My picks for "ones to watch for '94", in a January 1994 issue of Melody Maker. The other writers picks are right at the bottom.
Foul Play makes sense. (Later in '94, the "mysterious outfit" became less mysterious as I met Brad + John in a cafe in Belsize Park, where I lived for most of the year, for an interview).
The other nomination, though, is a bit of a head-scratcher, because clearly I must have been pretty taken with Keiji Haino at precisely the time of writing - but it's not something I followed through with, at all.
If memory serves, Kevin Martin - we used to hang out quite a bit in those days and back then he was almost as much a critic as a musician, had a column in the Tower Records magazine - Kev gave me a tape of Fushitsusha.
Pretty soon jungle and electronic music took up all of my bandwidth, the avant-rock stuff got shunted aside pretty much.
Vague memories of actually seeing Haino, much later, playing in NYC.
Listening to this again - almost certainly for the first time since - it really don't sound like my cup o' tea at all!
Whereas this, this is what I want played at my funeral.
Apropos of nothing: a place Kevin liked to meet was Bunjie's Coffee House, in Litchfield Street (where The Mousetrap played for decades, and where I saw it as an 11 year old). Much, much later I learned Bunjies had been a legendary folk cellar. Now I get a retrospective thrill at the idea of having once been in a space through which passed Anne Briggs - and who knows what other folk goddesses and occasional god - and breathed song into the air. But in the early '90s such ancestral vibrations would have meant nothing to me. I remember the food being cheap and cheerful, if a little dull, and the decor utilitarian - seem to remember tiles everywhere.
7 comments:
Sorry, are you saying that Oasis were bad? I have no truck with such revisionism.
It's not revisionism - that's what I thought and said at the time. As did a handful of others on the music press amid the Britpop consensus. There was always a counterview, a critique.
I don't like Oasis apart from "Champagne Supernova" which I LOVE. It redeems their whole existence, or perhaps better said, distills their whole point into one perfect song that renders all else superfluous.
Actually there's one or two other of their hits I can see why they are anthems. "Some Might Say". Wouldn't actively seek to hear those though whereas I might with "Champagne"
"Wonderwall' is orrible, "Don't Look Back in Anger" is worse.
Generally speaking I regard them as culture criminals. But that's as much to do their massive wider effect on the '90s and the contraction of music possibility. If they'd just stayed at their proper level, which would be somewhere between the La's and Shed 7 maybe - they probably wouldn't bother me at all.
That said, I've never read a Noel Gallagher interview where I haven't found myself warming to him - he's funny and sharp and his put downs are entertaining.
Liam less keen to put it mildly - but I do like his love of World of Twist, to the point of covering "Sons of the Stage" (the original is an all-time favorite). Beady Eye is an off-putting name for a group though.
He also has a great quote which I've been trying to find for a purpose as yet shrouded - something about how when he first saw Ian Brown onstage, the way he carried himself touched something deep within him. Said in a less flowery way but with a vernacular poetry to it. Felt like a classic Harold Bloomian example of influence as a visitation, the spark that ignites the dormant artist-to-be within.
Okay, but please understand that for plenty of us, Oasis were both great and era-defining. Harking back to your contention that Bowie's songs were rarely "humanly useful", I'd say Oasis are quite paradoxical in that regard. Many of their songs were designed for people to latch onto (the beery anthem was their speciality), but Noel himself said that the lyrics were meant to convey a mood rather than a meaning (i.e., they're gibberish that feels right at the time). So, aside from the general theme of escaping the greyness, Oasis' songs were meant to be humanly useful despite being about cack-all.
I did enjoy the first Oasis album. And watching early interviews of the brothers together where they would end up fighting each other was much more engaging than Slowdive providing a tour of their FX pedals. Ultimately I feel the same way about Oasis as Coldplay. A lot of people like their music and I do not begrudge those people that pleasure. But the music doesn't do much for me.
The "Tips for next year" is always a hostage to fortune (altho who would have been held to their prognostications - Philip Tetlock-style). It does offer opportunities for alternative history. What would have happened for, say, Children of the Bong to get Oasis-style big?
"a purpose as yet shrouded" - this book that you mentioned in the Reynaldo interview. It's a biography of Liam Gallagher isn't it?
I find it so funny when ppl ask for a critic not to be one, especially a critic like Mr.Reynolds, who isn't afraid of stating or re-affirming his argunments.
For example: I've been a fan of Dubstep for more than 10 years, now. I got into the genre right when it was about to die (back when Skrillex was popping up big in the scene, 2010/2011). As I'm Brazilian, there was very little info on the genre in my language, and, as I was getting better at reading English, Mr.Reynolds and his whole Hardcore Continuum thing came naturally to me via the internet, I've been an admire of his work ever since, even though he never hid he's dislike for the Dubstep scene and sound; the man just got so many interesting things to say about popular music, its aesthetics, and social/political repercussions.
I actually love when Simon tries to spoil my engagement with something, as he did a couple of times with Dubstep, makes one want to respond, not with typical internet complaining, but with arguments. It worries me when he concedes on one of his possitions, even a little... when he pulled back his arguments against retro (a little bit) in the Tim Reaper discussion...
https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2020/12/future-retro.html
BTW, does anybody know if Blackdown ever answered any of Reynolds criticisms on Dubstep (its middle class, fake street status. Lack of energy. Etc)?
That's nice of you to say GuyfromBrzl.
I don't dislike dubstep, I just don't love it - not in the way I LUVD to the BONE all the previous phases (hardcore, jungle, speed garage, 2step). It was like there were two children of the Nuum - grime and dubstep - and like a bad parent, I preferred one to the other. much preferred.
lot of it came down to the kind of energy it generated in the club, about the kind of room you wanted to be in the middle of. i liked dubstep more when it went mentalist - big wobbly b-lines, even the bro tendency - but by that point i wasn't really experiencing it in situ, the development was a bit late to pull me in.
but you know, some good tracks, some good home-listening albums. not that i really ever go back to them... Burial is my favorite dubstep-aligned thing but then rhythmically he's not really proper dubstep is he?
I hope I'm not trying to spoil anyone's engagement or enjoyment - it's not really the intent, perhaps it's more like a byproduct of me stating my viewpoint, my reaction, forcefully.
in a way, though, it's only more poncified and flowery version of the kind of back-and-forth people have in a bar or anywhere about music - "this is shit", "no you're wrong it's good". people in real life are much insulting about bands, films, TV, etc - there's no holds barred. i suppose it's quite the same as doing in public - there's kind of feeling that is like an Official Verdict. the authority of the printed word imparts a responsibility to be impartial etc etc.
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