Boys Noize - "My Moon My Man (Boys Noize Remix Feist)"
Although in some ways the combination of heavy dance beats and ethereal soft female vocals was a standard played out long ago, I can't stop listening to this. Perhaps it's that same realization we all come to that in the realm of exciting work, old standards and new grounds have almost equal merit, depending on their execution. Though I can't claim to understand him as much as I'd like to, because my self-esteem makes me think he'd say "you're WAY off", but it's similar to Dave Hickey's idea of "the quality of the work" as opposed to "the quality of the job". This is great work. Beats that feel like robo-jaws chomping down on the empty hot dancefloor space, and Feist swaying by with a wrist-swinging hair-flipping walk that makes wind as it goes on by. Dreamy, dancey, black. [Buy from Amazon UK]
Unknown Artist - "Song From Bin Lu"
The room goes quiet and her voice rises like a single candle, flickering. Her whole family is there, and some other people from the town, and this was unexpected. She hadn't mentioned wanting to sing a song, she had been quiet all day, preparing the meal with a downturned focus. But now she is singing, and has everyone's attention, but is herself shy of it. It's as if the song has taken over, that the song has the attention, and she too is watching it, eyes open and welling, as it comes out of her. The day's work, the whole year's, has been hard, not as green as other years, and this is some sort of mourning. Like the suffering of the whole town, of her parents' strife, elegized. She glances at her brothers, then down at the floor to avoid crying, then up at the roof as the last bits of sky fall through the grass, and by now it's clear to everyone watching why she is singing. She will leave this family, this town, and never come back. [Buy from Sublime Frequencies]
Posted by Dan at November 19, 2007 3:01 AM"SH: Quality of the job?
DH: I mean, are you doing something worth doing? That’s a reasonable question. When you really respect somebody who does something different from you, your respect is for the quality of the job."
It's not similar, it's opposite! Am I off?
Posted by Tyler at November 19, 2007 11:09 AMwell, as I understand it, the "job" is similar to the "idea" of the work, like for instance, releasing a record entirely made of field recordings of underrepresented North Vietnamese, as in the second song today, is a very respectable "job", whereas the "job" of making a song of phat beats under pretty vocals is, while totally respectable in its own way, not a new one, so my respect is aimed instead at the "work". this is my understanding of the distinction, but I'm open to being convinced otherwise.
Posted by dan at November 19, 2007 11:35 AMDan, your writing has been just spot-on of late.
Spot-on-er than usual, that is.
What I mean to say is, YES.
Posted by Mark at November 19, 2007 8:43 PMI think you've got the distinction, but to me it seemed Hickey was saying that if the job wasn't good, the quality of the work couldn't really make up for it alone. So, if you're bringing up his distinction between a "great job" and "great work", and then calling the song just the former, for me - maybe I'm nuts - it implies that it's not also the latter; otherwise you'd have said so. Saying it's great work, in light of the Hickey take on it, seemed either a misunderstanding of what he's talking about or dismissive. (In other words, it's like a backhanded compliment which reveals that you don't "really respect" the work.) You know what I mean?
Posted by Tyler at November 22, 2007 11:29 AMwell, yes it's a backhanded compliment, I don't think the song is breaking ground, it's a remix for land's sake. but i still listen to it and love it. hickey makes the distinction by quoting his artist friend, who says he CAN'T respect something that he doesn't like the quality of the job, but why does that keep me from doing that?
Posted by dan at November 22, 2007 5:12 PMIt doesn't, I just wasn't sure if you did. You were using someone else's idea, and using it differently, so I wanted clarification. And I got it. Yay!
Posted by Tyler at November 26, 2007 3:55 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
