Re: computer music

[McCullaghJ@Logica.com]

Bret:
> I don't think these label distinctions are as cut
> and dried as suggested, at least not in common usage.

True .. and then there are artists who remix their own records live .. you
can check out some Aphex Twin live sets here:
http://www.joyrex.com/content_live.html
And the DJ from Portishead, who writes the music, records it, has it
pressed onto vinyl, and then DJ's with that !

Remixing goes back to Teo Macero's work with Miles 1968-75. The liner notes
to the remastered Bitches Brew give the editing structure of "Pharaoh's
Dance", and it's amazing .. something like 22 edits in 20 minutes. At one
stage they took a 4 bar rhythm section loop, and repeated it, while putting
a solo over it. Now that was a creative jump. But Teo was essentially
remixing someone else's music, and in that sense, he was the first remix
artist.

Using turntables to resequence other people's music seems to go back to the
birth of hip hop (was it Cool Herc who introduced the 2 turntable setup?
not sure..). The primary use was to generate good sequences for dancing to,
and to get "breakbeats" .. taking the 4 or 8 bar drum break from certain
songs, using 2 copies on vinyl, and switching between them to form a few
minutes of just the break. It was a different beast to Teo's work, and IMO
(although some of it was good) it lead on to stuff like Puff Daddy and
other assorted "rip the chorus out of a Steely Dan song, loop it, rap over
it : that's a track" stuff. I'm not a fan of that. But building good,
'original' tracks from turntables (although the definition of 'original'
may be up for grabs here) does require skill. Just go to a club with a bad
DJ for all to be revealed.

But I am a fan of people like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Photek, Autechre ..
more in the "remixer" vein, but certainly owing something to DJs. But they
all remix their own source material. Fatboy Slim works entirely from
samples of other people's work, and (although it can be class) I feel it's
missing something. A judicious use of _some_ external samples along with
original material is a good balance .. the Chemical Brothers for instance.

$0.02

J