Music Banter - View Single Post

The Batlord · 06-25-2015, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EPOCH6

All of that being said, clearly I love the track, but I honestly don't care at all for the rest of the album, besides Life in the Fast Lane.

While I find "Hotel California" dull, but still acceptable in a meh kind of way, I fully endorse "Life in the Fast Lane". It's got a simple rock 'n' roll energy that kicks a moderate amount of ass, sort of like Styx's "Renegade". It's not my fav song by any means, but I can definitely enjoy it to an above-moderate extent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

^it's in the general music section so there's not really any limitations. I kind of threw it out as a joke but we can roll with it.

Oddly enough I think that it does have a kind of beauty about it, albeit an ugly and abrasive form of beauty. There's something about it that's incredibly hypnotic so long as you don't get irritated by it. Some of the feedback loops are kind of angelic if you can pick them out, which makes me think of another thing that I love about the album: it's dense as hell. It's sort of like a Pollock painting with layers and layers of colours and paints, but instead with sounds. It's busy enough to sound different from listen to listen (although certain melodies are more pronounced), but to me it doesn't sound convoluted even though there's a lot going on. Plus I like how intense it gets and the ending is one of my all time favourites.

Make that a yes and a half for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Screen13

I might sound like the most pretentious person here, but it actually MMM calms me down.
Industrial is the key word for it's after effects on an influence scale, but this seriously helped me form my opinions on how I listened to these works. On a Cinematic level, this would work great in a Future Shock film as it sounds like the breakdown of everything electronic, especially the Lock Groove - It was actually a major trend of film by the time of it's release.

Experimental Music fans of the day caught the jokes as well as saluting the fact that a major music star who decided to do a sonic FU did it in a way they can understand right in the middle of the John Denver and Boogie Rock era. Unlike George Harrison's Electronic Sound, this was a stone cold attack of sound with a bleak beauty.

Try listening to this in an abandoned building!

I'll repost my thoughts about MMM from the What Are You Listening Thread, but I agree with both of these opinions. I don't dig it to the extent that the above two posters do, but their general sentiments I agree with, and I can see myself digging it more and more with repeated listens, even if I'm never completely sold on it...

Quote:

I can never make up my mind up about this album. I was listening to it last night, and I can dig it for that first track, cause there's that pulsing, cascading rhythm that's oddly beautiful, and there's always something new happening that catches your ear, before dying a quick death, only to be replaced by something else in your other ear (when on headphones). So for a while it's... I won't say great or anything, but at least it's engaging (even for a Philistine like me).

But I can only focus on it for so long, and then it just starts making me feel claustrophobic. About halfway through the second track (forty minutes or so in) I had to turn it off, cause it was making me feel genuinely queasy. I like music that can provoke non-positive emotions, and even psychosomatic reactions, but I can only take so much of it, depending on the reaction. (That's actually the only the reason I can take Merzbow on the odd occasion I can quasi-enjoy him; the mid-nineties stuff I've heard from him is so sonically all-consuming that it overwhelms the thoughts in your brain, both conscious and subconscious, somehow quieting your mind, almost like reverse meditation.)

Still, I'm happy that Metal Machine Music exists (much like almost all of Diamanda Galas' music). In a way, it's actually more intense than a lot of Merzbow, just because so much is happening at any one time, and even though it kind of bleeds together, if you're actively listening to it, it never seems to repeat itself.

So I guess that's kind of 3 to 1 in support of Metal Machine Music. Kind of.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Guys, don't start fighting again.

It's about whatever you want it to be about. I would say MMM qualifies, as it's certainly well known, and I did say any genre. Frownland, are you looking to be signed up then, and is this the next battle? Anyone else want to sign up?

Have you ever listened to Metal Machine Music? If not, I won't rec it for your Love/Hate thread, since I don't see you enjoying it at all, but it's still one of those albums you should listen to, if for no other reason than that it's just a historical artifact that everyone should hear at least once. (Though if you hate the style of Merzbow on principle, then it's not going to win you over.)