one day horsemouth will get the hang of this making plans lark (one of many things he could do with being better at). you see he had it all beautifully organised. his plan was to go after work to see ben’s new film in progress at the ICA (and possibly meet someone there but if in the end they didn’t go no worries horsemouth was still going).
this seemed like an excellent plan to horsemouth - low stress, no pressure, good possible outcomes, walkable even.
but then his possible meetee gonged it off and howard appeared digitally in alienation space waving tickets to the *unthanks - horsemouth consulted timetables to see if it were possible to do both, concluded that it was, concluded that it wasn’t - and then, crystalising his disappointments on ben’s film (and thinking it was a good idea to see howard whom he hasn’t seen in ages in flesh space), went off to see the *unthanks (of whom more later).
sorry ben.
in many ways horsemouth imagines he was excellently prepared for ben’s film by a discussion of conceptual art earlier in the day and the work of sol lewitt - here the locutor emphasised planning of an action and repetition of an action, often something from the repertoire of daily life (stamping in the studio for example), something that looks like the repeated performance of an experiment but is in fact more akin to obsessional repetition. something repeated until the that joke isn’t funny anymore moment (and beyond for good measure). (musically an example might be satie’s vexations a piano piece designed to just go on and on and on.)
of course all of this shows the division in our thinking about repetition - one the one hand a mechanical repetition toxic to humanity and destructive of the human frame (think repetitive strain injury) and on horsemouth’s other hand (the one without RSI and rheumatoid arthritis) a generous ritual cyclic repetition allowing access to something unobserved in the ordinary passage of life.
of course these may not have been the right thoughts with which to confront ben’s film - horsemouth can’t tell you yet because he hasn’t seen it - he has seen a photo of the event - he can see the backs of a few heads he recognizes.
the *unthanks very nearly ended their set with a song sung acapella about running around with burning barrels of tar and throwing them on the bonfire to celebrate new years eve (previously horsemouth had only heard of this activity at ottery st. mary). for horsemouth there were things to like in what they did - the clogging, the acapellas, the blend of the voices, the trumpet, the northumbrian accent, the cover of shipbuilding (sounding like an elegy for a lost world) and there were things that worked less well for him - the professionalism and polish of the accompaniment, its gil evans voicings, in general its good taste.
good taste is something horsemouth thinks is almost invariably fatal in music. instead of their repertoire horsemouth wants to hear what the band could actually play. the extensively rehearsed music has had the air squeezed out of it, it no longer responds to the possibility offered by the time of performance but instead offers a reliable effacement of its passing. (so far so attali).
not that horsemouth (as jobbing musician) is against being tight you understand. horsemouth is being a bit harsh here (there were some very good moments) it's not that he's demanding that all performances should from now on be free improv (or that all folk music should be performed by drunken yokels while engaged in a dangerous ritual activity involving fire or swords or both).
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