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Subject: Re: [motm] Feeble MOTM demos!

From: improv@...
Date: 2001-01-21

At 2:50 AM 1/21/01, jar5831 wrote:
>I pity the pathetic MOTM site demos, when held against the standards of
>the MASTERS..download 2 examples of 2 of the master's work from napster
>
>1. Minotour Dick Hyman 1969
>2. Sun Ra-Minimoog Sun Ra date ???

I know I shouldn't get pissed about this post, the guys obviously trolling,
but, hey, I can't help making a few comments.

Firstly, I know both of these records. I'm guessing the Sun Ra tune is from
"My Brother the Wind, Vol II" (I may be wrong about the title, I'm too lazy
to check my cd's. Hey, at least I PAID for the disc unlike jar5831). The
Hyman tune is a pretty charming little piece of 60's moogsploitation, but I
wouldn't say that it stands up as an example of brilliant synthesis. I
mean, I'm sure it was innovative for its time, but I wouldn't call Hyman a
master synthsesist, the patches he uses are fairly generic, he was just
among the first to use them, especially in pop music. I'd say some of W.
Carlos' work from the period still stands up, as does Moprton Subotnick's,
but I wouldn't put Hyman's work at that level. Neother would he, I bet,
he's been pretty dismissive of his moog recordings in interviews. The Ra
pieces are a set of improvisations on Minimoog that are pretty cool,
especially for the time, but again not brilliant examples of synthsis.

Secondly, I'm responsible for some of the demo's on Paul's site,
specifically for the 410 filter. I can't speak for everyone who has demos
on the site, but at least mine were never meant as complete, stand-alone
compositions. The night I finished building the 410, I spent a few hours
running everything in my studio through it. Whenever I found something
interesting, I recorded a minute or so, and sent the best of 'em to Paul.
I'm not embarrassed that the demos are there for everyone to hear, but I
feel like the intent was not some grand musical statement, just to
demonstrate a cool filter, and maybe inspire a few people to get one
themselves.

And thirdly, Jar5831, where are the examples of your music? It doesn't seem
fair to criticize without giving us the same oppportunity.

____________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...
Minus Web Site: http://listen.to/minusmusic
Minus MP3's: http://www.mp3.com/-minus-
____________________________________________