Taking the piss?

Vaporwave Thoughts

"Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object" 

Anonymous editorial from The Blind Man, 1917

Vapor is addictive. I can't get enough of it. Also, the steady stream of releases from bandcamp, tumblr and elsewhere keep me serenely dosed up all through the week and, when there's a quiet patch of no releases, I get twitchy and start trawling soundcloud like a crackhead approaching members of the public on the street.

I recently read this far-too-brief write up of the excellent #SPF40.2 festival and thought I'd post my reflections on the event. However, due to some timezone trolling, I missed the live broadcast and spent the day after frothingly bugging the artists for their sets which, kindly, they obliged me by supplying or linking to.

Hold Muzak DJ sets from Prism Corp aside, this was a rich audio experience from a group of musicians whose curatorial recontextualization of ready-mades are often mistaken for lazy re-appropriations devoid of musicianship, a vindication of sorts.  The core of vaporwave's sampling principle -using corporate jingles, elevator soul, waiting room funk and corporate video ephemera is, to me, the audio equivalent of Duchamp's Urinal, both in end result and status/perception of raw materials: the urinal is as functional and intrinsically unpleasant as the calming, pan-pipe drift of hotline hold music but, once signed by the artist ('R. Mutt'/ Veracom) and placed in the correct artistic context (Society of Independent Artists Exhibit 1917/bandcamp label 2013), it takes on a new aesthetic quality.

Bear with me. Look at Duchamp's Fountain. Once signed, photographed, rejected, scandalized and immortalised it begins to transform before us. You notice the alien-elegance of the shape, the organic and almost fish-like protrusions, guppy 'mouth' at the front and odd curvature of the main bowl. Then you remember it's for pissing in. It's not art, it's for pissing in. But Duchamp has made you, even for just a second, reconsider Fountain as a product of human society, as an artifact as ridiculous as it is somehow profound.

Similarly, 情報デスクVIRTUAL's (Virtual Information Desk)landmark album “札幌コンテンポラ (Contemporary Sapporo), the best approximation of Duchamp's message for the internet age, presents dead-eyed capitalist sax solos and dreamy Mall symphonies is almost unaltered form. In the same way the appellation of R. Mutt 1917 constitutes the only alteration or influence on the condition of Fountain, other than its placement in and presentation as art, the slights skips, occasional warps and subtly discernible shifts in pitch and tempo work as reminders that this isn't just straight up theft; signs to look (or rather think) closer.

The genius of Contemporary Sapporo is just how slight these alterations and intrusions into the original are. We are aware that this is an electronic music album -there are a slight alterations and we know of the context, the genre, the set of rules and conventions the artist is operating within -but before long the effects, the artists' hand, become difficult to hear. A couple of tracks in, your brain notices that that last smear of saxophone schmaltz sounded pretty unmolested...was it pitch-shifted down? Probably...maybe...of course, it must've been. The artist wouldn't just put the original (nasty?), intolerable original in there without some interference...would they?

Doubt creeps in; you listen closer. An investigation of the textures, in hope of revealing evidence of inspired manipulation, gradually transforms into an appreciation: you catch yourself thinking 'that synth sound was quite enjoyable...those drums are sorta cool...'. Similar to my description of the aesthetic qualities of Fountain above, the functional and inoffensive chords designed to sedate (or to efficiently contain your piss) suddenly become choices, or rather, perceived as artistic intention. 

Except, is the intention there at all? Did a Japanese composer circa 1991 receive a brief requesting a set of 'relaxing mood music for our waiting room' or 'a confident, stylishly modern soundtrack to our conference in Singapore' and think 'I'm going to create something lasting, something that'll stop them in their tracks and gain me the respect of my peers' or did he take his $200 commission and do what he's told?

Intention is an ambiguous issue. On the one hand, the composer must create something of musical merit (using chord progressions, be in time and show an understanding of timbre and melody necessary for mass consumption and -importantly -acceptance by and adherence to the requirements of the customer) and so any critical appreciation we have of it is hampered by the corporate origin and its purpose being a conflict of interests: we expect our music to be stimulating, creative and enjoyable where this is merely meant to be comforting and unobtrusive.

 On the other hand, part of the conceptual attraction of music that uses these sonic artifacts is to take something that is perceived as being devoid of artistic merit and of any intention to entertain in this way; we're subverting its original purpose by presenting it as a post-modern pop-art, just as the inherent joke and value of Duchamp's celebrated pisspot disappears if we discover that, in fact, the creators of this Bedfordshire standard urinal from J.L. Mott Ironworks fully intended it as a piece of art, took inspiration from Renaissance design and intended the work to be reproduced, disseminated commercially and appreciated as such (like a major label album).  

Can we appreciate these as pieces of music? Well, vaporwave allows us to. It provides the necessary transformation and validation. The band names, album art, track-titling conventions and distribution models (announcements via Facebook, bandcamp/soundcloud releases and dearth of physical presence) all contribute greatly to the thrill and I'll be sure to write more on these later, but for now, before the joke wears thin, let the wave wash over you.

This post was meant to be about #SPF420.2....I got sidetracked. I'll do that later today.