The intrigue of the anonymous artist

[WAREHOUSE]

I've been thinking a lot about this recently and just think it would be interesting discussion..

Do you think the way an artist 'handles' himself (on the internet, the shows, his consistency etc) influences how often or how much you enjoy their music?

In my opinion Actress is really good at this. He isn't completely anonymous like say Burial (who also uses this method, albeit unintentionally), but he certainly has that mystery about him. His twitter is as confusing as it is consistent, songs appear and disappear from his soundcloud account. Everything is handled in a classy way.

You may think the majority of artists who use these tactics make the sort of music that lends itself to acting in a certain way. Labels do it too, take the excellent Opal Tapes, who have popped up from no where, run a quiet little blog, and sell only cassettes (without distribution) from its unknown artists and now have backing from Boomkat on vinyl etc.

Even people like Joy Orbison to it to a point. The guy is VERY selective with his interviews, press shots, the amount of mixes he has ever put out. He does it right. Especially for a guy who is in such demand and doesn't exactly make 'left-field' music.

What do you lot think then? As much as we don't like to admit it sometimes, style of substance does come in to play. I have definitely paid more attention to artists such as Actress, Oneohtrix Point Never etc based on the way they handle themselves as artists. Even stuff like the Karenn project and Joy Orbison/Boddika project... the releases are quiet until they come out, artwork is consistent etc.

Nothing worse in my opinion than when an artist is everywhere, indifferent output on different labels, soundcloud has 500 songs on and their tweeting an instagram picture of their microwave meal commenting on the xfactor result.

Discuss.

[skwiggo]

tbh it's nice when there's some distance between audience and artist. it's been a tactic for producers since people like basic channel and UR did it in the 90s. and in some cases - burial in particular, it's very effective. i agree about actress and joy orbison too. joy o has only done like two or three printed interviews and it's never seemed gimmicky - just more 'let the music speak for itself' sort of thing. in some ways it's pretty uncompromising - i think both burial and joy o could have much greater mainstream success if they decided to open up more but they've chosen not to which is admirable.

the problem i find now is folk have cottoned onto the 'anonymity' in dance music thing and now it's turned into a really gimmicky thing - remember the unknown #001-004 releases that have come around recently or Akkord, or some brostep producer deciding 'i iz techno now' and putting a gimp mask on to hide their identity. there's a difference between being low key and being deliberately anonymous as a marketing gimmick. everyone was going on about objekt being anonymous when he first came out with tinderbox/clk recovery etc. but he was just low key - you could find out who he was if you were on this forum easily at the time. these new producers are just using it because they've seen other producers do it. and it's not intriguing when its forced like that IMO.

[skell1ngton777]

Yes it has gotten a bit cliche and gimmicky... But i think you can tell if a person is just low key or if everything about them is contrived.

Like the weeknd.. the whole 'mystery' vibe was so obviously calculated.. its a bit silly. I suppose it achieved the desired result however and now he can collaborate with the great drakl and make sad songs about how much he gets laid.

[test_recordings]

Good example: Led Zeppelin.

Never did interviews, never released singles, and were the second best selling artists in the UK until recent years when manufactured shite took over.

That`s how music should be sold.

[WAREHOUSE]

Yes it has gotten a bit cliche and gimmicky... But i think you can tell if a person is just low key or if everything about them is contrived.

Like the weeknd.. the whole 'mystery' vibe was so obviously calculated.. its a bit silly. I suppose it achieved the desired result however and now he can collaborate with the great drakl and make sad songs about how much he gets laid.

yeh worked though... i actually think he's lost a bit of his appeal since 'going public'... either that or the mixtapes just progressively worse.

Just seen some video of Actress at the TATE and he's speaking over it.... doesn't sound at all like i thought.

[skell1ngton777]

Yes it has gotten a bit cliche and gimmicky... But i think you can tell if a person is just low key or if everything about them is contrived.

Like the weeknd.. the whole 'mystery' vibe was so obviously calculated.. its a bit silly. I suppose it achieved the desired result however and now he can collaborate with the great drakl and make sad songs about how much he gets laid.

yeh worked though... i actually think he's lost a bit of his appeal since 'going public'... either that or the mixtapes just progressively worse.

Just seen some video of Actress at the TATE and he's speaking over it.... doesn't sound at all like i thought.

I think maybe the reason that he has lost appeal for a lot of people is that his appeal was based on something flaky and unsustainable in the first place, i.e. the whole internet mystery man thing.

I'm not going to lie though, i did get pulled in by the whole thing as much as everyone else did, at least at first

[WAREHOUSE]

I've always been drawn to his choice of name too... Actress, the androgynous nature to it was a great idea, if thats what he meant to do.

[skell1ngton777]

I have often wondered about that too..

It was his name that first stood out to me before i heard any of his music, for what it's worth.

[WAREHOUSE]

there is something online about why he picked that name... i'll try and find it.

[chekov]

it's interesting you mention joy orbison because although i agree that the way he's gone about interviews and lack of press hype definitely adds to his public persona or whatever, what about sicko cell?

i remember seeing a ridiculously long thread on here speculating on here who made it and it definitely added to the hype around the tune and meant it got rinsed to death before release

[Soul_Of_Seun]

I agree with all the points made so far.

And Yes, I think it definitely is about personality. I think it comes down to the introversion/extroversion spectrum, and personal honor and integrity. An extrovert may enjoy the spotlight a little more than an introvert and want to be seen just as much as their music. An introverted personality may be more selective with who they let in. Some artists are simply just cautious about how their music is received and so carefully examine who they interact with and how.

I also like some space between myself and the people I listen to. Since I don't know them as a person and likely never will, it's not that important I know their every thought, opinion or what kind of person they are. Quality of music isn't limited to what a person looks or acts like.

A perfect example is Kanye West. His antics and hyper personality often are overshadowing, and many people dismiss his music as a result of his obnoxious attitude and choices which is a shame, because his music is mostly spectacular.

That said, I do appreciate artists who heavily interact with their fan-base and/or the music scene just as well. All comes down to personal preferences.

[incnic]

i fuckoing hated:

'unknown 1- 4 '
sbtkers mask
disclosures 'cute drawn face' thing b2b naive asos primark clean and cute feel
the road 94 mask thing is fuckign awfukl s well

[dickman69]

unknown artists build more hype than hype artists imo

some unknown releases are absolute shit

[skwiggo]

it's interesting you mention joy orbison because although i agree that the way he's gone about interviews and lack of press hype definitely adds to his public persona or whatever, what about sicko cell?

i remember seeing a ridiculously long thread on here speculating on here who made it and it definitely added to the hype around the tune and meant it got rinsed to death before release

thats a good point but i'm not sure it was intentional: to quote andrew ryce reviewing the track for RA:

That Joy O(rbison) would want to separate his identity from these tracks (even after "Sicko Cell" blew up) doesn't feel like a publicity stunt, though the mystery certainly didn't hurt the track's universal appeal. Instead, considering the producer's move towards house—"Wade In," "Source Delight," "Ellipsis"—"Sicko Cell" feels like a one-off bout of dubstep-friendly regression in his current progression. I still don't know if it's genius or gimmick, but whatever it is, it works.

^if this was the case he might of not expected the anonymity to contribute to the tracks popularity intentionally. or maybe he did and i'm just being an apologist for the guy i dunno lol

also i think his stuff will always gets rinsed to death anyway, anonymity or not - on his latest mix loefah's still playing swims, dun dun and ellipsis ffs. that big room tech tool one is starting to be overplayed too IMO.

[incnic]

new artist
would u buy his / her music?
Y/N?

its house with a dubstep bassline

[skwiggo]

^already preordered off redeye m8

[BonerJams04]

new artist
would u buy his / her music?
Y/N?

its house with a dubstep bassline

wht did you have to foogle to find that

[incnic]

ur mum standardly m6

[YourDad]

^ Loving this shit typing
m6 hahaha

[Lucifa]

yeah definitely, at the end of the day you're trying to dettach as much as possible from being just a bloke sat behind a computer messing about on a DAW.

It's why artists like Burial talk about knocking together samples in a basic set-up, and somehow *accidentally* ending up with a masterpiece. Artists who claim to use ancient analog synths rather than your bog-standard soft-synths. All about being a kind of flawed genius that throws together music in 30 minutes (Zomby lol) rather then admitting that it actually takes a lot of fucking effort to perfect.

Also think a forum account doesnt help if you ever want your music taken seriously