Characterising oppression as 'castration' is the centrepiece of Greer's argument, and I think its sex-positive thrust is its most valuable contribution to the feminist second wave. But there are difficulties. While mocking Freudian theory as metaphysical, Greer deploys the dichotomy of Eros and Thanatos in articulating her ideal of a liberated, loving society – the former's freewheeling spontaneity preferable to the latter's cold ordering of reality, and you can question whether this unrestrained overflow of "energy" may not lead to chaos and abuse. Moreover, as Elizabeth Wurtzel points out, Greer doesn't shirk from condemning behaviour that doesn't fit her model of virtue. She is particularly insensitive regarding trans and BDSM sexuality, trusting that conditioning will remove these (scarequotes) disempowering desires.
Greer has kinder moments, however. One of the most moving passages for me comes at the end of the book: "We have but one life to live, and the first object is to find a way of salvaging that life from the disabilities already inflicted on it in the service of our civilization". Greer's familiar goal, that women and men are free to construct themselves, includes the familiar difficulty that women must "refuse, not only to do some things, but to want to do them". I don't accept all the "disabilities" Greer diagnoses, and often despair of our ability to escape those I do recognise – those horribly unsatisfying expectations we nonetheless set ourselves to fulfill. Then again, The Female Eunuch's uncompromising vision is a reminder that such self-definition is sometimes possible, if only we had the reserves of will, or "energy", Greer displays.
22.3.13
18.3.13
The Drowned World
As ever, what interests me most about this is the blasphemy. I love a bit of blasphemy, me. Through some rather unbelievable psychoscience, Ballard constructs a scenario by which modern man finds himself back in prehistoric conditions and memories buried deep within our gene code are awakened. As our protagonist Kerans puts it: 'a point might ultimately be reached where a second Adam and Eve found themselves alone in a new Eden'. That prediction proves correct, Kerans himself becomes 'a second Adam searching for the forgotten paradises of the reborn sun' at the end of the novel.
Rather than meeting his maker, Kerans reaches a state by which all loyalty to civilisation is stripped away and he becomes the human animal. A bit like the one imagined by Rousseau, a solitary creature. His maker is the natural world, and ultimately, the sun – the sole source of life-nourishing energy on our planet.
So we have our indifferent, impersonal God, but who is the serpent in this little fable? (Beatrice, by way of Dante perhaps, plays the part of Eve.) That would be Strangman, but also, it turns out, Riggs. The rapacious pioneer and empire-builder sanctioned by and sustaining the political powers that be. The crazy root driving our towering achievements is here exposed, but the alternative presented by Ballard is equally absurd and terrifying, although he seems to sympathise with the outcasts and their past-smitten rejection of progress.
Rousseau was categorical that going back was not only impossible but undesirable, and proposed measures to restrain and reverse the imperialist mindset. Ballard is (if it's possible) even less sanguine – the only paradise humanity will know is that of the jungle.
Rather than meeting his maker, Kerans reaches a state by which all loyalty to civilisation is stripped away and he becomes the human animal. A bit like the one imagined by Rousseau, a solitary creature. His maker is the natural world, and ultimately, the sun – the sole source of life-nourishing energy on our planet.
So we have our indifferent, impersonal God, but who is the serpent in this little fable? (Beatrice, by way of Dante perhaps, plays the part of Eve.) That would be Strangman, but also, it turns out, Riggs. The rapacious pioneer and empire-builder sanctioned by and sustaining the political powers that be. The crazy root driving our towering achievements is here exposed, but the alternative presented by Ballard is equally absurd and terrifying, although he seems to sympathise with the outcasts and their past-smitten rejection of progress.
Rousseau was categorical that going back was not only impossible but undesirable, and proposed measures to restrain and reverse the imperialist mindset. Ballard is (if it's possible) even less sanguine – the only paradise humanity will know is that of the jungle.
16.3.13
Retromania
When Simon Reynolds first started talking about not finding anything absolutely new in modern music, I didn't really know what he was talking about. Not a diss (yet), the revered blissed one has (by my rough calculations) been 'pop aware' for a good 15 years longer than I have. Given that enormous backlog of experience, I wasn't going to start arguing, was I? I just took him at his word.
The failure of Retromania is that I'm still left unsure about what exactly he's on about. The book is correctly characterised on the back cover as a 'debate starter' rather than an open-and-shut case, but for large stretches it doesn't even feel like an argument. In fact, I was taken aback when Reynolds describes Retromania as a 'critique' at the end of the book, since I found it difficult to separate the normative/polemical from the descriptive (and convincing) account of music culture past and present. Retromania is quite messy anyway - jumping around to address a bunch of stuff beyond retro. Reynolds makes clear that the Introduction, which poses a long list of questions, was written first, and that what follows is an exploration of the answers. This gives a good idea of the way Reynolds approached this project, though does leave you to do more of the work of gathering together the mass of stuff you get into a coherent whole. The Female Eunuch, which I'm in the middle of at the moment, is similarly sprawling, but at least Greer bothered to map out how it all fits together at the start.
Retromania gives you a great overview of different ways music makers have engaged with the past. What I'm unclear about is exactly what Reynolds is missing - what his 'nothing new under the sun' actually means. His language is quite loose on the subject - 'forms', 'develompents', 'ideas'. Nothing specific on the sounds or arrangements that provided those future shocks so sorely craved. Instead we get a list at the end, which (perhaps consciously) recalls the apex of 'Losing My Edge' where James Murphy is reduced to shouting out names of bands he's experienced before everyone else. The only definition I could find is more of a 'telltale sign': 'genuinely modernist music' can be identified by the 'pressure it puts on writers to come up with new language and new concepts' - an imperfect measure iteslf, and one which leaves open the possibility that the failing isn't with the music so much as with the writers around it.
In fact, there are unexplored explanations for the sensation of 'nothing new under the sun' (and it's noteworthy how the words 'feels' and 'seems' often prefix Reylolds's most outrageous claims) lurking within the text. The central distinction he draws is: 'a rapid movement within a network of knowledge as opposed to the outwardbound drive that propelled an entire system into the unknown'. But that unknown could just be another network of knowledge that was previously difficult to access but is now easily available. Reynolds talks about how hip hop 'seemed to come out of nowhere fast' in the early 80s, even though its 'historical roots can be traced back to the mid-seventies Bronx'. A modern example of this phenomenon would be footwork - also (I gather) a genre with a rich history but one only unearthed as something totally new and alien by entrepid adventurers in the Night Slugs / Planet Mu camps. Can't the retromania curse just be one of perspective - our vastly expanded perspectives making the shock of the new rarer?
Another, for me more interesting, path not taken is hinted at when Reynolds talks about the 'linear model of progress' being 'transposed from science and technology, where it does apply, onto culture'. Maybe it shouldn't have happened, but actually, why not? When you get right down to it, what is the driver of musical innovation? Forget what Spengler has to say on the matter, it is safest to assume that if you take human ingenuity in aggregate, it would remain a constant through history. What changes is the means of production and their availability. Applied to music, what this suggests is that new 'forms' and 'developments' can ultimately be reduced to human ingenuity ('ideas') being applied to new technology - the expensive electronic experiments of the post-war avant-guard, the recording studio rock of the 1960s, the dissemination of personal computers in the 90s. This latter development has vastly widened the range of possible sounds music makers can create and manipulate, leading to a new normal identified by John Calvert as a stream of constant tiny innovations rather than the surges and movements Reynolds is after.
As important to the 'what is new' question is the 'why is the old shameful' question. This one Reynolds tackles head-on and yet I am still left wondering. In a telling phrase, he describes the way 'music has been depleted of meaning through derivativeness and indebtedness', as if 'meaning' depended on badly-defined notions of 'innovation', 'originality' or 'the momentous'. To be fair, Reynolds is actually a careful and sympathetic guide through the many ways music makers have engaged with their tradition and used the past to generate relevant meanings for their own situation. (A footnote, and btw where the fuck are they in this book: one interesting ommission in Retromania is the 'hardcore continuum' or 'nuum', where 'roots' are as important as 'future'). Point is, he knows very well that 'meaning' in music can be classified in all kinds of ways other than the originality index.
The 'great yearning' for the new is for Reynolds a 'habit of a lifetime' of a 'dyed-in-the-wool modernist', and he leaves it at that. The personal or psychological reasons behind this attitude are skipped over, but I'm detecting a certain post-structuralist whiff around the language of being trapped 'within a network' rather than driving into the unknown. My guess is that Reynolds elevates music above all other creative pursuits for Nietzschean reasons: being fundamentally a non-representational artform, it can plunge beneath surface-level interpretations and articulate the undefinable, the bedrock Real of our existence. Recall Foucault's distress at being bound by language and looking for freedom at its limits - in the pornography of Bataille for example. For Reynolds, perhaps music is the vehicle by which you can escape history and arrive at that final fronteir. To reduce it to just another artform, subject to the same interplay of influences and the same range of intentions would be similarly distressing. And yet Retromania provides a brilliant articulation of just this creative process, and the way it has changed with the arrival of the internet. Accepting this development isn't 'settling for less' - there never was anything more. The future isn't out there, it has always been with us. And our technology has allowed us to create and access it like never before.
The failure of Retromania is that I'm still left unsure about what exactly he's on about. The book is correctly characterised on the back cover as a 'debate starter' rather than an open-and-shut case, but for large stretches it doesn't even feel like an argument. In fact, I was taken aback when Reynolds describes Retromania as a 'critique' at the end of the book, since I found it difficult to separate the normative/polemical from the descriptive (and convincing) account of music culture past and present. Retromania is quite messy anyway - jumping around to address a bunch of stuff beyond retro. Reynolds makes clear that the Introduction, which poses a long list of questions, was written first, and that what follows is an exploration of the answers. This gives a good idea of the way Reynolds approached this project, though does leave you to do more of the work of gathering together the mass of stuff you get into a coherent whole. The Female Eunuch, which I'm in the middle of at the moment, is similarly sprawling, but at least Greer bothered to map out how it all fits together at the start.
Retromania gives you a great overview of different ways music makers have engaged with the past. What I'm unclear about is exactly what Reynolds is missing - what his 'nothing new under the sun' actually means. His language is quite loose on the subject - 'forms', 'develompents', 'ideas'. Nothing specific on the sounds or arrangements that provided those future shocks so sorely craved. Instead we get a list at the end, which (perhaps consciously) recalls the apex of 'Losing My Edge' where James Murphy is reduced to shouting out names of bands he's experienced before everyone else. The only definition I could find is more of a 'telltale sign': 'genuinely modernist music' can be identified by the 'pressure it puts on writers to come up with new language and new concepts' - an imperfect measure iteslf, and one which leaves open the possibility that the failing isn't with the music so much as with the writers around it.
In fact, there are unexplored explanations for the sensation of 'nothing new under the sun' (and it's noteworthy how the words 'feels' and 'seems' often prefix Reylolds's most outrageous claims) lurking within the text. The central distinction he draws is: 'a rapid movement within a network of knowledge as opposed to the outwardbound drive that propelled an entire system into the unknown'. But that unknown could just be another network of knowledge that was previously difficult to access but is now easily available. Reynolds talks about how hip hop 'seemed to come out of nowhere fast' in the early 80s, even though its 'historical roots can be traced back to the mid-seventies Bronx'. A modern example of this phenomenon would be footwork - also (I gather) a genre with a rich history but one only unearthed as something totally new and alien by entrepid adventurers in the Night Slugs / Planet Mu camps. Can't the retromania curse just be one of perspective - our vastly expanded perspectives making the shock of the new rarer?
Another, for me more interesting, path not taken is hinted at when Reynolds talks about the 'linear model of progress' being 'transposed from science and technology, where it does apply, onto culture'. Maybe it shouldn't have happened, but actually, why not? When you get right down to it, what is the driver of musical innovation? Forget what Spengler has to say on the matter, it is safest to assume that if you take human ingenuity in aggregate, it would remain a constant through history. What changes is the means of production and their availability. Applied to music, what this suggests is that new 'forms' and 'developments' can ultimately be reduced to human ingenuity ('ideas') being applied to new technology - the expensive electronic experiments of the post-war avant-guard, the recording studio rock of the 1960s, the dissemination of personal computers in the 90s. This latter development has vastly widened the range of possible sounds music makers can create and manipulate, leading to a new normal identified by John Calvert as a stream of constant tiny innovations rather than the surges and movements Reynolds is after.
As important to the 'what is new' question is the 'why is the old shameful' question. This one Reynolds tackles head-on and yet I am still left wondering. In a telling phrase, he describes the way 'music has been depleted of meaning through derivativeness and indebtedness', as if 'meaning' depended on badly-defined notions of 'innovation', 'originality' or 'the momentous'. To be fair, Reynolds is actually a careful and sympathetic guide through the many ways music makers have engaged with their tradition and used the past to generate relevant meanings for their own situation. (A footnote, and btw where the fuck are they in this book: one interesting ommission in Retromania is the 'hardcore continuum' or 'nuum', where 'roots' are as important as 'future'). Point is, he knows very well that 'meaning' in music can be classified in all kinds of ways other than the originality index.
The 'great yearning' for the new is for Reynolds a 'habit of a lifetime' of a 'dyed-in-the-wool modernist', and he leaves it at that. The personal or psychological reasons behind this attitude are skipped over, but I'm detecting a certain post-structuralist whiff around the language of being trapped 'within a network' rather than driving into the unknown. My guess is that Reynolds elevates music above all other creative pursuits for Nietzschean reasons: being fundamentally a non-representational artform, it can plunge beneath surface-level interpretations and articulate the undefinable, the bedrock Real of our existence. Recall Foucault's distress at being bound by language and looking for freedom at its limits - in the pornography of Bataille for example. For Reynolds, perhaps music is the vehicle by which you can escape history and arrive at that final fronteir. To reduce it to just another artform, subject to the same interplay of influences and the same range of intentions would be similarly distressing. And yet Retromania provides a brilliant articulation of just this creative process, and the way it has changed with the arrival of the internet. Accepting this development isn't 'settling for less' - there never was anything more. The future isn't out there, it has always been with us. And our technology has allowed us to create and access it like never before.
11.3.13
2012 blind spot: Bat for Lashes - A Wall
A "sophisticated blend of art-rock grandeur and synth-pop directness" is a nice concise way of describing The Haunted Man. Definitely more continuity between that and Ms. Khan's previous work than I expected, probably because the first single 'Laura' wasn't representative of the album's sound. That song was penned by the guy behind 'Video Games', and I'm not wild about his whole shtick. The rest of the album is more propulsive and anthemic, and feels like a truer reflection of what Bat for Lashes is all about.
When I first listened through, I was readying a quip about how Khan had progressed from epic fantasy to magical realism. But again, there's more continuity than that. Although that eye-catching album cover suggests a Bat for Lashes stripped back, unadorned, in fact the picture is just as carefully composed and symbolically rich as the previous album covers were.
My favourite song is the anthem-not-anthem 'A Wall', its shimmering synth tones suggestive of a morning mist shrouding a day and a landscape pregnant with wild transformative possibilities, its rolling drums tugging at your heels and urging you to run out into that brave new world.
When I first listened through, I was readying a quip about how Khan had progressed from epic fantasy to magical realism. But again, there's more continuity than that. Although that eye-catching album cover suggests a Bat for Lashes stripped back, unadorned, in fact the picture is just as carefully composed and symbolically rich as the previous album covers were.
My favourite song is the anthem-not-anthem 'A Wall', its shimmering synth tones suggestive of a morning mist shrouding a day and a landscape pregnant with wild transformative possibilities, its rolling drums tugging at your heels and urging you to run out into that brave new world.
5.3.13
2012 blind spot: A-Trak & DJ Zinc feat. Natalie Storm - Like the Dancefloor (Shadow Child Remix)
The arch bass-wobble, the time-stretched vocal, the synth wash... all tried and tested trak elements endlessly arranged and re-arranged in a looping circular vortex comprising the inescapable NOW. If music is supposed to map unexplored vistas over the present horizon, missives from alternative ways of living and being, a continual revolution in sensory experience, then obv how disappointing. The artful combination of recycled materials, how dead-eyed, how boringly COMPETENT.
But then there's a moment in this (around 2.44 in) when these sirens start blaring over a churning bassline, and I'm imagining a squad of Vortigaunts skanking through the halls of the Black Mesa Facility. Or when the skippy drums cut straight back in after the final chorus (around 5.10 in) almost saying "hey we're not done yet, the euphoric moment can wait, we need to segue into the next trak". A bit like last year's favourite 'Step In The Dance', this historical walking tour doesn't feel conservative or nostalgic, but fun – the past plundered to service the ever-more historically-aware dancefloors of the present.
That mindset probably what gets those Jackin' fiends so worked up about, tho have to say I stood through an hour-long Marcus Nasty set and barely felt the urge to twitch along to the stuff he was laying out...
But then there's a moment in this (around 2.44 in) when these sirens start blaring over a churning bassline, and I'm imagining a squad of Vortigaunts skanking through the halls of the Black Mesa Facility. Or when the skippy drums cut straight back in after the final chorus (around 5.10 in) almost saying "hey we're not done yet, the euphoric moment can wait, we need to segue into the next trak". A bit like last year's favourite 'Step In The Dance', this historical walking tour doesn't feel conservative or nostalgic, but fun – the past plundered to service the ever-more historically-aware dancefloors of the present.
That mindset probably what gets those Jackin' fiends so worked up about, tho have to say I stood through an hour-long Marcus Nasty set and barely felt the urge to twitch along to the stuff he was laying out...
18.2.13
iZombie
I'm not au fait with every permutation of postmodern horror out there, but Buffy does hang heavily over this little comic. The series even copies the Xander-Buffy-Angel triangle, although Ellie differs somewhat from Willow. I got a familiar comforting vibe reading the first volume. It balances the camp and melancholy pretty well, which is exactly the kind of flavour I favour. What's extra impressive is the goofy stylistic tricks Michael Allred deploys: particularly the "dream sequence" in which Gwen observes Amon jump into the panels of different genre comics, a slab of exposition enlivened by the arch way it is presented. Another cute slice of fooling around is the encounter Gwen has with her prospective love interest: she swings out of the door and out of the panel, while he swings into the next panel and into her. That moment is followed by another splash montage bit where we pull out and they fall in love. Normally I would hate this device, since it's often a lazy fudge to avoid actually accounting for the way the couple connect. But Chris Roberson really does try to detail what the conversation was about, and how the process of crushing gets going. And when you have a limited number of pages to tell your tale, that kind of compression is justified. Very well put together, in short. The sort of thing Buffy Season 9 is probably trying and failing to do.
17.2.13
Garden State
I watched this at the impressionable age of 16, in a cinema on Fulham Road, ircc. I remember walking out stunned, thinking this was the film I would have made if I had the money or talent. I know, how very teenage, right? Most people may not have reacted as strongly, though in my bubble the film did feel like a cult hit and a generational touchstone. The themes of rebellion against chemically-induced tranquility, the hole left by an unknown life project, the comfort balm of love and family, seemed to hold a special relevance in an age which joined ironic detachment to epicurean excess.
I've been re-watching regularly since that first time in the cinema, with growing wariness. The cute jokes actually didn't grate so much as the realisation that Natalie Portman's character is at best only half-realised. The film is an extension of Andrew's experience, we don't have access to any other P.O.V. Every actor in his drama isn't a entity with a separate and complete existence. With hindsight, Sam looks like the first contemporary formulation of what became known as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a phantom creation imagined by depressed indie boys looking for succor.
I have argued previously that Braff indicates what Sam's inner life may be like, and there is the suggestion that she needs Large as much as Large needs her (a grounding presence that short-circuits her compulsive lying, a fellow melancholic sharing her desire to become someone else). Watching again, that feels like an act of interpretive charity too far. Add it all up and the film provides very little explanation for why Sam would want to hook up with Large. She's just been waiting for some future boyfriend to pick her up on a ninja motorbike, and Large was the first guy to roll up and look past her quirks.
You can leave it at that, and I won't blame you, but I can't help feeling charitable towards this film. The only way to circumvent the difficulties posed by Sam is to recognise that the entire film is an expression of Andrew's subjectivity. Our only entry point into the story is its protagonist. The stylised way it's shot provides no break into reality – it's one long artful hallucination. And if you can buy-in to that (very teenage, sure) solipsism, the film's charms still retain a potency, its injunction to LIVE HERE NOW still convinces.
With repeated viewings, its artfulness, more than anything else, emerges as its strongest suit. When it first came out, a friend wiser than I pointed out how brilliant it was at revealing its significances slowly, and he was right – the balls it throws in the air are all expertly caught by the end. Particularly noticeable with this viewing was the way Mark's gift awakens a memory of Andrew's mother which wipes out years of anger at the fact she was "depressed for no reason". Also the way the inclusion of Sam's brother acts as a momentary check on the protagonist's self-obsessed brooding. Also how Andrew's LA-trained wisecracks are cut short by Sam's appeal to genuine feeling at her hamster's funeral. Also how the wallpaper-shirt gag is actually partly at Andrew's expense...
Even when its indulgences and wish-fulfillment fantasies are (deservedly) picked apart, in terms of craft the film remains impressive, and re-watching it remains a pleasure.
I've been re-watching regularly since that first time in the cinema, with growing wariness. The cute jokes actually didn't grate so much as the realisation that Natalie Portman's character is at best only half-realised. The film is an extension of Andrew's experience, we don't have access to any other P.O.V. Every actor in his drama isn't a entity with a separate and complete existence. With hindsight, Sam looks like the first contemporary formulation of what became known as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a phantom creation imagined by depressed indie boys looking for succor.
I have argued previously that Braff indicates what Sam's inner life may be like, and there is the suggestion that she needs Large as much as Large needs her (a grounding presence that short-circuits her compulsive lying, a fellow melancholic sharing her desire to become someone else). Watching again, that feels like an act of interpretive charity too far. Add it all up and the film provides very little explanation for why Sam would want to hook up with Large. She's just been waiting for some future boyfriend to pick her up on a ninja motorbike, and Large was the first guy to roll up and look past her quirks.
You can leave it at that, and I won't blame you, but I can't help feeling charitable towards this film. The only way to circumvent the difficulties posed by Sam is to recognise that the entire film is an expression of Andrew's subjectivity. Our only entry point into the story is its protagonist. The stylised way it's shot provides no break into reality – it's one long artful hallucination. And if you can buy-in to that (very teenage, sure) solipsism, the film's charms still retain a potency, its injunction to LIVE HERE NOW still convinces.
With repeated viewings, its artfulness, more than anything else, emerges as its strongest suit. When it first came out, a friend wiser than I pointed out how brilliant it was at revealing its significances slowly, and he was right – the balls it throws in the air are all expertly caught by the end. Particularly noticeable with this viewing was the way Mark's gift awakens a memory of Andrew's mother which wipes out years of anger at the fact she was "depressed for no reason". Also the way the inclusion of Sam's brother acts as a momentary check on the protagonist's self-obsessed brooding. Also how Andrew's LA-trained wisecracks are cut short by Sam's appeal to genuine feeling at her hamster's funeral. Also how the wallpaper-shirt gag is actually partly at Andrew's expense...
Even when its indulgences and wish-fulfillment fantasies are (deservedly) picked apart, in terms of craft the film remains impressive, and re-watching it remains a pleasure.
11.2.13
Incognito: Bad Influences
Is this where the series borrows a trick from Grant Morisson and goes meta? Zach Overkill is sent into deep cover to retrieve another agent in deep cover called Simon Slaughter. So far, so very Spy Who Came In From The Cold (with better names). But in their final confrontation, Slaughter starts going on about seeing "beyond this layer of reality", a "force ... watching us". His master plan is to take out both sides and level the giant opposition that structures his world. He wants to go against his own author, punch out God as Hartigan would say. What's great is that the layouts reflect this higher awareness. When Slaughter has his scenes, the linear panel structure is replaced with panels scattered over a large page-wide splash. A great way of conveying this different vision... visually.
10.2.13
Noughties Nuum Top 100
Dissensus has been trying to organise a poll of hardcore continuum tracks post-2000 for a little while now, although it looks like it might have run out of steam. It got me thinking anyway, and lurkers have been welcomed so I might still vote. However, unlike a lot of the other board members, I came to the Nuum late (my grime Damascus moment came in early 2010, catalyzed by Reynolds's writings and the first taste of Run The Road). So I've been listening to this music differently, detached from the environment it has been produced in and designed for. All the weirder because I've grown up in London and have for long periods of time been in close geographical proximity to this stuff, a parallel that has only recently been broken and crossed. So my experience of the Nuum has been almost entirely "retro-active". Whether that makes me a part of Reynolds's "retromaniac" age is a discussion for another day – like when I've actually read the book. Short answer: maybe, though "mania" would put it a bit strongly. Anyway, point is I felt a bit out of place contributing to a poll of enthusiasts most of whom have a first hand knowledge of what they are talking about, while I am still doing my homework and trying to catch-up.
That didn't stop me from compiling a ballot, tho! I decided to make this ENTIRELY retro-active, excluding stuff after 2010 when I started tuning in to the Nuum and listening in real-time. The irony is that as soon as I had done so, the Nuum started dissipating into a million different streams. Suspicions of the internet and digital culture entirely overcome, the solidity provided by physical spaces and objects evaporated, so what we have now is more like a 'cloud' of shared history and signifiers stretching ever thinner. This is the new normal, to misappropriate a term used by Lindsay Zoladz.
Given the temporal boundaries of the list (2000-2009), perhaps unsurprising that grime features heavily (40+ of entries), UK Garage and UK Funky / Bassline being cut out at either end. Dubstep and progeny, also at the heart of the decade, is less well represented (about 30), and the picks are (perhaps) more idiosyncratic, since much of the core Tempa/DMZ sound doesn't do very much for me. The list is also skewed by the availability of what's out there. My ideological aversion to vinyl means that I'm reliant on what got a digital release. Happily a lot of classic productions are being made available as MP3s (cf. DJ Q's Archive, Ruff Sqwad's White Label Classics, Big $hot, Macabre Unit, Sticky all putting together albums of material made ~10 years ago). But it is unquestionable that some strands suffered from a lack of compilation and archival work.
Undisputed reigning champion of the list is Wiley, with 15 entries. As mentioned previously, 2012 brought about a significant re-assessment of the man's talents. He was always going to be all over a list such as this, but his presence was enhanced by me finally locating my senses and unreservedly accepting his frequent proclamations of unassailable prominence.
[Deap breath]
Here's the list. I've made only cursory checks on whether the stuff here fits within the timeframe, welcome any corrections on that score.
Terror Danjah feat. Hyper, Bruza, D Double E, Riko - Cock Back V1.2
Kristine Blond - Love Shy (Club Asylum Mix)
Wiley, Flow Dan, Dizzee Rascal - Eskimo Vocal
Pinch - Qawwali
Lethal Bizzle feat. Fumin, D Double E, Nappa, Jamakabi, Neeko, Flow Dan, Ozzi B, Forcer, Demon - Pow! (Forward)
Ruff Sqwad feat. Trim - Jampie (prod. Wiley)
Riko & Target - Chosen One
Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U
Sadie Ama feat. Kano - So Sure (prod. Terror Danjah)
Joker - Digidesign
Ruff Sqwad - Xtra
Pangaea - Memories
Ny - Something Real
Roll Deep - When I'm 'Ere
El-B feat. Juiceman - Buck & Bury
Wiley - Crash Bandicoot Freestyle
Artful Dodger - It Ain't Enough (Dodger Dubby Dream Mix)
Cooly G - Love Dub
The Bug feat. Flow Dan & Killa P - Skeng
Roll Deep - Let It Out
Dizzee Rascal - Ice Rink (prod. Wiley)
Wiley feat. Rage, Esco, Jammer, Scorcher, God's Gift - 16 Bar Rally
Terror Danjah feat. Triple Threat, Funsta, Shabba D, D Double E, Skibadee, Bruza, Melo D, Hitman Hyper, Ragga Twins - Creepy Crawler (Reckless Soldier)
Shystie - Pull It (Ill Blu Remix)
Burial - Fostercare
Ruff Sqwad - Functions On the Low
Lady Sovereign - Cha Ching (Cheq 1, 2 Remix)
Trim - Wot Part 1 (inst: Wiley - Taplin)
Jammer feat. Wiley, D Double E, Kano, Durrty Goodz - Destruction V.I.P.
Digital Mystikz - Misty Winter
Sticky feat. Ms Dynamite - Booo!
Darkstar - Aidys Girl's A Computer
MJ Cole - Sincere (Wookie Master Mix)
Kano - Sometimes
Guido feat. Aarya - Beautiful Complication
Toasty - The Knowledge
Wiley & Riko - Lethal B Diss (inst: Wiley - Fire Hydrant)
Paleface feat. Kyla - Do You Mind? (Crazy Cousinz Remix)
Plastician feat. Shizzle, Fresh, Nappa - Cha Vocal
SLK - Hype! Hype!
D Double E - Frontline (prod. Big-E-D)
Boxcutter - Silver Birch Solstice
Spor - Aztec
Artful Dodger - Woman Trouble (Wideboys Pick A Pocket Or Two Remix)
Ghetto feat. Kano, Scorcher, Devlin, Wretch 32, Durrty Goodz - Top 3 Selected (Remix) (prod. Rapid)
Ny feat. Maveric - Make It Work
Burial - Raver
Shackleton - Blood On My Hands
Teebone feat. Kie & Sparks - Fly Bi
More Fire Crew - Oi!
T2 feat. Jodie Aysha - Heartbroken
Bear Man feat. Blazer, Doctor & Fender - Drink Beer (Remix)
DJ Q & MC Bonez - You Wot!
Sunship feat. MC RB - Cheque One Two (Remix)
Wiley - Nan I Am London
Zomby - Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix)
Roll Deep - Poltergeist (Remix) (prod. Terror Danjah)
Breakage feat. Newham Generals & David Rodigan - Hard
Instra:Mental - Watching You
The Midnight Circus - Complicated
Ramadanman - Every Next Day
Dizzee Rascal - Sittin' Here
Untold - Stop What Your Doing (James Blake Remix)
MJ Cole - Bandelero Desperado
Joker - Stuck In The System
Plastician feat. Skepta - Intensive Snare
Digital Mystikz feat. Spen G - Anti War Dub
Angel Lee - What's Your Name (Artful Dodger Mash Up Vocal Mix)
Geeneus feat. Ms Dynamite - Get Low
LV feat. Dandelion - Turn Away
Geiom & Appleblim - Shreds
Ghost (El-B) - Lyrical Tempo
Raffertie - Wobble Horror!
Dogzilla - Never Ending Story
Genius Cru - Course Bruv
Untold - Anaconda
Virgo feat. B Live & Flirta D - Clack Riddim
Mizz Beats feat. Wiley, Jammer, Earz, JME & Sier - Saw It Comin'
Parson - Throw Some Ds
Subeena feat. Jamie Woon & Om'mas Keith - Solidify
Naphta - Soundclash 1 (Grievous Angel V.I.P.)
Rebound X - Rhythm & Gash
Distance - Traffic
P Money - 1 Up (prod. Royal-T)
Terror Danjah - Piano Madness
Horsepower Productions - When You Hold Me (Version)
Pay As You Go Cartel - Know We
No Lay - Unorthodox Daughter
3rd Core - Mindless & Broken (MJ Cole Mix)
Deadboy - U Cheated
Silkie - Dam 4
Gabrielle - Sunshine (Wookie Main Mix)
Crazy Titch - Sing Along
Jamie Vex'd - In System Travel
Wretch 32 feat. Badness & Ghetto - Ina Di Ghetto
Mount Kimbie - Maybes
The Bug feat. Flow Dan - Jah War (Loefah Remix)
Gemma Fox - Boxers (Delinquent 4x4 Mix)
Commix - Be True
Benga v Skream - The Judgement
That didn't stop me from compiling a ballot, tho! I decided to make this ENTIRELY retro-active, excluding stuff after 2010 when I started tuning in to the Nuum and listening in real-time. The irony is that as soon as I had done so, the Nuum started dissipating into a million different streams. Suspicions of the internet and digital culture entirely overcome, the solidity provided by physical spaces and objects evaporated, so what we have now is more like a 'cloud' of shared history and signifiers stretching ever thinner. This is the new normal, to misappropriate a term used by Lindsay Zoladz.
Given the temporal boundaries of the list (2000-2009), perhaps unsurprising that grime features heavily (40+ of entries), UK Garage and UK Funky / Bassline being cut out at either end. Dubstep and progeny, also at the heart of the decade, is less well represented (about 30), and the picks are (perhaps) more idiosyncratic, since much of the core Tempa/DMZ sound doesn't do very much for me. The list is also skewed by the availability of what's out there. My ideological aversion to vinyl means that I'm reliant on what got a digital release. Happily a lot of classic productions are being made available as MP3s (cf. DJ Q's Archive, Ruff Sqwad's White Label Classics, Big $hot, Macabre Unit, Sticky all putting together albums of material made ~10 years ago). But it is unquestionable that some strands suffered from a lack of compilation and archival work.
Undisputed reigning champion of the list is Wiley, with 15 entries. As mentioned previously, 2012 brought about a significant re-assessment of the man's talents. He was always going to be all over a list such as this, but his presence was enhanced by me finally locating my senses and unreservedly accepting his frequent proclamations of unassailable prominence.
[Deap breath]
Here's the list. I've made only cursory checks on whether the stuff here fits within the timeframe, welcome any corrections on that score.
Terror Danjah feat. Hyper, Bruza, D Double E, Riko - Cock Back V1.2
Kristine Blond - Love Shy (Club Asylum Mix)
Wiley, Flow Dan, Dizzee Rascal - Eskimo Vocal
Pinch - Qawwali
Lethal Bizzle feat. Fumin, D Double E, Nappa, Jamakabi, Neeko, Flow Dan, Ozzi B, Forcer, Demon - Pow! (Forward)
Ruff Sqwad feat. Trim - Jampie (prod. Wiley)
Riko & Target - Chosen One
Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U
Sadie Ama feat. Kano - So Sure (prod. Terror Danjah)
Joker - Digidesign
Ruff Sqwad - Xtra
Pangaea - Memories
Ny - Something Real
Roll Deep - When I'm 'Ere
El-B feat. Juiceman - Buck & Bury
Wiley - Crash Bandicoot Freestyle
Artful Dodger - It Ain't Enough (Dodger Dubby Dream Mix)
Cooly G - Love Dub
The Bug feat. Flow Dan & Killa P - Skeng
Roll Deep - Let It Out
Dizzee Rascal - Ice Rink (prod. Wiley)
Wiley feat. Rage, Esco, Jammer, Scorcher, God's Gift - 16 Bar Rally
Terror Danjah feat. Triple Threat, Funsta, Shabba D, D Double E, Skibadee, Bruza, Melo D, Hitman Hyper, Ragga Twins - Creepy Crawler (Reckless Soldier)
Shystie - Pull It (Ill Blu Remix)
Burial - Fostercare
Ruff Sqwad - Functions On the Low
Lady Sovereign - Cha Ching (Cheq 1, 2 Remix)
Trim - Wot Part 1 (inst: Wiley - Taplin)
Jammer feat. Wiley, D Double E, Kano, Durrty Goodz - Destruction V.I.P.
Digital Mystikz - Misty Winter
Sticky feat. Ms Dynamite - Booo!
Darkstar - Aidys Girl's A Computer
MJ Cole - Sincere (Wookie Master Mix)
Kano - Sometimes
Guido feat. Aarya - Beautiful Complication
Toasty - The Knowledge
Wiley & Riko - Lethal B Diss (inst: Wiley - Fire Hydrant)
Paleface feat. Kyla - Do You Mind? (Crazy Cousinz Remix)
Plastician feat. Shizzle, Fresh, Nappa - Cha Vocal
SLK - Hype! Hype!
D Double E - Frontline (prod. Big-E-D)
Boxcutter - Silver Birch Solstice
Spor - Aztec
Artful Dodger - Woman Trouble (Wideboys Pick A Pocket Or Two Remix)
Ghetto feat. Kano, Scorcher, Devlin, Wretch 32, Durrty Goodz - Top 3 Selected (Remix) (prod. Rapid)
Ny feat. Maveric - Make It Work
Burial - Raver
Shackleton - Blood On My Hands
Teebone feat. Kie & Sparks - Fly Bi
More Fire Crew - Oi!
T2 feat. Jodie Aysha - Heartbroken
Bear Man feat. Blazer, Doctor & Fender - Drink Beer (Remix)
DJ Q & MC Bonez - You Wot!
Sunship feat. MC RB - Cheque One Two (Remix)
Wiley - Nan I Am London
Zomby - Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix)
Roll Deep - Poltergeist (Remix) (prod. Terror Danjah)
Breakage feat. Newham Generals & David Rodigan - Hard
Instra:Mental - Watching You
The Midnight Circus - Complicated
Ramadanman - Every Next Day
Dizzee Rascal - Sittin' Here
Untold - Stop What Your Doing (James Blake Remix)
MJ Cole - Bandelero Desperado
Joker - Stuck In The System
Plastician feat. Skepta - Intensive Snare
Digital Mystikz feat. Spen G - Anti War Dub
Angel Lee - What's Your Name (Artful Dodger Mash Up Vocal Mix)
Geeneus feat. Ms Dynamite - Get Low
LV feat. Dandelion - Turn Away
Geiom & Appleblim - Shreds
Ghost (El-B) - Lyrical Tempo
Raffertie - Wobble Horror!
Dogzilla - Never Ending Story
Genius Cru - Course Bruv
Untold - Anaconda
Virgo feat. B Live & Flirta D - Clack Riddim
Mizz Beats feat. Wiley, Jammer, Earz, JME & Sier - Saw It Comin'
Parson - Throw Some Ds
Subeena feat. Jamie Woon & Om'mas Keith - Solidify
Naphta - Soundclash 1 (Grievous Angel V.I.P.)
Rebound X - Rhythm & Gash
Distance - Traffic
P Money - 1 Up (prod. Royal-T)
Terror Danjah - Piano Madness
Horsepower Productions - When You Hold Me (Version)
Pay As You Go Cartel - Know We
No Lay - Unorthodox Daughter
3rd Core - Mindless & Broken (MJ Cole Mix)
Deadboy - U Cheated
Silkie - Dam 4
Gabrielle - Sunshine (Wookie Main Mix)
Crazy Titch - Sing Along
Jamie Vex'd - In System Travel
Wretch 32 feat. Badness & Ghetto - Ina Di Ghetto
Mount Kimbie - Maybes
The Bug feat. Flow Dan - Jah War (Loefah Remix)
Gemma Fox - Boxers (Delinquent 4x4 Mix)
Commix - Be True
Benga v Skream - The Judgement
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