From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V1 #82 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Friday, July 17 1998 Volume 01 : Number 082 Today's Subjects: ----------------- RE: 10 Great Wire Moments. [ubaran@iclretail.icl.com] Re: REVIEW -- _In Esse_ (fwd) [flaherty michael w -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew N Westmeyer [SMTP:qwerty@CMU.EDU] > Sent: 16 July 1998 1:37 AM > To: idealcopy@smoe.org > Subject: Re: 10 Great Wire Moments. > > Excerpts from ideal: 16-Jul-98 Re: 10 Great Wire Moments. by "Jim > Mortleman"@jarmo.demon.co.uk > > Has anyone on the list ever > > listened to the song while tripping, by any chance? > > No, but you reminded me of something. As an undergrad, I had a roommate > who was bed-ridden one day because of alcohol and who knows what else. > So I put my 154 CD in the player and had it repeat BG's "Small Electric > Piece". The poor fellow listened to it for 8 HOURS! before I returned > and stopped it! > > (A)ndrew Westmeyer > qwerty@cmu.edu > www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty > > "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to > be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 11:09:41 -0500 (CDT) From: flaherty michael w Subject: Re: REVIEW -- _In Esse_ (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:47:48 -0500 (CDT) From: flaherty michael w To: IBRAHIM BOZAI Cc: iemag@earthlink.net Subject: Re: REVIEW -- _In Esse_ Here we go again ... On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, IBRAHIM BOZAI wrote: > BRUCE GILBERT _In Esse_ (Mute) > > Packaged as the sequel to 1996's _Ab Ovo_, Bruce Gilbert's latest > release gives listeners a mere ten minutes of music for the price of 55. So you were surprised at a Bruce Gilbert album without songs? > Beginning with 45 minutes of noises that fail to evolve into anything even > remotely musical, track 1 entitled "Soli" features harsh, random sounds that > reside somewhat neatly in the hi-mid-low continuum but without any > particularly musical effect. Define "musical". Does Stravinsky fit your definition? He struck many of his contemporaries the same way Gilbert strikes you. I don't mean to suggest that Gilbert is Stravinsky, but that the definition of music is constantly being challenged. Apart from annoying listeners, Speak for yourself, please. the only thing > that this go-nowhere noisewank epic manages to do is prepare us for the > wonderfully minimal tracks that follow. I don't object to people not liking solo Gilbert. What amazes me are comments like this that seem to suggest that he is insincere. It is certainly true that Bruce is aiming at a small audience: an audience that is willing to put away their concepts of music and listen to controled and manipulated SOUND for in new, interesting, THOUGHT OUT ways. The two tracks are both drones: one > organic, the other mechanical. But are the drones music? Can music be defined as what you personnally enjoy? Do you think that Gilbert actually has knowingly given us two short "good" tracks and one long "bad" one. In other words, you're using your tastes to define "music". The latter, "Bassi" sounds like the > soundtrack to a toaster that takes just forever to pop up -- a clean, brittle > sculpture that seems to end just nanoseconds before melting. "Muzi" is a > wonderfully distilled guitar drone that, in another universe, could make > frost form on any discman. Very intereseting descriptions. Instrumental music is difficult to write about (I've done a bit for Elephant Talk), and you've found a nice way of doing so. It's a shame that 81.19% of the disc contains > self-indulgent noise that any of us can do in an afternoon. Perhaps _In > Esse_ would be worth buying if the last two tracks were turned into a CD > single and priced accordingly. No one likes to spend 15-20 dollars on something that he or she does not enjoy, so I guess I can understand your anger. But, frankly, none of us could do this in an afternoon. The fact is, the last two tracks were probably easier to write than the first--as are most pop songs. As I said the last time I defended In Esse on this list, any one can make noise, but to do so for close to 20 years and to create a body of work that does not constantly repeat itself is an amazing accomplishment. There were people in the 70s who loved Pink Flag but didn't like 154. There were Wire fans in the early 80s who didn't think much of Dome. Those things have lasted, and so, I believe, will In Esse. Michael Flaherty ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V1 #82 ******************************