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This dichotomy has been bouncing around in the back
of my mind for a while now and the recent thread about Rico loop, or whatever
his name is, has brought it to the surface.
I kind of enjoyed watching the video of his
performance. I admired his dexterity. I found him engaging, despite the
commercial inserts, (which I appreciate was his reson d'etre).
I found him entertaining. I would probably go and
see him if he were playing near to me.
BUT
I wouldn't buy his music. I didn't like the music.
I've heard better music in the same genre produced by other methods in a studio
or with a live band.
It reminds me of a steve vai concert - 99% of
the audience are guitarists - the other 1% are their supportive partners, (I'm
making an assumtion here).
I only liked watching rico because I loop
too and I'm interested from the point of view of improving my own abilities
in looping.
What I'm taking away from this is that I feel I
must divorce the process from the product. The music must stand on it's own -
regardless of how its made.
As musicians we have access to the back room of the
phenomenon known to listeners as music.
We know what goes on behind the scenes whether its
in terms of theories of harmony, rhythm, melody or in terms of structure,
dexterity, tone and, in the age of predominantly amplified music, technical
sound. Most listeners don't care about these concepts.
What I feel we must aspire to is pure music. Stuff
you can pop on the CD player and love without regard for the way it was
made.
I got into looping because I loved hearing the
effect of dense textures building a world of majestically repeating, spiralling
sound.
What I want to know is. How sucessful are you at
separating process from product?
Maybe you don't think they should be separated.
Maybe you think I'm wrong.
maybemaybemaybemaybmaybmabmaymaymamamamammmmmmmmmmm
G
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