pfe


             no.22

    missed   chances



sitting  at  Frigid.
  chairs out on the dance floor.
   it seems we are here to listen to a lecture,
    not the usual musical experience we might
   have   expected.

     we are here to listen to  Kodwo Eshun,
  a reviewer for The Face and Id et.al.
     come beats theorist and author of
                    "MoreBrilliantThanTheSun".

The place is packed and the audience
     is ready to listen.    It starts  with a
 documentary about black music and   "datathieves".
   The film speaks about detroit and chicargo techno,
        funk,   and   jungle.
               but only to those who have a solid
          knowledge of the music....
   we watch the doco on music with almost no 
     musical examples!

     What a start especially in light of Eshun's
   "language drags its flabby arse behind music"
  thing.

                       then it's Eshun's turn...
    he stands and gives a memorised lecture on
    sonicfiction   and   black scifi music...
  He stands there talking so far    "above" the audience
     using quotes and references without explanation.
  he talks without examples,
                                  without music...


He has said
   "Too many ideas spoil the party.
    Too much speculation kills 'dance music',
    by 'intellectualising' it to death."
         somewhere along the line he must have forgotten.

             to end his "dj" set is not much better
     but at least all those there can understand it
                        and as such most    leave.

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      p   ..   f..      e.       ..


       .      .     c a l. e b        ~

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