06-05-2012, 22:20
I can appreciate you " not caring " ... I know what you mean !
Keef Rob Wrote:Well, it's singles. Albums exist and there's quite a few of them but for me this music works best with the remixes and a DJ added, and most albums are mixed by the DJ or are comps. I don't feel I've actually heard a song until I've heard a few remixes in context. The way I got into it was by DJ mix tapes because they were given away as promos, so that's how I heard stuff back in the cassette days. Typically they wouldn't include tracklists so you didn't know what you were hearing. Rock people don't seem to be able to enjoy it on that level -- they have to know which album, presumably to validate it somehow, and all the extras about the performers. I'm more interested in the actual music and largely don't care what the title or project name or performer is for what I'm hearing unless I need a reference to put in my portable.
Grant Nelson is a perfect example of why it doesn't work as albums or artists... http://www.discogs.com/artist/Grant+Nelson. There's many aliases of his and projects where he was a collaborator -- the ones I know best are Wishdokta, Vibes & Wishdokta, Naughty Naughty and Ruff Rider but those are 92 era oldskool breakbeat and he doesn't really play that stuff anymore. He also hosts a radio show and has done so for several years so it's like a comp album a week that you don't have to pay for. That Ruff Rider release "Shaggy Riddims" is one of the best ones I've ever heard, and it's the only one he ever did with that project name. I mention him specifically because his show is a good house fix for me. Naughty Naughty is really interesting to me because it's cheeky reworkings of well known tunes, no titles, 12 different records. Slipmatt also did that with his SMD releases (code for Slipmatt Dubplates), which were also all untitled. Great stuff, very anti-collector and I find that most appealing.
There's a whole genre, happy hardcore, where one crew (the Bonkers crew) didn't bother with hardly anything but comps and they were all doubles, triples, or box sets for really cheap -- I think I paid 12 quid (about $24 at the time) for Bonkers 3, a triple. Their releases on 12" are rather scarce and I have tunes I really like in that genre that I've never heard 100% all the way through 15 years on. Happy hardcore to me sounds like kids' telly show songs pumped up. Very simple harmonically, largely verse/chorus based, singalong even though about half the songs are instrumentals, so many lyrical love-cliches thrown at you that it just becomes irrelevant. Lots of people who are into other genres hate it but for me it's like the Ramones or Kiss pumping up girl-group songs. it's about 20 or 30 producers and they're all making tracks for the genre and they're coming out as compilation albums mixed rather than 12s, and the project names vary tremendously.
With the Apple stuff think of all the great records that didn't have an album release -- like Black Dyke Mills Band, Sundown Playboys, Hot Chocolate (at the time), Chris Hodge, Trash -- that sort of stuff. The people who made the records -- well that's just irrelevant ... you really have nothing but the song. No stories about the performers, no tabloid things, no rumours, none of that stuff. I find that very appealing because I'm just sick of people prattling on about this musician or that one and putting them up on a pedestal. It's old, it's boring, it's not 1972 anymore. Zappa wrote a song about it "We're Turning Again" that sums up my attitude perfectly, if you've heard that.
If you need an album to start with try this one: http://www.discogs.com/Sasha-John-Digwee...ase/100874. This started it for an awful lot of people and it's a favourite for most people. Try to get the original release with the M-People tracks. This is progressive house but man is this good. http://www.discogs.com/John-Digweed-Rena...ter/237228, the second part is amazing as well. Both 3 discs and while they're not in print anymore they were so popular that you can get them fairly cheaply.
Oh yeh, "unknown" has nothing to do with it. It's not caring.
The ultimate connection is between a performer and its' audience!
I can't tell you how many people I know who hate the donk but I've got a soft spot for it. 
