SP* Episode 29: CRITICAL POSITIVITY – with ACL [podcast]

Happy (very belated) birthday to us! Back in January of 2022 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our blog. To celebrate, in this episode, we pull the curtain back a bit to talk with ten of the writers who have contributed to A CLOSER LISTEN since we began over a decade ago. Utilizing my idiosyncratic editing skills, I’ve conjured a virtual roundtable discussing the past, present, and future of ACL. We discuss the founding of the site, abandoning scoring, and all our sub-sites, mixes, and other projects that define us. Our discussion of video game music gives way to a reflection on film scores, and the relationship between sound and the visual more broadly, including artwork, packaging, and physical media. We recount what has made ACL distinct over the years, our openness to new sounds, the joys of ongoing discovery, our formative influences, and our signature blend of critical positivity.

The music for this episode was selected collectively, drawn from tracks that came up throughout our conversations. Scattered throughout the episode are also many 10 second clips I solicited from friends of the site back in 2014. I used them to make some “community sound collages” that I never properly shared, so it seemed fitting to include them here. (Joseph Sannicandro)

Episode 29: CRITICAL POSITIVITY

Sound Propositions should be available wherever you get your podcasts, so please keep an eye out and subscribe (and rate and review, it helps others who might be interested find us). You can support Sound Propositions on Patreon if you are so inclined, or send a one-time donation via PayPal. The first two seasons are also available on Bandcamp.  I’m very grateful for any support, which will help ensure future episodes.

Interviews recorded between January 2022 and January 2023
Produced and mixed in Montreal, June-July 2023

Right, so our tenth anniversary was nearly eighteen months ago, and I’d originally intended to produce this episode to celebrate that milestone. It’s taken a lot of work to complete, which is one reason it runs so much longer than usual. I conducted eight interviews with nine of my colleagues, plus myself makes ten voices, all of which was an incredible effort to review, edit, and organize. This episode is a celebration, it’s one for the archive. Afterall, at ACL we love #longreads and #slowlistening. But, as I explain in the episode, I originally started this podcast while I was writing my doctoral dissertation, which I successfully defended earlier this year. While I could make time to do interviews, I didn’t have the bandwidth to produce this episode until after I had completed my dissertation. Our 11th anniversary came and went, and now we’re halfway to our twelfth, but again, we operate according to our own rhythms and cycles, so there’s something fitting about that.   

The Site Before. The day after Christmas 2011, Richard Allen, Jeremy Bye, and I left TSB to found ACL, quickly drafting other TSB contributors into the fold, including David Murrieta Flores, Gabe Bogart (2013-14, -21), James Catchpole (2012-20), John Kontos (2012), Michael Duane Ferrell (2012-13), Mohammed Ashraf (2012-15), Nayt Keane (2012-15), and Zachary Corsa (2012-15). Rich had already reserved our URL, and instructed us to track down the site based on sheer intuition. TSB had its origins in a mid-00s Livejournal MP3 community, launching as a review site in March 2006. While we learned a lot from doing regular assignments, many of us had always chafed at the practice of scoring music. With ACL, we collectively decided to shift pace, abandoning ratings and generally refocusing on positivity. So much of contemporary music writing tends to hyperbole, either trying to sell records or get clicks for ad revenue. Since we don’t do either of those, we’ve been free to share what we choose. 

We haven’t sacrificed our critical faculties, and would never push music we don’t actually like. We don’t care to chase trends, and simply prefer to highlight what we do like. I also like to think that we write for posterity, bucking the increasingly ephemeral press cycle in which interest in a record fades exponentially after release day. Since we’re all volunteers, we have the independence to just keep chugging along in our lane, just like many of the artists we cover. We’d be happy to have you follow along, and more than anything we’re just grateful to be able to share music we care about with our curious Listeners. We ACL writers have never really been the focus, and to this day Rich is still represented on our staff bios page by a picture of an ice coffee. To be honest, getting the elusive Richard Allen, who manages to average something like a review every day, to consent to go on tape for this episode was the impetus for this episode. He’s set the tone from the beginning, and kept us on our path ever since. 

When ACL began, we used the opportunity to branch out in other ways. Under the heading LOST CHILDREN, I curated a mix series which ran for 100 installments before settling into a less regular occurrence. I also began Sound Propositions as an in-depth interview feature, trying to foster a new space for discussion about creative practices that didn’t seem like it was designed to sell consumer electronics. That series ran for 21 installments, before my focus shifted to this podcast, bearing the same name. Jeremy began Electronic Observations, a periodic batch review column focusing on electronic music. More recently, he has organized many excellent features, including lists dedicated to compilations, art books on music, and our much loved seasonal music lists. Nayt has been on hiatus since 2015, but his contributions, including Best Album Covers and Music for Haunted Houses, have continued to birth new installments under Richard’s stewardship, and Nayt’s original posts remain some of our most widely shared ever! And David and Chris have produced an incredible body of work exploring video game music (#VGM) with their series *Press A*. And most recently, our friend Gianmarco Del Re has joined us, mostly dedicating his efforts to his series, Ukrainian Field Notes.

This episode weaves our ten interviews together and, without hiding the seams, I tried to make the episode flow as if we were all actually in conversation with each other as a group. It moves in roughly 15 minute sections, beginning with an introduction to ACL, the podcast, and especially of Richard Allen, whose interview grounds the episode and to whom we return to most frequently throughout. We discuss what makes ACL different from TSB, with particular attention to our decision to abandon scoring. Rich points out that ACL also contains sites within the site, namely my column and podcast Sound Propositions, Jeremy’s Electronic Observations, and Press A, a series dedicated to video game music produced by David and Chris. This discussion of VGM morphs into a broader discussion of the relationship between sound and the visual. Richard in particular often reviews film scores, and he shares some thoughts on his approach to writing about film music. We also hear from Nayt, who has written many excellent end of year articles on album art and packaging, interviewing musicians and visual artists about their creative decisions.

Over the years we added additional writers, including Chris Redfearn-Murray, Danijela Bočev (2017-2020), Samuel Rogers, and Todd B. Gruel (2014-2019), as some of our original crew cycled out to pursue other endeavors. Shortly after our tenth anniversary we noticed we’d been dwindling for a while, and it seemed like the right moment to expand again, so we put out a call for new writers, welcoming new contributors Garreth Brooke, Jennifer Smart, Josh Hughes (2022), Maria Papadomanolaki, Maya Rose Merberg, and Peter Tracy. In the fifth section of this episode, we hear from two of these new contributors, Maya and Jennifer, about joining ACL, which leads to a wider discussion of musical discovery and the importance of listening with openness to new sounds. We also explore some of the formative musical influences that lead us here, in particular industrial music, punk, and hip hop. Finally, we reflect on the critical positivity that defines what we do.

There are many ACL contributors I didn’t have the chance to feature in this episode, some of whom will no doubt show up in future episodes. Our old friend Gianmarco Del Re, a longtime contributor to our friends at Fluid Radio, joined us officially in 2022 with his series Ukrainian Field Notes (which regular readers and podcast subscribers will be familiar with in our RSS feed), and I hope do an SP episode with GM eventually, looking back on UFN. Keep an eye out for a bonus episode soon, in which Gabe Bogart and I do a soft launch for what might turn out to be a new series. That puts an official end to season three of the podcast, but we’ll be back for season four later this summer, featuring conversations with Andrea Belfi, Cruel Diagonals, France Jobin, and much more. Until then, thanks for listening.

Cover image is a detail of Alighiero Boetti’s Turbi e disturbi [Troubles and disturbances] (1979), one of the artist’s ballpoint pen works [lavori biro], in which he asked friends and guests to contribute their collective labor towards the work’s completion.

VOICES
(in order of appearance)

Richard Allen
Gabriel Bogart
Joseph Sannicandro
Jeremy Bye
Samuel Rogers
Nayt Keane
Chris Redfearn-Murray
David Murrieta Flores
Maya Rose Merberg
Jennifer Smart

TRACKLIST
ARTIST – “TITLE” (ALBUM, LABEL, YEAR)

Peter Gabriel – “With This Love (Choir)” (Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ, 1989)

SP INTRO

Weather Report – “Mysterious Traveller” (Mysterious Traveller, 1974)

The Caretaker – “And bliss everywhere bliss” (Everywhere, an Empty Bliss, 2019)

Zachary Corsa – 10 seconds

Tim Hecker – “No Drums” (Ravedeath, 1972, kranky, 2011)

Enrico Coniglio – 10 seconds

High Fidelity clip

Erik K Skodvin – “Failing eyes” (Flare, Sonic Pieces, 2010)

Applejacks commercial

Huerco S. – “Hear Me Out” (For Those Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have), Proibito, 2016)

Jose / EUS – 10 seconds

Kate Carr – “A Single Turnstile Moment” (Splinters, 2020)

DJ Premiere – “Half and Half (instrumental)” (Rare Instrumental Joints Vol. 2, 2008)

Antonina Nowacka – “Part 7” (Lamunan, Mondoj, 2020)

Richard Skelton – “Fold” (Marking Time, 2008)

Ghostbusters clip

Gianmarco Del Re – 10 seconds

Godspeed – “Strung Like Lights At Thee Printemps Erable” (ALLELUJAH! DON’T BEND! ASCEND!, CST, 2012)

Julianna Barwick – “Keep Up the Good Work” (The Magic Place, 2011)

Gianmarco Del Re – (another ) 10 seconds

Lee Gamble – “3,​4 Synthetic” (Diversions 1994​-​1996, PAN, 2012)

36 – “Cocoon” (Lithea, 2012)

Morelenbaum² / Sakamoto – “Samba De Avião” (A Day In New York, Sony Classical, 2003)

Manaka Kataoka / Yasuaki Iwata / Hajime Wakai –  “Main Theme” (The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild – OST, Columbia, 2018)

Koji Kondo – “Castle Theme” (Super Mario Bros, Nintendo, 1985)

Joe McKay – 10 seconds

Hildur Guðnadóttir & Sam Slater – “Orbital” (Battlefield 2042, EA
Games/INVADA Records, 2022)

Belinda Coomes ~ “Everything is Connected” (Ring of Pain OST, Boss Battle, 2020)

Sparkle in Grey – 10 seconds (of Manzi for Joe)

Tatsuyuki Maeda – “Volcano Valley Zone Act 2” (Sonic 3D Blast – OST, Sega Genesis, 1996)

Koji Kondo – “Star Road” (Super Mario World, Nintendo, 1990)

Alex Burnett – “A Dream From My Memory” (The Wanderer: Frankenstein​’​s Creature OST, 2020)

Ben Lukas Boysen & Sebastian Plano – “We’re Here” (Everything, Erased Tapes, 2017)

Philip Samartzis & Daniela d’Arielli – “Night” (A Futurist’s Cookbook, Galaverna, 2018)

Kate Carr –  10 seconds ( Cows of the Mill Rd Belfast)

Sigur Rós – “Fjögur Píanó”  (Valtari, Parlophone / Krúnk, 2012)

ShrapKnel – “Mescalito ft. billy woods (DJ Haram remix)” (Hi Bias, Backwoodz, 2023)

SEC_ – 10 seconds

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe – “I Thought We Could (The Turn)” (Candyman, Waxwork, 2021)

Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnason – “Simulacra I” (S​Ó​LARIS, Bedroom Community, 2011)

Alex Gray  – 10 seconds

Olan Mill – “Amber Balanced (On Waiting)” (Paths, 2012)

Sparkle in Grey – 10 (more) seconds (of Manzi for Joe)

Matana Roberts – “This Land Is Yours” (Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee, CST, 2015)

Sarah Davachi – “Hall of Mirrors” (Two Sisters, Late Music, 2022)

Copenhagen Clarinet Choir – “Hive Mind” (Organism, År Og Dag, 2022)

Front Line Assembly – “Circuitry (Predator mix)” (Circuitry, Metropolis, 1995)

Grouper – “Come Softly (For Daniel Dalzell)” (A I A : Alien Observer, Yellow Electric, 2011)

El-P / Cannibal Ox – “F-Word (Instrumental)” (El-P Presents: Cannibal Oxtrumentals, DefJux, 2022)

Kreng – “Monkey (part two)” (Works For Abattoir Fermé 2007 – 2011, Miasmah, 2012)

Tangerine Dream – “Resurrection” (Electronic Meditation, Ohr, 1970)

KMRU & Aho Ssan – “Rebirth” (Limen, Subtext, 2022)

Erin Demastes – “Green” (Thing Music, Public Eyesore, 2021)

Oneohtrix Point Never – “Explain” (Replica, Software / Mexican Summer, 2011)

Linear Bells – 10 seconds (cello)

lilien rosarian – “moseying” (every flower in my garden, self-released, 2022)

Max Richter – “Dream 3 (Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith remix)” /  “Path 5 (Mogwai remix)” (SLEEP Remixes, Deutsche Grammophon, 2016)

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & London Symphony Orchestra – “Movement 3” (Promises, 2021)

Pharoah & The Underground [Chicago / São Paulo] – (Spiral Mercury, Clean Feed, 2014)

Chris Watson – “Mexico D.F.” (El Tren Fantasma, Touch, 2011)

Fuubutsushi – “Watch the Time”  (Shiki (四季) – Fuubutsushi (風物詩), Cached Media, 2021)

M. Sage  (with The Spinnaker Ensemble) – “Hiked Way Out” (new objective edit)  (The Wind of Things, Geographic North, 2021)

skitch henderson – “moonlight in vermont” (M. Sage mix) (Half Speed Flourish, LCNL, 2013)

orchestre poly-rythmo de cotonou – “ma dou sou nou mia (8% Deep Magic remix)” (Deep Magic ACL Mix, LCNL, 2012)

Nest  – “Amroth (Brambles Version)” (Retold, Serein, 2014)

Svarte Greiner  – “Devolve” (Devolving Trust, Miasmah, 2022)

Stefan Christoff – 10 seconds

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Sound Propositions is written, recorded, mixed, and produced by Joseph Sannicandro.