The Syndicate

thellama73 wrote:Oversteps is the best Autechre album. Discuss.

No.

thellama73 wrote:

Epignosis wrote:I still don't like Pawn Hearts. Every few years I give it another spin to see if it has grown on me. Nope. Never.

H to He is where it's at. And Wave to Each Other.

I'm actually with you on this. I like Pawn Hearts okay, but those other two are much better.

I dislike agreeing with Llama, so I'll agree with Epignosis instead. H to He is masterliness.

thellama73 wrote:I'm not sure what thread to put this in, but this is about rating music, so I guess it's as good a place as any. I've decided to listen to every album in the Pitchfork Top 100 Albums of the 1970s list and write a review of each one. I know a lot of them already, but I'm looking forward to discovering new stuff.

I posted the first entry tonight. The project can be found here.

Nobody should pay attention to anything by Pitchfork. Most of these writers, at best, weren't even 10 when the 70s ended. That list has four Zeppelin albums and as much Bowie and Eno or Eno-related or Eno-generated or Eno-influenced music as they could cram in, without forgetting to tick all the other boxes that collective knowledge holds in high esteem. As a music fan, if you feel this is the most you've immersed in that decade of music, that's all dandy, but coming from music critics who pressed to gain online importance and sell out (or cash in from) any artsy, gimmick indie rock on the radar, and then try to cover all the older decades and genres with above 9.0 reviews of reissue boxes and shallow waters lists like these, nah.

Sorry to hear that. One can retire from mafia? News to me.

Yeah, their music can have that effect.

Heiots wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I don't like calling music good or bad, because I know my interests are among the minority, and who am I to tell someone else their music is bad (or good).

But if we're talking preferences, I don't like listening to pop, country, rap, smooth jazz, disco, or some recent trendy electronic genres like dubstep (that's electronic right?). I usually don't listen to R&B. And then there's everything else that I listen to from time-to-time or all the time. And then there's Rush.

Hm, me too. I used to be a music snob (sadly) back in university when I majored in music, and my friends were into classical technique and opera sounds. I had to filter my preferences after someone made fun of a band I listened to. But I've decided to be kind to myself and others. I may not enjoy a particular genre for now, but I may in the future. Who's to say it's bad music? (Unless like in school, people judge "good/bad" based on compositional skills and vocal techniques, but music is more than just that. I like to think there's something to get from every genre.)

Right now, I'm into funk, gospel, and R&B. And moments for classical, broadway, rock, jazz, and Olafur Arnalds.

Hmmm.

Golden wrote:@Rico - well over 50% of my music collection is classical. I attended the New Zealand School of Music alongside doing my law degree. It's an area of passion to me, that it would easily be an entirely different thread.

Ooh.

Most of my faculty colleagues tried a law degree besides attending the School of Music. Y'know, putting life into perspective.

A tiny bit of music that's been made is the elixir of gods (or as he took form nowadays, Klaus Schulze), the rest of bad. Metal belongs entirely to the latter. The patrician has spoken.

10 years ago, on PA, I probably would have spent 3 hours writing an elaborate bad take on the subject. Now I'll dedicate just half an hour for something less elaborate (if only by one or two paragraphes) and just as bad. Ok, one hour.

I'd imagine that to "evaluate critically" would literally imply to be a music critic, and even then to know well not just how to appreciate the music, but also its makers, the genre and period details, the musical scene and interactions, etc. Outside this area, it's all quite subjective in what music we like and why. I lack profoundly the mentioned "critical" qualities. In fact, my love for music is quite inversely proportional to knowing in detail about the artists, the composers, the scene, the compositional details or even being a concertgoer and having bonded with real musicians much.

So, on to what music I subjectively like, I'll follow G-Man's train of thoughts a fair bit. My father in particular influenced me to grow up listening and embracing classical, then rock, electronic, jazz. Apart from the former, I strangely did my best to reject the others before irremediably falling for 'em. My dad would say "pay attention to this next track, tell me if you've ever heard something like it before", it being King Crimson's Moonchild and me going "meh". Years later, I'd heavily defend the track in PA threads in which at least three quarters would meh it. Of course, his taste was limited to what he liked himself the most in his youth: hard rock, prog rock, some jazz, folk. Still I'd say it's pretty solid. He is quite certain that Bach's Cello Suites is the best music ever written. I have my own answers to such a question, but I'll admit it's a hard one to argue against.

Anyway, I followed him more or less on the same path at first, becoming a sort of retroactive listener - never in touch with my own time, always embracing the past. I'd say that I liked the most music that was eclectic, complex written, deeply textured or esoteric. Only late in my adolescence did I embrace on my own or influenced by new friends a lot more genres, most of them counting as experimental and modern, some being guilty pleasures on the pop/indie spectrum that evolved into keeping a certain interest. A friend noted that even here I'm attracted by the richly or quirky textured music rather than the formulaic stuff and it's pretty accurate.

So overall if the music tends to be rich, intellectual, fascinating, entracing or of particular sensibility, it's usually right up my alley. Pretentious, cryptic, of acquired taste works too. The biggest issues I face are trying out too many things and hardly staying fascinated even by half of the music I would call good, with the passing of time.

What I either suck at evaluating or don't care much about would be the following: lyrics and actual context, meaning behind them; musical form and internal logic, which, given my music skills, should almost count as a sin; audiophile qualities of the recording.

Welp, that amounted to a whole lot of nothing.

Golden wrote:Interesting that you made no real mention of classical music given your ownership of the Star Wars soundtracks...

Laments lack of classical mentions, yet only references one John Williams schlager. Erm.