Re: Music Descriptions

[The Man Himself <altruist@shoko.calarts.edu>]

On 2 Jul 1997, Jon Durant wrote:

> BTW, did anyone catch the review of my new CD in Guitar Magazine (in the 
>Stevie
> Ray cover issue, July I think)? The reviewer, Jon Chappell, had an 
>interesting
> hook: "Progressively Textural." OK, sounds about right.

I was just in a bookstore the other day, leafing through the magazine 
rack, when I thought, "Say, Jon Durant said his new disc was reviewed in 
the SRV issue of _Guitar_ magazine."  Sure enough, there it was.  A very 
positive review, as well -- congratulations, Jon!  And it's good to see 
that the Alchemy roster is being picked up for in-store distribution -- 
no mean feat for an avante-oriented indie label.  (I think CMP -- or 
whatever they're called now -- could learn a thing or two from you as far 
as what to do with a roster of talented artists...  but anyway...)

_Guitar_ and _Guitar Shop_ both seem to be good outlets for coverage of
more "out there" music; Pete Prown in particular, who writes for the
former and edits the latter, is an avowed prog-rock/experimental fan, and
devotes a substantial amount of print space to more off-beat, unusual
releases.  It's nice that there's some sort of outlet for that music
seeping through the pop market-oriented coverage that tends to pervade
most of the mainstream music press, particularly as the aforementioned
mags tend to be slanted towards more mainstream-minded readers.  They're
not really any closer than anyone else towards coming up with elegant
labels for more off-beat music, however. 

I still think that we're moving into a good period in terms of general
receptiveness for what I'll generally refer to as electronically-derived
loop-based music, which I think probably applies to just about everyone on
this list regardless of stylistic or genre-specific orientation.  Whether
or not one buys into the whole "electronica as the new pop music" scenario
(though I am curious to see if the new Prodigy album lives up to its
prophecy as 'the "Nevermind" of techno,') I do think there's an increased
curiosity and receptiveness towards electronically-based music,
particularly of the live variety.  Now is perhaps as good a time as ever
for us to take our craft out into the public eye. 

--Andre

p.s. - with the deluge of guitarists releasing techno/dance albums these
days, I can't help but think how far ahead of the zeitgiest Torn was when
he dabbled so successfully with electronic music on last year's _What
Means Solid, Traveller?_.  I suspect it'll still sound fresh when most of
the rest of the current crop of electronic music reeks of late-'90s dance
crossover.  Too bad CMP didn't know what to do with it!