>Subject: Re: (exotica) A Brighter View of Our Dark Age of Music
>
>To me music is like a painting or a drawing, I dont know how it is done
>but I am sure that it takes a lot of practice to learn.
Musicianship sure seems to be on the wane right now. Everyone
is focused on musicality.
>Same with music, I dont
>care much for sampling, I HATE computergenerated drums.
I detest any synthesizer that is tweaked to sound like an acoustic
instrument. They NEVER sound as good, especially synth strings. Blech!
The best synth music is the early stuff where the machine itself set
the parameters of the voice. They used the sound of the machine
musically, without trying to make it sound like the musical
equivalent of wood grain contact paper. Whether I hear Yanni or
Peter Gabriel abusing sampling to create tacky pseudo-acoustic
sounds, it all sounds the same to me... fake. Techno music all
sounds the same to me. No personality or musical expression at
all. Just relentless, mindless grooves. It's time to unplug and
get back to basics.
I think that there will be a blow out when computers make it
possible for EVERYONE to crank out mindless synthesized dribble.
Then the musicians who make this stuff will see that they don't
have an corner on the market for E-Z to create synth-drones and
beat in a box rhythms. This will be force them to return to
*being able to play instruments well*.
The sessions guys who made the percussion records of the fifties
were 100 times the musicians of the people making similar sounding
stuff today. And these guys were just *average* for their time!
Kenny G gets a world record for the longest sustained note... Who
cares? Louis Armstrong could chop or squeeze a note an make it
sing. Expressiveness and craftsmanship aren't dead. They are just
sleeping it off.
I'm with you on this one, Magnus...
See ya
Steve
Stephen Worth
bigshot@spumco.com
The Web: http://www.spumco.com
Usenet: alt.animation.spumco
Palace: cartoonsforum.com:9994
Spumco International
1021 Grandview, 2nd Floor
Glendale, CA 91201
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 13:35:19 -0800
From: bigshot <bigshot@spumco.com>
Subject: (exotica) Philosophical Baggage
exotica-digest wrote:
>It's because, Magnus, you bring all this personal philosophical "baggage"
>to your appreciation of everything and then you turn around and pretend
>that it's all there in the music.
If you don't have a theory, and nothing is happening in your brain
while you listen, the music just floats in one ear and out the
other. It doesn't matter what you listen to...
I would much rather hear the opinion of someone with
"philosophical baggage" that I disagree with, than listen to
blather of "oh this is good and this is good" from someone with
no critical point of view at all.
See ya
Steve
Stephen Worth
bigshot@spumco.com
The Web: http://www.spumco.com
Usenet: alt.animation.spumco
Palace: cartoonsforum.com:9994
Spumco International
1021 Grandview, 2nd Floor
Glendale, CA 91201
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 13:37:47 -0800
From: bigshot <bigshot@spumco.com>
Subject: (exotica) the dross of the stacks
exotica-digest wrote:
>Seriously I am shocked by the multitudes of 1980s records appearing
>in huge numbers in thrifts down here. My favorite thrifts have
>suddenly dried up with finds and there is Top Gun sound track
>staring at me.
>I think employees at thrift stores pull out all the good stuff
Fifteen years ago, I complained about all the Ray Coniff and Herb
Alpert records! Time marches on!
See ya
Steve
Stephen Worth
bigshot@spumco.com
The Web: http://www.spumco.com
Usenet: alt.animation.spumco
Palace: cartoonsforum.com:9994
Spumco International
1021 Grandview, 2nd Floor
Glendale, CA 91201
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 15:48:51 -0600
From: Paul Dean <epauldean@home.com>
Subject: (exotica) Jazz for the Jet Set
alan zweig wrote:
> At 10:25 AM 3/13/01 -0000, Charles Moseley wrote:
> >>
> >> Jazz for the Jet Set - Dave Pike (easy jazz)
> I think I've seen that "Jazz for the Jet Set" LP. It has a girl with a
> space suit on it? If so, that's a very attractive album cover and a lot of
> stores would put 40 dollars or so on it, even if the record turns out to be
> mellow vibes jazz that you could get in many other packages for A LOT less.
Funny you should mention this. I found this LP jacket at a local (Baton Rouge)
thrift store last week. JUST THE JACKET, mind you, but in mint condition!
The cover really is very striking; someone before me had propped it on a
shelf, apparently out of admiration. Needless to say I went through every
loose lp in the store looking for the record itself, but alas, to no avail.
Still, I bought it. I've never heard the music, but I have the cover!
I'm relieved to hear that it PROBABLY doesn't sound as good as it looks. Ya
never KNOW, though, 'til it hits yer ears!
paul dean
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 23:05:54 +0100 (CET)
From: "Magnus Sandberg" <m.sandberg@telia.com>
Subject: (exotica) A brighter view
> > > It's because, Magnus, you bring all this personal
> > philosophical "baggage"
> > > to your appreciation of everything and then you turn around and
> > pretend
> > > that it's all there in the music.
BUT IT IS!!! Man is his environment, noone could argue with the fact
that music is mechanical because our surrounding is mechanical. I just
can't find a secret hideaway other than in music recorded before the
70s.
> > Anyone have a problem with my attitude?
> > Yeah I do.
Sometimes I think that I have lost my feelings, but considering the way
I feel about music I probably have not. My attitude may come from the
fact that I have grown up in a small town with nothing but hockey and
football, I had to search everything out myself, (I am sure that I
share that with a lot of you) maybe that is why I sometimes feel that
this is "my" music or "my" book. That is the way it is, and if that
bugs you, you just dont understand passion.
Magnus
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:13:48 -0500
From: wlt4@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: (exotica) Bach Rediscovered
>>That brings me to the question, who really rediscovered Bach and >>when?
>You would have to credit Leopold Stokowski with his orchestral
>transcriptions of Bach organ works in the mid 1920s.
Actually it was Mendelssohn's 1829 performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin that sparked the Bach "rediscovery." There were other activities around that time but the performance was what really pushed it out of scholarship and into the mainstream. Check the Britannica or any music history text.
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:15:31 -0500 (EST)
From: delicado@cheerful.com
Subject: (exotica) Re: swingle singers
>I=92m nuts about Baroque interpretations. Carlos et all. >And try to put=
them in the martini mix. Anybody have >any favorites?=20
Hi Dom,
I'm also a big Swingle Singers fan. The often-mentioned 'Bacharach Baroq=
ue' by The Renaissance (aka Snuff Garrett) is really superb - lots of wor=
dless vocals, harpsichord - really swinging. =20
Another record which has been recommended to me, but which I've not heard=
, is 'baroque'n'stones'. =20
I would avoid 'the baroque beatles book'; I also wasn't madly keen on the=
Jacques Loussier and Waldo los Rios albums I picked up over the years.
'The baroque inevitable' is fun though, and on first listen, Lalo Schifri=
n's '....the marquis de Sade' album seems to be great.
Sorry for the lack of artist info for many titles here; these records oft=
en do not seem to have any.
You should also maybe check out the Polish group 'Novi Singers'. Their '=
novi sings chopin' album is good, although in a quiet way rather than in =
a jazzy swinging way. Everything else they did is highly recommended - f=
rom wild and jazzy psych stuff (e.g. 'torpedo', and the recent 'go right'=
compilation on JCR compost records) tnto heavenly bossa nova originals w=
ith vocal harmonies (the album 'Bossa nova', available on a Polish CD).
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:40:12 -0500
From: nytab@pipeline.com
Subject: Re: (exotica) Re: swingle singers
DC wrote:
>
>IÆm nuts about Baroque interpretations. Any favorites?
One of the nice sections of the jsbach.org site is an area where you can list out Bach recordings organized by instrument as opposed to performer or piece.
http://jsbach.org/recommendedinstrument.html
Recommended Recordings by Instrument includes such unorthodox categories as:
Accordion
Banjo
Computer
Drums
Electric Bass
Electric Guitar
Koto
Panpipe
Percussion
Saxophone
Shakuhachi
Synthesizer
Vibraphone
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:48:42 -0500
From: alan zweig <azed@pathcom.com>
Subject: (exotica) lies lies lies
I was about to ask you guys about a particular record.
Trouble is I found it on ebay and the only way I can ever win anything on
ebay is to be the only one to bid on it.
So I was thinking of saying "Hey my friend saw this record in a store. Is
it worth it?"
But I figured you guys would just go and look for it on ebay anyway.
So there's this guy who wants at least 20 American dollars for Quincy
Jones' soundtrack to "Deadly Affair".
I never pay $20 unless a record is really really extraordinary.
So, should my friend pay $20 for this.
OH and this other friend of mine saw the soundtrack for Mike Hammer by Skp
Martin. He was sure that it wasn't the Stacey Keach version but something
much older. Was he right?
AZ
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:50:53 -0500
From: "Domenic Ciccone" <djdciccone@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (exotica) Bach Rediscovered
> >>That brings me to the question, who really rediscovered Bach and >>when?
> >You would have to credit Leopold Stokowski with his orchestral
> >transcriptions of Bach organ works in the mid 1920s.
>
>
>Actually it was Mendelssohn's 1829 performance of the St. Matthew Passion
>in Berlin that sparked the Bach "rediscovery." There were other activities
>around that time but the performance was what really pushed it out of
>scholarship and into the mainstream. Check the Britannica or any music
>history text.
>
I think with Bach by "discovery" we can also mean new ways of playing his
music? People are always doing different things with his music and sometimes
it may be because technology allows us to do new things.
Sorry I'm terrible with names...but there is a CD of the Goldberg Variations
done on guitar. The artist transcribed the music, commissioned the making of
2 guitars especially for this and played both the guitars. Like Bill Evans
on "Conversations with Myself". It's wonderful.
And there is a recording of some of the French Suites done on the accordion!
And about the discussion about lurkers... I'm usually a lurker. I have posted a couple of times but that's it. Only when I am sure no one else knows what I do (which is basically Colombian stuff).
Why is that? Several reasons. One has already been mentioned: there is people here who know a lot and I would feel embarrassed to say something stupid here.
Second, it has to do with the way I enjoy music or knowledge in general. Sometimes I don't like to own things, but just like to know they exist. It feels nice to know that the world is such a big place, full of cool things you haven't heard or known about or seen before. Sometimes I am really claustrophobic when I found out that in this city I live in (Bogotß, aprox pop: 7 million) people tend to run in circles. And you end up in a party chatting with the same guys you went to the nursery with. That's scary for me. And the list is some kind of antidote for that "shrinking world" feeling I get when that happens.
My musical tastes are varied. I like exotica but also some post-rock (Aerial M, Papa M), some pop (Belle & Sebastian), electronic music (isolΘe, rinocerose, Mouse on Mars). And my favorite music in the world right now is being made by Stereo Total. What I like the most about this list is that it isn't only music related. It's also about books and art and movies and architecture and style... that's to say that it talks about life in general.
One of my favorite discussions (certainly brief) was about that guy in the Godard movie that explains that there are two kinds of men in this world. I know it has nothing to do with music, but I think in things like that there lies a big part of the list's charm.
And my favorite filmmaker is Alexander Kluge (one of the advantages of living in the third world: touring films from the Goethe Institut, that are shown over and over again because there is nothing else for the Cineclubs to show)...
It seems to be a little late for introductions, but I just couldn't help it...
Cheers,
Manuel
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 20:02:30 -0500
From: "Br. Cleve" <brcleve@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: (exotica) lies lies lies
on 3/13/01 5:48 PM, alan zweig at azed@pathcom.com wrote:
> So there's this guy who wants at least 20 American dollars for Quincy
> Jones' soundtrack to "Deadly Affair".
> I never pay $20 unless a record is really really extraordinary.
> So, should my friend pay $20 for this.
it's nice but not that great, inho. The title track is a cool bossa. But
probably not $20 cool.
> OH and this other friend of mine saw the soundtrack for Mike Hammer by Skp
> Martin. He was sure that it wasn't the Stacey Keach version but something
> much older. Was he right?
oh yeah - great crime jazz album. RCA, 1958. West coast recording with all
the usual suspects. Count Basie wrote the title track. The cover is great,
too, and lists the music as "Sounds Of Violence"
br cleve
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 02:05:45 +0100 (CET)
From: "Magnus Sandberg" <m.sandberg@telia.com>
Subject: (exotica) Umbrellas of Cherbourg
I cried when it ended, not often I do that, and still I thought it was
a happy ending. Bittersweet maybe.
It must be all that bad energy coming out of me lately.
Does the soundtrack LP/CD have vocals, or is it instrumental?
Magnus
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------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 2001 20:18:45 EST
From: Clayton.Black@washcoll.edu (Clayton Black)
Subject: Re: (exotica) Great Soundtracks...
- --- You wrote:
>More Soundtracks... Two Soundtracks I also would
>really be interessted in are:
>
>'The Party' from Henry Manc, with a wicked Cover art
>and some nice sounds!
That's one of my favorites. More than just nice sounds. Great =
electric
sitar sounds from Bill Plummer!!!
This record got "played out" a lot by some local D.J's and suddenly =
it was
hard to find. "Everybody" - meaning maybe twenty people - wanted =
it and
they were asking dealers for it and then dealers were looking for =
it and
next thing you know, it's a fifty dollar record.
Somehow ever since I found two copies in Cleveland for a buck each, =
I think
the rush on this record has died down a bit and it's back to being =
a ten
buck record. But I actually think this is almost worth the big =
money.
Of its type (sui generis?), this is about as good as it gets.
- --- end of quote ---
I was in NYC this past Thursday and made a point of stopping in at =
Footlight Records. I quickly saw that the prices were well beyond =
what I was willing to pay, but just for interest I took a look at =
The Party, which I've wanted for some time. Thirty bucks. I'm =
going to continue telling myself that the anticipation of having it =
may be better than having it itself.
Clayton
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------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 2001 20:29:08 EST
From: Clayton.Black@washcoll.edu (Clayton Black)
Subject: Re: (exotica) Musical Luddite
- --- You wrote:
>To me music is like a painting or a drawing, I dont know how it is =
done=20
>but I am sure that it takes a lot of practice to learn.
Musicianship sure seems to be on the wane right now. Everyone
is focused on musicality.
>Same with music, I dont=20
>care much for sampling, I HATE computergenerated drums.
I detest any synthesizer that is tweaked to sound like an acoustic
instrument. They NEVER sound as good, especially synth strings. =
Blech!
The best synth music is the early stuff where the machine itself =
set
the parameters of the voice. They used the sound of the machine
musically, without trying to make it sound like the musical
equivalent of wood grain contact paper. Whether I hear Yanni or
Peter Gabriel abusing sampling to create tacky pseudo-acoustic
sounds, it all sounds the same to me... fake. Techno music all
sounds the same to me. No personality or musical expression at
all. Just relentless, mindless grooves. It's time to unplug and
get back to basics.
I think that there will be a blow out when computers make it
possible for EVERYONE to crank out mindless synthesized dribble.
Then the musicians who make this stuff will see that they don't
have an corner on the market for E-Z to create synth-drones and
beat in a box rhythms. This will be force them to return to
*being able to play instruments well*.
The sessions guys who made the percussion records of the fifties
were 100 times the musicians of the people making similar sounding
stuff today. And these guys were just *average* for their time!
Kenny G gets a world record for the longest sustained note... Who
cares? Louis Armstrong could chop or squeeze a note an make it
sing. Expressiveness and craftsmanship aren't dead. They are just
sleeping it off.
I'm with you on this one, Magnus...
- --- end of quote ---
I agree with most of this, especially Steve's comment about =
musicianship being better then, but I wonder, does this include Eno =
and Kraftwerk, whom I still adore? Magnus may get so much of the =
latter that to him it's no different from Yanni, but I still say =
Ralf and Florian were extraordinarily clever, musicians or not.
Clayton
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 20:39:07 -0500
From: "cheryl" <cheryls@dsuper.net>
Subject: Re: (exotica) Great Soundtracks...
If I'm not mistaken, that one's been reissued on CD (RCA Spain, I think) -
