Soulseeking: Nick Southall's overdose

I'm glad Fastnbulbous doesn't know the history of this board (hell I barely know it) therefore he can go off a little bit easier that way plus I always like the long threads.

I tried not to make my criticism come off as personal, because it isn't. I'd hate to have what I write misconstrued as anything like the above, which is just really fucking infantile.

There's quite a few threads where people get emo about old albums, Fastnbulbous, to be honest though one person's story of fevered anticipation is going to be much the same as another's.

Who says the albums have to be old? A lot of people sent me stories when I first posted that, and they weren't the same at all.

So do you actually enjoy jazz, Nick, or just made it listenable for yourself?

But ignore me, I haven't listened to anything but Beatles < 1963 for days now...

You know, I don't know. I think so.

You know, I don't know. I think so.

That sounds very sad, but I've been there. Well, not there exactly, more like going back and forth between periods of love and burnout/boredom.

as has been pointed out here before, it's no coincidence that nick was about 18 when "in sides" came out.

Dom, it is my job, and it's actually pretty easy to compartmentalize if you get aggressive about it: review stuff as though it were actually crossing a physical work-office desk (if you don't actually have an in-office Actual Like In The Movies desk), write about what you're assigned, beg off pleasure-listening for a while. Kinda weird at first but then pretty easy & worth doing.

Well my suggestion wasn't necessarily to drop out of society for months or years and take up yak herding. I'm thinking more like taking a few days or a week off when needed. The proposed Dr. Fester's Retreat for Aesthetes would only take 2-5 days. Any takers?

Also, Nick, your article, which was enjoyable, sparked my response to all the critics throughout history who have failed us via burnout. Sorry to unload all that on you!

Those special records are better served by spending several months with them - then writing about them. Like if I reviewed my favorite records of the year so far within a week of first listen, I wouldn't have done them justice.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - s/T
Orange Juice - Whatever The Fuck Their Album's Called
Girls Aloud - I Haven't Heard A Note From This Band

Be voracious, but be a human being sometimes

maybe he should learn self-control huh

ps only a stylus faggot would download girls allowed

I wrote for Grooves for the last eighteen months or so but I've stopped now. I've done some PR work for a few bands that I know. Stylus doens't pay at the moment. I've made money off record labels and PR people but that's it.

Go jerk off Rambo-style to your limited Beefheart album.

riight.

what

i really appreciate mr. reynolds' abilities as a writer and a critic of music. generation ecstasy was invaluable as a resource for mining the history of electronic music. i have yet to read his work on post-punk, but i'm sure it's fine reading. i think he is even responsible for spawning a crop of music critics with very similar style of expression, specifically the use of "all" as a sort of hyper-simile to describe the otherwise indescribable, ie "air liquide's 'tanz der lemminge 2' is all swirling vortices of nihilistic pixie dust pulsating with the very embodiment of all that is ethereal and effusive."

it's just that, right around the era of big beat, mr. reynolds really "jumped the shark". he seemed to embrace every emerging trend in electronic music with little critical regard. perhaps it was due to regret at having held off on the rave initially, or the much-commented on effects of the ecstasy he was using (no real basis for this claim, just a conjecture). anyway, i don't think that many people these days think that big-beat, speed garage, or 2-step were really genres with any lasting value...and i have to wonder about what mr. reynolds considers "pretty-good-to-almost-excellent" these days.

in my experience, there is a lot of great music available in the wide world of web, but most of what i'm digging for was released in the past. of course, musical history dictates that there is an immensity of incredible work from the past 30 years. music these days seems to be going through a bit of a fallow period. it's a bit like politics in that periods of rapid progress are generally followed by conservative times when all of the new ideas become assimilated into mainstream thought. of course while the mainstream is absorbed with ideas it considers new, but which have actually been gestating for quite a while, more radical approaches and paradigms are being conceived in the fringe realms. so while most music today is highly mediocre, the best stuff coming out is astonishing.

in answer to your question in para 2: currently grime, but he's going off it (ironically since on the evidence of the lethal bizzle album and the run the road 2 comp, it seems to be entering its post-punk phase).

what

I just love real men.

aside from the fact that I think all of those are great, and that I'm hardly alone in this, what "many people think" doesn't necessarily equal fact. also, liking three genres that bubbled around the same time doesn't necessarily equal liking everything indiscriminately--in the book Simon was pretty hard on a lot of stuff from the same era (IDM, trance, illbient-etc.).

i have to wonder about what mr. reynolds considers "pretty-good-to-almost-excellent" these days.

I read him saying this less like "hey, things are great!" than a "it's gotten so easy to make something 'good' that it's getting harder to pick out what's great," good-in-quotes meaning skillful and hitting the right buttons without necessarily going the extra mile. there are loads of "good" house records, but how many are exceptional? that's the core of his complaint about e.g. 2 Many DJ's--sure, it's a lot of fun, they do their thing really well, it's clever and smart and it can rock a party, but when that's all it is that skill feels sort of empty. that's something that's been consistent in his writing since the beginning.

Nathalie is my nu-god (again).

When's someone going to release the Saqqara Dogs stuff on CD?

well, I don't really want to give up pleasure listening. I felt that I did it for years, and would rather beg off listening to stuff in which I have no emotional interest. (tho do agree that you have to review stuff as if it were a "work assignment" in order to get things done)

i wish

Cabaret Voltaire? I was thinking more of the isthmus between Earthling and early Butthole Surfers.

Yes! Someone else wrote me about Hosono directly, and I'll post an expanded response here -- Funny that you mention Hosono -- I looked up where I first read about the albums, and it was issue 162 of The Wire from 1997, by Clive Bell. Good thing I'm a pack rat -- I still have that issue! It's sitting open on my couch as I speak (I'm at work right now though, so I haven't finished rereading it). If I can't find a digital version of it, I might write my own soon. It only took me 8 years to track the damn albums down! I remember thinking it sounded a lot like Discover America era Van Dyke Parks. And as I skimmed the beginning of the article, Hosono mentions how Parks produced one of the albums of his early 70s psychedelic band Happy End.

The albums are:

Tropical Dandy 1975
Bon Voyage Co. 1976
Paraiso 1978

The last one features the awesome cover of "Fujiyama Mama," and was credited to Haruomi Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band, a Beefheart reference. This evolved into the Yellow Magic Orchestra, which I recommend to anyone who would care to hear a whimsical Japanese Kraftwerk. When the mood strikes I'll dig for some of that Happy End. That's what slsk was originally meant for -- sharing hard to find music.

"Sick 2 Def" reminded me of "Autobio of a Crackhead" as well (logically, as it's the only real precursor) but I don't think it's as good. It doesn't sound as precise in either the rap or gtr playing.

Not checked out the Lethal B but "isthmus between Earthling and early Butthole Surfers" means I'm gonna. Earthling are so underrated, one of the best ever 'always in the quid bin' groups.

If you want to read my long, rambling reaction to the article, go here.

It's the endless chasing of the big new thing that's wearing. You can't discover just as a fan, by following a ball of twine from one artist to another. Everything must be new! Shiny! Digested! It's like being bulimic.

thx to dl-ing, now everyone has access to a wide variety of music -- often for free. this position was once the exclusive preserve of writers (and other music-bizzers who got promo records). so now everyone gets to pick and choose from the vast sea of pop music releases, and can also feel the compulsion to keep up w/currents.

so in a sense, everyone's a potential critic now. whether or not that makes you a writer is a different question.

You see I get the idea that this is the case for a lot of people on ILM, and I just don't understand it at all.

The latter is how I usually listen to music now, which does bother me sometimes.

http://slowlisteningmovement.blogspot.com/2008/12/so-heres-deal.html

an excellent idea!

cool!

been de facto doing this for a couple years now

Yeah, I've been following Matos on that closely this year.

I think it's great stuff. I'm comfortable with my random overload way but it's nice to see this as a contrast.

Hey Nick, what do you think of your initial Soulseeking installment almost 5 years later? How has your perspective changed, if at all?

Hmmmm. Interesting question; it's not something I've really though about, to be honest, because there's been such radical change in my listening habits between then and now. I don't write anymore, for a start, and so have no impetus to keep abreast of new releases particularly.

The process from Soulseeking to Imperfect Sound Forever and then through to Stylus closing and my 'retirement' was really one of... refining my habits and the strategies I use to find new music. I've not used any kind of peer-to-peer network at all in 5 years. I bought a house and lost a big chunk of disposable income that would otherwise have gone on CDs, and I became pretty much just a casual fan again.

And I love it; these days I download stuff via a couple of avenues, close-nit networks of contacts who share interesting new stuff they're excited about, but I'm very discerning with what I download; I only get stuff I'm pretty sure I'll then go on and buy later anyway. It's very rare for me to not buy something on CD that I've downloaded and liked; this year I've not bought Hot Chip or Shearwater on CD, but if I saw Hot Chip for a fiver I probably would. I had no problem shelling out £10 on Pantha Du Prince or £12 on The Knife. I didn't mind only getting into Lindstrom this January instead of a couple of years ago; I've bought 3 albums by him since the turn of the year.

So I guess... I still think too much music and too little contact with it is bad, so I guess my perspective from that POV hasn't really changed. But obviously my entire position has; I've also just got a much better, much busier job, which I'm sure will change things by stopping me grabbing recommendations from here so much, for example, but it will also give me a bit more disposable income. Also my new boss is as much of a music geek as I am; he got the Four Tet album on vinyl and The Knife album on CD this week (he used to be the music editor at Big Issue Manchester), and I can see us geeking out about stuff together, which is cool, and will probably enthuse me about a load of stuff I might not have got interested in otherwise.

I still keep all the CDs we buy in any given new year in a separate pile, so I know to remember to listen to new stuff. It's nice to be able to keep visual track of it. This is this year's haul so far;

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4422112380_8977a279a5.jpgp

If I was still writing would it be bigger? Probably. Would I feel as happy with the pile as I do with this? Probably not.

Weird; that picture doesn't seem to be working. Here it is; http://www.flickr.com/photos/njsouthall/4422112380/

Four Tet
Polar Bear
Pantha du Prince
Spoon
??? (looks like Growing?)
Lindstrom and Christabelle
The Knife
Massive Attack
??? (no idea)
Delphic
Joanna Newsom

Just saw Owen Pallett in the picture tags, nevermind.

Still don't know what's on top of Delphic.

I've been doing the 'Matos Method' for about 5 years now; first for financial reasons, now for sanity reasons.

Fyfe Dangerfield.