Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!

The Floating Points album Promises that got so much attention last year is worse than boring, it's infuriating. Clearly it's pretty light in terms of musical ideas, but that's not a problem in itself (I'll gladly listen to long Morton Feldman or Éliane Radigue recordings). It's an hour long repetition of C minor arpeggios that keep banging back at any attempts to improvise, forcing the soloist to conform to its mechanical insistence on RESOLVING between one C minor arpeggio and a slightly different one, back and forth in a cloying simulation of emotional tension. No wonder Pharaoh plays so little, there's nowhere to go.

And what a waste of resources. If I had access to the strings of the LSO, a grand master avant-garde sax player, and that bucket list of keyboards and synths, I'd put a bit a bit more work into it, I can tell you. Hire an arranger ffs, like Nels Cline did in his attempt at mood music.

It's actually very rare that music annoys me. If I don't like something I'm usually just, Meh! I don't care for it. Moving on. I actively hate this album almost as much as I hate The Joshua Tree. But at least I cannot find fault in U2's competence as a commercial pop group. They do the job, deleiver the goods, despicable as they may be, just like a Merc is a top-shelf product if you're into Teutonic richmobiles, U2 is top-shelf reactionary romantic bombast. But wtf even is Promises? An assembly of hipster style-points.
 
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thefsb said:
The Floating Points album Promises that got so much attention last year is worse than boring, it's infuriating. Clearly it's pretty light in terms of musical ideas, but that's not a problem in itself (I'll gladly listen to long Morton Feldman or Éliane Radigue recordings). It's an hour long repetition of C minor arpeggios that keep banging back at any attempts to improvise, forcing the soloist to conform to its mechanical insistence on RESOLVING between one C minor arpeggio and a slightly different one, back and forth in a cloying simulation of emotional tension. No wonder Pharaoh plays so little, there's nowhere to go.

And what a waste of resources. If I had access to the strings of the LSO, a grand master avant-garde sax player, and that bucket list of keyboards and synths, I'd put a bit a bit more work into it, I can tell you. Hire an arranger ffs, like Nels Cline did in his attempt at mood music.

It's actually very rare that music annoys me. If I don't like something I'm usually just, Meh! I don't care for it. Moving on. But I actively hate this album almost as much as I hate The Joshua Tree. But at least I cannot find fault in U2's competence as a commercial pop group. They do the job, deleiver the goods, despicable as they may be, just like a Merc is a top-shelf product if you're into Teutonic richmobiles, U2 is top-shelf reactionary romantic bombast. But wtf even is Promises? An assembly of hipster style-points.
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I disagree with your opinion as I am quite fond of this album but I applaud your willingness not to mince about your feelings.

Go hard or go home.
 
thefsb said:
The Floating Points album Promises that got so much attention last year is worse than boring, it's infuriating. Clearly it's pretty light in terms of musical ideas, but that's not a problem in itself (I'll gladly listen to long Morton Feldman or Éliane Radigue recordings). It's an hour long repetition of C minor arpeggios that keep banging back at any attempts to improvise, forcing the soloist to conform to its mechanical insistence on RESOLVING between one C minor arpeggio and a slightly different one, back and forth in a cloying simulation of emotional tension. No wonder Pharaoh plays so little, there's nowhere to go.

And what a waste of resources. If I had access to the strings of the LSO, a grand master avant-garde sax player, and that bucket list of keyboards and synths, I'd put a bit a bit more work into it, I can tell you. Hire an arranger ffs, like Nels Cline did in his attempt at mood music.

It's actually very rare that music annoys me. If I don't like something I'm usually just, Meh! I don't care for it. Moving on. I actively hate this album almost as much as I hate The Joshua Tree. But at least I cannot find fault in U2's competence as a commercial pop group. They do the job, deleiver the goods, despicable as they may be, just like a Merc is a top-shelf product if you're into Teutonic richmobiles, U2 is top-shelf reactionary romantic bombast. But wtf even is Promises? An assembly of hipster style-points.
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I once took a date to see a performance of feldman’s piano with string quartet. It was a transformative experience. It’s a shame his music more prominent. Surprisingly the date was impressed.
 
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Dtknuckles said:
I once took a date to see a performance of feldman’s piano with string quartet.
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Oh, wow. Ballsy move.

When I was 19 I took a cute French chic who was spending a summer in the home counties to a Prom. Top of the bill was Harrison Birtwistle's Earth Dances (BBS SO under Eötvös). It was an unforgettable experience. All I can remember of my companion was that she was cute, French and I got nowhere with her. But the music was life changing. This story was briefly mentioned in the Gas Giants ep Birtwistle - A Round of Drinks with Ken Ueno.

Dtknuckles said:
It was a transformative experience. It’s a shame his music more prominent. Surprisingly the date was impressed.
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And....?
 
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thefsb said:
And....?
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I was not to invested in the date. We hung out a couple of times. I did take a cute Chilean girl to a Belle and Sebastian show one time. She was not really interested in me, I can’t blame her for going though. It was a once in a lifetime chance for her. The show was sold out. I was happy enough to be able to provide that for her. She did compliment me about the fact that I didn’t talk during the show.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I was not to invested in the date. We hung out a couple of times. I did take a cute Chilean girl to a Belle and Sebastian show one time. She was not really interested in me, I can’t blame her for going though. It was a once in a lifetime chance for her. The show was sold out. I was happy enough to be able to provide that for her. She did compliment me about the fact that I didn’t talk during the show.
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I took a girl to see The Cure once in 2004.
We’ve been married almost 15 years now.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I was not to invested in the date. We hung out a couple of times. I did take a cute Chilean girl to a Belle and Sebastian show one time. She was not really interested in me, I can’t blame her for going though. It was a once in a lifetime chance for her. The show was sold out. I was happy enough to be able to provide that for her. She did compliment me about the fact that I didn’t talk during the show.
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Viking Dan said:
I took a girl to see The Cure once in 2004.
We’ve been married almost 15 years now.
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I took a girl to Bon Iver, she took me to The Tallest Man on Earth, then I took her to Xiu Xiu and that scared her off and she ghosted me.
 
Viking Dan said:
That sucks.
We have some friends that are doing the same thing you are... I can't imagine what that is like.
Sorry.
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Yea last night was a bad night. It began by me I stepping on a landmine of my own anger and ended with me cleaning up my 6year old’s vomit.

Ok that it I’m done hijacking this thread with middle age woes.
 
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Hemotep said:
I took a girl to Bon Iver, she took me to The Tallest Man on Earth, then I took her to Xiu Xiu and that scared her off and she ghosted me.
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I like this topic! What’s the worst concert to take a date on?


My experience with the Feldman concert was “bold”, but I’m going to chock it up to my attitude of, “I like weird music and if you are gonna like me you are gonna have to deal with that.”
 
Dtknuckles said:
I like this topic! What’s the worst concert to take a date on?


My experience with the Feldman concert was “bold”, but I’m going to chock it up to my attitude of, “I like weird music and if you are gonna like me you are gonna have to deal with that.”
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I mean concerts are something you do with someone you are in a relationship with. I don’t want the baggage of a bad date ruining a concert experience. Then again, I’ve been married for 8 years now and wasn’t the most prolific dater to begin with.
 
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