Electronic wank or Genius [Debate]

feel free to spit or shine

random releases you may have lauded or wanted to see rotted, all genres have them, but we'll stick to electronics here

you may have questions. you may have hate. you may have found meaning & purpose. 

feel free to post and debate.

an auditory fawk, marry, kill of sorts.  lol     Ready? 

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Pete Shelley (r.i.p), "Sky Yen", 1980

I need some context here. What gives?  Discuss. 

https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/1201

Long time since I've listened to that. Will do so later and get back to you on it

^ I guess I need more info on "Sky Yen". A very specific time & era, obviously. But yes, chime in!

Footnotes in the Dave Clarkson review linked above:


..Listening to many Buzzcocks tracks reveals a Can influence which is not surprising from Shelleys' involvement on the 'Sacrilege' album and his sleeve notes for 'Cannibalism'. Some examples of the sonic similarities include:

'Sitting Round at Home' from 'A Different Kind of Tension' .....to 'Bel Air' from 'Future Days' ....both similar melody.

'Something's Gone Wrong Again' (b-side to 'Harmony in my Head') - choppy rhythm guitar and chord changes.

'Late for the Train' and 'ESP' from 'Love Bites' - rhythm plus lead guitar work reminiscent of the late Michael Karoli..

Okay... it sounds like what it is: a teenager playing around with cheap gear. Hardly genius but not wank. That it was actually recorded in 1974 makes it a bit more interesting. By 1980 there was much better post punk electronic or drone stuff being made, such as...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYhRX24blCs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTxzzpDH-H0

^^ Cool. I never heard the B.C.Gilbert & G. Lewis stuff before.

I first listened to "Sky Yen" a few months ago, quarantine listening, and seems to be a release not spoken about much. And YES, I was contemplating posting a thread about it here earlier then too. heh. The general evolution and emergence of synthesizers is always fascinating because in earlier decades, everybody was discovering the gear & playing with presets, but doing whatever individual or band, collaborative creations with the new toys they were mucking about with. Pete Shelley circa 1974 for instance, yes a random teenager messing around with cheap gear as you mentioned, and everyone was doing it if you were lucky enough and managed to get your hands on early keyboards and such. In the bigger picture, if you're an electronic music fan in general - electronic rawk music included - we wouldn't be here in 2021 without all those initial mucking around with gear releases or experiences that are out there from decades ago. Western traditional instrument & voice songwriting, vs improvisation of anything else is such a strong dichotomy, almost alien from one another, yet it is important for history's sake within music, imo. I consider "Sky Yen" to be wank myself, but it is interesting if it was indeed recorded as a soundtrack to a Devoto film at the time. Then with the emergence of disco in the 70's, 80's, the electronic influences exploded as we all know. Once again, a random unknown, teen Pete Shelley bedroom release precursed what was to come later on. Interesting nonetheless.

Pete Shelley Quietus interview where he talks a bit about "Sky Yen"

https://thequietus.com/articles/17526-pe...-interview

Things serve a purpose in present tense, but later, sometimes not so much. Although I don't think this is a shit tune per se, I do like this era of Jeff Mills, i do NOW consider this wank.

But Jeff Mills has that dividing quality in general, doesn't he?

meh

I.t r I e d. T o. C a t c h. B r a I l l e. T w I c e.
P I s s e d.

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