Re: how is the livelooping style

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Matthias Grob wrote:
>>Ty wrote
>>> First just what is live looping. It would seem that it defines the 
>>> gear we use and that we use it live like an instrument.
>>
> and Andy:
>> ahhh,

>>
>> If you care to check out some of the music made by list
>> members you'll find that your description of the "continuum"
> 
> ... yes, Andy?
> you are one of the early if not the first adopter of the livelooping 
> genre... what do you think?
> 
> 

Genre is a difficult question,
my current favourite genre classification is
"post-post-core", gleaned, of course, from the 
pages of Wire magazine.
No idea what that means at all :-)
...but it does point out the central facts about genre, imo
that is:-

   it's decided by music journalists.

Well maybe a record company with a big budget can also contribute,
but it's not really musicians who decide such things.
It's also not decided by academics, a dissertation is hardly ever
published and may well only be ever read for marking, which
is it's raison d'etre.

The reason I use the term "livelooping" to describe my music
is that it doesn't fit into any available genre.
It seems appropriate because it depends pretty heavily
on the live looping technology to give it it's form.
The alternative is "guitar music", and I've often done
gigs which were billed as guitar gigs rather than
livelooping. 

Anyway, if any of us want to establish "livelooping" as
a genre I think we need to target music journalists.
If the term is used enough in press releases, websites
and even letters to the press then who knows, it may stick.


Probably it doesn't matter so much how we define the music.
Repetition, lack of key change, lack of complex fills, trance ...etc..
doesn't apply to livelooping more than it does to a great many established
genres. 
With improving technology livelooping will become less and less about
the repetition of a single figure. 

Perhaps we should say we are "humanizing the technology",
or some such soundbite.

If it's possible to define accurately what sets "livelooping" apart,
and I suspect it is, then I doubt that the definition would
be comprehensible to music journalists ( maybe that's harsh, 
but I've read a lot of insights based on
misread sleeve notes).

andy butler
...and another question not answered but sidestepped ;-)