wtf is kode9 on about?

[tone.def]

sometimes i wonder just wtf kode9 is talking about. is he taking the piss or what? no disrespect but wtf is he talking about here?:

_____________________________

Can you outline what you mean by concepts such as ‘echoplex’, ‘echology of fear’, and ‘bass materialism’?

Methodologically, 'bass materialism' is a strain of machinic or virtual materialism. I use the concept as a way of opening up the politics of vibration, its forcefields. As opposed to a bass fundamentalism, I’m interested in vibration as micro-rhythm or micro-relation, so I use this as a way of accessing the rhythmic continuum which cuts across the urban frequency spectrum, constructing a cultural tectonics. I am interested in a vibrational rhythmanalysis of the control city.

Post 9/11, the capitalization of fear has intensified. Fear becomes an autonomous ambience. Because I’m trying to think all this sonically, then Eno's weightless, rhythmless notion of ambience needs to be supplemented by a dread inducing notion of ambience and bass magnets illuminate this quite well - the punitive caress, the ambivalence of attraction/repulsion etc. The concepts of the echoplex or the echology of fear tries to probe the abstract machine of positive feedback in the affective climate of Western sprawls. On a delay unit, there is a feedback control. Across a certain threshold, the delayed sound spirals out of control, become detached from its actual source. I think this is what has happened with fear. The virtual threat of terrorism or viruses doesn't need to actualize any more, as all is needed is the signs of alarm. Actual fear has become autonomous, opening a potential to activate unpredictable affective escalations. An ambient state of emergency guided by a political uncertainty principle: avian flu multiplied by asymmetric warfare.
_________________________________

this is taken from an interview in Fact Magazine(http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/da/42229). can't wait for the new album to drop. really loving the kode9-burial-spaceape axis, but can anybody explain just wtf this stuff means?

[shards]

[robotic]

yea smoke more ganja and the mysteries of the earth will reveal themselves to you...

[smog]

[ramadanman]

On a delay unit, there is a feedback control. Across a certain threshold, the delayed sound spirals out of control, become detached from its actual source. I think this is what has happened with fear. The virtual threat of terrorism or viruses doesn't need to actualize any more, as all is needed is the signs of alarm. Actual fear has become autonomous, opening a potential to activate unpredictable affective escalations. An ambient state of emergency guided by a political uncertainty principle: avian flu multiplied by asymmetric warfare.

i thought this bit was really interesting

[dq]

all about DREAD

[hate recordings]

i think you just proved my own theroy to myself, lol

my trap is shut fo sho

[boomnoise]

it seems convoluted (which it is) it seems theory-laden (which it kinda is) but break it down and it's actually 'quite' straight forward.

[ekaj]

Quite a nice theory. He really does think in sounds eh!

[djshiva]

damn. kode 9 just won me over even more.

i can't help it. i love people who have put that much thought into their music...

basically what i got out of it is that he is using the sounds (specifically the bass) in his tunes as a microcosmic representation of the presence of a continuous overall presence of fear and dread in society as a control mechanism.

like in the last part, he is basically saying the state of politics/society right now is that you don't even need actual terrorists or terrorist attacks anymore, when the fear factor and the random uses of terror alerts and media hype are enough to raise the fear levels and create a mechanism of control that goes even deeper than politics.

politicians don't really need to do much to control people when the populace has fear and paranoia so deeply engrained that they will ALLOW themselves to be controlled and will even inflict their own fear upon others in the form of smaller controls or even violence and racism with little to no pressure from the outside.

the feedback loop is representing how the layers of fear just build upon themselves until the "before 9/11" mind is virtually lost and all that exists is an endless supply of dread that makes the populace more pliable and obedient to any control methods used by those in power. fear has become the point, instead of political terrorism or ideology or any of the other numerous excuses given to us by terrorists OR governments...an autonomous being working under its own necessities and ideologies. it dosen't NEED to be pushed onto us anymore, when it grows exponentially of its own accord.

so the way i read this is that he is using the sounds in his music as a sonic representation of this state of fear and the multiple layers of dread/control that have been introduced into the public mind...

thoughts?

[elgato]

i find it really really frustrating, as he's obviously very intelligent, and has a great deal of intelectual creativity, but his writing style is horrible, to my mind anyways, its so unnecessarily convoluted, and laden with unnecessary 'technical' language. for me, in theoretical writing, language should be used to its full potential in articulating the precise nuance of thought, but not the point where it obstructs understanding.

but from some of a discussion i read on dissensus on the matter, it seemed to be suggested that this particular stream of thought (D&G?) aspires to some degree to create meaning through the writing style? a sort of poetry whereby the ebb and flow of the text creates significance in the context of the subject? so the convolution and laboured structures perhaps represent the mechanisms which surround us in life and the 'post-millenial mindstate'? have i firmly grasped the wrong end of the stick?

[djshiva]

i find it really really frustrating, as he's obviously very intelligent, and has a great deal of intelectual creativity, but his writing style is horrible, to my mind anyways, its so unnecessarily convoluted, and laden with unnecessary 'technical' language. for me, in theoretical writing, language should be used to its full potential in articulating the precise nuance of thought, but not the point where it obstructs understanding.

but from some of a discussion i read on dissensus on the matter, it seemed to be suggested that this particular stream of thought (D&G?) aspires to some degree to create meaning through the writing style? a sort of poetry whereby the ebb and flow of the text creates significance in the context of the subject? so the convolution and laboured structures perhaps represent the mechanisms which surround us in life and the 'post-millenial mindstate'? have i firmly grasped the wrong end of the stick?

i think you've got it, but i do tend to agree that overly academic language (while i LOVE it) can cause the meaning to be lost to the general listening public. which, in the end scheme of things, becomes kind of useless.

i have always believed you should not sacrifice your point for the sake of dumbing it down, yet at the same time you DO have to speak to your audience in a language they will understand, while still challenging.

i don't try to expound big philosophical ideas in english to a spanish speaker. wouldn't make sense. in a way, the language of academia is trying to do somewhat the same thing.

[j_j]

[elgato]

so the way i read this is that he is using the sounds in his music as a sonic representation of this state of fear and the multiple layers of dread/control that have been introduced into the public mind...

but he also says that he tries to separate his music from his theory...

so i dont know. but there's a clear link between what he says about jungle and double-time being internalised within us now and the discussion of fear.

re the style tho, obviously i enjoy the use of linguistic style to create beauty or pleasure, but his writing, as someone on dissensus said, is like joe satriani or steve vai, it seems soul-less, almost just pointless showcasing of technical ability. which im not a fan of. but im open to the idea that its use is symbolic, that theres meaning behind it, that i would appreciate

[ufo over easy]

It's not the language of academia though, really. Not standard academia anyway.

Reading the CCRU glossary helps a bit, but even that's filled with technical jargon to explain the technical jargon that confused you in the first place

Most of it's for effect I think. That crew are all well into cyberpunk and tricky word fun..

yet at the same time you DO have to speak to your audience in a language they will understand, while still challenging.

It seems to me like most of the time, their audience is themselves and their contemporaries. People who engage in continental philosophy, mythology and random occult nonsense.. so for them it's all gravy.

have i firmly grasped the wrong end of the stick?

Nah, that's pretty spot on

I'm getting into their writing slowly, but it's hard work, and leaves me feeling baffled and depressed a lot of the time

[seckle]

"writing style" is a very very subjective thing.

[boomnoise]

how's your deleuze, ben?

[pk-]

it seems soul-less, almost just pointless showcasing of technical ability.

doesn't it. i've never liked this style of writing, that press release about his album was the same sort of convoluted drivel

it seems very dubious to me that any of this is actually on his mind when he makes tunes

[ufo over easy]

how's your deleuze, ben?

Rubbish. Read a few things but missed out on the only chance I had to study this sort of stuff on my course.. taught philosophy is annoyingly restricted.

it seems very dubious to me that any of this is actually on his mind when he makes tunes

Read him a bit closer, he says it isn't and that's the way he likes it.

[boomnoise]

it seems soul-less, almost just pointless showcasing of technical ability.

doesn't it. i've never liked this style of writing, that press release about his album was the same sort of convoluted drivel

it seems very dubious to me that any of this is actually on his mind when he makes tunes

he does state that the two are seperate. that interview was conducted by another ccru associate, so it isn't surprising this language comes up.

and a lot of it isn't so much a style of writing as an idea about writing.