""Post modernism" is already a maligned enough generalization that critics hate using it as much as musicians hate being labeled as such. Over the past twenty years or so, what was once a sly reference to integrating the mundane into Re...
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2002 Country: Switzerland Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels Recorded at Sound on Sound studios in New York City, New York, on April 1st, 2001, by Jon Rosenberg.
""Post modernism" is already a maligned enough generalization that critics hate using it as much as musicians hate being labeled as such. Over the past twenty years or so, what was once a sly reference to integrating the mundane into Real Art has become a catch-all for anything that quotes lines from Coke ads or after-school specials. I don't believe it was ever supposed to be a joke (though irony must have figured in somehow), but now when I hear musicians strutting their pop culture stuff, it provokes slight annoyance and suspicion more than any kind of serious attempt to find meaning in their second-hand statements. Of course, there are exceptions to this: Beck's often interesting (and sometimes contrived) AM Gold amalgams, John Zorn's manic Saturday morning freak-outs, and the downright odd cinematic society collages of David Lynch. Some might argue that these artists are famous enough that their work has, by definition, surpassed the whole idea of "post modernism" and is merely "modern." Others might claim that their fondness for iconic imagery and reference is actually a crutch to disguise their lack of originality (and I have heard that criticism, ridiculous as it is). But really, my only qualm with someone like John Zorn is not that he depends too much on the mundane-- it's that he doesn't spend enough. It's as if he has a disability to remain fixed on one aspect of his work long enough to maintain a clear relationship to anything, and rather bounces like a mosquito from bright spot to bright spot. It makes for very interesting music, albeit often frustratingly flighty. Saxophonist Ellery Eskelin may yet be the supreme prophet of the "post-modern" in music. This is a man who has seemingly taken it upon himself (and conspirators Jim Black and Andrea Parkins) to find the missing link between jazz, rock, electronic music, pop and plain old everyday static. Where fellow New Yorkers like Zorn or Tim Berne might take the high road by writing unplayable tunes with insane levels of intensity, Eskelin organizes improvisational sessions for his band to summarize the chapters of their backgrounds-- all of which are considerably varied. Eskelin is also not afraid to play music that is superficially "familiar"; i.e., many of his tunes sound like things you would hum on your own, like melodies everyone knows without ever having been expressly taught."-Dominique Leone, Pitchfork