The Friday Informer: Hell Raisin’ Philistines (of New Music)
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—Maybe all you really need is an umlaut?
I don’t want to be accused of being a philistine here (though I suspect there are those who might level that charge), but I get asked from time to time who the “hottest” people are in new music. I’m usually at a loss for words—when did NewMusicBox become Muso?—but now I have a third-party recommendation. In addition to cellists, perhaps we might also include composers who stare moodily off the bow of ferryboats?
Okay, so the “who’s the cutest?” game is rather twee, but every genre has some basic commonalities. We all raise our own degree of hell and get arrested. In our neighborhood, as on every block in music, there are the bizarre low points, the unexpected high points, and the rare moments of amazing grace. And then there are the off-the-wall, theoretically cool geek-out points, because hey, sometimes only your friends are going to really be able to understand how cool this shit is. As I surf around, I try and maintain a healthy respect for all of it, because getting your music out there is hard (not to mention expensive.)
Talking about music might very well be like dancing about architecture, but what do we think of architecture about music? Whatever you think, please don’t throw stones.