Well, even if it is a monster, it’s can be a very interesting monster.
As isn’t it exactly what people go to forums for? To discuss which record is the rarest? To discover new bands or boast about the ones they know? And to say who’s over- or underrated for them?
By trying to promote an artist in the other thread, you can try to help them to at least get some post-career fame.
And by putting them on the “overrated” list, you are inviting forum members to ask themselves the question if they really adore the music as such, or just feel they have to, or maybe just like the idea that the vinyl is rare and in demand by others.
Now is that a contradiction? Not really untypical human behaviour, I’d say. If people offered you even more for your items than they know you paid for them in their emails, they’d be crazy. :D
I suppose you’re right. I just find it funny that on a board a person would question my sanity for the purchase, then in an e-mail say that they admire my dedication to collecting, and, by the way, can you send me a CD-r of it.
Still, no price tag in the world will turn an average record into a genre-defining one.
Very true…I’ll avoid the whole genre defining argument, that one can’t be won, unless you’re in a room by yourself.
For years I wanted Snowy Red in my collection.
After the very dissapointing gig at BIM a couple of years ago I am not so sure I still want to have SR records at the price they are asking for them at the moment.
Overrated? I am in doubt yes. Overpriced? Definitely!
But seriously, I don’t think Poème électronique belong here at all having only released one single and all. Sure, they’re not my cup of tea, but I do see the attraction for other people. They just happen to be a running gag between Reactor and me.
To qualify for an overrated artist discussion, I think you should have put out a bit more than a 7”. I was more thinking household names.
Now I also mentioned Kraftwerk in this thread being pioneers and all, but are they possibly also overrated in a certain way? I’m always struggling, and many people own their records just because they’re Kraftwerk. Fad Gagdet and Gary Numan resonate with me in a natural way, while Kraftwerk’s music feels somewhat distant.
Of course you can drone on for years how ground-breaking they were and what other artists owe to them, you can marvel at the quality of their sound back in 1975, still, personally I hardly ever get an emotional kick out of their songs.
Now is it just me? And does the lack of it make them overrated despite their achievements?
Well, after all Reactor might have been more right about the monster than I was ready to admit
Everyone who knows electronic music acknowledges Kraftwerk. Everyone who has more than a passing interest in rock music history has at least a couple of Kraftwerk records in their collection. All music journalists except Lester Bangs agree that Kraftwerk are Very Important and Influential. You might be forgiven to think it’s impossible for one band to be as important as all that…
It is interesting to contemplate what actually does “inspire” an artist. The Sex Pistols are influential in the most literal sense of the world, because so many people started bands as a direct reaction to a Pistols gig. The DIY message that anyone could go up there and do something, and this something should be personal and unique, rather than well-produced and “correct”.
I would argue that the bands that we call “minimal wave”, well, let’s say many of them at least, were more inspired by the do-it-yourself attitude of punk/ new wave than of any particular band. That, and the fact that synthesizers became obtainable in 1980 or so - they had been very expensive up until ca then. Kraftwerk had an otherworldly, expensive sound in the ‘70s! Their message to other musicians was more “don’t even think about it” than “anyone can do this”. Kraftwerk communicated to “Interpol und Deutshe bank”, but not kids wanting to start bands.
So, although I love Kraftwerk, they’re my favorite band ever, I must say I find their influence HIGHLY overrated!
BTW, Fad Gadget… Two great singles, the rest is just, meh…
Except for the song “Radio-activity”, I don’t feel anything when I hear music Kraftwerk. Just clinical music, but someone told me once that this was just the purpose of the members of this group.
Snowy Red : they released 2 fantastic longplayers without any bad song. I really have it difficult to think about other artists in this minimal wave genre that released longplayers (and thus no one-day-hit-wonders) that were good from the beginning ‘till the end. The first one of UV Pop, the 2 first lp’s of John Bender, Daily Fauli, first lp of Front 242, Mittageisen, ... euhm someone can help me further ?
I really love the mlp of League of Nations, but at least 2 of the 6 songs don’t make me thrill.
To come back on the discussion “overrated”. Difficult to separate it from the money people spend on buying it. Look at the lp of the belgian progressive group Irish Coffee. On ebay, it goes up to more than 1.000 $, but everyone agrees it is of mediocre quality. So, musically overrated ? Definitely (just like most of our so loved minimal wave music that, let’s admit, was made 25 years ago by people that had no money to overproduce their musical inspiration and that were happy to play 3 notes on their keyboards without being accused by the neighbours of tortorous intentions).
Kraftwerk doesn’t really resonate with me as well. Although Trans Europe Express was what brought my interest in electro, I see their music more as a generic basis or reference for others to turn it into something more personal and special.
[quote author=“minicold”] ... euhm someone can help me further ?
Only too pleased. ami marie, bal paré, basking sharks, beranek, richard bone, ceramic hello, dark day, experimental products, patrik fitzgerald, arthur harrison and rupert chappelle, iko’83, kas product, martin dupont, moderne, moev, monopol, rational youth, stahlnetz, starter, telex, twice a man, john paul young, and thanasis zlatanos each made LPs in the eighties that I think are good all the way through. There’s hundreds more, but why ruin the thrill of the chase for you? :wink:
To come back on the discussion “overrated”. Difficult to separate it from the money people spend on buying it. Look at the lp of the belgian progressive group Irish Coffee. On ebay, it goes up to more than 1.000 $, but everyone agrees it is of mediocre quality.
Thanks for the info. -Yeah, the comparison to prog is interesting. There was a “Top 100 progressive albums” in a recent Record Collector issue, where they listed the LPs by current mint value, and rated the music by stars. Several of the most expensive prog LPs are mediocre or worse! I hope that’s not something that will happen to minimal wave in another decade or two…
[quote author=“reactorlgtn”][quote author=“minicold”] ... euhm someone can help me further ?
Only too pleased. ami marie, bal paré, basking sharks, beranek, richard bone, ceramic hello, dark day, experimental products, patrik fitzgerald, arthur harrison and rupert chappelle, iko’83, kas product, martin dupont, moderne, moev, monopol, rational youth, stahlnetz, starter, telex, twice a man, john paul young, and thanasis zlatanos each made LPs in the eighties that I think are good all the way through. There’s hundreds more, but why ruin the thrill of the chase for you? :wink:
Yep, you’re right. Some of these records I also have in my collection (Ceramic Hello, Dark Day, P. Fitzgerald, Iko, Martin Dupont,...) and yes, they are really good. The “problem” with me is that I’m more interested in minimal wave, more than in minimal synth pop. When I see some records on ebay to be sold at real high prices, and when I hear some sound samples of them, I cannot avoid thinking of the fact that records of Depeche Mode are musically far much interesting (and I don’t like DM) and far less expensive.
About this Thanasis Zlatanos, do you have some information on this one ?
[quote author=“minicold”]
To come back on the discussion “overrated”. Difficult to separate it from the money people spend on buying it. Look at the lp of the belgian progressive group Irish Coffee. On ebay, it goes up to more than 1.000 $, but everyone agrees it is of mediocre quality.
Hi Minicold,
Thanks for your post, well, I must say I didn’t really expect that money aspect getting THAT fiercely discussed here. Now I hope nobody will post Depeche Mode in the “underrated artists” section as their stuff is dead cheap :D
With André Szigethy, Class Info or Scatterbrains Spartak mentioned - BTW, who are Scatterbrains? 8) - I didn’t get the impression that they are being used as points of reference like Snowy Red or Transparent Illusion. Hardly anybody outside the innce circle knows them, and they just happen to be expensive because a handful of people are ready to spend a lot of money on them for different motives. So for me: overpriced: yes, overrated: no.
So, musically overrated ? Definitely (just like most of our so loved minimal wave music that, let’s admit, was made 25 years ago by people that had no money to overproduce their musical inspiration and that were happy to play 3 notes on their keyboards without being accused by the neighbours of tortorous intentions
Well, isn’t that imperfection just the very attraction? Minimal input, maxium impact? It was the growing boredom with overproduced Futurepop and the like that respawned my interest in minimal synth at the beginning of the new millenium….
