Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: kingcrimson in sf-no loop content...



<Hedewa7@aol.com> put forth:

> peter b. said:
> >I've noticed whenever someone attempts Soundscapes they're really
performing
> >Frippertronics.
> cchhhhwwrauugh, now *there's* a (dinosauric) crock of shite..... again!
> so many years later, this minor ignorance still gets up my nose.
>
> what exactly is a 'soundscape'?;
> i know that neither eno nor fripp coined that term.
>
> what exactly is 'frippertronics', but a description of robert's version 
>of
> techniques that were already in existence when he learnt them?

I don't after all have my cd collection/etc. here in the UK, but I recall
that there was something from Fripp on this during the "Drive to 1984",
either on the liner notes for (I think) "Under Heavy Manners/God Save the
Queen" or one of the articles he did for Musician or Guitar Player.  At the
time lots of us were trying to catch his store performances talked about in
papers and some magazines, and the talk-up amongst some of us at The League
of Gentlemen show in Asbury Park, NJ was as to when the "Frippertronics
album" was going to come out, more than anything else.  What I primarily
recall is that, out of deference to Eno, he was going to avoid calling the
album "Music for Sports", and at one point thought of calling the tape
looping method (that he fully credits Eno with introducing him to)
"Roscotronics".  Also at the time we were still waiting for the Daryl Hall
"Sacred Songs" album, which RCA was holding back big time; and as I also
remember, the aspect being discussed had to do with the applications of
Frippertronics to conventional rock music.

As we know now there was a lot of necessary maneuvering going on in the
background, involving what we came to know as "a trilogy", namely the
unreleased "Sacred Songs", Peter Gabriel's second album (containing
"Exposure"), and RF's own "Exposure" LP, the last of which has been 
revealed
to be his compilation of sorts of all the material he was working on.
Tellingly, a lot of the songs on "Sacred Songs" are also on "Exposure",
though they are mixed a bit differently, and have different vocals/words.

On this last one, though, I have to differ.  While the term "soundscape" 
may
have existed before being used by Fripp in the solo releases of the
nineties, it was indeed Fripp that coined the term in the title for "1999 -
Soundscapes", unless of course he got suggestions to use the term and never
talked about it.  Hell, I've still got the t-shirt I got at the House of
Blues LA shows from 1997, which reads "Robert Fripp - 1999 Soundscapes".
I've never seen a situation where any artist was calling his own tape/line
loop method "Frippertronics", though.  This was somewhat discouraged by
Fripp as well in an article or two.

Out of sheer fun I called what I started doing with my old DDS 7.6 in 1992
"SpudTronics", though I never used the word on anything other than my
QuadraVerb's front panel for patch descriptions.

As far as my earliest recognition of a term for the dual-deck tape/line
looping technique as outlined by Eno on "Discreet Music", it would be
"Enossification", as put forth in Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down on 
Broadway",
one of the greatest concept albums ever made IMNSHO.

Of course this message indeed does have "loop content", so fire away, 
folks!

Stephen Goodman
http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery_Front.html - Cartoons & Illustrations
http://www.earthlight.net/Studios * The free Loop of the Week!
http://www.live365.com/stations/218194 * EarthLight Online / Live!