Blunt notes from casual CD listening -- reactions, not reviews

yo HM

thanks for doing a quick write up on my s**t.
I'll send you my first album, with Kondo on it, it will tear your tits off. hit me up.

Dear Howard Mandel,

Glad you got the chance for a casual listen. Repeated listening to 'Planet Passion' will slowly reveal its true complexity. If you are interested in studying some of the musical knowledge behind that release, please visit http://www.ancient-future.com/rhythm.html.

We have mixed feelings about the movement to short instantaneous reactions on the Internet that is happening in the midst of the economic cutbacks at print media. On the one hand a lot more people are involved in the process, but on the other it is too bad that there is not more support for delving deep into subjects that can only come with financial support for the written word.

We've also attached a list of bullet points on the world fusion music process.

Sincerely,
PD Ancient-Future.Com Records
promo@ancient-future.com
======================================
World Fusion Music:

*Not a genre; the results of world fusion process can fit in many genres
*Based on cross-cultural collaborations, expanding musical understanding and skills of collaborators
*Process not associated with any one belief system, religion, or demographic group
*Process produces a variety of results and encourages innovation; can create new traditions
*Many great traditions are the result of this process: Blues, Jazz, Flamenco, etc.
*Process encourages music for the sake of music
*Results often worth stretching a genre or radio format for
*All tempos, rhythms, melodies, harmonies and tone colors possible
*Deep knowledge of musical traditions important
*Exciting process can create vital music based on the great music of the world
*Worthy of greater support

World Music Traditions:
*The repositories of musical knowledge
*Must be preserved for future generations

HM: Thanks for your note. I'm aware that I didn't give AF's Planet Passion the full monte of listening deeply. However, after 35 years of music reviewing, including stints as an editor at Down Beat, Ear and Rhythm Music, as well as several classes including one called "The Arts: World Music" at NYU, I've come to trust my reactions to some extent.

If I had been in the position of trying to analyze and explain the cd to a broad audience unfamiliar with the world fusion music process I would have detailed many of the excellent bullet points as to how the band embodies them. My personal bias is towards more investigation of the world's musical tradiitons rather than fusing them, but Ancient Future's dexterity in drawing on a vast range of musical knowledge and concocting entrancing blends is admirable and results in genuinely original, pleasing sounds; that the band has been at it for 30 years also reflects commitment and creativity at an early stage to a process that has itself become a new genre. Congrats on the album and the anniversary.

This was a quick, entertaining read, and you've interested me in checking out at least a couple of discs that I didn't know about before.

Given the sheer volume of new music out there, and the accompanying sipping-water-from-a-fire-hose difficulties inherent in trying to keep up with it all, I'd like to see more short-takes pieces like this.

But I'd agree with Jason that, in the larger scheme of things, they're a useful supplement to full reviews, and not necessarily a substitute for them.

With shrinking freelance budgets and less space devoted to longer-form music coverage in many newspapers & magazines, online is one of the few places where those with the knowledge and writing ability, like Mr. Mandel, have the chance to "go long" when the subject merits in-depth treatment. I'd hate to lose that.

I think it's a great idea. So much so that I'm strongly considering stealing it.

I disagree completely with the comment by Jeff Albert that states "It is more coverage than these discs would get otherwise . . ." - I am a publicist and believe me many of these discs will get far more coverage than this.

These reactions and responses are great, interesting and kind of fun to read, but they cannot take the place of proper in-depth reviews. From what I have read so far, they sometimes miss the subtleness and point of some of this music and can therefore be misleading. However if readers take them for what they are (reactions and responses) then they can still be open to checking out the music and forming an opinion of their own.

HM: Jason's right that these reactions and responses do not take into account the various productions' subtleties, varieties, details -- and maybe I'm mistaken about their points, I can't judge about that. I sure hope there are reviews that will do more on them. For instance, the Fat Cat Big Band has a second album released at the same time I haven't listened to yet; it may shed a different light on the first. I'm glad Jeff liked what he read though, and if I've helped anyone sort through some new releases, I hope it's to the good.

Please do it again. I don't think it is dismissive at all. It is more coverage than these discs would get otherwise, and it is quite similar to the way I would discuss a new disc with a friend in passing conversation. I think both listeners and artists would be better served with more mini-reviews like this.