I think it's much more vibrant than 'Music for Airports', and Flynt had
zero interest in getting a record deal.
Ultimately, I agree, it's a matter of taste.
On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> This is a less sophisticated but perhaps more sonically interesting
> version of what Brian Eno was doing with records like "Music for Airports."
> I guess it's a semi-interesting soundscape, for a few minutes. I guess if
> noise is music, then it's music. I maintain that it's not commercially
> viable, which is why this guy never had a real record deal. I also maintain
> there was much more interesting and viable music being made in the same
> era. On the other hand, it's just music, so to each their own. I guess it's
> a good thing people who are drawn to such things can readily enjoy it via
> YouTube today.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Bishop" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2014 9:31 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Records Ruin the Landscape
>
>
>
> If that guitar and humming was the only thing Flynt had ever done, I think
>> you're right that he would have a deserved obscurity. But that's not his
>> most loved work, which would probably be the Celestial Power tape:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uMib5NM8U
>>
>> Despite any flaws of recording, this piece has amazing resonance when
>> played from a good stereo in a large room instead of from utube on a
>> computer.
>>
>> His odd "back porch hillbilly blues" makes sense in the light of his other
>> work. Distortion and blurring of the guitar sound isn't a mistake, it's
>> the
>> background he wanted for the droning, chanting vocals. The 'hillbilly
>> blues' tag is a joke, a purposefully misleading title. He's not trying to
>> work in any genre, so comparison to commercially viable recordings is
>> missing the point. That piece may be more concept than music, but I find
>> other music he made to be very beautiful as music, not only as concept.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 7:56 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Let's be clear, this is the "artiste" discussed in the essay:
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC6VjHYjXEM
>>>
>>> If 15 minutes of the same 3 chords with often out of tune humming along
>>> is
>>> your thing, then have at it. Many people play acoustic guitar into a
>>> portable home recorder. Very few of those recordings are worth hearing.
>>> Almost none of them are worth canonized as "undiscovered gold."
>>>
>>> I understand the frustration with modern commercialized popular music,
>>> but
>>> the modern impulse (often by younger writers with little historical
>>> perspective, writers "born digital" and raised on digital pop music glop)
>>> to "discover" performers from what is glorified as a "wonderful past,"
>>> many
>>> of whom don't really deserve to be canonized, is annoying. It seems to be
>>> an academic, navel-gazing pursuit. And, it smacks of ignorance, of not
>>> listening to enough commercially-released music from the same time
>>> periods.
>>> That sort of listening will often reveal that there were many excellent
>>> examples in the selected genre, musicians who could actually play and
>>> thus
>>> make commercially viable recordings.
>>>
>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "WS" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 6:35 PM
>>> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Records Ruin the Landscape
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The link below is an excerpt (published in WIRE magazine) from David
>>>
>>>> Grubb's
>>>> upcoming book called "Records Ruin The Landscape".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I thought it might be of interest to some ARSCLIST members, as it
>>>> explores
>>>> the implications of recorded material from an earlier era that only
>>>> finds
>>>> an
>>>> audience much later than it was created.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/book-extracts/read_
>>>> extract-from-david-gr
>>>> ubbs_records-ruin-the-landscape
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
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