M.I.A.‘s politics worked in the same way, making the particular brutalities of oppression in Liberia or Sri Lanka danceable by lumping them into a vague condition of sexy global distress. “She’s not exploring subcultures so much as visiting them,” Scott Plagenhoef wrote in a review of her first album, Arular, “grabbing souvenirs and laying them out on acetate.” Plagenhoef didn’t see anything wrong with this, although in true Pitchfork style, he made sure to let you know that some people might object: “An in-depth examination of demonizing The Other, the relationship between the West and developing nations, or the need to empathize with one’s enemies would likely make for a pretty crappy pop song.” Around the same time, a contributor reviewing M.I.A.‘s live concert defended her politics in a similar vein. “Maybe that’s how brilliantly innocuous Arular actually is,” he wrote. “It subtly imprints manifestoes in the brain, inspiring the masses to pull up the poor, without ever really teaching how or why.” Reading these strained, convoluted efforts to justify the cultural exploitation of global violence, I began to wonder why Pitchfork’s writers had such trouble saying the things they knew to be true. Maybe it was because they felt the truth would make for crappy pop songs, and that therefore the best thing would be to ignore it.Say what you will about M.I.A.'s music (which I happen to like quite a lot) but she has every right to process the facts of her life through her art. She's not some revolution tourist, picking up random Third World causes to accessorize her personality. She's a refugee from the Sri Lankan civil war. Her father was on the run from Sri Lankan authorities for his advocacy for Tamil rights. I'm not saying you have to agree with her political opinions, but let her make art from her life experiences without accusing her of cultural exploitation.
Her father remained in Sri Lanka (whenever they saw each other, he was introduced to Maya as her uncle, so that the children wouldn’t inadvertently reveal his identity). Maya claims that she has not seen him in years. Diplo told me a different story. “I met her dad in London with her,” he said. “He was very interested in sustainable living and was teaching in London. But he wasn’t a good father.” Whatever the truth is, Maya has gone from trumpeting her father’s revolutionary past in order to claim that lineage to playing down his politics to support a separate narrative. “He was with the Sri Lankan government,” she now maintained, when I saw her in Los Angeles. “He’s been with them for 20 years. They just made up the fact that he is a Tiger so they can talk crap about me.” (Her father could not be reached for comment.)And then there's the fact that M.I.A. is herself criticized for her pro-violence support for the Tamil Tigers, "one of the most organized, effective and brutal terrorist groups in the world" (according to Time Magazine, for what it's worth).
Here's the concept: four CDs to be played simultaneously, creating some sort of quadraphonic stereo sound by which you may smoke hash or perhaps stare at your lava lamp.Good news, Pitchfork reviewer from the past! The Flaming Lips gives you food AND music! One word of warning: they were $150, so you could probably buy three more used CD players (or invite three friends with their own CD players and buy some pizza for them) for less than one gummy skull/vagina.
Here's the reality: Do I wanna buy three more CD players with which to enjoy Zaireeka or, say, eat?
A Pitchfork review may ignore history, aesthetics, or the basic technical aspects of tonal music, but it will almost never fail to include a detailed taxonomy of the current hype cycle and media environment. This is a small, petty way of thinking about a large art....posted by hyperizer at 5:32 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
Music began to register the overabundance of supply almost immediately by inventing a new subgenre of dance song that made it possible to listen to your whole music library at once: the mashupOverabundance of supply, music availability post-Napster, is the discussion there. It follows into "what's the role of a review magazine/site if money isn't your limiting factor." But back to the discussion of mashups in the article, it's about cross-genre-mashing, no intra-genre mixes. A dance-pop song (Genie in a Bottle) mixed with a pop rock song (“Hard to Explain” by The Strokes) was fairly novel (but not completely so -- see The Whipped Cream Mixes, or hear a sample, from 1996).
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posted by escabeche at 4:00 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]