What a splendidly infantile provocation!

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While checking out the Table of the Elements stuff available from Forced Exposure, I came across a record called Thunderboy which is basically Tony Conrad's (of '4 Violins' + early minimalism fame) 2 year old son mucking about on some turntables in 1973/74.

The FE site has this, amongst other things, to say about it "If, to paraphrase the archetypal Philistine's response to an abstract painting, a two-year-old can do it, does that diminish the accomplishment of the seasoned turntablist who has dedicated years to mastering the wheels of steel and cultivating its staccato language? Or, rather, does it affirm some unerringly democratic quality inherent in the very act of scratching and spinning, that a mere toddler could create hypnotic and deconstruct pop banalities into perversely humorous after-the-fact commentaries on the star-making machinery? What a splendidly infantile provocation!"

What do we think?

― hmmm, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd buy it

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.forcedexposure.com/labels/table.of.the.elements.html most of the way down the page.

to you sir - $14.50

― hmmm, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"If, to paraphrase the archetypal Philistine's response to an abstract painting, a two-year-old can do it, does that diminish the accomplishment of the seasoned violinist who has dedicated years to mastering the instrument and cultivating its melodic language? Or, rather, does it affirm some unerringly democratic quality inherent in the very act of bowing and plucking, that a mere toddler could create dull [shouldn't there be a word here?] and deconstruct post-classical or rock banalities into noisy drones that go on and on and on and on and on? What a splendidly boring provocation!"

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Fucking Brilliant. I like Mr. Conrad's work and I though that post was awesome. I think he's going to far with this toddler nonsense though.

― hmmm, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

'too'. I hate it when that happens.

― hmmm, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a little more schizy about his work. I own the Early Minimalism set and find it only good for the first five minutes of any given piece; the Faust set never moved me; and his REICH AND GLASS SERVE IMPERIALISM line (in the EM liner notes) is utterly laughable.

I just don't see what's inherently democratic about using turntables, as opposed to any other instrument.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

good point, now that you mention it.

― hmmm, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

EY3 LOVE MINGA = 10 month old Minga vs. EY3 (Boredoms)

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

REICH AND GLASS SERVE IMPERIALISM - you do know that's sort of a pun/joke on Cardew's Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, yeah?

― hstencil, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, yeah.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

(Sorry.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

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