Skip to main content

John Oswald – Plexure

 

Melanie Diehl (6887890)

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

Winter Semester 2022/2023

The Future of American Music

Listening Reports - 22.02.2023

John Oswald – Plexure

Sounds like straight out of a Sci-fi movie until, that Avantgarde style drop hits, it suddenly shifts and feels like a mashup of Hip-Hop music, but also like when in a movie someone is being hacked and the computer is crashing. Like it’s an upbeat music, or like when you’re driving and changing the radio channels to find a song you want to listen to while driving. Suddenly, it’s like Whitney Houston is singing, when suddenly you are still undecisive to what you want to listen to, and I reckon this goes on for 19 minutes. However, suddenly changes again, and I’m sort of loving it, and hoping for a more rock or metal shift, and suddenly you hear a cry out loud.

            This! Ladies, and gentlemen, is what I consider Avantgarde music in my head. I feel like this album is not going the direction it is, and that my mind is making me think it is what I am listening to. That is the effect. Now this song might give the one or the other -Noooothing comp- okay, we are back. So, where was I? Sure, this music can give the one or the other a headache, but it kind of has me going. It is crazy, or maybe my ADHD, but this song truly has the rhythm that is currently helping me to write this piece. We are 5 minutes into the song, and it feels like it is slow again, I may lose concentration, but no- it’s groovy again! This is the effect Oswald got on me.

            I may sound crazy, but I could actually dance on this. I would use this song for the game ‘dancing chairs’, could be fun! I think what John Oswald was trying to achieve, back in 1993, was to create this mashup of all kinds of genres, and make it groovy. I think he succeeded. It feels like they were mixing up different cultural tones in the song too. Fantastic! My husband is asking me to turn it off, but I think this is something. I’m a fan. We have such different tastes as human beings, it’s great. Seeing his reaction and mine, I think this is an example of how Oswald succeeded. Finally towards a rocky end, and god that is exactly how I imagined it to come to an end. I absolutely loved it! It was a pleasure! (Opens Spotify.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure

 Sarah Kumar Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath The Future of (American) Music 06 Mar. 2023 Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure According to John Oswald, “[a] plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded” (Lecture Slides 18). However, only if the source stays recognizable can it be called plunderphonics. In his album Plexure , several songs are played back and mixed together, thus creating a new sound. This is interesting because while the excerpts of songs that are used are recognizable or at least sound familiar to some degree, played backwards and mashed up as they are in Plexure , they create a new sound. Like on the cover of the album, on which a collage making up a man can be seen, the mixing of different songs played backwards gives a new feeling to something known. The way the songs are mixed makes them unintelligible. The meaning of the words of the original recordings are not able to be compr...

John Cage – Inlets

  This does not sound like music to me. Depending on the interpretation of different players or performers, this piece will always sound different. In this case, it sounds to me like someone is walking through a cave with water at the bottom, dragging their feet through it. Sometimes it sounds like water in a toilet bowl, especially when we hear the water in a bigger shell being swished around. These sounds are relaxing in the background, it is like a gentle stream of water. I just wonder what went through the head of the composer while writing this piece. But I guess he had some experimental ideas that are interesting to try out. Those shells are quite pretty, I have never seen such big ones that are not broken. I was surprised when something else happened towards the end of the piece. That tone which came out of the one shell was so clear, it sounded like a trumpet. I didn’t know that shells can sound like that. It was quite beautiful. It was a nice way to end the piece. I di...

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

  The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition. The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how i...