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The Mire

Remix, remake, remodel

Is the term remix redundant? Music has been begging, borrowing and stealing since day one. But does a remix denote more about the working process than the actual nature of the track? When so much is on long term loan, where's the dividing line between say, a prodigiously used sample and a remix? Is 'remix' just a label that's used top-down, from label to listener, to make sure you're accessing an audience efficiently? Perhaps the trouble is that remixes are often half-baked, passed around on short deadlines to every Tom, Dick and Harry with a URL, touted as 'exclusive', when it's one from a bag of ten or more quick-fix mixes that add a lazy beat or beefed up production to give a track a longer shelf life. (The plague of bad blog-House mixes that were recycling Pitchfork-hits for desperate music bloggers got so bad The Hype Machine built in a 'no remixes' functionality.) It's the churnalism of music production....

The Portal

Ruth Ewan's Portal

May 2012

Find out about artist Ruth Ewan's top picks of the web. Ewan's work is featured in The Wire 340 in an article by Agata Pyzik.

The Portal

Bass Clef's Portal

May 2012

Follow Ralph Cumbers aka Bass Clef's top picks of the web. Cumbers is featured in The Wire 340 in an article by Joseph Stannard.

The Portal

Awesome Tapes From Africa Portal

May 2012

Follow the choice links of Brian Shimkovitz, the man behind the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog and label, and author of the Collateral Damage article in The Wire 340.

The Mire

Going underground (Disco re-edit)

The Loft staff Thanksgiving party, 1979. Photo: Don Lynn A number of disco revivals around at the moment – a four CD box set of Tom Moulton's remixes of tracks issued in the early-mid-70s by Philadelphia International; four new volumes in the Disco Discharge archive series; a ruffneck mix of vintage disco obscurities posted online by Chicago Footwork producer du jour Traxman – all serving to remind us that the more the world sinks into the mire of capitalist folly the more prominent disco becomes. As the breathless press release accompanying those Disco Discharge releases puts it: "The new installment couldn't have come at a better time as history repeats itself, when the going gets tough, disco gets going!" But buried in that sentiment is the main reason disco is still derided by so many so-called serious music types. When the going gets tough, disco gets going...

The Portal

Benedict Drew's Portal

April 2012

Follow artist and musician Benedict Drew's choice links to cartoons, music and other online ephemera. Drew is featured in The Wire 339 in an article by Nick Cain. Drew's Gliss exhibition takes place at London's Cell Project Space, 19 April–27 May.

Essay

Collateral Damage: Phil England

April 2012

Circulating music as resource-free downloads might reduce carbon footprints, but the fast turnover of the computers, MP3 players and mobile phones we play them on costs the Earth plenty, argues Phil England.

Essay

Collateral Damage: Phil England

April 2012

Circulating music as resource-free downloads might reduce carbon footprints, but the fast turnover of the computers, MP3 players and mobile phones we play them on costs the Earth plenty, argues Phil England.

The Portal

Sound Poetry Portal

April 2012

Find out about sound poetry via online resources, as selected by Julian Cowley, author of the sound poetry Primer in The Wire 339.

The Portal

Hanna Tuulikki Portal

April 2012

Follow Hanna Tuulikki's choice selection of links. Tuulikki is featured in an article by Clive Bell in The Wire 338.

The Portal

Conlon Nancarrow Portal

March 2012

Read a selection of online resources about the late player piano composer, featured in an article by Philip Clark in The Wire 338. Links selected by Dominic Murcott, Head of Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and artistic advisor to London Southbank Centre's forthcoming Nancarrow festival.

The Portal

Simon Reynolds's Toopographical Portal

March 2012

Peruse Reynolds's web link Toopology, accompanying his feature "Tales From Toopographic Oceans" that looks at the cultural politics of his fellow author and critic, David Toop, in The Wire 338.

Essay

Collateral Damage: John Richards

March 2012

When John Richards of Dirty Electronics began manufacturing interactive sound devices such as a hand-held analogue synth, he tapped into a participatory social experiment in revitalising digitally numbed senses

Essay

Collateral Damage: John Richards

March 2012

When John Richards of Dirty Electronics began manufacturing interactive sound devices such as a hand-held analogue synth, he tapped into a participatory social experiment in revitalising digitally numbed senses

The Mire

Last month a DJ showed me life: Hieroglyphic Being @ CTM

A month ago a DJ set by Hieroglyphic Being (aka Jamal Moss) set my world on fire. It was in Berlin, at the CTM festival, and I can't stop going over it in my head, rerunning the maths to find the multiplying factor. It was the first time I'd seen Moss DJ. It started at 3am, following an impeccable set of tessellated Techno by Kassem Mosse. But Jamal Moss's set was a different beast entirely: loose, sloppy and incredibly ugly in some parts, but always giddy, impatient and unpredictable. It ran through pitched up and pitched down tracks, and too many genres and styles to count on one hand. At one point it got into a call and response dialogue between New York disco and Krautrock. The mixing was at times slick, incredible (an air raid siren threaded through three tracks, sewing them together). In other places it was a dirty hack made with a blunt instrument. The...