"But there was nothing about the little, low-rambling, more or less identical homes of Northumberland Estates to interest or to haunt, no chance of loot that would be any more than the ordinary, waking-world kind the cops hauled you in for taking; no small immunities, no possibilities for hidden life or otherworldly presence; no trees, secret routes, shortcuts, culverts, thickets that could be made hollow in the middle – everything in the place was right out in the open, everything could be seen at a glance; and behind it, under it, around the corners of its houses and down the safe, gentle curves of its streets, you came back, you kept coming back, to nothing; nothing but the cheerless earth."
Thomas Pynchon, "The Secret Integration"
This is Ian Mathers' Tumblr. I live in Canada. I've written about music and other things for Stylus, PopMatters, Resident Advisor, the Village Voice, and a few other places. Hi.
imathers@gmail.com
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
It’s a credit to Cooper’s gifts as a performer, arranger, and composer that his reluctance to repeat himself feels unmistakably like a restless, creative intelligence rather than any sort of lack of focus. We may or may not ever get another Eluvium album that sounds like the solo piano excursion of An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death or the extended, enveloping 50-minute composition Static Nocturne, but each feels equally and exactly like, well, an Eluvium album.
My review of the wide-ranging new Eluvium double album Nightmare Ending is up at PopMatters. It’s excellent, and also makes a part of me suspect that Cooper is giving one last tour through the phases of his work so far before embarking on something new.
SENSITIVE THUG: WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA? WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA? WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA? WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA?
What in the fuck was that Kanye?
I told you to do some shit for the kids
You can give me your muhfucking graduation ticket right now
You will not walk across that stage, you won’t slide across that stage
Muhfucka can’t pull you across that stage Kanye
Who told you…now compare basic analysis and statistics to in-depth analysis, such as this piece by 3lc3lc3lc. with this piece and the salon article open in tabs, you can weep at the level of shallow discourse in an average rag.
then read this 3lc3lc3lc piece again, and weep for joy, for true “pop culture” analysis should always be folding in the context and intersection points — the full context ! take note!
Absolutely the best thing I’ve ever read on Kanye West. If they do a Best New Music writing thing at some point, someone remind me to vote for this. (And Rebecca’s points are very important too.)
Readymade — “Dreamt I Fled”
It’s good to check in every once in a while; yep, still comfortable calling this my favourite album.
I’d heard good things about For Professional Use Only; I still need to get around to playing Electronic Dream 2 (although who knows what exactly I’ve got), but the first one was great and, it turns out, one of my favourite albums ever to edit to. So I was looking forward to this one.
The version of Electronic Dream that I’ve got is 11 tracks in 35 minutes. There’s a “deluxe” version that loses “Streetz Tonight” (one of the best songs, so I assume there were rights issues or something) and adds six more tracks, but I’ve never been interested. This mixtape (and I’m not sure what qualifies it as a mixtape aside from the fact that several tracks here are instrumentals that have already been used as productions by rappers elsewhere) is 20 tracks in 67 minutes, and that right there is the biggest problem I have with it.
It’s definitely along similar lines to the songs I already liked, so it’s not as if there were a ton of songs here I wish he’d dropped; but if you reconfigured all of these tracks to be half as long, I’m pretty sure I’d like it more. I remember really liking some of track tracks, particularly towards the end, and some of them seemed harder-hitting than the Electronic Dream material in a good way (“SUCCUBI” and “World Is Lost” in particular) but mostly it seemed like a bit of a slog (my housemate agrees, so it’s not just me). Which is weird, because as I said each individual track seemed pretty good. He just needs better portion control, I guess? And I still need to see him play live.
All of these are pretty good. Ian Curtis and Batman: both dicks. (…whose work I love.)
