|
more *******ing about 'tech house' and 'grand theft culture' (pg. 6)
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Adam420 |
| quote: | Originally posted by jupiterone
 |
:haha:
That's gold man. Black ing gold.
(oh yea, Black Gold is also the title of a Be As One record, what do you know?) |
|
|
| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by jupiterone
|
:stongue: :stongue: |
|
|
| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by Adam420
Aaaanyway, I think it's safe to say that we all totally get your argument, we just don't happen to agree with it. But yea I think that his portrait on the cover is meant to convey thoughts of warehouses, abandoned industrial spaces and generally dusty and filth-ridden spaces, where (at least romantically) techno is thought to have originated from. It's not meant to convey thoughts of black people or him as a black person. Anybody who looks at that picture and thinks is black is an idiot. |
That doesn't make sense to me.
The reason that doesn't make sense is because it's a portrait. Portraits are inherently about identity.
There are a number of far clearer and more evocative images to convey thoughts of warehouses, etc than a darkened face, and there is a long tradition of it in this kind of music to draw from, which I'm sure Shlomi Aber would be more than happy to do.
If the cities are the characters in this album, and not shlomi aber as a kind of cultural conduit, why is his darkened face not in front of an evocative background of an abandoned detroit building at nighttime? |
|
|
| jupiterone |
i have to admit, whoever he picked as a designer needs to go back to basic photoshop tutorials. those scratch effects are horrid. plus, portrait art is stupid these days unless it's something actually artistic and interesting to begin with. a face shot with bad brush use? nope, horrid.
i don't want to speak about the topic in general, because i suck at debate and expressing what i feel in text. i just felt like saying the artwork is ing horrible. adam, your cover was easily 100x better than shlomi's face with ty brush work. i'd honestly take it more seriously if i saw it at a store |
|
|
| SYSTEM-J |
| The point isn't just to suggest warehouse raves, it's to suggest that Shlomi Aber encapsulates some essence of them. Shlomi Aber's identity is supposed to be infused with the spirit of Chicago/Detroit. And of course, it's standard practice to put the DJ's face on the cover because the superstar DJ cult sells identity. This isn't about the autonomous collective of the rave, or even about the anti-commercialism of the rave, it's about a big name DJ who plays trendy tech in expensive clubs. That's the point of this referentiality, to attach gritty authenticity to something clean and slick and commodified. |
|
|
| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
The point isn't just to suggest warehouse raves, it's to suggest that Shlomi Aber encapsulates some essence of them. Shlomi Aber's identity is supposed to be infused with the spirit of Chicago/Detroit. And of course, it's standard practice to put the DJ's face on the cover because the superstar DJ cult sells identity. This isn't about the autonomous collective of the rave, or even about the anti-commercialism of the rave, it's about a big name DJ who plays trendy tech in expensive clubs. That's the point of this referentiality, to attach gritty authenticity to something clean and slick and commodified. |
Ok, now we're getting somewhere.
And I agree with you here.
Except I want to take it one step further and suggest that the artist identifies race with this essence of chicago/detroit (and rightfully so), and he is using this race-infused essence to sell that cult(ivated) identity. |
|
|
| Adam420 |
| Sidenote: this is probably the longest discussion about a single artist album that's been had here on TA in quite a while I reckon, so if one of the goals with this LP was to get noticed, well, he/they certainly managed to succeed in doing that. |
|
|
| Adam420 |
| Ok Adam here's a question: if the title of this album wasn't "Chicago Days/Detroit Nights" (something totally unrelated, in fact), do you think that you would still be calling it out based on the picture? |
|
|
| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by Adam420
Ok Adam here's a question: if the title of this album wasn't "Chicago Days/Detroit Nights" (something totally unrelated, in fact), do you think that you would still be calling it out based on the picture? |
i would say it looks like blackface, but at least he's not trying to exploit anyone directly. |
|
|
| distant |
the cover's plain ugly, but he's really taking the piss with that album title.
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
That's the point of this referentiality, to attach gritty authenticity to something clean and slick and commodified. |
in dance music, is there a more universally recognized signifier of authenticity than blackness? may as well conflate those two terms, especially in this case what with the racially charged detroit/chicago references and all.. |
|
|
|
|
