Harmonia was described by Brian Eno as the “most important rock group”. But you originally wanted to bring Roedelius and Moebius into Neu! at the time? When NEU! was invited to do a tour in the UK in 1973, Klaus Dinger and I faced the problem that we needed musicians to help us put our …
Let us say it again, all art is in its origin essentially symbolical and ritual, and only through a late degeneration, indeed a very recent degeneration, has it lost its sacred character so as to become at last the purely profane ‘recreation’ to which it has been reduced among our contemporaries. René Guénon The dark …
They were never really embraced by the east and west coast intelligentsia. Rolling Stone magazine wasn’t a friend to the band, nor was the hip alternative magazine from their home state, Cream. Their sound was a throbbing monolith, built on a pure, primitive drive that was closer to a voodoo ceremony than a peace happening. …
Director: Whit Stillman Disco will never be over. It will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this that was this big, and this important, and this great, will never die. Whatever the revisionist rock music critics would have you believe: the Sex Pistols did not take over American youth-culture in late 70s. …
Just that name “Vaporwave” was enough to turn me off. The aging hipster within making it very clear that I would have nothing to do with this internet creation. “Just a shiny plastic container with nothing inside”, I said defiantly. Without depth or feeling or humanity, this music was nothing I would be interested in …
Let’s be clear: electronic music didn’t begin in the 1980s. Innovations in electronic noise have been developing since the end of the 19th century. Both Italy and Russia had important Futurism or “Futurismo” movements that greatly advanced modern music. Each subsequent decade adding to the thinking, sounds and instruments musicians have at their disposal. Nevertheless, electronic music did …
I have always rejected the general notion that music was merely a listening experience or throwaway entertainment. Even at its most superficial, music feeds the intellect and the soul, for the better or worse. It informs us of the world we live in, and makes us part of the community we mentally and physically inhabit. …
Walkin’ in the park just the other day, baby What do you what do you think I saw? Crowds of people sittin’ on the grass with flowers in their hair said Hey Boy do you want to score? Back in those days, we all gathered at the Red House in Butcher Park. Five, ten, sometimes as many as …
Sharing the pure discovery of new music and sound. Can you imagine anything more important? Or have we forgotten our higher purpose? (Honestly… it can’t be a good idea to start a review with a series esoteric questions. What am I to do? Begin again?). There is something intimate, even sensual about sharing new music with …
Italian Composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866 -1924) said that “music is sonorous air”. A vibration that we experience without being seen with the human eye. John Lyndon, “Some ideas absolutely require a kind of rigid discipline, and others require absolute chaotic abandon. The form is only valid if you know how to un-form it”. The Roscoe Mitchell Sextet starts a …
