The Blog
04 Dec 2012 Simon Reynolds, Retromania and the Atemporality of Contemporary 'Pop'
If you've read Retromania, then you really must read this. And if you haven't but have even the slightest interest in art criticism, you really should read both. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2118376 http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk via http://www.scoop.it/t/hauntology "Yes, we could talk about the tyranny of generalization if we wanted to: we could point out that no sounds are without a history, that retromania is to some extent a necessary and permanent condition, that we have, in a certain manner of speaking, always been postmodern and that in this sense there is nothing intrinsically novel about the contemporary predicament. And every step of the way Reynolds would agree with us. Despite the rampant and sometimes dewy-eyed modernism with which he has pursued virtually his entire career, he is certainly no fool. Every step of the way, in other words, his provocation would still stand. Yes, I take your point, he would say, but still ... can we really not do better?"   Simon Reynolds, Retromania and the Atemporality of Contemporary 'Pop' by James Parker :: SSRN »One book dominated music criticism in 2011. A virtuoso work of both musical and cultural history, a strangely personal memoir of a life dedicated to pop and its [from: Google+ Posts] 02 Dec 2012 Cocktail of the week: Un-Named (so far)
Ok, we've got a problem here because this one is unfinished and has no name yet. It's inspired by going to one of the world's best cocktail bars, Zetter's Townhouse. http://www.thezettertownhouse.com Now, they do a cocktail called "Master at Arms", Dark Rum + Port evaporation + home made Grenadine. Now of course I haven't got any Port reduction or evaporation so I based today's version on the Manhatten and there are apparently things called "Cuban Manhatten" or "St Kitts Manhatten". So here we go: - 40ml Dark Rum - 20ml Red Vermouth - 2.5ml Grenadine - 6 drops Angostura Stirred over ice and strained into a chilled martini glass. Now this ends up a glorious blood colour and has a softness compared with a Manhatten without being too sweet. I'm going to try this again but with Port instead of Red Vermouth and perhaps with a really dark sipping rum as well. I feel like this ought to be called "Master and Commander" or something piratical. As it is though, it's caribbean with the rum and grenadine but Italian with the red vermouth and I'm having trouble thinking of a name that combines both localities. Caribbean (rum), Spanish (port) is maybe a bit easier but I wonder what class of pirate drank port. And the answer is an English, ex-Navy, upper class, privateer one. Does that make it a "Drake" (or a "Banker")? Italian Pirates were quite rare. But here we go. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Gambi Based in N Orleans, "one of the most violent and bloodthirsty men in the Gulf of Mexico", perfect. So perhaps we can name it after him? I give you, "The Gambi" I also like the idea of a cocktail called a "Black Bart" but it may already be taken, and Whisky, Rum, Blackberries, Lime, brown sugar syrup just doesn't sound right.  London Boutique Hotel in Clerkenwell, London | The Zetter Townhouse »There is a new House Cocktail Menu, new Lunch Menu AND a new Dinner menu to try. Highlights include the Rose Petal Gimlet, The Ploughman's lunch and Hamburger with truffle buttered bun. . NEW YEAR'S ... [from: Google+ Posts] Fuck Yeah Weird Bikes Dot Tumblr Dot Com
Nice work! http://fuckyeahweirdbikes.tumblr.com/  [from: Google+ Posts] [ 02-Dec-12 8:59am ] We are stardust, we are golden, we are caught in the devil's bargain,
Most of the atoms in your body have been through at least one supernova and are probably more than 6 billion years old. The lighter atoms, and in particular the Hydrogen were probably formed shortly after the Big Bang so are more like 13.5 billion years old. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/star-in-you.html  [from: Google+ Posts] [ 02-Dec-12 8:35am ] 01 Dec 2012 Picture the scene. It's christmas week 1964 and the Windsors are back in their castle. Charlie has done a mix tape of his favourite bands. Anne has organised some canapes and lashings of ginger beer. They've invited all their mates from Benenden and Gordonstoun. Andrew and William are a bit young so they're only allowed in till bed time. It's all Beatles and Stones until Charles puts on House of the Rising Sun. At that point the purple hearts and the contents of the detective's hip flask properly kick in. I'll leave the subsequent 16 year old debauchery in the "Crimson Room" to your imagination.
http://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/discotheque-enters-english-language.html   Discotheque enters the English language: 1960-66 »Thanks to Google news and other archive searches it is possible to date reasonably accurately when words came to be widely used, at least in printed form. I believe the term discotheque (which literal... [from: Google+ Posts] [ 01-Dec-12 6:53pm ] In praise of Massive Attack
With the release of a re-mastered version of Blue Lines, it's time to treat yourself to a trip-hop binge and listen to Blue Lines, Protection and Mezzanine in one hit, back to back and then finish off with a blast of No-Protection. They were of course rubbish after Mezzanine so there's no need to revisit the other albums! Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy Don't, whatever you do, read the Pitchfork review of Blue Lines or you'll start thinking that the whole Bristol Trip-Hop movement was just a derivative UK version of Chicago, Detroit and NY hip hop and rap. Yea, right, whatever. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 01-Dec-12 6:38pm ] Things to make you go "WTF?"
Yet another example of retromania weirdness, as a band do a show around a complete set of "The one who used to be called Prince's" Purple Rain http://thequietus.com/articles/10853-amanda-palmer-the-grand-theft-orchestra-new-years-show-purple-rain Is this a trend? Beck, Flaming Lips, and others making not quite perfect copies of famous albums or performances. http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/beck-retromania-art-versus-craft.html http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/wow-what-great-piece-on-afterlife-of.html This isn't quite the same as the Tribute Band although that seems to be a much bigger thing than I remember. Whatever it is, it's certainly Hauntological! http://www.scoop.it/t/hauntology   The Quietus | News | Amanda Palmer To Play Purple Rain In Full »Palmer set to play Prince's magnum opus at New Year's show in New York [from: Google+ Posts] [ 01-Dec-12 8:39am ] 28 Nov 2012 bOing-bOing's gift guide. I'll take one of each please!
http://boingboing.net/2012/11/28/giftguide2012.html   Gift Guide 2012 - Boing Boing »Is That All There Is?,. o. I discovered the work of Dutch cartoonist Joost Swarte before I read Hergé's Tintin, even though it's now clear to me that Swarte's style was inspired by Hergé. But I would ... [from: Google+ Posts] [ 28-Nov-12 1:56pm ] Clubbing in Shanghai
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1568 This is not Shoreditch! Makes me wonder what clubbing in Kazakhstan might be like and I might just have a route to find out. Hey, Bruce, you need to add that RA article to your occasional "Musica Globalista" tag. http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/category/musica-globalista/   Clubbing in Shanghai »The Chinese metropolis has never had a club culture before, but as RA's Sanjay Fernandes explains, that's slowly changing. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 28-Nov-12 8:25am ] 26 Nov 2012 So, is there any truth in the rumour that Skrillex is playing the Glastonbury Sat night closing slot on the Other stage.
[from: Google+ Posts] [ 26-Nov-12 9:42pm ] Discovery
http://last.fm http://soundcloud.com http://www.discogs.com http://www.mixcloud.com http://www.youtube.com A Blog, Facebook, Twitter Events http://www.songkick.com http://www.bandsintown.com http://eventful.com Sales outlets http://www.tunecore.com http://bandcamp.com http://boomkat.com http://www.juno.co.uk http://www.beatport.com/ http://www.redeyerecords.co.uk http://www.surus.co.uk http://www.chemical-records.co.uk Misc PR http://aracityradio.com http://www.virtualfestivals.com http://www.newdust.com http://www.obscuresound.com/ http://www.indieshuffle.com/ http://indiemusicfilter.com/ http://undertheradarmag.com/ http://www.gorillavsbear.net/ http://www.youaintnopicasso.com/ http://nialler9.com/ http://nofearofpop.net/ http://pitchfork.com/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/music http://www.codaagency.com/ http://thequietus.com http://www.residentadvisor.net/ http://www.thefader.com/ http://www.factmag.com/ http://www.xlr8r.com/ http://mthrfnkr.com/ http://noisey.vice.com/en_us http://www.vice.com/en_uk/music http://www.dummymag.com/ http://www.wenkewho.com/ http://www.hipsterrunoff/ http://www.theneedledrop.com/ http://www.liveforthefunk.com/ http://www.prettymuchamazing.com/ http://yourstru.ly/ http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/ http://whitenoisereview.blogspot.co.uk/ http://shoreditchradio.co.uk/ http://www.zoneoneradio.com/ http://www.radio-ginger.com/ http://www.explosiveunsigned.co.uk/radio.html http://www.newmusicregistry.com/ Eagerly awaiting this album.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17445-jummy/ "Art-House". How is this not a thing, yet? Amazingly, it's barely used on last.fm with only about 10 taggers. Compare http://www.last.fm/search?q=art-house&type=tag with all these myriad variations and sub-genres off House music http://www.last.fm/search?q=house&type=tag   Gerry Read: Jummy »The 20-year old British art-house producer's debut reveals a dedication to haze and clutter mostly absent on his early singles. Mixing big, wet drum sounds with short, cloudy bursts of piano and mumbl... [from: Google+ Posts] [ 26-Nov-12 9:55am ] 25 Nov 2012 Ben Hammersley's speech to the IAAC, last year.
Stumbled across this article again due to a technical quirk of my news reading. And while re-reading it I discovered this wonderful slogan that comes straight out of the Situationists! Expect everything. Expect it on your own terms.  My speech to the IAAC | Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent »Ben Hammersley's speech to the IAAC, given on the 6th September 2011 [from: Google+ Posts] [ 25-Nov-12 8:40am ] 23 Nov 2012 Retrophagísta, The Retrophagists, Retrophagy.
An imaginary (currently) art movement that uses the deliberate and conscious consumption, rumination, recombination and regurgitation of the past to create the future and the new. A positive counterpoint to the negative, expensive ugliness of the cocaine decision that is Retromania. That just mines the past out of a fake hip nostalgia or cynically recapitulates the past for profit without adding anything new except context. [from: Google+ Posts] Unknown #001-004
I was irritated by the name, by how hard it makes it to find any information in the usual places. And this is a great review Angus, with a point elegantly put. Especially the last line. "Well, sadly, some of them just aren't very good." Except that, I like all the tracks that I've heard so far. It's inoffensive IDM armchair dance music. It's well put together. It may be lacking in pizazz but it's not bad. 2/5 seems a bit harsh. It gets 3.5/5 from me. There's a strong possibility that Unknown is actually Ryan Vail from N Ireland. Perhaps after the hype of "Unknown" Ryan will emerge under his own name. I've been trying to find his Colours EP to see if that's any good or different.  Review - Unknown - #001-#004 »Remember "Sicko Cell"? Remember how we all huddled around forums and YouTube comment threads as if they were oil drum fire pits in an urban wasteland, trading rumours, speculating, stoking the flames?... [from: Google+ Posts] 22 Nov 2012 This.
 A Thanksgiving Prayer by William S. Burroughs »We now bow our heads as Uncle Bill leads us in A Thanksgiving Prayer. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 22-Nov-12 6:46pm ] A more than usually fascinating interview with Bruce Sterling. http://stirling-westrup-tt.blogspot.fr/2012/10/tt-bruce-sterling-atemporality-and.html
The core argument is that modern life has taken on an atemporal quality in that the sheer quantity of mankind's creative noise is making socioligical cause and effect hard to see. Along the way he looks at questions around the difference between the reality of 1955, analogue remnants of 1955, digitised renmants of 1955 and 1955 as seen though the usual historical revisionism of both popular culture and historians. One aspect I think is missing in the argument is the effect of exponential growth in content. We are both creating quantities of content and forgetting it along an exponential growth curve. So content from 1955 is becoming a smaller and smaller part of the whole at that same exponential rate but also it is viewed through the filters of the ever increasing pile of content produced between then and now where half of all that content is less than a year old, 3/4 of it is less than 2 years old. I really want to paraphrase one sentence in the article, thusly:- One tires of this corny new-media rhetoric where things are always pre-fixed "post-, future-, new-, or neo-" Of course they are post and future and new, but not for long. Bruce has thing about Brazilian Anthropophagy and the Anthropophagics. This was an art movement starting in the 1920s in Sao Paolo that consciously ate European and American influences in order to ruminate on them and then regurgitate them as something new. More recently the abravanista movement around musical artists such as Suba and Cibelle have resurrected this idea. This plus the inimitable Simon Reynolds make me want to coin another neologism based on his ideas around retromania and hauntology. I think we need "Retrophagy"; The conscious consumption of historical ideas and approaches as source material for rumination, combination and then regurgitation as something new. This is not the laziness of simply repeating or glorifying the past for profit but rather the deliberate use of it as part of the creative process. On which subject, this is one of the better interviews with Simon for explaining what he's on about. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/is-our-retro-obsession-ruining-everything/ via http://boingboing.net/2012/11/19/is-our-retro-obsession-ruining.html  [tt] bruce sterling: atemporality and social networks. »----- Forwarded message from nettime's avid reader ----- From: nettime's avid reader Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:57:08 +0200 To: nettime-l@kein.org Subject: bruce sterling: atemporality and social ne... [from: Google+ Posts] [ 22-Nov-12 5:30pm ] 20 Nov 2012 The analog culture destroyed by digital culture does not come back. Commenting has been disabled for this article
((( Why? Bruce Sterling has a lot of worthy things to say but there's always a rejoinder. However, Wired apparently doesn't think its safe to let anyone talk back. ))) Meanwhile, the old intermediaries were forced out via dis-intermediation and replaced by the new intermediaries in the great internet re-intermediation. Told you so.   The analog culture destroyed by digital culture does not come back | Beyond The Beyond | Wired.com »*Let's face it, buying this guy's magazine might be a good idea. http://www.thefader.com/2012/11/19/arthur-founder-jay-babcock-on-the-magazines-return-t [from: Google+ Posts] [ 20-Nov-12 9:50pm ] Dear artist,
Please make me feel again like I did when I consumed my first piece of your art. Yours etc., a typical vampiric consumer. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 20-Nov-12 7:47am ] 18 Nov 2012 [ 18-Nov-12 5:51pm ] 
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