Pynchon & Jazz

[prozak at anus.com]

> <<bach is an easy one to target, because of his
> intensely technical poetry. in rebelling against that,
> metal bands picked the riff salad.>>
> 
> Metal bands should be understood, you say, as in
> rebellion against Bach?
> 
> That's novel ...

Among other things, this is true. Metal is an attempt to restate 
classical Romantic values in modern music, a form which is not rock-
based except in instrumentation and shares more with ambient 
electronica (Kraftwerk) in structure than rock/blues/jazz.

I speak of the fully evolved form, the modern death/black metal, and 
not the stuff of the hybrid years of the 1970s and early 1980s. Like 
free jazz, it is without committed, pre-planned tone center and works 
according to counterpoint "of its own dynamic configuration"; like 
classical it is structured, and like ambient it operates through 
cadences over fixed beats.

The genre has currently only gone through 3 or 4 generations, 
depending on how you view it. But one of the few to buck a trend.

PS - if you want great Bach-metal, try Atrocity - Todessehnsucht and 
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.

-- 
Backup Rider of the Apocalypse
www.anus.com/metal/
DEATH AND BLACK METAL