Bvdub - Then

Mr Brock van Wey releases his 8th (!) CD during 2011.

Ready for pre-orders here: http://anay.bigcarte...vdub-then-ay009

Previews aren't tempting me much. I prefer it when he uses really submerged tribal/organic drum sounds or loses the drum tracks altogether. Hearing hats and stuff just ruins the mood for me.

Still getting mileage out of Tribes at the Temple of Silence actually. Last two tracks of that album are perfect. Towers Rise to the Sky might be my favourite drone/noise track ever. Use it for meditation purposes all the time.

HOW MANY RELEASES DOES THIS GUY NEED TO HAVE

he still hasn't made anything half as nice as We Were The Sun.

I bet he will include all his 2011 releases in his best albums of 2011 list on Boomkat like he did last year, lol.

Dude seriously needs to chill. Weird given the kind of music he makes!

  On 11/29/2011 at 7:51 PM, Enter a new display name said:

I bet he will include all his 2011 releases in his best albums of 2011 list on Boomkat like he did last year, lol.

Quoted for truth, unfortunately.

im excited 4 this because i like tribes at the temple of silence a lot and im gonna listen to the previews and report back if im still excited

ok its official i am SCREAMING RIGHT NOW

  On 11/29/2011 at 7:51 PM, Enter a new display name said:

I bet he will include all his 2011 releases in his best albums of 2011 list on Boomkat like he did last year, lol.

fun to make me sound like an egotistical prick, except you failed to mention that the list contained 2 of my own releases, amongst 8 from other people. i see nothing wrong with liking your own music. after all, why would you make it otherwise?

b]

lol u just got TOLD

  On 12/7/2011 at 6:24 AM, bvdub said:

  On 11/29/2011 at 7:51 PM, Enter a new display name said:

I bet he will include all his 2011 releases in his best albums of 2011 list on Boomkat like he did last year, lol.

 

fun to make me sound like an egotistical prick, except you failed to mention that the list contained 2 of my own releases, amongst 8 from other people. i see nothing wrong with liking your own music. after all, why would you make it otherwise?

 

 

 

b]

Good that you're honest about it - I listen to my own music a whole lot too, and I think it's pretty great. However, I think what people find so "egotistical" about including your own work on a "best of" list is that it's really pretty presumptuous to come right out and say it, especially when you're rating work by other artists alongside your own. It's basically as if you're saying "I'm just as good as all these other people I listen to, if not better", which is, in effect, a pretty egotistical statement, any way you look at it.

Personally, I don't include works of my own in "end of year" lists and I try not to include works that labels I am affiliated with have released either (because it's sort of like stating the obvious - we wouldn't release X album if we didn't think it was great, etc etc). In all truth, there's so much good shit floating around to listen to at any given time, I have a hard time even narrowing down my end of year lists anymore, much less trying to slip my own stuff in there.

It's an end of year list (a pretty useless thing in itself really) and it's his own opinion. Not really sure how he can be faulted on it personally. So he enjoys his own work? Raise the alarms!

Props to bvdub. Bvdub is extremly humble.

If you going to my gym and say "well im just training to be decent, its just a hobby to me" then you can train at another gym, but if you say "I think I can be the best in the world, I want to be the champion" then you are welcome to my gym.

Ofcourse bvdub think his albums are one of the best of the year, why would he else make music (its about expressing your inner self)?

Every good artist I listen to think they make the best music in the world.

  On 12/7/2011 at 10:04 AM, Mellow U said:

  On 12/7/2011 at 6:24 AM, bvdub said:

  On 11/29/2011 at 7:51 PM, Enter a new display name said:

I bet he will include all his 2011 releases in his best albums of 2011 list on Boomkat like he did last year, lol.

 

fun to make me sound like an egotistical prick, except you failed to mention that the list contained 2 of my own releases, amongst 8 from other people. i see nothing wrong with liking your own music. after all, why would you make it otherwise?

 

 

 

b]

 

Good that you're honest about it - I listen to my own music a whole lot too, and I think it's pretty great. However, I think what people find so "egotistical" about including your own work on a "best of" list is that it's really pretty presumptuous to come right out and say it, especially when you're rating work by other artists alongside your own. It's basically as if you're saying "I'm just as good as all these other people I listen to, if not better", which is, in effect, a pretty egotistical statement, any way you look at it.

I gotta agree with Bv, and disagree with the statement directly above. I think it would be presumptuous in certain contexts to big up yourself (say, in a personal blog or magazine article), but Boomkat is a music store. Clearly there's a self-promotional aspect to providing a list to a website that a ton of music buyers see, and in that context I actually appreciate that there's a few links in the list to the artist's own work, so I can see what they themselves released that year.

In fact what bothers me far more than that is the opposite (sort of), when the artist lists on Boomkat contain items that are NOT FOR SALE. Cool, so you got some white label that you love that I am never going to be able to own. How does that help me as someone browsing Boomkat?

  On 12/7/2011 at 6:43 PM, Ascdi said:

 

In fact what bothers me far more than that is the opposite (sort of), when the artist lists on Boomkat contain items that are NOT FOR SALE. Cool, so you got some white label that you love that I am never going to be able to own. How does that help me as someone browsing Boomkat?

I know what you're saying but I think it would be horrible if they limited people to choosing stuff that was for sale on Boomkat. I prefer see it as an interesting look at what people are digging, rather than some kind of glorified advertising exercise for Boomkat. Am I being naive? Probably!

I think my main point was largely missed, actually. I was implying that most artists I know, myself included, do not think we make the best music in the world. I love what I do, and I will continue to listen to it and enjoy it as I make it, however I don't think I'll ever sit down with something I made and say "This is better than everything I've ever heard". How is that kind of thinking humble?

Beyond all that, settling into the notion that your work is already superior breeds complacency, and then your work will stagnate. Discontent and dissatisfaction with oneself spurs healthy change, growth, movement forward. I.e. something I made back in 2005 is far from what I'd consider an ideal work now. It doesn't represent me wholly as a musician in either technical or aesthetic terms. Maybe Brock isn't that kind of musician, and that's fine. It takes all kinds. For my hard work and energy though, I guess I'm not ever completely satisfied with something...so that's why I continue to make more. I don't ever want to reach some kind of artistic plateau.

/rant

Oh and to directly follow up to Archrival's statement about the two polar opposites of "my music is just a hobby" versus "I want to win the Olympics with my music" - the creative world is nowhere near that black and white. I actually make a living with my work, and have since about 2007, but I don't have any grandiose visions about seeing it critically acclaimed or ranked with top honors on any lists. In fact I could care less about that side of music, but that doesn't reduce what I do to a hobby.

I rather listen to a artist with grandiose visions like "this could be my last album, I want it to make it as great as I can and I want to say something important and make a statement" then someone who make music just for fun (to make a living out it doesnt come into play, just your ambition level, belief and focus).

Its all about sacrifice really.

  On 12/7/2011 at 7:36 PM, Lucy Faringold said:

  On 12/7/2011 at 6:43 PM, Ascdi said:

In fact what bothers me far more than that is the opposite (sort of), when the artist lists on Boomkat contain items that are NOT FOR SALE. Cool, so you got some white label that you love that I am never going to be able to own. How does that help me as someone browsing Boomkat?

 

I know what you're saying but I think it would be horrible if they limited people to choosing stuff that was for sale on Boomkat. I prefer see it as an interesting look at what people are digging, rather than some kind of glorified advertising exercise for Boomkat. Am I being naive? Probably!

No, I agree with what you're saying. I'm sure they've thought about that too, and that's probably why we've ended up with what we have now, where the lists are half-and-half mixtures of real music crit and also clearly oriented toward selling you the music as well.

Personally, I love Boomkat's style. They have a flashy website that is fun to use and even fun to read sometimes, and yet they are also clearly a store. But at the same time they're not bullshitting you with their blurbs—they're informative as well as obviously trying to sell you something. I think it's a lot harder to strike that balance than most people think. They have a good editorial voice in that respect.

I dunno, it's just the Boomkat charts. I always read artists including their own work in there as a bit of a cheeky thing anyway. Why so serious about charts anyway?

  On 12/8/2011 at 9:28 AM, Archrival said:

I rather listen to a artist with grandiose visions like "this could be my last album, I want it to make it as great as I can and I want to say something important and make a statement" then someone who make music just for fun (to make a living out it doesnt come into play, just your ambition level, belief and focus).

 

Its all about sacrifice really.

Ehh, I see what you're saying, sort of. I also think you're generalizing when it comes to who makes what kind of albums and why. Some records, I will spend 3 years working on, and I consider them apexes of my sound...others, I have and still can complete in a week or so, more as experiments and things like that. I don't think every stroke of every painting an artist makes has to make some kind of "statement" about anything. In fact, I'd most often like to leave the statement that forms from such a thing up to the listener.

Please, however, expand on your closing comment about "sacrifice" - in what way do you mean that? Do you think a musician who makes a living with his work "sacrifices" more or less? Also, what exactly is being sacrificed? Quality? Time? Money? Creative energy?

"Some records, I will spend 3 years working on, and I consider them apexes of my sound" would love to hear those, I liked the record/records you released on attacknine...

What I mean is the kind of mentality you have when you make the record, its not the time spent...I mean Burial spent 2 weeks making Untrue and it feels like he had the ambition, belief and focus to make a classic in manys peoples books. Its the state of mind really. I find it really beautiful when people put a lot of emotions into a album wich I see as a sort of sacrifice. What you give away as a sacrifice is a part of you that really mean something and you can feel that when you hear a great record.

I also find it beautiful when a monk translate holy scriptures for ages in a cave and becomes blind in that process...its always that you get back what you put in (not money, not fame but something else).

  On 12/8/2011 at 10:48 PM, Archrival said:

"Some records, I will spend 3 years working on, and I consider them apexes of my sound" would love to hear those, I liked the record/records you released on attacknine...

 

What I mean is the kind of mentality you have when you make the record, its not the time spent...I mean Burial spent 2 weeks making Untrue and it feels like he had the ambition, belief and focus to make a classic in manys peoples books. Its the state of mind really. I find it really beautiful when people put a lot of emotions into a album wich I see as a sort of sacrifice. What you give away as a sacrifice is a part of you that really mean something and you can feel that when you hear a great record.

 

I also find it beautiful when a monk translate holy scriptures for ages in a cave and becomes blind in that process...its always that you get back what you put in (not money, not fame but something else).

See that makes more sense, and for the most part I agree. I guess I feel like the odd man out though because I make so much music, that so many things are more conditional/contextual rather than big thought out processes with some grandiose end result.

That said, I know Bvdub has become pretty prolific too so I'm curious what his personal take on this outlook would be...i.e. does he sit down for each album and try to wrench out the deep dark emotions he seems to reflect in his titles and themes, or does the music happen more naturally, more as a compulsion rather than composition? My process throughout the years has certainly sided more with the latter, although with respect to the former I do spend a lot of time shaping a concept and a general arc I'd like an album to take well before rolling tape on the idea, which I guess in the end counts as composition too. Fuck, it's all so damn complicated.

Anyway interesting that you mentioned my A9 releases - the next record I have coming out with them is a record I spent years working on. If you liked the previous records you'll love this one. Also, for other examples of records I spent years finishing:

Coppice Halifax - Pawleys Island

Brian Grainger - Nine Billion Names

Milieu - Swaying Palms

(Apologies for the slight thread hijack - you asked!)