I Still Think About Music

Though there always seems to be less to write about.

Simon is right to liken the current house music revival to the hip-house era (though I think "The Power" by Snap will probably outlive almost everything created over the last couple of years!). I wish I could just find it inane, but when I really think about it, like everything else I really think about, it become a bit depressing. I can't help but feel like there is some sort of lost opportunity. Wouldn't it have been interesting if a whole slew of Timbaland-like vanguardists suddenly came to terms with the entire history of underground electronic dance music, whether directly or through osmosis (better - history kills)? Their outsider status would ensure that whatever they came up with would not hew to the boundaries that so many of us take for granted. Instead, I get the sense that all of the producers making this music are just arriviste professionals, with no actual connection to any, well, culture, including, say, popular R&B music. They turn out an endless succession of "hits" that have all the plasticity of something modern (though electro has been "new" for the mainstream for a long time now!) without any of the actual capacity to form narrative that the word modern entails. It may seem ludicrous, but I want to get excited by this stuff. I want a reason not to complete my collection of Strictly records, a reason not to save up for another expensive Prescription 12". If Night Slugs is the best answer the underground can come up with (five decent tracks on SIXTEEN 12" releases is not a good ratio for what a few sites called the best label of the last year), well... oh well.