MetaChat - audio wallpaper

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07 January 2006

audio wallpaper →[More:]Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musiciains. Great stuff for cleaning the house. Sorry for the enormous file (77mb). Here's a shorter preview to see if it's worth it.

thanks jonmc for the phrase "audio wallpaper". i'd love to hear other possibilities...

post by: Hellbient at: 19:08 | 12 comments

I don't know if one of the fathers of minimalism would appreciate being referred to in the same phrase used to describe the new age music played in your massage therapist's office.

I already have the Nonesuch recording. Is this a different one?

posted by matildaben 07 January | 19:22

I don't know if one of the fathers of minimalism

I always thought 'minimalism' was the way you describe punk rock and hip-hop; stripping the appeal of rock and roll and R&B, respectively, down to their basic appeal, three chords and a holler in one case and a funky beat and a nasty lyric in the other. Most 'ambient' music meely struck me as pretentious muzak.

YMMV.

posted by jonmc 07 January | 19:26

Please don't tell me you've never even heard of Philip Glass, jon. Even people who've never been to a classical concert in their life have heard of him.

posted by matildaben 07 January | 19:33

I've heard of him, but that stuff's not my bag. I don't want my music to wallpaper. I want it to be a wrecking ball knocking the walls down.

posted by jonmc 07 January | 19:35

Well, that's fine, but you don't have to always go putting down other people who prefer to listen to other things.

posted by matildaben 07 January | 19:39

I'm not putting down anybody, just expressing a thought and an opinion. Don't mistake that for a value judgement.

posted by jonmc 07 January | 19:41

i would love to get a massage to this. i meant it in the best possible way, like it was from a 50s/60's sci-fi movie or something. Perhaps this (from Forbidden Planet)?

I have the ECM recording. Don't know if the Nonesuch is different.

I like the wrecking ball knocking the walls down too, but sometimes I like to cover the enormous holes with wallpaper. even punk rockers need to chill.

posted by Hellbient 07 January | 19:58

Great music, hellbient. I already have this one, but it was a good reminder to listen to it again. And man you're right... a quality massage to this soundtrack would be otherworldly, in a very good way.

matildaben: don't take jonmc personally. He likes to fight.

posted by mosch 07 January | 20:27

thanks...wow, i guess it's kinda hard to read how popular Reich is. He has been around forever I guess. I was hoping to turn at least one person on though.

This wallpaper would probably make you really paranoid, causing you to take the wrecking ball to it.

posted by Hellbient 07 January | 20:51

FYI, jonmc...
In classical music of the last 35 years, the term minimalism is sometimes applied to music which displays some or all of the following features: repetition (often of short musical phrases, with minimal variations over long periods of time) or stasis (often in the form of drones and long tones); emphasis on consonant harmony; a steady pulse. Minimalist music is sometimes very similar, currently, to electronic music and composition.

posted by agropyron 07 January | 22:37

Jeez, jon, why derail this thread? Talk about your non-sequiturs. Or were you just being deliberately obtuse?

Minimalism in classical and "minimalism" in rock and roll are, if this isn't too much of a stretch, two different and highly unrelated things. It's probably not coincidental, however, that they developed around the same time.

And even punk rock shows up on Muzak these days.

posted by stilicho 07 January | 22:42

I think it's safe to say jonmc was feigning ignorance in order to insult some music. His rant doesn't make any sense unless the ranter knows the standard definition of minimalism.

Like I said earlier, he likes to fight.

His use of pretentious made me laugh out loud, since he's a cartoonishly pretentious listener, just in genres that claim to eschew such behavior.

I listened to the Reich piece start to finish a bit ago... fantastic. Pretty much loved it.

posted by mosch 07 January | 23:03

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