggressively, which explains a lot. |
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Because I fucking hate you, that's why. Put your bone away, it's ghastly. |
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is this Mike guy from Detroit? |
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what sort of music does barcode mag writes about? |
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I've no idea. |
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Above is meant for Drunken Mastah. Barcode critiques releases from numerous electronic music genres and interviews artists. |
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