Posts by Gerald Jackson48

Some albums hit harder than others, sure, but they always stay true to themselves and never pull any punches.

Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds (2006)



Tracklist:

01. FutureSex / LoveSound
02. SexyBack (featuring Timbaland)
03. Sexy Ladies / let me talk to you ( prelud
04. my Love (featuring T.I.)
05. LoveStoned / i think She Knows
06. What goes Around .../... Comes Around ( Interlude
07. Chop me up (featuring Timbaland and Three-6-Mafia)
08. Damn Girl (featuring will.i.am)
09. Summer Love / set The Mood ( prelud
10. Until The end of time 11.
11. Losing my Way 12. ( Another song ) All Over Again
12. (Another Song) All Over Again

Dennis Martin6 said:Sure can,

Let's at least agree on one thing here. 😁

Gerald Jackson48

Dennis Martin6 I can't see any text to rewrite! Send over what you want me to work on and I'll get right to it. I wasn't trying to redefine music here. I was just laying out the bare minimum requirements for something to actually qualify as art. To me, "everything we do" doesn't count as art because it lacks that one essential ingredient: intention. You have to actually mean to create something for it to matter. Even if you go by that super basic, flawed definition of music—you know, just melody, rhythm, and harmony—this album still totally counts. It hits that rhythm requirement perfectly.

You’re getting hung up on intentionality, but honestly, that’s a slippery concept. You can question it just as easily as you can debate what "rhythm" even means in music. Take John Cage, for example—he had this whole specific vision of music that you might love or you might hate. Then you’ve got guys like Marcus Miller or Edward Elgar who viewed music as something that transcends human intent entirely. Of course, we can all agree or disagree with that too. It's all subjective.

Dennis Martin6 said:No, you basically started this whole argument by claiming music is just a painting (?? 🙏 🙏) or some other nonsense. It was pretty incoherent, honestly. Then you spent the rest of the time trying to debunk an absurd thesis that you were the only one even pushing in the first place. 🤣🙏🙏

And I wasn't talking about "meaningfulness"—whatever that implies—I was talking about intention. There's a huge difference there.

All I was saying is that when you broaden the definition of music, you run into trouble. One person might find it nonsensical, while someone else thinks expanding music beyond basic melody, rhythm, and harmony is totally absurd. For John Cage, that kind of wide-open definition—where basically everything we do counts as music—wasn't nonsense at all.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit it—we're just a step or two away from calling any random collection of noises "music." But honestly, why stop there? John Cage used to insist that "everything we do is music." 😁

http://www.artasiapacific.com/Magazine/WebExclusives/EverythingWeDoIsMusic#

Quote: even that.

Lisa Davis46 says: but it's still just a painting. back in 1918, critics looked at Malevich's white on white and basically said it wasn't

Sure, it's a painting. But calling a Malevich piece "music" was always meant as an analogy. It’s a bit of a stretch, honestly. Most people would say it's a pretty massive reach when you consider how the definition of atonal music expanded so much that it eventually started covering all sorts of sound structures—not just tones in the traditional sense—as long as there isn't a clear tonal center.

Here’s a little "thought experiment" for you. I grew up in a big music family. Most of us sang in choirs, almost everyone plays an instrument—some play several, actually—and a few even went through formal conservatory training. Not many of us make a living from it, but that’s beside the point.

So, if I were to run an experiment with Bernhard Günter - UN Pea de Neige Salie and let everyone hear it—which isn't really possible since our crew is scattered all over the US now, but bear with me—I’d bet my life that the only one who would truly vibe with it is a guy who graduated from a fine arts academy and worked as a painter and sculptor. 😁

Of course, that’s a tiny, biased sample size.

Now, if we look at music in the broadest sense as just an organization of sound, you could classify this album as music, and specifically under the umbrella of atonal music. Technically, the original definition of atonality refers to music lacking a clear tonal center, using chromatic scales in specific ways, rather than any random arrangement of sounds left to the creator's whim.

By that logic, you could say a painting is "atonal" in a broader, more formal sense. It wouldn't be a lie, because a painting doesn't contain tones or a tonal center anyway. 😁

Personally, I’m totally fine listening to stuff like this. I dig plenty of artists who push music toward "anti-music" territory. But my absolute favorite thing is when you get a synthesis of those two worlds. You see it in the early days of Autechra, or with NIN, or Sonic Youth, and so on. I won't list them all.

I bet Kazimir Malevich’s White on White caused quite a stir back in its day, too. I mean, what’s even the point of an artist "trying to provoke a reaction" if they can't actually handle the fallout once it happens?

Then again, I have no clue if that was even what Günter was going for here.

I wouldn't exactly put Neige Salie in the same bucket as White on White, though. There were plenty of those "anti-music" sonic experiments happening way before 1993.

Just because something doesn't click with a mainstream audience doesn't automatically make it a masterpiece. It reminds me of something an artist said—I can't recall who exactly—about how just because a work is commercial doesn't mean it lacks quality, just like being non-commercial doesn't suddenly make it good.

I'm not saying Günter's work isn't high quality. I'm just saying that the fact that something isn't making money isn't a valid argument for why it's great.

Yeah, I see them all now. Five out of five.

I'll throw in a +1 for John Maus since the system didn't tag him properly.

Donald Byrd - Black Byrd (1973)



Tracklist:

1. "Flight Time"
2. "Black Byrd"
3. "Love's Sol Far Away"
4. "Mr. Thomas"
5. "Sky High"
6. "Slop Jar Blues"
7. "Where Are We Going?"

An interview with producer David Bascombe about how the album came together.

A quick live recording of Sacred, June 18, 1988.

Things started off a bit slow today, but it eventually turned into a stream of really interesting suggestions. Awesome.

No worries, I'm just glad you finally made it to the party. Honestly, Frank Zappa was never really my thing, but hey, who cares? 😁

The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (2002)



Songs:

01 "They're Winning"
02 "Wake Up"
03 "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me"
04 "Revenge Wears No Wristwatch"
05 "The Blizzard of '96"
06 "French Vacation"
07 "Stop Talking"
08 "We've Been Had"
09 "Roll Down the Line"
10 "That's the Punchline"
11 "It Should Take a While"
12 "Rue the Day"
13 "I'm Never Bored"

Lisa Davis46 said:Just wanted to follow up on this one—what was the actual intention behind it? If anyone has a solid example...
Oh yeah, I actually saw an interview once where Vangelis was mentioned as a huge influence
(I might be off, let me check... okay, found it, here).
🙂

Certain synth pads, modular sequences, and leads definitely give off those 70s and 80s electronic vibes. You can hear bits of that on Great Undressing, for instance.

I checked out the new album too, and it’s honestly great on the first listen. To me, it sounds like a long, extended version of Madonna's "Justify My Love" reimagined as some kind of goth-art piece. Really cool execution.

Ashley Grant66 said:And they're bringing it up here too, and they say: The root of all existence and the universe's starting point? It's the vagina. We should really stop talking about "original sin" and start calling it what it actually is: the original hurt. That initial wound and the subsequent physical toll—like the agony of childbirth and monthly cycles—is just the fallout from that first strike.
Hang in there, guys. 😁

No worries, three hours of Fight Channel and five episodes of Abdominal workouts totally brought me back to my senses. 😁

Honestly, one of the best things about her writing is that I didn't run into any of that pretentiousness I was talking about earlier. Most of her stuff actually feels really well-crafted. It’s got this subtle poetic vibe to it, plus some great moments of self-deprecating humor. You get a much fuller picture when you dive into the interviews and the other clips she includes—it brings in a whole lineup of different performers alongside Whale.

Honestly, without even trying, it’s just way easier for me to stick to the men's concept. Switching over to women's shoes is a whole different ballgame for obvious reasons.

Lisa Davis46 said:No, I didn't mean anything bad about Gerald Jackson48. I just meant that maybe the whole concept isn't a huge deal for everyone, especially when it comes to music—especially with a niche topic like this.

Exactly. I appreciate a good concept if it actually adds depth to the story, but at the end of the day, the music has to come first. It needs to stand on its own. Whether it's experimental or more traditional, there still needs to be some actual musical quality there for me to connect with it.

Lisa Davis46 said:'the plague' was the only part of the album where she went a bit overboard for me too... but toward the end, I hear a little spark, so I'd say we finally moved past that female vampire from the beginning and things started flowing much smoother!

If we were playing Vampire: The Masquerade, Havelock would definitely be a total Toreador. 😁

Lisa Davis46 said:Now we just need that provocateur fass to show up.
I think he already mentioned he can't wait to jump in on this topic... 😁

We'll see what he thought of "Blood Meridian"...

I’ve listened to this twice now and I can say I mostly dig it. For me, the music is the main event, while the concept is just a nice little extra. But look, the music has to be solid first, and the production here is super interesting—which, from what I gather, is largely thanks to Lasse Marhaug.

Everything sounds modern (even with those nods to vintage Electronica), so I guess we’ll see how it stands the test of time. For now, though, I’ll just say it’s innovative, engaging, fits the vocals perfectly, and really struck a chord with me.

The vocals are great too—really dynamic—and I love the tone, so that’s a big plus. The Plague kind of dragged for me; honestly, I think they could have skipped that part, but if Hvalica thinks it works, then fine. Female vampir, Conceptual romance, The Great Undressing—all really solid stuff.

Now, about that whole "menstrual vampirism" concept, capitalism, women's roles in society, and all those double and triple standards... it feels a bit artsy-pretentious in a bad way. But again, the music comes first for me, and the lyrics themselves are actually quite poetic, so I’ll definitely be spinning this album a few more times.

I’m not sure exactly which 70s vampire flicks were being referenced, but it’s probably Female vampir by Jesus Franc and maybe some stuff by Jean Rollin. Those directors were known back then for leaning into eroticism, feminist themes, and sexual liberation, but also for provocation and shock aesthetics that didn't always make much sense. We're talking B-movies or even C-movies here, so don't expect anything like Coppola if you go looking for them at your local video rental shop, but they are cult classics.

If nothing else, it's worth it for the shots of Lin Romay and Brigitta Lahai. 😁