Did Boards of Canada invent the Hauntology genre?

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:07 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:06 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:02 PM, sweepstakes said:

I would also argue that super-specific genre names like this (or vaporwave or PC music) are destructive to innovation. They encourage both listeners and (to some degree, maybe subconsciously) music-makers to think that all current music fits in these neat little folders.

 

There's always a wave of blowback - starting first with numerous copy-cats and then a identity crisis among those who actually pioneered the genres/scenes

 

Yes, which is stupid. It's sad that these artificial cultural pressures can be enough to dissuade people from pursuing some potentially interesting sounds and ideas.

 

It retrospect I think this can be applied to dubstep. As it dissolved with the emergence of brostep's popularity all of the innovative producers (well most anyway) went on to new styles and experimentation instead of sticking with the sparse "drop" oriented 12"s

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:14 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:07 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:06 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:02 PM, sweepstakes said:

I would also argue that super-specific genre names like this (or vaporwave or PC music) are destructive to innovation. They encourage both listeners and (to some degree, maybe subconsciously) music-makers to think that all current music fits in these neat little folders.

 

There's always a wave of blowback - starting first with numerous copy-cats and then a identity crisis among those who actually pioneered the genres/scenes

 

Yes, which is stupid. It's sad that these artificial cultural pressures can be enough to dissuade people from pursuing some potentially interesting sounds and ideas.

 

 

It retrospect I think this can be applied to dubstep. As it dissolved with the emergence of brostep's popularity all of the innovative producers (well most anyway) went on to new styles and experimentation instead of sticking with the sparse "drop" oriented 12"s

 

Abso-friggin'-lutely. And that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. I thought that sparseness was really nice - the last really good example of this I can think of was Autechre's "Skeng" remix. Fucking juicy but it does not sound like 2010, more like OG dubstep taken to the extreme, with subtle flecks of future horror for good measure.

  On 12/12/2014 at 1:02 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

like Mick Harris/Scorn's influence on dubstep it's never mentioned by anyone

Also I know you bring up Scorn a lot in this context and I don't disagree but I think Jack Dangers deserves about as much credit. "Radio Babylon" and the most of Subliminal Sandwich sound a hell of a lot like the "dub" that was in "dubstep" until the bros stabbed it to death.

For sure.

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:23 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 12/12/2014 at 1:02 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

like Mick Harris/Scorn's influence on dubstep it's never mentioned by anyone

Also I know you bring up Scorn a lot in this context and I don't disagree but I think Jack Dangers deserves about as much credit. "Radio Babylon" and the most of Subliminal Sandwich sound a hell of a lot like the "dub" that was in "dubstep" until the bros stabbed it to death.

 

It's very overlooked.

I dunno, is it because of it's industrial/extreme music origins? Like, people who know Scorn are the same who would also point out, say, grime and all this distroid and distorted techno coming out lately is akin to industrial techno and illbient from the 90s. There's a bubble that seems to have very little communication/interaction with later scenes (or parallel genres).

Besides a handful of producers, like Kevin Martin (The Bug, Techno Animal) for example, I don't think many dubstep producers were actively drawing on the influence of Mick Harris. It came out of 2-step/garage and beyond I've mostly read of guys like Mala and Burial citing d'n'b as an influence. All of the brostep stuff was spurred from Coki, Caspa, Rusko, and to a lesser extent Vex'd and Milanese...(though those guys seem more recognized by breakcore and IDM fans than brostep producers.) In fact, a lot of brostep fans seem to comes from d'n'b and glitch rave scenes as a lot of brostep producers came from that community - Datsik, Flux Pavillion, Doctor P, Excision, Zedd, etc. I have a co-worker who seems to completely associates "dubstep" with that stuff. I'd say most fans in the U.S. are that way.

Add to the fact that so many aspiring "producers" would literally seek out what VSTs and presets brostep producers use doesn't help. People who want to experiment and want to know more about past music aren't the most vocal or prevalent on the internet.

well we can all slag off genre's, and I understand that wavelength of being anti towards pigeon-holing the great horizons of sonic sounds.

having said that, how the fuck are we supposed to know which style of music the conversation is about unless we have genre's? how else will we communicate to each other? So instead of IDM we have, Bloke Plinking And Plonking On Electronic Machines In His Underpants.

I know what you mean, but do you know what I mean? That is the question.

Oh no, they're making up music sub genres again.

*wags finger*

Yeah I'm more interested in individuals and their tunes than what I should google to find wannabes.

anyone mentioned the caretaker?

actually, i remember there was a bit in the wire article that coined the term regarding mr. kirby.

as well there should be.

Hauntology sounds more gay than Rock Hudson.

who you gonna call?

let's recap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM6blNm3QCM

whenever i'm asked to describe hauntology, there are always a few things i mention.

areas of mathematics that haven't progressed since the 1970s, so the open university documentaries with dudes with beards and flares are still valid.

early 80s PIFs on how to survive nuclear war or avoid being killed by thin ice.

BBC radiophonic workshop and library recordings.

past imaginings of the future (see this, featuring a very understated brian blessed:

of course, the wickerman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UOtscTCJBk

HP Lovecraft
Arthur Machen (even more than Lovecraft. He's more English)

Groups like Silver Apples

The United States of America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE1DDR-oATM

and The White Noise (a Derbyshire project)

I don't know if I would lump in Silver Apples

they're certainly borderline.

let's do this lot instead

damn, i miss trish.

also this:

  On 12/13/2014 at 6:11 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 12/12/2014 at 10:45 AM, jasondonervan said:

 

I feel there's a psychedelic influence on hauntology stuff. It's as though drugs bring up memories from the past that are somehow distorted and skewed through some sort of longing or nostalgia - which gives them that faded-memory-ghostly sort of vibe. I think BoC are responsible for making popular this sub-genre of hypnagogic electronica - because they were the first to make it truly accessible. They said themselves they're into Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band etc, some of those old English folk bands sound creepy as fuck, probably because they used more than just standard major/minor musical scale, which makes a big difference.

I was thinking the other day though, the Beatles did it ages ago with Sgt Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour, the whole victorian brass band brought back through LSD induced memories. I'm a sucker for anything like this, Ariel Pink, Bibio, OPN etc.

Check out Delroy Edwards too:

I also meant to say - there's an element of paranoia to hauntology, also drug-related. But it taps into the whole feeling of paranoia from the 70s/early 80s about nuclear war etc. Some of the TV dramas and films from this time reflect this - like Day Of The Triffids, Threads etc

70s paranoia was strange to say the least, brought on by Vietnam & Watergate. These 3 movies seem to share the theme of being hermetically sealed away from the world, to avoid disease? Nuclear war? I'm not sure

Logan's Run

THX 1138

Silent Running

  On 12/15/2014 at 11:05 PM, Rubin Farr said:

70s paranoia was strange to say the least, brought on by Vietnam & Watergate. These 3 movies seem to share the theme of being hermetically sealed away from the world, to avoid disease? Nuclear war? I'm not sure

 

Logan's Run

THX 1138

Silent Running

See also

Strange that we were so germaphobic, before we even discovered HIV

  On 12/15/2014 at 11:05 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Logan's Run

THX 1138

 

The funny thing about these films and some other dystopian films from that era (Westworld and Futureworld, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Clockwork Orange) is how heavy they drew from existing buildings and architecture as sets, often with little if any changes. Especially Logan's Run, I remember as a kid a lot of Fort Worth and Dallas looked like that in the early 90s. It's been augmented or replaced now with new construction.

i have never used the term once in my entire life. the number of people who could even begin to level a definition of it is less than you'd think. i'd say, maybe a couple thousand people in the entire world...

genre names are like some tone deaf autist screaming inside a clear, sound proof booth, holding up a sign with the genre written on it. if you are a musician, they won't bother you as long as you use the sense you are supposed to.