OK, so bear with me here.
We reckon Sam Inquiet is pretty awesome – why else would we have him on the show? – so when he comes to us with a complaint about the world, WE LISTEN DAMMIT:
sam says:
October 17th, 2008 at 5:35 pmi just read a review of qua’s album in the age and didn’t know where else to write this:
it was really unfair. i haven’t heard the record, and don’t particularly love qua’s music, but holy shit don’t call him a hipster. he’s just a dude, dude. meanwhile the latest you am i gets heralded as a masterpiece
Now I hadn’t read this review – which turned out to be from Friday’s EG – but on Sam’s blistering recommendation I had to dig it out of next door’s recycle bin. It’s a corker! Far as I can tell it’s not online, so here it is:
Q&A is the third release for bleep-meister Qua – known to his parents as Cornel Wilczek – one of Melbourne’s cut-and-paste hipster collective (Mountains in the Sky, Pivot, etc) who, thankfully some might say, rarely ply their trade outside the 3065 postcode.
Previously dabbling in more ambient electronic sounds, Qua moves into more stabby synths and avant-garge beats on Q&A, which apparently features more instrumentation – guitars, analog synths and drums from Pivot’s Laurence Pike – than laptop action, but you wouldn’t know it. I liked Sonic the Hedgehog in the early ’90s too, but that doesn’t mean I want its bonus points music re-interpreted into postmodern arcade fusion.
There are a few nice electronica moments on Q&A, but just as one relaxes into what begins as a promisingly Air, Daft Punk, or even upbeat, squelchy El Guincho-esque tune, blistering blips (not in a good way) and what I assume are achingly hip knowing nods to atonal composer Pierre Schaeffer jar the listener into skipping to the next track/putting on something better. Q&A would be an interesting exercise if Qua was a 14-year old boy fiddling on his Mac. But he’s not.
Kylie Northover
Now obviously we here at To and Fro think Qua walks on water, but setting that aside, this is still a fairly horrid piece of criticism. Sam was right. And, since you asked, here’s why:
- “third release” – nah, a quick visit to Qua’s website confirms that it’s his fourth release.
- “bleep-meister” – references to “bleeps” or “bloops” are rarely a good sign.
- “Melbourne… Pivot” – are really not from Melbourne; I’ll give you Sydney, or even Perth or London.
- “cut-and-paste hipster collective” – odious, inaccurate pigeonholing suggests the record’s been prejudged…
- “thankfully some might say” – …which is then confirmed on the next line.
- “Sonic the Hedgehog” – all electronic music sounds like video games.
- “postmodern arcade fusion” – postmodern used in the unthinking perjorative sense, of course.
- “Air, Daft Punk…” – writing an review of electronic music and only referencing Air and Daft Punk? Please just come out and say you only listen to four-chord rock.
- “Pierre Schaeffer” – what?
- “fiddling on his Mac” – because electronic musicians aren’t real musicians.
I feel a little sorry for the reviewer, Kylie Northover, as obviously she just doesn’t have the knowledge to review electronic music – the “Air, Daft Punk” reference says it all really. Obviously someone had to do it, because it’s a high-profile independent release which will be on lots of year-end lists, and she drew the short straw amongst EG’s group of reviewers with simple rock orientation (Mathieson aside, possibly).
But despite preferring to review the AC/DC, she didn’t really have to plagiarize the review from Spoz’s blog in Adelaide. Spot the two telling similarities with this post:
QUA (***1/2)
If the calibre of my myspace requests are ANY indication, you’ve probably got my music tastes pegged as either a blood drinking Scandanavian goth rocker or a Klingon prone to stalking Seven of Nines and T’Pols for geek threesomes at Star Trek conventions (mmmm emotionally stunted with perky nipples!). But one should never underestimate a healthy disregard for copyright law, a broadband connection, a 160Gb ipod and writing for a music website as idiotic as this one for encouraging some truly ecclectic tastes; such as a finer appreciation for the works of Qua. Part of a growing Melbourne cut-and-paste aesthetic (spawning such contemporaries as Mountains In The Sky and Pivot) Qua is the sound of third world rhythms, chants and jubilation set to bombastic beats. Think 90’s Gerling at their most avant garde mixed with The Avalanches, St Germain crossfaded with Squarepusher, or 50 smashed ipods singing the blues in an inner city cafe. Wank intellectuals will obviously find knowing references to composer Pierre Schaeffer and the musique concrète movement of the 1950’s, whilst the rest of you alcoholics will simply recognise this as the whacked out ditty that accompanies that bizarre Toohey’s Extra Dry ad campaign with all the big hair bogans and oversized hair sprouting corn husks..
Close? Or is it just me?
I know Fairfax can’t afford journalists, but I wish this didn’t have to affect an artist we know and love.
Edit: Cornel responds:
“The Age (Melbourne) review in the EG is actually quite funny. Reading it, you’d think I was some young Fitzroy, black tight-jean, uber- cool guy… My music is not about being cool, there is no statement – it’s simply how I feel. I do it because this is what i do and it has formed very naturally without any preconceptions or “scene-ster” manipulation. Nothing more.”
Read the full response at his myspace.
i’m not sure i could think of many people in melbourne who are less deserving of this kind of “i’m going to tear you down because you’re too big for your boots” review. its just an embarrassing 3 paragraphs that should never have made it to publication.
as for melbourne’s 3065 postcode (thats fitzroy, y’all) cut-and-paste hipster collective – abso-fucking-lutely hilarious. of all the odious trend-driven haircut-sporting music cliques and scenes that proliferate around this area – and hey, 3065 IS the epicentre of pretentious music wannabes, after all, i live here! – but you choose to have a go at qua and MITS and the like? SOOO off the mark. i’m all for negative reviews but you’ve got to know when to pick your target.
plus it helps to know what you’re talking about. you’re spot on the money dave – anyone that listens to an electronica record and dismisses it after a couple of songs because it doesn’t sound like air or daft punk, really should never have been handed the review copy of the album in the first place.
its so disappointing, because anyone who knows or is a fan of qua is going to read this review and just chuckle at how inane it is – but there are a lot of age readers who are going to hear about him for the first time via this review, and simply get the wrong idea.
one of the best straight-up electronica album made in australia for years and the age runs this? shame.
to be fair though, this is probably what it would sound like if i tried to review the drones.
Haha, Tim, nice last sentence.
Let’s all send Kylie hate-mail!
pompous, lazy and uninformed writing. does not qualify as “journalism”. i am glad however to see that there’s a good bunch of people who have cornel’s back.
i think we are forming some kind of cross-station inter-city community-radio-presenter voltron
oh well, i tend to think an extremely bad review is better for an artist than a mediocre review or no review. No such thing as bad publicity and all that…
An extremely bad review is one thing, but it still needs to have the facts right and not plagiarise the work of others.
Has anyone copied a link to this thread to the nice people at Media Watch?
Hey Tim & Dave, I couldn’t agree with your critique of this grossly ill-informed and lazy review of Q&A more. Nor could I resist the opportunity to contribute to this cross-station inter-city community-radio-presenter voltron forming in this comments section. But back to the review, this is seriously some of the most offensively ignorant music journalism I have read in a long time.
peter, if there is such a thing as bad publicity i think this is it. this review hardly encourages anyone to check Q&A out, and like it or not, a lot of people take cues from the EG. there’ll be people unfamiliar with his work who may dismiss him outright simply because they respect the age’s opinion. this review does more harm than good.
as for the plagiarism, there’s the possibility that both the age reviewer and the blogger are actually quoting from the same press release, hence it looking suspect. obviously thats giving the age reviewer the benefit of the doubt, but its not uncommon practice to recycle chunks of the PR material for copy, perhaps they both picked up on a pierre schaeffer reference in the press release and went with it… not to say this isn’t lazy too
and simon, welcome to the voltron. what colour would you like to be?
red or black please, but no real preference.. as long as i can fight in the battle against wilfully bad music journalism i’m happy.
Yeah, sure he wouldn’t be thrilled. but if he was here with me right now I would still try and console him with my hierarchy of review goodness to badness:
Positive review>Negative review> No review.
but that’s just how i see it, others probably differ…
cornel responds…
“The Age (Melbourne) review in the EG is actually quite funny. Reading it, you’d think I was some young Fitzroy, black tight-jean, uber- cool guy… My music is not about being cool, there is no statement – it’s simply how I feel. I do it because this is what i do and it has formed very naturally without any preconceptions or “scene-ster” manipulation. Nothing more.”
boom!
Lots of talk about this at mess+noise – some posters there think this will make Media Watch tomorrow night!
http://www.messandnoise.com/discussions/3206876
thats hilariously unlikely
joe has leant his voice to the pro-qua voltron – and from his comment box, brian (self-confessed wank intellectual, and musique concrete expert) had this to say:
Yeah, I’ve often thought it is strange the way “atonal” gets used out side of contemporary classical musical circles to mean anything vaguely noisy. So yes, I guess it is a bit inappropriate to use that term about someone coming from that world but not associated with that particular movement. But then the review was written for a different community that do accept the other meaning, so I dunno really.
nicely spotted, and dissected. dan rule – another age music writer, but thankfully one who knows his pivot from his presets, contributed a great duo interview with qua and mits in the new issue of cyclic, here: http://www.cyclicdefrost.com/blog/?cat=49.