Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Various Artists – Singles & EPs

    Various Artists – Singles & EPs

    At under fourteen minutes for six tracks this EP bucks the trend toward lengthy pieces of progressive and experimental work in heavy genres. I’m easy either way: briefly stated, separated ideas can be effective in one way, and longer forms that develop and transform themes can be good in another. Barren Waste’s brevity is not… Read more

  • Monday Musings: Music, Politics, Subculture and Resistance

    Monday Musings: Music, Politics, Subculture and Resistance

    My thinking in various areas has been converging in recent months. For a while this weekly series of essays was alternating between pieces on the music industry, and pieces on music criticism: it’s getting steadily harder for me to maintain that distinction. For one thing, my valuations of music are not entirely independent of my… Read more

  • Saturday Summary 018

    Saturday Summary 018

    A few scattered shots in the long range artillery duel over free music this week, but nothing dramatic. Lots of interesting articles though, on various topics. http://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/journal/article/view/81/134 This is a really interesting and in depth article on the role of militarist imagery in industrial music, but its observations are clearly applicable to other musics that… Read more

  • Matt Stevens – Live In Blackpool (progressive/ post-rock/ acoustic)

    Matt Stevens – Live In Blackpool (progressive/ post-rock/ acoustic)

    What’s the point of live albums? As music fans, we usually hope for a number of things, but they mostly revolve around an anticipated sense of greater authenticity. This is the musician doing it for real: you can hear whether or not they really know their stuff, or whether it was all studio trickery. If… Read more

  • Paranoid Android – Paper God (new wave)

    Paranoid Android – Paper God (new wave)

    Punk was like some kind of natural catastrophe: in terms of the frantic pace of pop-music it happened an eon ago, but the shockwaves that spread outward from its point of impact, like a tsunami, get more powerful the more open ocean they traverse. Our understanding of popular music before punk is now characterised by… Read more

  • Doll Fight! – Morning Again (punk/ riot grrrl)

    Doll Fight! – Morning Again (punk/ riot grrrl)

    It’s easy to form a punk band: just get some drums and guitars, make up some punk songs, and play them at some punk gigs. If you’re not too sure exactly how to do it, just listen to some Lagwagon or Blink 182 records: you can sing about getting drunk and being a bit naughty… Read more