tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post3813342251147903823..comments2024-03-25T00:10:08.182-07:00Comments on Energy Flash: SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-59764236462268964422010-12-11T04:59:34.584-08:002010-12-11T04:59:34.584-08:00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQPTJYkMGYI
A good...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQPTJYkMGYI<br /><br />A good sign!Domuseswordshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06165314995361852359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-80114592611515642182009-05-28T00:08:22.040-07:002009-05-28T00:08:22.040-07:00Thanks. Peace, love, unity and having fun, as a p...Thanks. Peace, love, unity and having fun, as a pre-"nuum" dance music guru once recommended.<br /><br />Committed I may be - I'm not a centrifugalist, though. I'm not interested in pulling things apart any more than I'm interested in forcing them together. I'm just not into party lines. Call me a Groucho Marxist if you must find a label.Joe Muggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499812463240947680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-15724583103729503792009-05-27T08:18:56.704-07:002009-05-27T08:18:56.704-07:00Everyone's entitled to have their different memori...Everyone's entitled to have their different memories of an era. I must say though that yours don’t correlate much with my own. It's not that things have become artificially clearcut through hindsight or theory-ossification, because I can remember it seeming clearcut at the time--- the UK rave/club scene was separating into strands even as I got into it. I probably caught the last little taste of it being still somewhat amorphous and semi-unified and then through 1992 and 1993 it just became all these different paths that steadily grew more divergent. <br /><br />When I'd go out with my crew, it was very much "which sound are we going to have it to tonight?". Clubs had distinct sounds/vibes and to an extent distinct crowds. Most of my gang leaned towards house, I was very quickly leaning to hardcore/junglism, so we'd alternate. We'd also check out loads of other places like Knowledge or that club in Wandsworth (Club UK?) or Drum Club at The Soundshaft (both of those progressive house i guess) or Megatripolis or Trade. Loads of places whose names I can't remember and probably don't deserve to be remembered. But generally it was amazing how little overlap there was with tunes across the scenes. <br /><br />Bigger clubs or one-offs like things at Bagleys you'd get a second room or a couple of side rooms, with different flavor-options. But all the action was on the main floor with the big sound system, and that would be focused on the core sound of whatever scene it was. <br /><br />That sense of something fragmenting into different vibe-tribes (a sort of combination of centrifugal process -- in terms of rave/club culture as a whole splitting apart -- and centripetal, each vibe-tribe becoming tightly focused) has really lived with me since then. <br /><br />The cross-scene fraternization stuff is interesting. But it's honestly hard for me to see that it had much consequences musically. <br /><br />There's definitely scope for and value in shining a spotlight on some of the subnarratives and neglected pathways within dance music history.<br /><br />I haven't responded to your latest set of "ah, but…"'s over in the comments to Nuum Discontents #2, because there's no point in getting bogged down in a quibbling with each other's quibbles back-and-forth. <br /><br />I will say though that you really are a committed centrifugalist! A real compulsion to find the exception and edge case. Now these kinds of things are not insignificant, and indeed many of the odd pathways people took to get to the nuum-zone are interesting, as is the cloudy prehistory of speed garage, or of bassline. But to me they are smaller truths that obscure the larger ones. <br /><br />Anyway, er, go in peace, young man!SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-60118896696160655512009-05-26T11:49:14.485-07:002009-05-26T11:49:14.485-07:00I will reply in the other discussion thread about ...I will reply in the other discussion thread about the specific examples of artistic influence, then I will leave it, because I'm not going to change your mind. But please, don't think this is some big, crazed tilting-at-windmills thing. Like you, I'm a writer and for me as I'm sure for you, it's no big deal to construct an argument, 1200 words or otherwise. I and others ARE perfectly happily making our own conversations meanwhile – not “formulating a system”, though: things are more fluid these days, and we don't need to do that old NME / Melody Maker thing of branding every movement and sub-movement within the wider system of music now. I'm not pointing out the illusory nature of one attempt at over-systematising the wild world of club music only to try and impose another one! <br /><br />I hope that this discussion has not built up too much rancour, and I perhaps shouldn't have reacted quite so snarkily at your offhand dismissals. As I've consistently said I admire your work, I liked what the continuum represented before it set solid into The Nuum, and I love, very very deeply, the selfsame music that you use it to celebrate. All of which is very clearly why my reactions are from the gut as well as from the synapses...Joe Muggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499812463240947680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-51632914676630085232009-05-26T11:47:49.692-07:002009-05-26T11:47:49.692-07:00Oh come on, the "owe it to history" bit is so obvi...Oh come on, the "owe it to history" bit is so obviously a rhetorical flourish - as was "I don't want to be here", as you very well know, Simon, given that that was followed in my address by a detailed run down of precisely why I was actually pleased and honoured to be there in a room with Kodwo, Steve, Martin and the others, and pleased and honoured to be discussing your ideas. <br /><br />If anyone is being disingenuous here, it is you, in your joky refusal to acknowledge your established position - the world of rave and bass music might be a small one, but it is one in which you wield a lot of influence, and your words mean a lot to a lot of people, including me. Your words carry weight. Which is precisely why your "offhand" comments (we all know there's no such thing as "offhand" from a writer as thorough as you, Simon!) accusing me of deliberately misrepresenting the Landstrumm album and the musical lines of influence therein, and of being a "lunatic fringe" stung. And no, this was not "bizarrely thin-skinned": plenty of people remarked unprompted on your "offhand" accusations. It also appeared to me (and others) that in your Wire comment you were writing off Landstrumm and a whole huge host of other, younger, artists as “clotted music”, which was far too much of a sweeping and dismissive statement to let go without comment. <br /><br />Now, regarding the integrity of the “nuum”: you say you went to clubs playing 98% pure “nuum” music. Yes, so did I! But also through the 1990s I went to many big clubs and bigger raves where pure “nuum” was played alongside all the other styles of the Greater Rave Continuum, and where I witnessed “nuum” DJs socialising with “non-nuum” artists like the old friends or even relatives they often were. And of the people who went to the 98% pure clubs, of course there were diehards who listened to nothing else, but in my experience, many of the regulars were also regulars at definitely “non-nuum” nights, and what's more their closest friends, partners, housemates, relatives often were deep in other scenes, and when it came to socialising outside the clubs, at houseparties, warehouse parties and the rest, music got mixed up like anything. And of course the promoters, studio engineers (who were as responsible for the way records sounded as any of the DJs who told them to make it 'more bassy') and drug dealers – the people who made up the scaffolding of the scene – were frequently completely involved in other musics outside their professional interest in the 98% pure “nuum” clubs. We are not the USA, we are not ghettoised, people live on top of one another, and our music has always reflected this. Point being: if, as you claim, the “nuum” is the totality of people and their actions, you cannot draw a line around it without becoming proscriptive and prescriptive to the point of insanity. There is no point where “nuum” stops and “non-nuum” starts. It is not, as you say, “a thing”, and to claim that it is is to draw an arbitrary line on a map and say “I have decreed that this is a thing”. I have precisely the same issue with anyone who chooses to hold up Britpop as a Thing. Hm, I'd better stop there, as that is an analogy I could pursue at REALLY unnecessary length.Joe Muggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499812463240947680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-29017240065878960762009-05-25T16:27:58.756-07:002009-05-25T16:27:58.756-07:00Re: "potentially harmful to the wider cultural dis...Re: "potentially harmful to the wider cultural discussion… a new establishment… unhealthy"<br /><br />Where is this new establishment and how can I get in there? <br /><br />Seriously, though, what is the institutional structure of this establishment? What does the hegemony actually control? Magazines? University faculties?<br /><br />Basically you're talking about me, aren't you? Me, my blog, and the occasional piece I write (very occasional these last few years--I'd pretty much dropped out of the nuum-journalism game in 2006-2007-2008, bar the odd record review.) <br /><br />"Establishment" = one individual with a persuasive line of patter. <br /><br />Some people are persuaded. Slightly more people are interested, but have disagreements or a different take. The majority of people into dance music are blissfully unaware of the concept. <br /><br />Ironically, WAY more people are now aware of the hardcore continuum concept than they were 18months ago, when the kvetching first started.<br /><br />I simply don't see this legion of doctrinally-correct disciples out there. But there are plenty of people who lived through the era in much the same way that I did, took a similar path and had similar experiences and essentially know what went down. A few of them, those who write about music, will use the concept now and then. And sometimes come up with different results than I would (I don't always agree with what K-Punk says, believe it or not).<br /><br />The "unhealthiness," it seems, to me is all in your head (and take that anyway you please). <br /><br />Look, Joe, if you find it "tiresome", just move on. Don't spend any more time writing carefully composed 1200 word letters to the Wire in response to imagined slights (one sentence of mine in a Wire piece not even about the hardcore continuum or dance music, but about reissue overload). Don't spend any more time writing doggedly-missing-the-point, bizarrely thin-skinned commentaries in comments boxes. Don't troop off in the middle of a working Wednesday to a conference way out in Zone 6 to deliver a speech, prefaced by the profession "I don't really want to be here". Because then you just look disingenuous.<br /><br />Start a new conversation. There is nothing standing in your way. There never was. You and the other guys should just do it. Formulate your own system. It's as easy as that. Really.<br /><br />But spare me this pompous cant about "duty" and "history".SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-71883863240516998442009-05-25T16:16:17.135-07:002009-05-25T16:16:17.135-07:00Re: "the degree of ongoing economic, aestheti...Re: "the degree of ongoing economic, aesthetic and demographic interconnectivity between doctrinally-approved hardcore and the UK's house, techno, hip hop, jazz-funk, R&B and other scenes (not just in the occasional appearance of musical "flavas" but in the shared personnel, ideas, infrastructure)"<br /> <br />I already shredded this in the first "reflection"!<br />http://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2009/05/nuum-and-its-discontents-1-centripetal.html<br /><br />I'd like to ask you, Joe--what were the pirate radio stations that played a mix of all these different kinds of music? In fact the pirates that are part of this thing I call the continuum played, at different phases, nonstop ardkore, nonstop jungle, nonstop UK garage, nonstop grime. Perhaps there was an occasional off-peak show playing something mellow, but essentially they were full-tilt about the nuum sound of their respective moments. Later on as things fragmented you'd get stations like Rinse with a range of shows--some grime, some dubstep, some funky--but sticking within the continuum-zone.<br /><br />I'd like to further ask you--what are the clubs and raves you went to that had a mix of all those different kinds of music ("house, techno, hip hop, jazz-funk, R&B")? Cos I went to loads of clubs and raves all through the lifetime of the nuum, and they would stick to one sound at any given phase--98 percent hardcore, 98 percent jungle, 98 UKG/2step, 98 percent grime, 98 percent dubstep. I don't say 100 percent because very occasionally there'd be a crossover tune like that Timo Maas remix 'doom's night' that managed to fit into several different scenes. But that was very much an exception.<br /><br />It's not about what friendships or associations musicians might have outside the scene, or who dropped by as visitors (in the same way that I visited Megatripolis or Megadog or Knowledge but was never part of those scenes). It's about the scene itself--the social space where week after week dancers gather or pirate listeners tune in; the genre space where producers and DJs battle for supremacy.<br /><br />You seem to have a problem grasping this.SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-29951858630331774292009-05-25T16:12:43.240-07:002009-05-25T16:12:43.240-07:00Re: "Something that you either belong to or you do...Re: "Something that you either belong to or you don't. After all, you can't be a member of more than one political party, right?" <br /><br />Not sure about that actually. But It's a semi-humorous analogy. Certainly (if one was to pursue the analogy) you can be a member of one party and attend political rallies and read the campaign literature of other ones. I obviously checked out loads of other dance scenes and sounds during the entire period; Energy Flash is approximately 75 percent about non-nuum stuff. The new expanded edition has a chapter which finds kind things to say about psy-trance! <br /><br />I'm sure musicians check out loads of stuff too. But it's about where you direct your creative energy, as a DJ or producer, isn't it?<br /><br />Re: "The "nuum" as party-political: doctrinal, factional, sectarian."<br /><br />That's a rather melodramatic conception of the political party. They can be those things. But they can also be assemblies of people with common interests pursuing particular aims. <br /><br />But let's look at the "factional' word -- you're familiar, I expect, with the whole story of the Jungle Council that inner circle producers and DJs formed in late 94because of the controversy over whole General Levy "Incredible"? And that there have been at subsequent stages, attempts to form similar Councils within nuum genres to control the direction of the music--with garage/2step, I believe, because they were unhappy with the rise of MC based proto-grime tracks. And wasn't there talk of a funky house council recently?<br /><br />That shows that there is quite literally a scene politics, and also a centre to the various scenes.<br /><br />Not that the Council nonsense was cool or anything-- it was a deeply misguided attempt to steer the direction of the music (which "knows" where it wants to go, I think). But the Council saga happened and it shows "centripetalism" as a force in these cultures.<br /><br />Re: "and this party is something to which you, Simon, clearly expressed allegiance in your Liverpool speech and implicitly here. "<br /><br />Clearly, loudly, and with considerable personal passion. Am I supposed to be embarrassed by that? Are we not allowed to be fans of stuff? It's been the most exciting sector of dance music in the UK through this period. Not the ONLY exciting one but the MOST exciting and certainly the most culturally interesting one. Disagree by all means, but make a case.SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2537988259790085733.post-77589066848410774232009-05-25T08:38:22.738-07:002009-05-25T08:38:22.738-07:00Joe Muggs again.
And there we have it. Whimsical...Joe Muggs again.<br /><br />And there we have it. Whimsical, maybe - revealing, definitely. The "nuum" as party-political: doctrinal, factional, sectarian. Something that you either belong to or you don't. After all, you can't be a member of more than one political party, right? And this party is something to which you, Simon, clearly expressed allegiance in your Liverpool speech and implicitly here. <br /><br />This explains why you refuse so vehemently to acknowledge the degree of ongoing economic, aesthetic and demographic interconnectivity between doctrinally-approved hardcore and the UK's house, techno, hip hop, jazz-funk, R&B and other scenes (not just in the occasional appearance of musical "flavas" but in the shared personnel, ideas, infrastructure) - because to admit that many, perhaps most, of the ravers, promoters, producers, drug dealers, MCs and all the others who make up the body politic of the night-time economy might have split allegiances calls into question the very existence of the "nuum" as political party.<br /><br />And that is why I find this clinging to, and endless defending of, the "nuum" to be not just tiresome, but potentially harmful to the wider cultural discussion: defenders of doctrines create artificial barriers around them, deny some differences and over-emphasise others. It's historically faulty, and more importantly, these barriers create blockages for those who would show links between the strategies of power and modernism within and without the doctrinally-approved "nuum" - as, just as one example, do Mala and DMZ with their connections between post-junglist UK soundsystem culture and the militant soul of Francois K's Deep Space.<br /><br />No amount of quotation from Plato can distract from this admission that the "nuum" has become a doctrine, not an observation.<br /><br />When you started writing about hardcore in the Melody Maker, Simon, there was a music-writing establishment that held it not worthy of serious comment and considered the "Balearic continuum" the only part of dance music worth discussing in any depth; what you did with your work was, in its way, revolutionary. However, like many revolutionaries, you have found yourself at the heart of a new establishment, and the principles of your writing which were once potent substances to inject into an unhealthy hegemony have ossified into a doctrine of their own. I believe you have a duty to the musicians and ravers of today and the history books of tomorrow to question why and how this has happened.Joe Muggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499812463240947680noreply@blogger.com