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web zines for electronic music
StoreTags: reviews, web zines
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I infrequently send material to webzines for review, either my own or a buried in time release. A review usually ebs forward and i get an email notification and something like "i hope you will find that the review has been performed in a fair and objective manner".
So far i haven't read a review that wasn't "objective" since it's really some person writing what he or she thinks. however, i still feel the people who usually write the reviews have no knowledge of electronic music and basically DONT KNOW WTF THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT and are biased towards one brand of music or another. Sometimes i'm pleasantly surprised though and someone reviews the release who at least has some appreciation for electronic music or at the very least some exposure to it. Rarer is the person who is used to listening to and hearing it in all it's forms.. you know.. the person who knows the difference between autechre and scorn and also knows the difference between ambient and drone and noise. or knows that electro-house is not electro.. it's house.
i know "writing about music = dancing about architecture" and honestly, writing reviews is pretty boring. i know. i did it for a while. trying to come up w/new ways to describe release after release is annoying but if you are going to do it then don't half ass it.
yeah.. im whining but more than that i'm fishing.. fishing for links to good webzines where the writers are not just friends of some guy w/a domain and html skills.
so, let's have it.. pitchfork, igloo etc i know those.. are there any others worth a poop?
from now on.. every time i think of sending out a release for review i'm going to pull out a bunch of nose hairs instead. | |
Comments
03/11/08
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audiobulb
if you put the music out for review
you need to be prepared for the response
it could go anyway
all you can do is enjoy the positives and learn from the negatives
of course all reviews are subjective - how could they not be?
03/11/08
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audiobulb
Mixmag
The Wire
Future Music
e|I magazine
cut.up.media
Dusted
Grooves
Musicworks
XLR8R
Blowback
Flux
E-dition
CLASH MAGAZINE
Igloo
Loop
DE:BUG
AngryApe
textura
Sonic Curiosity
Vital Weekly
The Milk Factory
Ultrasonica
Gridface
!Hissig
Neural (It)
03/11/08
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ignatius
i'm always prepared for whatever anyone has to say as i don't expect people to hear the music the same way i do and honestly i do find it fascinating to listen to what other people have to say. everyone hears something different and that's very very interesting to me even when they don't like what i like.
i know someone may not like something or just not get it. that's fine. i wish they could express that in a way that made sense though or just say "i don't get it". i guess i'm just not satisfied w/how some of the reviews i've read are expressed and kind of let down that the right person wasn't matched up w/the right release. at least that way if they don't like it i know they've at least listened to it w/a sort of 'trained ear'.
but yeah.. subjective is the word.
does that make sense or am i guilty of poorly expressing myself also.
03/11/08
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ignatius
thanks for the webzines. new links to explore. 
03/11/08
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Roshi
tiny mix tapes
disquiet (more for ambient)
03/11/08
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Roshi
popmatters (sometimes snarky, but usually pretty good)
03/11/08
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audiobulb
you express yourself well
but you also cannot dictate how others will express themselves!
audiobulb recently got this for a review... regarding Favourite Places
"Did you ever stop to notice all the blood we've shed before…did you ever stop to notice the crying Earth
the weeping shores…AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” As ever, that tumbly-faced monster Michael Jackson
was right. What a right old state this old world is in."
And all I could think was > I can't believe the label is being spoken about in relation to Michael Jackson - I just can't believe it!!!!
There are no givens out there - you just don't know what to expect....
03/11/08
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ignatius
bizarre.
i know i can't dictate anything. i know not everyone is gonna take it as seriously as i do.
03/11/08
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ignatius
srsly- thanks for the tips on webzines. i hadn't heard of a bunch of those.
03/11/08
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SenorFrio
03/11/08
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lowlifi
lol at the pic, I somehow knew it would be SFPD on that police car.
Earplug is great, but I wasn't aware that they take in submissions, I believe that they actually go out themselves and find what they want to review.
You can also try working some reviews yourself on link It's a really decent active site. Although, electronic music on there is pretty limited.
03/11/08
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codeineparty
I can relate to your experience working as a reviewer. I worked for a local publication a couple of years ago and had to write review after review. On the plus side, It did introduce me to some great music, I might not have heard otherwise.
03/11/08
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kucharo
I think you mean 'subjective', which would mean a personal opinion as opposed to a objective analysis. At any rate, I don't think there is such a thing as objectivity in art at all. You might find reviewers or critics who evaluate something based on its own merits, but even then there is some sort of bias because no one can agree on universal objective criteria for all expression.
I like Frank Zappa's formulation for evaluating a piece of art- "If you like it, it's bitchin'. If you don't like it, it sucks.". I think that about sums up what can truly be said of the ultimate usefulness of criticism.
That said, I think audiobulb has a pretty complete list. The Onion AV Club is pretty decent. Plenty of people are writing reviews over at Last.FM.
Do people care about actual reviews? I'm betting most listeners just use reviews as a vague barometer of what they think they should be listening to, regardless of the actual review content.
03/11/08
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ignatius
codeineparty said: "I can relate to your experience working as a reviewer. I worked for a local publication a couple of years ago and had to write review after review. On the plus side, It did introduce me to some great music, I might not have heard otherwise."
i reviewed for a zine in southern california for a while. i think i enjoyed about 20% of the time. most of the time i tried to be objective and realize that though some music may not be my thing it has its merits and i should try to approach it like that and keep the genre in mind... once i twice though i really tore into an album.. those never got printed.
03/11/08
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ignatius
kucharo said: "
Do people care about actual reviews? I'm betting most listeners just use reviews as a vague barometer of what they think they should be listening to, regardless of the actual review content."
they can be a great promotional tool. i've read reviews of releases from bands/artists i've never heard of and then stumbled across the album in a record store and given it a listen sometimes leading to a purchase. these days it's so easy to track something down on line and hear a sample of it that it's a no brainer to submit things for review even if the review ends up being a bad one.
sometimes when a reviewer states why he doesn't like something and is precise.. it's those exact things that someone else might like. for example i didn't like it because it was "distorted, digital, harsh etc" or "cute, pretty, simple melodies"...some people love that kind of stuff and might check it out based on what the reviewer didn't like. it's free advertising basically.
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