Kirk Degiorgio - Worthless or Worse Than Worthless?

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I haven't heard his music or a DJ sets, but everything I've ever read seems to indicate that this smug fucker makes pretty bad music, has pretty dull DJ sets, and that his blatant white-boy hero worship of African-American jazz/funk/house luminaries is cringe inducing at best and nauseating at worst. He's not that well known here so I'm hoping for some UK insight on why in God's name this guy is famous when he sounds so clearly vomastic (that word sounds so great, thanks)?!?

― Alex in SF, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Explain.

― Alex in SF, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh come on, a few Fender Rhodes never killed anybody. I think a few people got carried away with Simon Reynolds' class theories, conveniently forgetting that working-class people ALWAYS listen to the 'nicest-sounding'/'anodyne' (depending on taste) stuff

― dave q, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so dave, the middle classes were going to raves, the middle classes are into uk garage, while the proletariat sip lattes in ladbroke grove?

― gareth, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gareth - I know what you're getting at, but I seriously think that the Reynolds-inspired class-consciousness DanceExplained4You has been swallowed uncritically and endlessly regurgitated - whereas, IME, the main consumers of 'jazzstep' are working-class people who have gotten to the age of 22 or however is too old to go to gabba raves anymore and usually have kids by this point and just want something nice to go with the barbeque. Actually, doesn't anyone else wonder what happens to the 24-hr Party People a few years on?

― dave q, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm interested in how much exactly Alex has read. i mean there was that Invisible Jukebox in the Wire, possibly an interview in Straight No Chaser or similar, but what else? he seems an odd choice to have a go at, since he's relatively unknown in the UK too

― michael, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Plus - I hate to pick on Reynolds and he's great and everything but I thought that 'Unfaves' comment re "What black musicians could possibly be influenced by Jamiroquai" was more than a little mysterious, especially in light of that Phil Collins tribute that came out sometime ago

― dave q, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Invisible Jukebox, random record reviews here or there, mentioned in Energy Flash as Dave Q no doubt noted, his own website.

I was re-reading some Wires recently and happened upon the Juke thing- y and was just shocked by his whole tone. I never gave much credence to Reynolds thing as I'm no big fan of his either (although Kirk's quote about Techno from Energy Flash was pretty silly) but it certainly didn't make for a positive impression.

― Alex in SF, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Jukebox= I looked at his comments on TG track. Saw the predictable and dull ''This is so grim''. I smiled and didn't read the rest of it (since anybody that says that abt TG cannot be taken seriously).

― Julio Desouza, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yes dave, to an extent this is true, rhodescore is often consumed by those who have 'grown out' of rave culture (4 hero types typifying here), but people like dego and mac are steeped in rave culture, while degiorgio has always looked down on contemporary uk street culture (always the mark of the paternalist curator mentality)

my fave degiorgio comment is the one in the invisible jukebox where he talks about 4 hero and says something like "at that point i realised there was more to these guys than just a rave thing", this was well after all those fantastic manix 12s. subtext: *thats when they conformed to what MY idea of black culture should be*. how out of touch can one man be? also. agreed about the vision of dance music being proletarianized by reynoldsians, in my experience it has been an across the boards phenomenon, not purely working class at all.

― gareth, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I guess he did sound arse-holick (heh) in that JukeBox interview. But damn he does have good taste. (Yeah yeah yeah I know it's all RELATIVE and one can ALWAYS find HOLES or errors or whatEVAH. And maybe it's cause I like sort of the same things as he does.) I never REALLY try to RATE someone's taste. I rather discover what they already found that I could like as well. Does that make sense? Probably not.

― nathalie, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

He's probably my least favorite Ipswich musician, besides maybe Cradle of Filth.

― Chewshabadoo, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I the only one who finds it entertaining that this thread has almost nothing to do with the man's music? Nice, second hand social theory, but can you name any of his records?

you probably do not realize that the man is quite responsible for IDM. Search Applied Rhythm Technolgies and Op-ART records. He was the main guy behind one of the most important UK IDM labels. The As One material was quite striking in it's day.

Also check the Soul Of Science comps on Obsessive that he compiled. good stuff.

I also have it on quite good authority that he is actually a decent fellow. A pal of mine who used to work over at Planet E could not stop raving about what a nice fellow he was. He actually gets a fair amount of respect in Detroit.

again, it is interesting that this guy gets completely slammed without any knowledge of his work. His remix for Sandor Caron on Delsin was nice btw.

― mt, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

you probably do not realize that the man is quite responsible for IDM.

I have no doubt he would love to think just that.

it is interesting that this guy gets completely slammed without any knowledge of his work

Who cares about the music? We're in it for the rhetoric -- and by all accounts, he stretches for results more than Plastic-Man.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned,

Look at the ART records discography, it speaks for itself.

― mt, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah I'm with Michael on this one. Not to turn this one in another thread on Reynolds but he does have a way with dismissing artists because they once said something bad about a jungle record he rates on Invisible Jukebox (really who cares?). Unless of course it's Liam from The Prodigy talking bollocks about everyone, but that's okay, he's from Essex innit? Authentic voice of da streets and all. But then I've never met a reynoldsian who actually agrees with his class theories.

Anyway I've heard some As One stuff, not exactly my cup of tea but it's pleasant enough. Light techno for sunny days, nothing to get worked up about.

― Omar, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeh, but the fact we are talking about kirks dodgy paternalistic views rather than his music doesn't say a lot for his music does it.

ok, his music then. As One is dull anodyne 'soulless' (ha! who'd have thought???) tedium, i heard some other stuff on peterson once and that was just tasteful and drab.

― gareth, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

btw, kirk is an own name googler, so he should turn up eventually, maybe he'll clarify his views

― gareth, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That sounds exciting!

Kirk: "I agree with mt. I am not a prat and I invented IDM!"

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, he'll read that and engage in a long disquisition about how his image really is nice and all, and why can't you kids today understand that Herbie Hancock means more to techno than George Clinton and...

[This comment in turn will really provoke him to offer up *another* kind of response, and...]

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Look at the ART records discography, it speaks for itself.

By that logic, both Nuno Cannavaro and Coil also invented IDM.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Kirk DeG is on a synthesiser yahoo mail list I'm s*bbed to, and some posts turned up in my mailbox from him at the same time this thread got started. I have no Idea who he is, so Alex could be completely right, or completely wrong. I was tempted to email him thee URL, saying "DEFEND YERSELF KIRK", but no, he can find it himself I'm sure
blah bah blah etc etc

― Nxxxxx PHxx, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Coil also invented IDM.

but ned this is partly TRUE!

― jess, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, I'm not saying it isn't. But will Mr. Degiorgio agree? ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

His Soul Of Science compilation CDs are pleasant, if a bit underwhelwing though. I liked the way he quietly slipped one of his tracks onto the first in the series hoping no-one would notice I'd wager..

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

just out of curiousity, when did I claim he invented IDM?

You have already made you minds up, I am not going to change that. ART records was an important label, as important as GPR and Warp back in the day. If he did nothing else in his life, he deserves props for being the first to release Blue Calx. It doesn't get too much more UK IDM than release RDJ records.

― mt, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"you probably do not realize that the man is quite responsible for IDM."

I extrapolated a bit. Sorry. ;)

― Alex in SF, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

Re...and that his blatant white-boy hero worship of African-American jazz/funk/house luminaries is cringe inducing at best and nauseating at worst

Kirk de jokeyo - is in the mix on Xfm now - it's awful muzak - 70s soft porn/ detective music.

― DJ Martian, Sunday, 5 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ten years pass...

Kirk Degiorgio ‏@KirkDegiorgio
Wow - times change. I was once the most hated person on ILM forum (even @JDTwitch slagged me off on there once) - now they love me!

Kirk Degiorgio tweet from earlier today. Trying to find the alleged post where I slag him off. I can only imagine it was possibly in reference to comments he made about TG.

― stirmonster, Saturday, 5 January 2013 15:50 (twelve years ago)

Ha ha.. where is the love he's talking about? Is it regarding the new Cassy Britton material? Looking forward to hearing that.. Perhaps more disappointed that there doesn't appear to be any of the Tobias collaboration she was once taking about coming to light.

― mmmm, Saturday, 5 January 2013 16:50 (twelve years ago)

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