[
Date Prev][
Date Next] [
Thread Prev][
Thread Next]
[
Date Index][
Thread Index][
Author Index]
Dig if U will our live looping flame war
Good grief, what a week.
For all the talk about labels, genres, styles, and philosophies over the
last several days, I'd like to suggest a slightly different way of looking
at
this.
In my mind, it boils down to two questions:
1) What, exactly, are you trying to define or promote?
2) How are you trying to promote it, and to whom is the promotion
directed?
It seems to me that the main reason for all the disagreement right now
is because so many people have different objectives, all of which are
trying to fall under the banner of "live looping."
Everyone I'm commenting on here is someone I'm fortunate enough to
consider a good personal and professional acquaintance, so I'm not
trying to pick sides here.
Rick Walker obviously has a love for looping in and of itself, in an
all-inclusive sense, in every conceivable permutation - why else would
he stage 20-odd "looping festivals?" He wants to promote that
technology, and the community he feels a part of as a result of this
technology, to the world. I assume this is what he refers to when he
talks about "the cause of looping."
Matthias Grob, on the other hand, seems to have a very specific
collection of aesthetic and philosophical guidelines for what he defines
as "live looping." In his words (as I understand them, anyway) there
are certain ways this music begins and develops, and certain
mental/philosophical states that are induced in both the player and the
listener. So much so, in fact, that he feels my own music represents a
different path from the "live looping genre," because it deviates so
strongly from his own definitions for that style.
Kim Flint sees looping in and of itself as a technology that exists
independently of a built-in aesthetic. He thinks it's confusing to
promote "looping" in and of itself to the listening public, because at
best they won't understand what's being presented to them (due to the
vast array of styles involved), and at worst they'll develop biased
assumptions about what it can or cannot be (due to only hearing one
example, and assuming that IT is what "looping" is.)
So, for one person it's an all-encompassing source of fascination and
community; for another it's a very specific set of aesthetics and
philosophical manifestations; and for yet another it's a set of
craftsman's tools, important to the creator but not the listening public.
No wonder people can't agree on this.
What do I think?
I like Rick a lot, and have enjoyed playing with him on several
occasions. As I've told him before, if it wasn't for his encouraging
looping festivals, I wouldn't have gone back to the EDP two years ago,
and none of what I've been doing since then would have happened.
He's worked his ass off to book gigs he's been kind enough to invite
me to play at, which have made me some money, some new listeners,
and some good connections. On those counts, the looping festival
concept has been pretty good for me.
At the same time, I don't share his all-encompassing love for looping
itself, and I don't perceive the same communal connection between all
loopers that he does. Some of the stylistic differences at gigs with him
have been a bit disconcerting to me: I had a mild panic attack when
Steve Lawson's poppy, major-key "Inner Game" followed Rick's set
(which included an improv using nothing but clitoral vibrators in
drinking glasses) during our Hollywood gig back in January.
This doesn't mean that he's wrong at all; it means I have a different
point of view than he does. Rick's a self-described hippy and
communalist, who lives in a small and intimate community in the Bay
Area, who loves looping in all its forms. I'm a loner by nature, who
lives
in Los Angeles, and most of what I do with the Echoplex is defined by
an intense dissatisfaction with the way most people use loopers. He
loves highlighting duo and trio improvs and putting together bills with
lots and lots of different performers, whereas I want and need to have a
reasonable amount of time to do a full set as a solo performer, since
this is where nearly all of my time and interest has been, and will be,
focused for many years.
For these reasons, it wouldn't surprise me if our respective paths are
somewhat incompatible, particularly as time goes on. But since we
have such different objectives in the first place, I don't see this as any
reflection on either one of us, nor on the mutual respect he and I have.
I see it simply as the two of us doing what we each need to do in order
to acheive our own substantially different goals.
I very much enjoyed the brief time I spent with Matthias, and he and I
connect very well on a basic guitaristic level. Aesthetically, we're at
pretty opposite ends of the spectrum loop-wise, and when he and I
played together, the most successful music we made didn't involve any
looping at all. I do have a hard time understanding a lot of his
philosophical points of view, but I also have a deep respect for where
they're coming from and the obvious knowledge and experience with
which they've been made. Not to mention the countless hours he's
spent building the software and hardware to allow me to play my music
in the first place!
I can't help but wonder how Matthias' specific aesthetic guidelines for
"the live looping style" will mesh with Rick's all-inclusive
communalism, but I'm certainly glad to see two such fantastic
musicians and thinkers pooling their efforts. If they can reconcile these
two different attitudes amongst themselves, perhaps that will help
clarify the whole "live looping music" issue for the rest of us.
Kim and I seem to be on the same page in terms of how he and I look
at looping: it's a means to an end, but not the end itself. It's the
starting
point, not the destination.
Mark Hamburg made the observation that several of "us" do, or can,
play the same genre of music, and that a term for this common style
would be helpful. My response is that, while several list members have
found some common ground in ensemble configurations, this is not
necessarily the same territory they would venture into on their own.
For instance, the trio tour with Rick and Steve was a lot of fun, largely
because it pushed all of us into territory we didn't normally go into.
The
flip side, though, is that we only had small amounts of time to do "our
own things."
What I do is a melange of hip-hop, glitch-core, IDM, turntablism, and
drum & bass. That's very different from what Bill Walker or Steve
Lawson or Jon Wagner do, and each of those guys do substantially
different things from one another as well. So if Mark feels that we're
all
generally operating in the same stylistic territory at these shows, that
says to me that our commonalities are being highlighted at the
expense of giving our individual voices the room to really shine.
That's not so surprising, because if you're putting lots of far-flung
musicians together on one bill, it makes sense to "connect the dots,"
so to speak. I'm grateful for the chance to play at shows like these, but
I also recognize that, in my mind, such shows are a means to an end,
and not the end itself, because my goal is not to be a professional
free-improv looping festival participant. The end, for me, is getting my
own voice as a solo player heard. I don't realistically expect that to
happen when I'm sharing performance time with half a dozen other
players on one bill, and certainly not if I'm stylistically removed from
many of them.
So, to answer my own question: what am I trying to promote? My own
music as a solo player. How am I trying to promote it? By presenting it
to audiences who might have an interest in it. That includes people
who are into looping, but it also includes fans of dance music, hip-hop,
IDM, "guitar" fans, and the complete strangers who have responded
very favorably to what I've done, who happened to be at solo gigs at
rock clubs and coffee shops which weren't billed as "looping shows" at
all.
I certainly hope people can find ways to co-exist here, without feeling
the need to splinter themselves off into divisive factions. I do have to
wonder, though: if a mailing list of a few hundred dedicated looping
enthusiasts can't find a way to agree on what "loop music" is, then is it
really a good idea to try and promote that concept (whatever it is) to the
world at large?
Anyway...
--Andre LaFosse
The Echoplex Analysis Pages:
http://www.altruistmusic.com/EDP
------
------
------
------
------
------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .