kode 9 video interview @ Remixhotel NY City

[seckle]

in case people haven't seen it.

kode 9 interviewed for Remix Hotel NYC , May 2007.

http://remixhotel.com/Remix_TV/

[blackdown]

anyone heard her "band?"

[thomas e. griffin]

Wicked interview. I do like that lady's surprise at the the suggestion of using dissonance to create a 'dark' mood.

Seriously though, it's nice to hear Kode chatting about tonal and harmonic dissonance and his connection with the hip-hop sublime. Ever since I heard 9 samurai I've found the restrained and painstaking layering in his work fascinating.

Thanks for the link mate.

And Martin Clark, if you think you could do a better job of interviewing kode than that gyal then please do. (Seriously, please do. That Mala interview a coupla months back was ace).

[baz]

It's an interesting argument Kode9's making, that 'schooled' musical knowledge restricts what a musician will risk using since there's a kind of foreknowledge of how 'good' or 'bad' a note or progression will sound. I dunno if I agree to be honest, the decision to sound 'dark' or dissonant is there to be made regardless of whether you know the names of the intervals you've just used in creating the sound or not... I think it's implied that a degree of censorship exists, apparently caused by the theoretical knowledge, that removes 'incorrect' notes before they're even considered. But there's a whole wealth of theory about dissonance to be accounted for in that case so maybe that's only looking at a pretty low level of training, pentatonic scale business or whatever. Maybe it's that people lacking inspiration turn to studying theory to make up for it and produce bland music that keeps within the limits of whatever rules they've adopted. But there's an equal amount of bland music made by theoretically naive musicians (how many two note riffs have you heard recently?)...

[prisoner]

that interviewer is horrible : (

"ummm....you know....like....."

ugh.

kode9 making some excellent points as always though.

[seckle]

anyone heard her "band?"

lol.

[westernsynthetics]

I dont know that I agree with Kode9 here.

I will make the point that it goes both ways.

While a trained musician may be restricted to what he or she can do due to their knowlege of musical theory, an untrained musician is certainly restricted due to their lack of knowledge of musical theory.

Basicly If you know the rules, you know how to break them better.
So by genralising and saying that a trained musician is restricted to the confines of his or her theoretical knowledge can be true for some however, the "virtuoso's" with a radical minset are far better equipped to challenge the foundations of musical theory purely because they have an intricate understaing of the theroy itself.

If i can throw out a hypothetical and say that a Revolutionary Marxist is far better equipped to smash Capitalisim than a Leftist with Reformist views.

Just because the Marxist has a more intrticate understanding of Capitalism than the reformist doesnt mean he is more confined by it. Quite the contrary, it is ONLY through the Marxist's studies in the theory of Capital that the Comrade understands how to break down the rules and challenge the system.

[westernsynthetics]

any cats care to refute/agree with my contribution?

[atealtha]

Basicly If you know the rules, you know how to break them better.
So by genralising and saying that a trained musician is restricted to the confines of his or her theoretical knowledge can be true for some however, the "virtuoso's" with a radical minset are far better equipped to challenge the foundations of musical theory purely because they have an intricate understaing of the theroy itself.

Co-sign 1000%.

It's not like the non-trained ones are always breaking new ground either. They just take more time for tunes which might fall into these rules anyway.

[jaggi]

i agree that some people can be overly consumed with theory, and lose sight of inspiration... they will make better professors than innovative musicians.