WOEBOT: A couple of random thoughts

"The Edit"

When did the remix become the "edit"?

"Er yeah man, we just did an "edit" of weird-disco-staple/improbably-funky-krautrock-track/post-punk-frug-oddity (delete as appropriate)..."

Why this horrible new form? Why does every reissue have to come attached with Such'n'Such DJs "edit"?

The logic is that they're supposed to be inherently more respectful to the original; edits are flushed with neo-rockist sanctity. The DJs seem to suggest they're doing a reel-to-reel-style cut-and-paste of the source material (deprived as they are of the spearate tracks) yunnuh in an "old skool style". Shades of Ron Hardy/Grandmaster Flash. Even when often they're coercing rough old tunes into the 4/4 Ableton Live grid. Yawn.

It's all so pointless, pious and un-inventive.

On DJ Screw

A client asked me to slow down some audio today and upon doing it it really brought home some of the, perhaps under-acknowledged, aspects of what Screw was doing. Within the digital realm, in which I was editing the sound, the waveforms immediately became steppy, the sound taking on the hollow corrupted quality of machine noise. We're all familiar with the occasionally ugly, cheap sound of digital processing. Jungle quite often managed to make a merit of it: "Ba-by-lon-a-fa-all" but usually rubbing it against mountainous drums.

Screw of course, made all his messes in the analogue realm. If you slow a record down, or a tape, or a reel-to-reel, even as the sound becomes weirder and weirder the waveforms still maintain their integrity. You might think I'm pimping some audiophile purism here, but can you imagine wanting to listen to a Screw-tape that was made out of aiffs/wavs/mp3s slowed-down? Gah, it's sound horrific!

Comments

Good thoughts, as always...

Posted by: Gutta | September 5, 2006 09:13 AM

re: edits.

starting in the late nineties, everyone was still sampling the dirt out of old records, throwing an obnoxious filter over it, and calling it a "remix". or, (even) a "bootleg". soon enough, the whole notion of "remix" became so out-and-out pervasive that here in the u.s., they even tried to market a soda called the remix. "remix" culture became tiring really fast.

so fuck all that. edits became fashionable. true, it's worn out now... even uninventive. but thankfully, it is more true to the originals. imagine how fucking tired we all were of every classic, whether deep and arcane or totally played out, getting laid over the top of so-and-so's basic boompty-boomp drum kit and patterns. now that was boring.

what really blows is the notion that any one person can gain notoriety from touching up someone's already existing gem.

Posted by: the ringer | September 8, 2006 06:37 AM