Tuesday 25 February 2020

Meredith Monk ‎– "Key" (Increase Records ‎– INCS - 2008) 1971



Someone's taking the piss here...surely?
'Award winning'....you know you're off to a bad start when that phrase is used!......Meredith Monk ,a regular contributer to the Dial-A-Poem Poets releases on Giorno Poetry Systems. Had her own recording career,capturing her 'Performance Art' madness,yodeling, indian war cry,s,and 'meaningful' vocalisations in an 'Off Broadway' tradition that specializes in half empty medium sized room full of the chin-stroking manhatten art elite. Would they notice if I left the auditorium after five minutes of this ear grating opera of the absurd?....of course they would.As they would every other philestine feigning a need to urinate. Real art lovers hold it in.They regularly strengthen their pelvic floor muscles with a rigorous exercise program specifically to avoid such a taint on their Artzy Fartzy credentials. Real artists DON'T PISS!
Well,we've heard something like this caterwauling before haven't we?...Yoko Ono perhaps? Then back in the 50's we had Bas Sheva in Les Baxter's 'Passions' and Yma Sumac, both of whom Meredith Monk makes sound like Barbara Strisand.
I'd say, if you didn't get up and leave after 5 minutes, or less, of one of Monk's off-broadway operas, then you are a pretentious and deluded masochist.
Its ART you Idiot!.....like religious belief ,maybe sometimes its just better to keep it to yourself?
Maybe i'm just a  stupid Philestine or future Trump supporter, and normally I like room emptying nonsense, but this makes my ears rattle in such an uncomfortable way that it makes me wanna burn down an art gallery. My defence would be that my wilful act of arson was a conceptual artistic statement,and that the ruins should be donated to the people,naturally only after being purchased as an investment by Charles "Wifebeater" Saachi.
Saatchi and wife on a quiet night out...conceptual art or what?


Tracklist:

A1 Porch
A2 Under Street
A3 What Does It Mean?
A4 Vision
A5 Fat Stream
B1 Vision
B2 Do You Be?
B3 Vision
B4 Change
B5 Dungeon

DOWNLOAD something far too clever for you to understand HERE!

3 comments:

Fabio D. said...

Burn a minor cult church instead!

parmalee said...

Monk is another one of those composers who gave many a humble combo organ a job, many of which survived into the 90's, the 00's, and onward, allowing people like me to pick 'em up cheap, make needed repairs, and sell them to rich Euro bands like Stereolab for a decent profit. I'll always be thankful.

parmalee said...

Anyways, this one (Key) is certainly a bit, uh, different from some Monk's stuff--check out "Turtle Dreams" (a weird video performance exists on that popular video hosting site) for some contrast.