Sneaking Sparks at Ghostless Machines Notts/Derby

Wednesday 6 Aug 2025, 9:39pm

Wow, probably the best ad I’ve seen on this very tired web forum! Your no doubt Foucault inspired cynicism is admirable, if somewhat misplaced, however I believe that you may have overlooked the wisdom of Clement Greenberg, the, dare I say it, ‘modernist’ critic and writer who argued for media specificity, and the pursuit of deep knowledge, prior to the dystopic postmodern proclivity for spectacle and pastiche. Mirroring an empty and disfunctional world ‘sonically’ merely duplicates the problem, without any attempt to resolve it (foolhardy I know). Andy Warhol famously said that everyone can be famous for fifteen minutes, and I’m sorry to say that you guys (and I’m sure that you are all guys) missed yours. Good luck with the project, I hope that you find other like minded lost souls, but in the mean time, I suggest that you try to enjoy music for what it is, rather than what you think that it might ‘mean’… play well, and accept that the time for art manifestos died with Andre Breton a hundred years ago…… we’ve chatted before, I like you guys, I’ve listened to your stuff and you’ve listened to mine, it’s all just a little bit mediocre….. never the less, you sound like interesting people! lol, maybe we should unite and change the world? Check out Duane and the Silent Majority on Soundcloud……. Come on Neo, follow the white rabbit….

Wednesday 6 Aug 2025, 10:11pm

I'm one dude with some quite well played stem swappers. Drums mainly, can't play 'em. As for changing the world, what's the need? It's the process of making the music that fires me up. Live? I doubt Boring Dystopia will ever see the light of day - or afternoon on some wet stage at a pub with weekend music licence. Though the mediocre, if I caught you right, tunes keep rolling in, the muse relentless, each iteration of noise just that little more refined than the last. Are you keyboards? I can't tell from your tunes.

The ad was an excuse to throw my brains at mental gymnastics, at really horribly plain job interview type corpo. A manifesto? No. The literal begging of that lost soul - or a person entering back into Plato's Allegory of the Cave, knowing he'll get kicked down for what's been called "Post-prog" which I'm pretty proud of, if pride could sustain the soul alone.

Business, so rehersals at the end of September, some plain set polished and on the circles by spring?

Thursday 7 Aug 2025, 11:46am

Hi, thanks fr your kind spirited response. I actually agreed with the spirit of your message... I too find JMB somewhat soul destroying, as the people / bands that I've met through it seem to be a relentless stream of knuckle dragging forty plus rockers in Motorhead T shirts who are chomping at the bit to get 'out there gigging' as soon as they have learned the chords to 'Keep on Rockin in the Free World' (message to self, stop answering ads for rock covers bands....).

Captain Jaded - HA HA!!! you got me spot on! I guess the reason I responded as I did was that I felt and shared what I thought was your disappointment with the JMB people (is there anything else?), but felt that you were banging on a closed door... no animosity intended! Great to hear that you are moving forward to live performances - I find that hours spent, in my case alone, on Logic can be personally rewarding, but strangely lonely too. I wish you and your project all the best in the world, and hope that the future is a little brighter out there..... Kind Regards

Thursday 7 Aug 2025, 12:27pm

It's not JMB that drives my ire. It's other people in general, the horror itch to participate- being in a room or on a stage- that ever human need to tribe-up and drop the street mask for the performers multiplicity of dire emotions and social contracting.

You play keys to a high standard, but enough to serve the Boring Dystopia sound, I'm unsure. I studied your structures, form - good cover of REM by the way - and its like my stuff: safe (if you've got the ears for the genres what we do). Slumped over a desk, eyes dreaming narrowly the stems as they tick by, both therapist and soul crushing in that loneliness you describe. Is it our age? I'm a young 50. A f***king alien amongst the masses. And it looks like us musicians are becoming aliens amongst ourselves in the dark forest of noise we make.

I'm pushing stems around like turds in a toilet bowl today. My brain refuses to let me do the vox and overdub vox that will push me over the line to get these wavs sent off to be pressed to vinyl.

It's dire times when musicians start writing letters to each other, rather than throwing caution to the wind and giving things a try.