Writing about music

[Cartoon sourced here.]

Times change or, in this case, I change, or, er, both. Maybe. Less than two years ago I was over the moon to have my first review published in print after a year or two of getting published online, predominantly by the Beeb (for whom I still enjoy writing). I’ve just received the latest copy of Grooves magazine, to which I contributed I think three CD and two concert reviews: (Autechre and Mark Stewart and co. There they lie occupying most of a two page spread, disappointingly minus my whizzy Autechre pics, but hey ho). Am I pleased? Not really. Do I look forward to reading and receiving The Wire, a magazine I’ve read for at least 15 years? Not really. Is it me? Probably. Though it seems most people I’ve talked to about this feel the same way. Could be an age/peer group thing.

My idea in response is a highly problematic one. A website that publishes people’s ‘responses’ to the music they’re listening to. Responses? Here’s a few of my own:

AMM, MEV (concert review)
Fax (Ruido de Fondo)
Kraftwerk (in concert, 2005)
Remarc (Unreleased Dubs 94-96)
V/VM (“Stigma”)

My Lob website is another example (best viewed in IE).

Words are great, wonderful, but there are other ways to respond and though I write a lot of music criticism I am very tired of the tyranny of words in this particular area (I can’t, for example, imagine tiring of fiction). Of course some of the above examples when published in Absorb received a ton of scornful opprobrium from a number of readers. Which only serves to make me even more interested in the idea. It would be a knife-edge challenge, much of it would most likely be woefully self-indulgent, but what about asking Peter Saville if he’d submit redesigns for a favourite album he felt ill-served by its graphics. What about diary-like getting to know you’s about a particular album, photo collages, razor-blade critiques wrapped up in cotton wool, handwritten love letters, sketches on napkins, all the mad stuff, all accumulating around particular node-like albums. Would the site be open-submission with editors selecting their favourites? That would likely be most successful. The site might occasionally publish a book of the most interesting contributions. People could vote for their favourites. Okay, silly, but damn people like me with their views and their determination to be heard above everyone else (??)

I recently bought a 5CD project ‘RLW – Tulpas’. I haven’t yet begun to attempt to digest it, but while waiting with Amy and Gabriel for their haircuts I was struck by this quotation:

“Avoid the idea of a puzzle, which can be solved.”
Jasper Johns, television interview