Energy Flush

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2009/05/culture-technology-energy-rave

I was going to do an FT post on this but my day is filling up rapidly so I thought I'd throw it to the wolves here instead.

Comments

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"Energy Flash was, of course, the title the critic Simon Reynolds gave to his compendious study of rave music and its progeny."

uh...has Mark Fisher actually heard the Beltram track itself? Not like SR plucked it out of thin air...

As ever I am in two minds about this argument. I have come to accept that as technological innovation isn't really a constant flow, the same can be said of creative invention esp. within something like pop music and commercial pressures. But big whoop, I still get entertainment out of it every year and I would say 'but less so than even 5 years ago' except I remember having this dreadful feeling that things were running on empty even then (looking back this seems daft or just not important - I think doing my Ultramix project helped me here tho).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Back at University I remember an evening pontificating in the bar about how there could never be a 90s revival because it was itself all revivals do you see. Gratifyingly I was almost completely wrong.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I pretty much said the same thing on Saturday tho! I don't really hear 'the 90s' in anything this decade, as opposed to a continuation or refinement of ideas that stretch back longer.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I suppose what I really meant is that '90s revival' would mean too many different things to too many different people tho.

so yes there can be a 90s revival in the form of e.g. Zomby but the appeal is so niche and impact will be negligible. a lot of old skool ravers probably wouldn't be that interested in it. i'm only slightly interested myself (the original tracks are easy enough for me to access i don't feel the need for a pastiche or tribute that doesn't add something extra).

but what about '90s revivals' elsewhere? Britpop? probably, but how would you even tell? Hip-hop or black US pop in terms of production style? seems unlikely. And I'm not sure we ever stoppped having bands trying to sound like Nirvana. Hard to a see a return for boybands (either the NKOTB or Boyzone models) either.

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

in terms of uk guitar muzik we seem to be at the 1991 third-on-the-bill-at-the-underworld thousand yard stare/mega city 4/senseless things cusp of revivalism. or, if you're gallows, the 25th of may (if anyone remembers THEM).

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

although i did like p*tr*dis's description of Gallows as "The Exploited, Lake and Palmer"...

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

if only that were true!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

but 90s is just starting to resurface from being the current "decade that taste forgot" now that the 80s is like the 70s was in the 90s, the shoegazing revival being the first little hint.

boybands will double deffo be back, once we're bored of talent shows (expected 2013 by current reckoning)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

perhaps Blackout Crew count as a boyband now...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I suppose what I really meant is that '90s revival' would mean too many different things to too many different people tho.

I agree w/this, and would probably extend it to all sorts of other "revivals" - there are so many fragmented scenes and sub-scenes now that you'll inevitably find someone making music which takes its cues from some aspect of the 90s - whether consciously so or not. I mean...The-Dream's album is fairly explicitly an homage to R Kelly's 12 Play, in part, but no one's labelling it as part of a "90s revival". And there have been people taking their cues from the 90s...ever since it ended! Like, idk, TLC's 'I'm Good At Being Bad' being an obvious take on Janet's 'What About'. So if the 90s never went away - and neither did the 80s, or probably the 70s...then there can't be a revival.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

is that TLC track from '3D'? and re The-Dream/R Kelly connection - does that extend to the actual sound of the music itself (this would involve more guitar twangs and fat snare/claps instead of light synth hooks and 808 innit)? i will listen to Love vs Money tonight finally...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

the TLC track is from Fanmail - whoops, which is actually FROM the 90s, oh well. The 90s were their own revival! The-Dream/R Kelly is more in the persona and lyrics, though a lot of The-Dream's melodies are kind of...rich and full-bodied in the same way as Kells'...