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William Basinski's “Disintegration Loops”

When we heard this is in class, I wanted it to end as soon as possible. Maybe it was the circumstances and environment – cold and wet morning when I would have loved to be in bed instead of in a class room (yes, I know, past 11 a.m. but it is winter, and the dark, grey days make me feel tired all the time), the dark room, the spartan surroundings of the class room – it was tantalisingly slow going. But I felt more okay with it as it went along. It reminded me of so called “Whale Music” (I realise that it might not be called that but that it is just me calling it that), that awful stuff they sell you to help falling asleep. This really helped falling asleep. It put me in a sleepy mood. I did not fall asleep, but I realised it was better than to listen to some sound trash that was hard on my ears (such as the “I am sitting in a room” piece by Lucier – that piercing noise was awful!) At least two fellow students actually fell asleep. I could not blame them, this is sleep inducing. And here I am listening to it again.

Ten minutes into my second listening of this, I start understanding why it was the right piece at the right time, and therefore why it was such a favourite at the beginning of the millenium. It probably hit the mood of that time. Unfortunately (for me), it is not my mood, I find it depressing, not really relaxing. I cannot even imagine having it played in the backround. It is too repetitive for that, the loops are too short, it should give the listener more than ten seconds before a repeat if you want my non-expert opinion on this. Did I mention that this was too depressing? No? Well, it is fucking depressing. I want to stop listening to it. This is one of those moments when I think "Why the fuck did I chose this class?" It is torture. Torture.
The longer this is going on, the better I can hear the broken medium. The quality gets worse and worse, gradually but noticeably. It is ironic, isn't it, that the medium, any medium really, does not keep its promise of keeping the recording for posterity. If you want to keep your cassette recordings alive, put it on CDs. If you want to keep your CD recordings alive, change to mp3, and put those on a computer, and even better, on a cloud. Let's see what the next medium to replace all mediums will be.
My fucking God, it gets worse and worse. The loops, I mean. And the tediousness of it all. I want it to end. Just end! I am thirty minutes in at this point. Towards the end it is almost purely broken loops. Thank fuck it is over. Should I listen a third time? I will take a break before I decide.
The good bit: the third time listening to this makes me almost fond of the boring experience I will have. *ironymoduson* The anticipation will surely kill me. *ironymodusoff* Ah no, it is the same old, same old tedious Whale Music. Wow. Twenty minutes into this third listening, and I actually feel some kind of positive vibe for this. What is going on? Probably some Stockholm Syndrome. My fucking God! Finally! I am NOT listening a fourth time but to my utter amazement I found some sort of mental equilibrium listening to it for a third time as if it was not all that bad. (It was!)

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