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I apologize in advance if my tone offends you, but this is theory we are talking about here, so I will not sugarcoat my writing in order to make truth sound pleasing. I will write exactly what’s on my mind, and my mind is brutal. After all, as Schopenhauer put it: “Politeness, which has its source in social relations, is in literature an alien and often injurious element; because it exacts that bad work shall be called good. In this way the very aim of science and art is directly frustrated”.
So first off: how old are you? That post looks like it was written by an attention-seeking 12 year old trying to impress his parents with meaningless verbiage. Writing about music is extremely difficult. If you are not sure about what you want to say, it’s best you don’t say anything at all. It’s already difficult to write clearly and meaningfully about every other subject under the sun, and it is even more so in the case of the highly subjective artform of music. Just scrap your “essences”, “unapolageticallies”, “mercies” and downgrade your writing. Then you might manage to get something coherent and meaningful for us to read.
the obligatory presence of beats/bass/breakdowns/etc. leaves very little room for content
And yet artists have been doing it since the beginning of art. You need structure in art. “Abstract art” is a stupid concept. Consider also that the most primitive forms of music are nothing other than “beats/bass/breakdowns/etc.” as you put it (see all tribal communities ever, who spend all their time pot- and pan-banging), and you are telling us that even that is too restrictive and “leaves very little room for content”, lol. Hello, are we living in the 21st century?
thus to use that cramped remaining space for genuine creativity
As opposed to what? Fake creativity? Or perhaps to counterfeit creativity, lol? Please explain that to us child, we are eager to learn about this wonderful concept of authenticity in creativity!
why the amount of producers that successfully do this instead of rewriting existing tracks has always been next to none.
Oh I get it. You were on drugs when you wrote that post and were hallucinating most music is just a remix from existent music. Or maybe you meant that all the artists releasing original music on https://www.beatport.com/ everyday are not however “genuinely” creative, as you put it (all the while conveniently forgetting to define this wonderful concept of genuine creativity to all of us…).
The success of the producers celebrated here in combining one-of-a-kind timbres with an aptitude for catchy yet powerful melodies to turn uptempo dance music into an art form can’t possibly be overstated.
Lol.
I find Betwixt’s ability to unapologetically inject his essence into his creations and allow structures and obligatory elements to only form within them at his mercy to be all the more impressive.
So pretentious. Substitute the word “Betwixt” with the name of any other artist, and nothing will be lost. This is how you know the phrase has no content whatsoever besides “I like Betwixt better”. But then why not just write “I like Betwixt better? That’s where the pretentiousness comes in.
That’s just my opinion, of course.
And the sky is blue, of course. And birds fly, of course. And trees are made of wood, of course. That was possibly the only true and meaningful statement in the entirety of your post, but we all know the stuff we write is our opinion!
Anyway, let’s leave the pretentious kid playing with his “essences”, “genuine creativities”, etc. and let’s see what I have to say about Betwixt & Between.
I might eventually write more about him, but for now I’ll just say that he was among the best imitators of Száhala so far. He still ranks orders of magnitude bellow him, though. This style of music is unforgiving. As I stated previously, the risk of producing comedy is very high when attempting to make music in the Száhala-style. So for example, with Liberation we get a track that nearly reaches this unfathomably high standard, but which still sounds too sentimental and amateurish. Another track that I like from him is 7701. But in order to enjoy it I have to pretend that ridiculous “come on!” or whatever sample is not there. It sounds silly and nearly ruins the great atmosphere he managed to create in those 7 or so minutes. It’s little mistakes like this “come one!” sample that can lower the value of a track abysmally, and which artists ought to avoid if we want to take them seriously. It’s not only what one does that ennobles, it’s also to a great extent that which one omits! Then you have stuff like Nothing Compares 2 U which is super fun lol, but mostly because it is funny, comical, super exaggerated and sentimental. I cannot imagine a human being who can listen to it seriously (the track itself doesn’t take itself seriously). Even Infected Mushroom’s recent Milosh can make me cringe (Erez himself called it “so funny” in an interview), let alone this track which doesn’t even attempt seriousness. Then you have Hydra which is boring until its climax, with some funny vocals on the breakbeat part, a pretty good rise, another completely out-of-place female vocal at the end of the build-up, and finally a huge climax that comes out of nowhere, with no previous warning, no previous sign whatever pointing to its appearance, and then it’s over. I mean, and you want me to seriously compare Betwixt & Between with Alek Száhala? The artist who produced some of the most logical pieces of music ever?
I dare anyone to give me the best of Betwixt and put it up against Enuma Elish — Száhala’s best so far — and then to realize the vast distance that separates them. Even Reincarnation does not come even close (what with it’s weaker second half). So, yeah. Take care, guys.
Okay then. It was pretty clear to me at least that Betwixt had a large amount of tracks which fell outside the boundaries most freeform seems to fall into, but we can agree to disagree I suppose. Writing about music is indeed difficult and I wasn’t aware you were looking for a heated academic debate about who’s supposed to be better based on specifics. I’m not, in any case. The genre has elements I consider flaws and I’m amazed that there are so many tracks I love (those being the ones posted about on this site) despite that, that’s all. I’d rather not take this further.
Quoting Schopenhauer doesn’t make ‘lol’ an appropriate response, bern. Keep the criticism constructive and civil and we’ll have a better chance of getting some discussion going here.
If we are going to have an showdown on the best dark freeform artist (or feel good about our superior tastes while belittling others’, whichever suits you best), shouldn’t that be moved into its own topic, rather than polluting the Introductions thread?
You’re right Plasma, I overdid it above and I apologize for that. I am indeed interested in making constructive criticism, and I promise to make that extra effort to write my ideas less aggressively.
If we are going to have an showdown on the best dark freeform artist (or feel good about our superior tastes while belittling others’, whichever suits you best), shouldn’t that be moved into its own topic, rather than polluting the Introductions thread?
Yes, we should create a specific topic for that. I was already planning on doing it, but I had to reply to Sherkel after his post (my blood boiled after that post lol). I’m okay with the posts being moved to some other thread, to keep things fairly organized here. Suggestion for the topic title: “Horsers Imposing Their Tastes: Hyper Turbo HD Freeform Remix”.
You probably misinterpreted my post earlier, considering my main point was that I agreed with you on “the style’s narrow sweetspot”… Personal experience accounts for the rest, and it’s hard to think of a better teacher. Or maybe I just misunderstood what you were saying originally. Whatever, water under the bridge. Always good to see some more activity here, at least.
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