V/Vm - $ell

(one-sided 5” vinyl, hirntrust grindplate)

Megatrends like globalization, mobilisation, digitalisation or feminisation are tearing apart what held the old world together. They have been doing so for several decades now but the beginning of these are just coming to light. All those gadgets and possibilities that are being hailed as revolutions these days – like tv via mobile phone, text messages or the holycomeall ipod – are nothing but a start in a certain direction that will change around our society, the way it works and the way we live and percieve reality. Crazy stuff is bound to happen in the future, but there will come some generations who, when looking at the way we live today, will call us crazy and wonder how we could ever stand up and face each other without blushing. All I have to say to them is, just wait a few more generations at who is to blush then. Haw haw haw. So much for the frame work. Now take a guess which of these megatrends mentioned in the first sentence is the main focus child of the old geezers called V/Vm?

Of course, it is the destruction of capitalism, or, if that won’t work out in a ten year plan, at least being complete pissants about everything tinged with commercialism. You know the type, people who will turn everything you say to them upside down and throw it back at you and you never know if they are just having fun, making fun of you or are pulling an evil joke on you. The result is irritation, and that’s what V/Vm always aim for. Sometimes their efforts are quite clear in their targeted direction, at other times the reasons for their actions seem obscure and ephemeral. Whatever you think about their approach, if you regard them as humoresque jokers in the serious world of electronic avantgarde or find their way of going about things obvious and bland as if taking the easiest targets first, anyway ou’ll have to admit that they have carved a special place and thrive in their productivity.

With its about third or fourth release Austrian electronic grind label hirntrust grindplate has captured them for a short, one-sided record (boy, 5”es are a pest if you happen to sit on a semi-automatic… yes, I am still talking about music and hifi-components) with a tune called “$ell ($hItunes $ellout ver$ion)” in which James Kirby takes some disco pop song and hacks it into its components, offering the bared innards to the birds, ie. the listeners. Of course, disco pop is pure commercialism and there is a lot to say about iTunes and other download stores – one thing could be that a nicely designed 5” vinyl record such as this one always beats a scummy download – but still I wonder in how far this noisy reworking, or would that be a remixing?, of a measly disco-tune will change the world? Is it just an accessoire to cool hipster guys priding themselves for their indepence from the mainstream world and their uniqueness as individuals? Or at least their enlightedness in regards to what is and what is not alternatively cool music underground?

Still, I like this little record a lot, even if for purely aesthetical reasons. The scratching noises and plunges of other noise ripping through the disco beats and sounds that I grew up with tingle my neurons on a basic level that I have thought was long forgotten. If I’d go about searching out my old Italo-disco 12”es (Koto, Tarzan Boy, Electrica Salsa…) for an experienced relisten, with an ear to things and developments I might not have had before, would that be in intention with V/Vm? If I’d do, I wouldn’t care anyway, but how would V/Vm regard to such a misconceived reaction to their effort?