It's not the economy, stupid
2 weeks ago
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Of course, this being Irk The Purists, I couldn't leave you hanging with a Take That clip. Check out this recent performance of John Cage's 4'33" from the Barbican. I know that the piece was written to accommodate (and point up) ambient sounds such as rustling, breathing, coughing etc. (though I can't help thinking that some of the coughers during this performance were taking the piss--have they never heard of Halls Soothers?). However, a thought struck me as I watched it. What if the bane of contemporary theatre--the mobile phone--had made its presence felt during the performance? The piece was written some 50 years before the mobile became ubiquitous. Would a Nokia ringtone be accommodated in the aleatory scheme of things? Or would people have tuted and glared at the miscreant?
John Cage At UbuWeb
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3 comments:
don't know how else to say this... but i've been listening to can since 14 (24 now) and i finally made something i think is good enough. and i figured you might dig it.
it's here: http://tago-mago.net/music.htm
remixes of the streets, marvin gaye, mos def, b-52's, cocteau twins, more
hope you like it
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The "Eardrums shall fail" blog said:
"Remixing is raised to art status when you give new life to music, any type of music. To see potential in a boring cut, to push the envelope all the way to different galaxies, to let your mind wander where the original intention left off - all this presumes passion and marquees lighting up over your head as opposed to a mere lightbulb. A writer, most of the time, is a passionate reader first and a remixer of words second. Tago-Mago does that with music. I may not like each and every track but that would be a strange and new feeling anyway. Rarely have I heard a reinvention of music I was, or thought I was, familiar with, in such unexpected ways. His major influence is Can, and the mixes are inspired by a variety of hip hop and electronica artists."
http://eashfa.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/pusherman-tago-mago/
@Mr. Bruno-Sugai,
You are spot on. I do dig it, very much indeed. The B52s mix and the Wu-Tang Clan mix in particular are excellent, and, yes, I can (ahem) detect the influence of Messrs. Czukay, Schmidt, Suzuki, Mooney etc. This is right up my street. Do you have a blog?
Bravo, and thanks for sending.
4'33" is used by some people, I think, to deliberately become players by coughing, just so they can smugly think to themselves "That was me". It's like the crowd of consumptives and tuberculous walruses that make up the audience at major (ie. televised) snooker tournaments.
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