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Re: Looper's Essential Listening revisited: the 1980's
Okay, a bit wordy but I'll carve it down.
Fripp's "Let the Power Fall" (1981):
At the time this came out distribution of vinyl was weird, and
inconsistent
depending on how far outside a major metro area you lived. In New Jersey
I
had a little trouble at first finding RF's work, until this album came
out.
I found it on a whim scan of the 'F' section - during a time when one
would
hear comments from other people in line for shows (not RF, but Lou Reed
and
a Kitchen benefit) about "Frippertronics", and "Roscotronics". Shortly
after this RF was written up in the NY Times for having achieved a major
coup with three record companies, getting distribution for a number of
releases; as such the effect to me was that "Let the Power Fall" was like
the drop of water that broke the dam. Later it was easy to find releases
like "Exposure", "The League of Gentlemen", and (to a much, much lesser
extent) "Sacred Songs". In the process RF wrote some stunning articles
about what he was "doing" with all this. It all had the effect of a great
coming-together of forces, at the behest of a singular powerful creative
force. And an example for us all.
To one who had been following RF and Eno's collaborations since "No
Pussyfooting" (let alone just the articles coming from Keyboard, Musician,
and Guitar Player at the time) knew, LTPF presented a natural though
minimalistic evolution of the process first used by RF, now termed
"Frippertronics". The pieces are built in front of the listener, a
pattern
constructed for the most part without solos on top, and by listening to
the
patterns I grew to feel as if RF were presenting examples to unseen
students. This seemed in the spirit of the diagram on the back of Eno's
"Discreet Music": as if to say, "Here's how it's done. Now go off and
work
with this." While the method had been used before DM by other people, DM
illustrated the process on the back of the album cover. It was made into
an
easily-obtainable thing (so long as you had two reel-to-reel tape decks, a
long reel of tape, a compressor, and a stable surface to put it on) in
comparison to what had formerly just been "experimental music". When RF
called what he was doing "Frippertronics" he simply BRANDED the process.
What made it "Frippertronics" was the ingredient of RF. This meant in a
way
that, should I do the same thing, I could call it "Spudtronics" (and I
have
at times, though privately).
The works are titled in sequence, by years. In some ways this titling
causes a detaching between title and song content, not uncommon to art,
but
at the time considered dangerous (or even subversive!) if not bad
marketing
by the Big Five. As a result however, the listener is freed to attach
whatever meaning one likes to the pieces. Does "1984" remind you of a
time
when you listened to LTPF in 1984? So be it, implies RF. Great art often
invites such participation. In LTPF, we are given precise sketches based
upon a simple blueprint, and invited to do so ourselves. And, as Loopers
Delight would strongly indicate, so we have.