Re: Techno, ahem, Electronic music
Max M (maxmcorp@inet.uni-c.dk)
Tue, 31 Dec 1996 13:58:08 +0100
----------
> From: Steve Witham <sw@tiac.net>
> To: extropians@maxwell.lucifer.com
> Subject: Techno, ahem, Electronic music
> Date: 31. december 1996 09:36
>
> >From: Ray Peck <rpeck@PureAtria.COM>
> >
> >"Max M" writes:
> >
> >>What happened in mid to late seventies was that a few bands, mainly
> >>europeans, started to experiment with completely electronic music.
> >
> >Um, the first Kraftwerk album was 1970 or 71, as was the first Cluster
> >album (why Cluster is always forgotten in these dicussions, I'll never
> >know).
>
> Gee, if we're going to be picky, what about Isao Tomita, Klaus Schultze
(sp?),
> Morton Subotnic, Walter Carlos, Jan Hammer, Vangellis, Larry Fast...
>
> >From: "Kathryn Aegis" <aegis@igc.apc.org>
> >
> >The humorous irony that suffuses most of Kraftwerk's compositions
> >always brings a smile to my face, especially the song they wrote
> >about the old-style pocket calculators that had musical tones
> >attached to the number keys. [...]
>
> Me too!
>
> I'm the operator of my pocket calculator.
> [beeping noises between lines]
> I'm the operator of my pocket calculator.
>
> I am adding
> and subtracting.
> I'm controlling
> and composing.
> By pressing down a special key it plays a little MELody!
>
> I have the single in English on one side and Japanese on the other.
(Dentaku)
> The rythm and sound of the lyrics in Japanese makes it especially cool.
> To me, the perfect irony is when you express both sides of something--
> get enjoyment out of both sides--in this case the perverse joy of silly
> technology as well as the, well, the perversity of it--without having to
> make exaggerated raised eyebrows or smirks. Being either "pro" or "anti"
> would be boring.
>
> >Are we as transhumanists willing to accept, learn
> >from or even value ambivalence regarding technological progress? Are
> >we able to laugh at our own hubris and draw strength from that?
>
> Boy if we can't we're going to be bored and maladapted. I see our
> civilization--techies included--as really clueless in the face of its
> own technology. I think we paste things onto ourselves rather than
> working out how to fit them to our lives. To assimilate anything well
> requires seeing it and oneself from different points of view, exaggerated
> ones even, and manipulating it in different ways. So Kraftwerk and Gary
> Numan and Devo have done good work and the weirdness and irony are more
> necessary than sober souls might think.
>
> From: J de Lyser
> This is very different from the way I've seen it. The early electronic
> guys (up to the early '70's) were doing weird stuff, avant garde,
exploring
> what they thought were the frontiers of sound and musical structure.
Sure,
> at the same time there were people incorporating electronics into more
> traditional and popular music, but electronics still had a raw, new
sound,
> a sound of pure possibility. In some ways it seemed more organic than
> "natural" sound. Same for the equipment and methods--an ad hock
collection
> of unreliable machines connected by a spaghetti of patch cords seems to
> have more natural anarchy in it than a midi rig.
I were talking about music with more of a mainstream impact. The first
synths where build around 1900 but shure didn't have much of an impact on
popular culture.
MAX M Rasmussen
New Media Director
Private: maxmcorp@inet.uni-c.dk
http://inet.uni-c.dk/~maxmcorp
Work: maxm@novavision.dk
http://www.novavision.dk/
This is my way cool signature message!!