We sit sprawled within the nebula-grey walls of our collective zine. Drifting amongst the vast bodies that exert their eternal pull on our fragile mass. Directionless and infinite; endless inquiry is expended on our destination, but we simply do not know; mere amateurs that we are at this low-budget journey. All we can do is gaze at the sights.
The industrious and prolific Oneohtrix Point Never returns to these shores with (appropriately enough) Returnal, his latest album that came out last week on Editions Mego. Pretty much all of it’s been covered on other blogs but thankfully the album’s so chock full of gems that we could find one track that hasn’t hit the Hype Machine just yet.
Daniel Lopatin’s vast analogue electronics slide once more into life amidst the vast expanse of silence that exists for a moment at the start of Where Does Time Go, their bubbling, oscillating waves lapping at the air. If this was meant as a meditation on the irrepressibility of time, on the ability to lose yourself in something beautiful only to find weeks have passed – it’s fairly successful. The looping oscillations never retreat, instead providing a lattice with which to thread the washes of melody that fade in and out – their purpose glimpsed only through a veil, obscured and fleeting.
Oneohtrix Point Never – Where Does time Go
We love it when people name things after things they love. The URL of this site being the prime example of us living by that maxim. Someone calling themselves No UFO’s could only go one of two ways. Thankfully for all involved the first thing we received from them was the Soft Coast album. It’s not techno but I’m sure Mr Atkins would approve – moving, as it does, between some of the founding blocks of techno: the early electronic throb of Chris & Cosey, the steamy fizz of electro (here slowed with one thumb on the tape), hell, there’s even one track called Cajmere Dreams which would be nice to think of as a documentary.
Many tracks are snatches, attempts perhaps at understanding the function these sounds have. A few are longer and they are glorious.
00/00/2010 begins with nothing more than a slow, looped bass guitar straight from the bar of a David Lynch western, joined eventually by both a suitably distorted guitar and muffled, far off vocal: all disinterred, stoic, warning. As so it rolls. Suicide-al tendencies on display. Around two and a half minutes in we’re exposed to a horn blown like a tranquillised James Chance. Where infernal energy has finally deserted him and he’s left, in our imagined Lynch western, to prop up the bar and breath fragile life into notes that last an eternity.
Soft Coast by No UFO’s is out now on Nice Up International. There are only a few left so get yours here. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
As some of you may have seen on the internet the last few days, we’ve been invited to participate in a new website called Altered Zones. Being the endlessly curious lot that we are we it would have been churlish to say no. 20JFG will still be here doing the same thing it’s always done – scampering about in its own amateurish way, writing about music that we like and we hope you like too.
Our contribution to Altered Zones won’t be unfamiliar to those of you that read this everyday. Altered Zones is for the people that don’t. Saying that, if you like the stuff you read here then the odds are you’ll like some of the stuff other people post over there.
Of course if you’re deeply allergic to Pitchfork Media Inc. then FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T CLICK THAT LINK. It’ll burn your mouse finger. Stay here with us, it’s safer that way.
Epilogue -This post is tagged with Altered Zones pitchfork
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i appreciate your warning that the altered zones are being policed by the three pronged overmonger. i shall keep at bay
Yours sincerely
joffory2nd July 2010
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! i’m so excited ! i’m so scared !
Yours sincerely
archer2nd July 2010
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By all means drift into altered states but, even in the forked ellipsis of the joint stock company, remain credulous.
Yours sincerely
mucho maas2nd July 2010
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This probably means more and more clowns with PR agents (oneohtrix) will be getting coverage while artists sink deeper into obscurity. Unless for some reason the indie rock businessman types DON’T see a chance to capitalize on something they once didn’t know about and want to seize it. Wait, of course they will!
Yours sincerely
james2nd July 2010
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Pah
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats2nd July 2010
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Oh, and also, no-one polices us. We are the masters of our own convoluted destinies.
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats2nd July 2010
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Oh dear I don’t even know where to start. Daniel (OPN) has been putting out his own records for ages (hence the adjective ‘industrious’), many of which we’ve covered here for the last couple of years. I asked him to send us the album, we didn’t get PR Spammed by him or his representatives (and we get PR Spammed a lot). Even if we had we’d still have been interested as it’s music we like. Having someone do PR for you doesn’t make you a clown – I can’t believe I even have to type that.
You must realise that a significant proportion of the artists we post don’t have a label, or anything much outside of a MySpace page, let alone these demonic PRs? Don’t you?
But let’s take you at your word and say he has got a PR working for him…
We’ve never ever posted anything the author of the post didn’t love (at least at the time). Sometimes it’s through a bands PR representative because, well, maybe the band doesn’t give a fuck about interacting with blogs. That’s fine. We try to get clearance for the vast majority of stuff we post (archival stuff are the only tricky ones) so we interact with bands, labels and PRs.
Next up (and I’m still working through your first sentence) what is your definition of ‘artists’ and what exempts OPN from this label? Do you mean ‘underground’ artists? Do you mean ‘real’ artists? I feel like we’re missing an adjective here. This is a weird inversion of the dominant complaint that by participating in Altered Zones we’re going to lift underground artists out of the safety of obscurity and ruin them with the glare of the Pitchfork machine.
Your next sentence seems a touch contradictory. You’re now saying that mythical Indie Rock Businessmen will capitalise on the OPNs of the world with their flashy PRs. Surely the purpose of the Indie Rock Strawman is to feed on the blood of the obscure artist not the ‘clown with the PR agent’? This must be a win for you: they can feast on each other and leave the ‘artists’ in safe obscurity. Or do you WANT the ‘artists’ to be feasted on. I’m not sure.
There are some very valid points to be made around Altered Zones both for and against. As I said in the post it’s something we’re curious about. I’ve seen hints of cogent arguments for why it might be a bad idea and I’ve read really quite funny put-downs by Chris Weingarten. Unfortunately I’ve also read poorly constructed reactionary rubbish like the comment above.
If you want to expand on your points and point out where my characterisations are unfair please go ahead in this comment box.
d
P.S. This, this is how you do a take-down of Altered Zones:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2010/06/pitchfork_launc.php
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats2nd July 2010
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David Lynch directing a western… mmm… yummy!
Yours sincerely
premini3rd July 2010
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you you and you.
Yours sincerely
The Electric Project5th July 2010
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que?
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats5th July 2010
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I think this person is referring to the way in which the blogs participating in AZ have been chosen with an analogy of decision-making in schoolyard sports shenanigans.
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats6th July 2010
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Late to the party, but heh: http://www.twitter.com/fauxzones
Yours sincerely
OOTZLE3rd October 2010