About Sean dissing albums

I think we need to discuss this because I can't wrap my head around this one. 

From Metal Magazine Sean said quote:

 

  Quote

Sean: I'm honestly not that interested in records anymore. The concept of what a studio album is seems outdated. For instance, if I create a track on my laptop while on a train, does that qualify as a studio album? No one would know it was made there. If I use my laptop on stage, does that still count as a studio record? It’s different because there’s an audience. But if I’m in the studio with friends while making a hip-hop album, is that an audience too? These terms become confusing.

Sean: Why would you think our live material is worse than studio recordings? My focus is on performing and sharing those experiences. We selected our best sets to release, and after our previous record deal ended, we renegotiated with the label earlier this year. We’ll release about 4-5 hours of new material, not just one album.

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It seems like he have not even consider what a complete album means compare to their live sets in general. 

For me one album of them Is like a book with a story, It is that time and that moment they are perfectly laid out in a way to enjoy it track by track..piece by piece. 
The live sets is not the same tracks but rather that same sound in that era. It changes from set to set and is very enjoyable. To get the Soundboards is a bless but according to me it can not top a finished album in complete-ness. 

What are your thoughts? 

 

I don't think that really constitutes "dissing" albums. He's saying what he's currently interested in doing and what makes him feel engaged. He's also asking himself and the reader what constitutes an album. And, in a world where albums might be composed and recorded on a single machine (a laptop – which can be booted up and utilized anywhere), the concept of a "studio production" may no longer have meaning. So, his question as to whether something that's recorded in front of an audience ceases to be an album for that fact is an interesting one. The distinction dissolves (although maybe not completely). Most electronic records aren't composed / sequenced while they're being recorded, so undertaking the recording / performing stage of the creative process in a live setting does begin to seem kind of irrelevant. He's been musing to this effect for about ten years.

It's fucking brilliant

  On 10/23/2024 at 9:18 PM, cern said:

he have not even consider

they don't seem like they do stuff w/o consideration. 

but also i think you're making way too much out of this.  they've been at it a while. have released quality top tier shit for ages as albums, eps, remixes, live sets etc..   perhaps the process of making an album the way they have for 30 years is just not appealing right now?? seems like they should do whatever they're passionate about or feels right.. which seems like what they've always done and what's worked for them. 

as i said in the other thread.. this seems like a mood and in a year or two or whenever maybe the mood will change and they'll do something else. so long as they don't pull a BoC and disappear i'm happy to get ahold of whatever they release.. be it album, live set etc.. 

Aren't their last however many albums just trimmed and edited live jams anyway?

This  is how it should be 

  On 10/23/2024 at 9:32 PM, mTesc said:

So, his question as to whether something that's recorded in front of an audience ceases to be an album for that fact is an interesting one.

Makes me think of Tom Waits.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks_at_the_Diner

It was recorded over four sessions in July in the Los Angeles Record Plant studio in front of a small invited audience set up to recreate the atmosphere of a jazz club.

I want that Hip Hop album he mentions

If they make the studio albums and stage sets basically in a similar way then there's not really much difference between them? I think he's just expressing his frustration about people expecting studio albums with track names when it's basically just the same music, made essentially in the same way.

  On 10/24/2024 at 3:02 PM, zkom said:

If they make the studio albums and stage sets basically in a similar way then there's not really much difference between them? I think he's just expressing his frustration about people expecting studio albums with track names when it's basically just the same music, made essentially in the same way.

For something that's made the same way it sure sounds like two quite different approaches, always has done and still does.

Im still digesting most of the last 20 years output and im not being hyperbolic and its not just because its "complicated" or needs 20 listens.. its a lot plus i have a very slow pace with them in particular, which i relish. I could give 2 fux if its an album, 20 min track, liveset or whatever.. its just delish. My latest bag is a PLUS fest as im no familar with it at all 

sounds like a simple album-length release like Oversteps or SIGN is not gonna happen again...

i already posted most of my thoughts in the other interview thread but if their thing now is just releasing occasional bursts of live soundboards it would be super cool to get like another elseq volume along with each one. like a collection of the best bits edited down and separated out into a handful of tracks. i'd buy both!

  On 10/24/2024 at 5:44 PM, mushroom said:

i already posted most of my thoughts in the other interview thread but if their thing now is just releasing occasional bursts of live soundboards it would be super cool to get like another elseq volume along with each one. like a collection of the best bits edited down and separated out into a handful of tracks. i'd buy both!

Definitely agreed. The ‘Chre historically have been ruthless and fucking great at self-editing and sequencing track lists. Losing that permanently would suck a bit. The live stuff is brilliant and I’m along for the ride there, but elseq and NTS are a really happy middle ground IMO between the hyper programmatic classic albums and the more relentlessly immersive live sets. 

Sometimes you just want to skip directly  to the Gonk, you know, sean pls etc

  On 10/25/2024 at 5:29 AM, baph said:

Sometimes you just want to skip directly  to the Gonk, you know, sean pls etc

Ya this is the main thing for me. I think the live sets can definitely be as strong of a listening experience as an album and I feel like this next batch is going to be incredible. But I do miss being able to easily queue up a specific track. With sets I feel compelled to play the whole thing each time, so I end up listening to them less, whereas with something like NTS I can either do a long listening session or just pop on the last few tracks of 3 or any other little chunk that I want to obsess over. I know I can skip around and do basically the same thing with the live sets but it always feels kind of wrong, just dropping into a certain timestamp in media res.

This is kind of a problem I have with any one-long-song albums, not just live sets. It always feels like more of a commitment so I don't revisit them as much.

  On 10/25/2024 at 6:24 AM, Boxus said:

Ya this is the main thing for me. I think the live sets can definitely be as strong of a listening experience as an album and I feel like this next batch is going to be incredible. But I do miss being able to easily queue up a specific track. With sets I feel compelled to play the whole thing each time, so I end up listening to them less, whereas with something like NTS I can either do a long listening session or just pop on the last few tracks of 3 or any other little chunk that I want to obsess over. I know I can skip around and do basically the same thing with the live sets but it always feels kind of wrong, just dropping into a certain timestamp in media res.

This is kind of a problem I have with any one-long-song albums, not just live sets. It always feels like more of a commitment so I don't revisit them as much.

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Yeah, this.

And another thing is that the type of tracks they do in a live set might differ from the stuff they put on a release. I always got the impression that the setting influences the tunes they put out there.

I believe they mentioned in a bunch of earlier interviews that the environment is an important part of the experience. And I’m guessing their minds are very much not into home listening mode right now. For whatever reason. 

And I must say that I really don’t care about whether an album is a “studio album”. Or whether or not a bunch of people were present when they recorded some track for an album. Or whether it was made on a laptop, or some studio setup. But to me his rationalizations were the least important part of that quote. Or worse, to me thats just silly semantical nitpickings for the chin stroking keyboard warriors. 

Don't take what I'm about to say as expert opinion by any means. But I got the feeling that Ae's divergence from traditional studio albums has been a thing for the past decade now, ever since the first official AE_LIVE sets. Perhaps the point Sean is trying to drive home is that studio albums are merely arbitrary formats, and are therefore irrelevant to the experience of music itself.

Then again, who came up with the idea of albums in the first place? Because it seems like the concept of the album didn't come into existence until the middle of last century. I mean, we look at classical, folk, tribal, whatever...were albums even a thing, then?

But I'm probably getting too broad/abstract with this. It's been kinda nice delving back into NTS Sessions lately.

  On 10/25/2024 at 8:02 AM, ambermonk said:

Then again, who came up with the idea of albums in the first place? Because it seems like the concept of the album didn't come into existence until the middle of last century. I mean, we look at classical, folk, tribal, whatever...were albums even a thing, then?

Well, the modern album was kind of evolution of music formats. Early 20th century albums were originally like books with sleeves where you would put 78 rpm records because each record could not hold that much music. That's why it's called an "album" because it was like a photo album. This was mainly for classical music first, but the record companies started to also release popular music like this. The modern album was born with the advent of Long Play format and 12" 45 rpm records in 1948. After that the album format became popular since it could fit into one record instead of a book of records. 

The word 'studio' is carrying a lot here. Who cares where or how its made. It's the length and conciseness that makes it palatable to me personally. Like books. It's nice to have a concept and plot that begins and ends. Albums are just collections of tracks. It's a bit of a shame to me that a nice 10-20 track experience doesn't come out every 2-5 years. The live sets are something different. Not worse just a different thing. I love that Aphex and Squarepusher release albums or eps. 

  On 10/25/2024 at 6:24 AM, Boxus said:

I know I can skip around and do basically the same thing with the live sets but it always feels kind of wrong, just dropping into a certain timestamp in media res.

I understand because I also like to sometimes just play selected tracks from albums but this was basically how albums worked before CDs. You needed to drop the needle to a correct place or wind the cassette. Ah, the frustration of winding and rewinding a cassette to find the one song I wanted to hear.  Sometimes you forget how convenient the modern tools to play music are.

Edit: Oh yeah, I also remember my father berating me for using the rewind button on my Walkman too much because it ate up the batteries faster when I was constantly rewinding.

yeahhh the live stuff is wicked but honestly, i haven't listened to every set, i probably never will, and i rarely revisit the live stuff anyway. 95% of the time, if i wanna listen to ze techre, i'll stick on an album/EP. 

the album format, in my eyes, is still the optimal vehicle for music delivery. it warrants curation and consideration from the artist, and is ultimately more digestible for the listener.

potential hot take (and sorry sean) but the reluctance to curate albums probably just boils down to laziness. of course the music is basically the same, but it's the editing and sequencing that truly makes it.

I think it’s pity.
If their albums, studio or not (done in the train, in toilets… I don’t care) are to me like a double shot espresso, their lives (which are pretty much similar to the infamous DAW jam sessions shared in YT) with their lengthy tracks lacking much musical content are like coffee Americano - some coffee and plenty of water. Some people love Americano, so that’d be fine, but if you are an espresso lover, that won’t be tasty for you.

An album requires some feeling, vision, concept, so if they don’t have it anymore (for the moment, or for ever), no one can blame them. 

This is what they are now, we like it or not.

 I will still be going to their concerts, but I won’t be paying for all live sets’ soundboards with little difference in between. I think it’d be more wise to invest my money in smaller artists who have put much more effort in their albums.

  On 10/25/2024 at 9:34 AM, Kennylogg Bubblebath said:

yeahhh the live stuff is wicked but honestly, i haven't listened to every set, i probably never will, and i rarely revisit the live stuff anyway. 95% of the time, if i wanna listen to ze techre, i'll stick on an album/EP. 

the album format, in my eyes, is still the optimal vehicle for music delivery. it warrants curation and consideration from the artist, and is ultimately more digestible for the listener.

potential hot take (and sorry sean) but the reluctance to curate albums probably just boils down to laziness. of course the music is basically the same, but it's the editing and sequencing that truly makes it.

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honestly agree

not that I think it’s lazyness that stops them from releasing albums, but yeah

I've a bit of a yearning to do a LIVE track-split over the xmas hodidays as admittedly it is a bit tricky to go back to the full sets

Thinking I'll do two versions per era. It's a lots of work! I did this for the first AE_LIVE ones giving them track-names based on the many different inuit words for snow.. it seemed apt!

This time.. i might use anagrams of the location or something... all for my own amusement

I have been to a lot of these live acts and listening to them again in a very good quality gives me a lot. I don't need these ancient LPs that just collect dust. Also I rather have 10-20 of these live acts then just one release every 4 years. 

I would care if they even made some more ambient ones like they already did but I am very fine with how it is already I really look forward to this huge batch that's on the horizon. Nothing an LP could give me.