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LONDONS_GRIMING

                                             July 8, 2007


I often remark on the intimidating
quantity of information presented in          NO_D
each issue of "The Wire".

On impulse, I decided to read an
issue carefully, cover-to-cover,
giving it the full treatment...               TABS

Under the glass, then, is the June 2007
issue, on the cover a black fellow in
a, uh, "anorak", trimmed in white fur:

  Wiley
  Grime's ice king

I go into this with no knowledge
whatsoever of what's meant by "Grime",
but the term recurs everywhere, without
explanation.

I infer that "Grime" is the latest
thing on the london scene, and that
it's something like "ragamuffin"                 "Ragamuffin" is a
rapping with an icey/gritty spin to              reggae/dub vocal
it (perhaps, ragamuffin-turned-gangsta).         style that's one
                                                 of the precursors
   (Uncle Wikipedia says this                    of rap.
   includes "futuristic"
   elements, so I guess there's                     It has a very rapid,
   some Doctor Octogon influence                    monotonous, sing-song
   in there.)                                       rhythm to it.

   I would guess that the
   rhyme of "rhyme" and "grime"
   is part of the idea.



                                   None of the "grime" made my short-list of
          I also gave              things-I-must-listen-to, but that could
          electronica and          be a problem with my prejudices.
          rock short-shrift,
          I'm afraid.                       The hiphop column itself
                                            (by Dave Stelfox) struck
                                            me as the usual white-boy
        But there are of                    taken-in by gangsta posturing.
        course many
        things going on
        this issue...


                           THE_WIRE_ENCAPSULATED

Different themes and
parallels emerged...          THE_ACOUSTIC_FIREHOSE

                              THE_WIRE_AMERICA


Some random quotes:
                                                     (( file these
                                                        away elsewhere? ))

  "... in _The Wire_ [issue 279] Dickow
  spoke of 'the sense that you can take
  anything and give it a musicality'. '           NECESSITY
  p. 53




  "I went to art school to make art, not rock ...
  I ended up making rock and stopping art.
  I'm often asked to find the connection between
  the two, to no avail.  It's all cut from the          METHOD
  same cloth, I'm trying to be as accurate as
  possible with each of those disciplines, an
  honest, basic, *base* expression of what I'm
  ultimately interested in.  There's no practical
  usefulness to doing both, except that they
  each keep me away from the other, which is handy,
  I think."

           Sam Prekop, of "The Sea and Cake"
           June 2007 issue of "The Wire".
           p. 24




  "What is the purpose of music? ... to reveal
  the nature of suffering and to heal.
  The one big question of existence."                HOME_PLANET

            Jonathan Harvey, as quoted
            by Andy Hamilton
            June 2007 issue of "The Wire".
            p 63


   "Perhaps the encore or coda are the real
   sites for noise -- its home, if it has
   one.  Because isn't noise inherently
   'post', after the musical fact?  It's not
   just a historical detail that one of the
   main roots of the form lies in the
   end-of-song burnouts of Blue Cheer, et            Actually: the key is
   all.  There's a reason that so many Sonic         to modulate.  Noise
   Youth songs *end* in squalling splatter           can make melody
   rather than begin out of them.  The               sound good by contrast,
   significance of noise is its total                and vice-versa.
   rejection of pre-established norms of
   melody, harmony and rhythm, and however           Note, the wailing
   violent or saturated it gets, its acts of         guitar solo used as
   obliteration or erasure still summon up or        a fill between
   imply these norms."                               repitions of song forms.


               Sam Davies
               June 2007 issue of "The Wire".
               p. 71



   "Portuguese flautist Carlos Bechegas has made a
    series of recordings prefixed with "open" --
    an improvisor's declaration of intent that's         IMP_PERVERSE
    arguably less presumptuous and problematic than
    the word 'free'."  P. 62, Julian Cowley








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