Fragments Of Time

I dunno if It's me or not but I have a stack of unfinished posts that I just can't be bothered returning to. Is 2015 too boring to write about? Is writing about music irrelevant? Am I taking myself way too seriously after receiving kind words, tweets and replies from people I admire and respect? Have I started second guessing myself? Had a loss of nerve? Or run out of things to say? Has medication levelled me out so much that I've become indifferent to anything or everything. I suppose rap is still where it's at in 2015, with only a few choice things emanating from other zones. I am waiting for something to come along and stop me in my tracks though. I reckon even the slow increments of innovation in hip-hop are coming to a halt and the rest of the music world has reached stasis point or entered a time-warp. Let's face it I'd be happy if something really retro came along as long as it was bloody awesome, you know like that last Daft Punk record, Urge Overkill circa Saturation or Soft Bulletin era Flaming Lips. If the concept of time's been flipped I don't see why we can't use that to our advantage, at least for cheap thrills. Hey cheap thrills are some of the best thrills. Perhaps I'm not as easily swayed or impressionable as I'm not young any more, then again Random Access Memories was only two years ago...I'd be happy with a new Bruno Mars album at this point. Maybe Retromania is no longer the thesis of our times. The law of diminishing returns has probably killed that party. Should someone write something about stasis? Stasis, I just did. I guess Ekoplekz and Beatking will probably have new records out soon but come on everyone else I can't keep relying on those two artists for my new music pleasures, they can only release two or three records a year.....oh I suppose I can if I have to.

Telly, movies and blogs all seem to be offering less. I used to love the blogoshere back in the day. The early to mid 00s were its heyday it seems. When the likes of Blissblog, K-Punk, Woebot, Gutterbreakz et al. were writing about stuff like Grime, Dubstep, electronic music of the time, old stuff and even rock, it was great. I wasn't even into any of the music really but their excitement was infectious. I don't even know what I was listening to then (ye olde afrobeat compilations, I think?). I mean Friday nights were all about gettin drunk and listening to The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top and AC/DC. I thought music was over for me but I liked the fact that innovation and progression were still happening, so I still kept an eye on it. I thought maybe something new would come along that I liked eventually. It did come slightly with Hauntology, Hypnogogia, Altered Zones type stuff and Ratchet. Now it's like Philip Sherburne is the only one attempting to document the new (see this Energy Flash post) but even he appears to be struggling to get blood out of the stone. Good on him though, at least, for trying. I think I came to this blog game too late. In my first couple of years of blogging there was still a shitload of great stuff being released but it has been petering out and in 2015 well geez.....

Revival Analysis Spiral

"where the past, present, and future are all taking place simultaneously."

A quote from some joker over at Simon's Retromania site. Here's a fine example of a term I created 'THE REVIVAL ANALYSIS SPIRAL' after another article at Retromania. I'm trying to find an example of where I used that same sentence a few years ago and I'm sure I'm not the only one to put those sentiments into a sentence. I know my sentence was followed  with a question about Australian Aboriginals and if this was how they're concept of time worked? Anyway I can't bloody find it! Oh.... also I might have failed to mention to CardrossManiac2 readers that I have a bit of secret life in the comments pages of Retromania. There's a lot of great ideas and discourse on retro obviously but all things connected too like nostalgia, revivals, Curationism, going backwards, old stuff, the lack of new ideas in current culture, archiving, reissues, ennui etc.

'The Revival Spiral' is a term Lauren Cochrane came up with recently to describe something Simon Reynolds, myself and others have been talking about for years and that's revivals of revivals, revivals of revivals of revivals and so on. So I was inspired by her term to come up with 'The Revival Analysis Spiral'. This was coined because now people are repeating the same ideas, thoughts and theories about revivals and revival spirals. Commentary on nostalgia is being repeated, plundered, imitated and now watered down just like the the ongoing revivals themselves. I always thought Simon Reynolds could write a trilogy of books on the subject but now perhaps we're reaching examination exhaustion. It's all becoming a bit second hand clothes. That last sentence may just have been an excuse to play this tune by Moonshake.

Actually some musicians could use the sentiments in this song as a manifesto to try and break through 2015's retromaniacal musical stalemate ie. "I won't be seen dead in 2nd hand clothes!" Then again you might just be seen alive in a new classic Armani suit that could have been designed in 1962. But surely you understand what I'm trying to say.