Back in the Saddle Again

[David Myers <dmgraph@bway.net>]

Cripes, annihilist wouldn't let me in since Dec. 13th; my ISP just figured
out how to fix the problem, whatever it was.  Anyway, hope no one will mind
my playing catchup a bit, posting about some older stuff, etc.  What was
really curious is that the day I was cut off was when I posted the
following:

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Robert at the Bottom Line Saturday night; saw the early show.  I don't
think even the people at TC Electronic or Eventide would have been
pleased--this is all that can be done with 20 grand worth of gear?  I kept
wanting to shout, "OK, Bob, now HIT IT!".  (Wouldn't have been out of
place: LOTS of people were shouting.)  It was like he was waiting for the
right moment to break loose, but never did and never intended to--or didn't
know how.  I well realize that when you make a goof in a looping situation
you are in deep trouble, but his timidity was appalling; 5 minutes of what
we heard would have been impressive, but he more or less just let it limp
along for two hours.

I love everything Crimson has done, and the "Let The Power Fall"-type
Frippertronics are kind of minimalist masterpieces, but listen to what
somebody like Paul Dresher did on "Liquid and Stellar Music" many years ago
and you begin to see that Fripp really doesn't have much to offer.  Nor do
I sense that he is even aware of Dresher, Terry Riley, etc.--or perhaps any
work outside rock or the rock fringe.  It seems that he believes he's doing
something unprecedented.  What he's doing that IS different is presenting a
rather inept sort of ambient music to crowds which are largely unfamiliar
with even Eno's "Discreet Music" (which this show was uncannily reminicent
of), and pissing them off.  I think 90% of this crowd expected "Red", and
if I were one of them I'd be screaming, too.  But I think this is part of
what Robert wants to do: mess with people.  He will call it "inviting them
to expand their horizons" or some such thing, but it seems to me that it's
mostly just self-indulgence.

Yeah, the inevitable flashbulb went off--and so did Bob.  He returned, but
without the promised "Q & A" period afterward.  I would have asked, "can we
go now?".

A technical speculation.  Since all Fripp's sounds are synthesized (on this
occasion he played two short phrases which just MIGHT have been actual
guitar sounds), couldn't one forego the pricy TC audio looping and just
feed MIDI info from the guitar into a looping sequencer?  Then even more
radical sound alterations would of course be possible (not to mention
structural gymnastics), though the gee-whiz factor involved with a
6-foot-high rack of gear would be lost....

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BTW, I wanted to put in my .02 regarding a desert island looper's list:

1) Paul Dresher "Liquid and Stellar Music"
2) Terry Riley "A Rainbow in Curved Air" or "Descending Moonshine 
Dervishes"
3) Robert's "Let The Power Fall" or "Evening Star" w/ Eno
4) David Torn "Tripping Over God" (anyone have a copy of "What Means Solid"
they'd like to sell?)
5) I agree that Sylvian's "Gone to Earth" is full of great looping-mostly
Robert's doing, I think....

Also, I must say that you guys who can tolerate "Door X" must have a screw
loose.  What the hell was David thinking?  Did you ever hear the albums on
which even Herbie Hancock decided to sing?  Please!

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More BTW: I just ordered more RAM to max out my Echoplex and discovered an
interesting phenomenon.  Several of the memory companies asked me, "what is
it for?", and in one case I told them.  They said, we sell so-and-so for
samplers and music equipment--bottom line, the very same 30-pin SIMMs as
for a Mac SE30, etc., but a jacked-up price.  Reason?  I dunno--maybe
they've had music people return RAM more often?  Anyway, if you get this
question concerning 30 pin SIMMs, just tell 'em it's for a Mac Classic or
something.  A place called Mohawk Memory sold me 4 meg SIMMs for $14 each.

-David Myers