DJ RUPTURE'S TOP 5 PROBLEMS WITH TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR LISTS

"people shouldn't write about music cos it's pointless. however here are my utterly loaded opinions about various things, listen to me I am a minor indie dj"

I don't recognise Ronan's abbreviation of that piece at all.

This is so true, and it is really really really sad, and not something the general public seems to be aware of (maybe they just don't care)

I wouldn't call rupture a minor dj, he's one of my favorites... but he's wrong here.

But both /rupture and ILM have latched onto another model for appreciating excellence, the mixtape/mixCD (sorry, still stuck in the mid-'90s tech-wise)...

it just bothers me when "i like listening to something long-ish with a decent scope instead of skipping from track to track like someone with ADD" moves directly to "albums are good, singles are bad" which moves directly to "i'm racist" without any deliberation on the part of the accusing idealogue. it's true that if i'm choosing between a handful of three-minute singles, i'm much more likely to pick missy then the shins, but then you've got tons of hip-hop (Liquid Swords, 36 Chambers, Illmatic, MF Doom) or whatever that works wonders in an album format and WAY better than comparably album-oriented indie/canonical stuff. so yeah, just because someone's looking for an album/cohesive statement doesn't mean that person is William Bennett.

If he implied that, I missed it.

I have a lot of sympathy for this short diatribe. I think the idea of critical payola is key: Maybe the next Pazz & Jop should ask critics which albums on the list they paid for. Not that writers discriminate between albums based one what they paid, but there's no question (in my mind) that certain albums and singles would do better in polls if they were mass mailed to critics across the country for free.

I also sympathize with his view of scenes versus recordings. Top Tens are often the only year-long summary the media offers readers to describe music in the world around them. So inadequate. And Pazz&Jop entirely leaves out live music.

He's also right about "the best" being in retrospect. How many of us critics are embarassed by Top Tens only a few months later? My goal is to start creating a running Top 100 albums and singles (with hundreds of runners up and a mixtape format, too) for the decade, or maybe for all time, which allows for late discoveries, reconsideration, and songs that stand the test of time.

I like lists, I just think they should be subjective and personal and a source for further argument. People do pay attention to these things, even the supposed downloading majority.

Naive creature. I could show you credit card bills that would stun you.

Whoa. And here I've been reading the Village Voice all these years, thinking "where do they come up with this stuff? Are they on drugs?"

Meanwhile, back in the rest of the world, we kick the ball over the fence and then get pleasantly surprised when next door's cabbage patch grows pretty flowers. There is no conspiracy.

this is such a weak comparison imo. me not caring about Anticon has nothing to with what rules they do or do not break, trust me Mr. Rupture.

WOW!!! That's me... except for the well-paying day job... and the honor... and the voting... and the savings............

do critics really not buy a lot of CDs? Enlighten me. This is a serious questions. I'm naive here, people.

Can't speak for anyone else, but this critic buys a lot of CDs. And vinyl. I'm not the promosexual I used to be. And even then, I was spending loads on music. But I was DJing more then, too.

Here's a stock response to anyone who criticizes how the music media work. If there's a conspiracy being outlined above, I missed that, too...

This is seriously fucked up: http://www.negrophonic.com/2009/charles-holgate-and-the-publicity-game/

thats pretty shady, ive always heard Zzzonked were one of the few clued up music publicists working out of london. Thats said, a brief stint in music PR was one of the grimmest things i've ever done. I'd been involved with running some long term successful events but 90% of the time i was being hassled by my boss who knew shit all about music to try and punt out albums to mags/websites which would have no interest. It was genuinely embarrassing, the whole industry is ran by clueless public school kids who can afford to spend a year as an intern and start on 12k simply because it'll impress folks back in the shires

I didn't know that dude was an MC - I got a mailout from him about FWD>> the other day which was written in, uh, grime MC parlance, which I found slightly odd and uncharacteristic at the time

Also I 'unno who Beccy Lindon is but she sounds like a douche and/or someone who can't read properly

nomad doesnt strike me as a public school boy based on what ive heard of his show with plastician but that rupture blog entry was v interesting. wonder what happened.

Comments are closed.

not only that, article has been removed.

probably for the best. even if it's all true, i don't think it looks that professional to post it publicly like that (although i guess it got the desired result).

So what was the deal with this?

Can someone post the original article here?

I missed it on the blog.

musician/publicist beef

here's a google cache, up for a little while.

basically he got money and a couple of hundred promo CDs from the label that put out rupture's recent mix CD. then he didn't return calls or emails for six months, and when they finally got a hold of him he couldn't explain the promo work he'd done or where the CDs had gone. rupture's blaming him for not getting the mix CD into any magazines, shops or online review sources.

more curious about the comments box, personally.

(although i guess it got the desired result).

It probably got a threatening cease-and-desist letter. It was a facsinating post, tho.

is funny that a lot of djs seem to think dubstep-based stuff is malleable enough to mix up with other stuff (i think in many cases it is) when as you say it can be as 'alienating' as angry dnb

well it raises the question of whether dude wants to be an "everybody fun time" dj or a guy who's being , i guess, a bit more didactic with his dj sets? i don't really have an opinion either way, i do hate it when djs ignore what the crowd clearly wants, but at the same time i can see that /rupture is on a bit of a different mission

i mean thats the hard part about DJing! ppl venerate harvey partly because he'll spin a set where you know zero tracks but he sequences/selects so well that it doesnt matter ... thats incredibly hard to do

fair point!

i mean its fine if rupture wants to spin for rupture fans -- i just felt a lil sheepish inviting ppl who arent really into that kind of thing like "you guys will have a good time" & then they're all like :-/

i'm not sure i'd take that sort of casual dancer to a dj rupture show?

also clowning dubstep for being ~DIFFICULT~ music that only BOY NERDS are into doesn't work when, y'know, we get top 10 dubstep hits these days

on your island nation of boy nerds

i think for my personal taste the combination of eclecticism w/out the sparks of a, like, common aesthetic net (like balaeric or quiet storm or...etc) with obscurity make his sets harder to dance to for extended periods ... if he stuck w/ obscurity but kept a common groove (an all-uk funky set or w/e), or if he was all over the place but was dropping in more cheese/pop remixes (& the occasional wu sample sorta has the opposite effect, i think), then it would feel more 'balanced' for the kind of set i like to go out & dance all nite to

but otoh i do think his sets are interesting/educational. damning w/ faint praise maybe, but im serious about not being bored -- just not really feeling compelled to dance

naw i felt kinda the same way when i saw him...

i'm not sure i'd take that sort of casual dancer to a dj rupture show?

― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Thursday, December 16, 2010 10:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

haa. id think the 'casual dancer' is the guy downloading dubstep shows & checking out rupture live at the empty bottle, not the teachers who go dancing at evil olive every weekend

but that jab aside i know what you mean & i realize that now -- i guess i just had been given a diff impression abt his sets

max OTM

u can dance in olive gardens in chicago??

only the evil ones

when you're there, you're family

evil olive is a palindrome :O

Ned Rag evil Olive Garden

~whoa~

amazing

O:

did we just discover we're in the matrix or something

Ned Rag evil Olive Garden is also an anagram of

Ned. A Dealer, Glove Virgin.

Ned: A Gargled Revive Lion

"common aesthetic net (like balaeric or quiet storm or...etc) with obscurity make his sets harder to dance to for extended periods"

I actually totally agree with this btw. /rupture is a great dj, but he's not really a "let's all dance all nite to this great dj" kind of dj.

it just didnt feel like he was maintaining the vibe

yeah ok this is a thing -- the one time i saw him dj i did think he maintained a vibe, and i danced and kept dancing, and the people around seemed to be doing the same, but it's true that it was ~eclectic~. But unless I'm going out to a house or techno night I don't really expect the music to stick to one groove or one theme? And while recognising stuff is pretty fun, it isn't exactly essential. (also i fucking hate the whole 'cheese' thing)

idk, i really like dancing, so.

Ned: A Gargled Revive Lion

This I can see.

i love /rupture's original post. great think-piece by a respectable musician (which, i suppose, is simply par for the course for his writing). if i were to respond, in the midst of making my own year-end albums list, it'd be as such:

# 3. First off: pretty much nobody who bothers to write up a "top X albums of the year" list actually buys albums.

agree this is lame. which is why i don't put albums on my year-end list that i haven't gone out of my way to buy, listen through and absorb thoroughly (i.e. at least 4-5 times, often many more).

#1 My first problem with top 10 music lists is that applying hierarchies to artistic endeavors is absurd at best. It's like talking about the weather using superlatives ("April 9th was the best sunny day of 2004!").
I'm not into dudes with big record collections pretending they can build a canon, or even wanting to try.

agree. what if it's not positioned as canon-building, or applying a hierarchy, but more along the lines of, "here's a snapshot of what i really enjoyed listening to in 20xx"?

#4 My fourth problem with top 10s is my lack of a problem. People ask me to write Top 10 lists, I oblige. Everybody needs filters. Everybody has new stuff to learn from people whose tastes they trust.

precisely. i read year-end lists to learn what people i trust have enjoyed in a given year (and then explore many of those albums myself). i write my own lists because lots of irl family/friends/acquaintances are well aware i have a deep, long-standing interest in music, and are curious what i've been listening to, or would recommend. for me, it's a basic crowd-sourcing exercise, in both directions.

#6 Problem number six: why start & stop at music? I want to see anybody's Top 10 Scary Pieces of Legislation Passed in 2004. Or the Top 10 Non-imaginary Threats to Healthy Democracies in 2004.

The Top 10 Everything of 2010
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2035319,00.html

btw the ned raggett anagrams in this thread are A+

I definitely see things in relation to Italian chain restaurants in a new light.

one thing that's changed since rupture's original statement is that it's a lot easier for the likes of me to listen to a lot more albums (and if it wasn't for this i would probably not have maintained half the interest i do in EOY lists and album-centric criticism generally).

I think rupture was more interesting when pop actually reflected somewhat aspects of his aesthetic - "get ur freak on", "oochie wally" etc - this acted as the pop flavor to his sets without being all underscored "look, cheesy pop music!"

the replacement of that stuff by dubstep in the stitching together role reduces not just the recognition quotient but also the colour and, I think, the thematic intensity, though I did quite like Uprooted or whatever it was called.

I liked hearing him drop a track from the new Gil Scott Heron album when I saw him

didn't his last album come out earlier this year -- Solar Life Raft? i'll find a spot for that at year's end, it's really good!

I liked hearing him drop a track from the new Gil Scott Heron album when I saw him

― o tannenbaum, o judge (crüt), Thursday, December 16, 2010 3:36 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thats cool but w/ his asethetic id rather he drop like 'the bottle' or something ... production on the new one is too close to his stuff as is

Yeah Solar Life Raft is from earlier in the year. It's kind of Uproot Jr, I guess, but pretty much inferior in every way.

hey, you're mean

Sorry, I generally really like /rupture and his mixes, but that one struck me as being filled with pretty ho hum tracks.

http://pitchfork.com/news/44101-new-release-nettle-el-resplandor-the-shining-in-dubai/

Interesting concept. On Sub Rosa!

nice

Nicely sharing all of his major (minus the 58.46 one) mixes from 2001-2012:

http://www.negrophonic.com/dj-rupture-mixes-free-download/

This stuff still sounds fresh to my ears after all these years.

haha i was like 'oh jeez do we seriously have to talk about his stupid meta list EVERY december?'

Hahaha this was the /rupture thread with the most recent posts so I just used it. Sorry.

s'cool

sick

genuinely the most teeth rattling bass i've ever experienced was Rupture at Primavera a few years back. I was way too hungover to deal with it. Remember he played some Four Tops remix that was very sick

I think his remarks could withstand some more discussion. I don't see anyone saying it in this thread but I'm sure it's been said here before, if not by me then someone else. The LP is a format designed primarily for marketing purposes. It is a way to tack on extra value to a collection of singles, basically. It's also very limited by physical constraints.

Sure some artists manage to break out of the limitations of this format but increasingly few, I'd say 99.9% of albums contain a significant amount of filler. I guess I do have an issue with ADD because I find it really hard to take anymore. I'd rather hear 10 original songs with unique perspectives from 10 artists than 10 songs by 1 artist, with 8 of them being a watered-down rehash of the original concept. I've listened to a total of maybe 2 albums this year honestly. One would probably get some love from fans of /rupture -- Romanian Dan Habarnam's uniquely heavy and cosmic take on minimalist bass music, released on dBridge's exit records. And of course the other one was Jiaolong.

So...any recommendations on top mixes to check out from what /rupture is offering? Thanks for putting those up.

Gold Teeth Thief and Uproot are the "famous" ones. I like Minesweeper Suite and Porque Soy Sonidero Y Voy A Muchos Lugares a lot too.

...in honour of the original post, we should probably rank all the mixes...

Gold Teeth Thief was pretty formative for me, and later on I listened to Uproot & Solar Life Raft a bunch when they came out. Change the Mood is a dope 2012 club set, and has the most personal association for me (there's a great remix of one of my tracks on there for one). Looking forward to going through some of the ones I've missed.

Alright in order of personal preference:

Gold Teeth Thief
Porque Soy Sonidero Y Voy A Muchos Lugares
Minesweeper Suite
58.46 Mix (not available on the site because apparently Jace doesn't love it)
Uproot
2004 Post-Election Mix (also not on the site)
Low Income Tomorrowland
Bidoun Sessions (Mutamussik mix on same CD just below Minesweeper Suite for me though)
Secret Google Cheat Codes
Cumbia Mix for BBC1
Solar Life Raft

Everything up to Secret Google Cheat Codes is excellent and got quite a bit of play. The 2011-12 mixes I don't much recall. I have some other things of his (a great hour long set from Maida Vale from 2002, a 90 minute one for Resonance FM from 2004, a live set from 2005 I think, 3 hours of ambient mixes he did for a WFMU giveaway) that are all worthwhile as while. And his WFMU radio show (despite me no longer having the time/energy to listen much to it) is generally great too.

#6 Problem number six: why start & stop at music? I want to see anybody's Top 10 Scary Pieces of Legislation Passed in 2004. Or the Top 10 Non-imaginary Threats to Healthy Democracies in 2004.

Lol