Review Summary: Art(ist)
Can you separate the art from the artist? It’s a question I suspect you’re sick of hearing, having been frequently and furiously debated, but the answer is actually quite simple:
yes, yes you can, obviously (idiot). But should you? A tougher question.
With the release of Deathspell Omega’s
The Long Defeat, the Sput staffers held a moot atop Olympus. The conundrum: do we review this record? If so, how? Should users be permitted to do so (yes,
duh) and/or should their reviews be featured (review dependent? or a hard
“lol no”)? To what degree (if at all) is it appropriate for a community of music listener writing people (nerds) to indicate (in)advertant approval of a band with neo-nazi ties / connotations / sympathies? Should any such review include a disclaimer: riffs gud, politics bad? When bad press is still press, should we draw attention to (and facilitate the reach and earning capacity of) such a group? Is it a matter of degree - are different approaches valid for Evan Stephens Hall c.f. Jesse Lacey c.f. Ian Watkins c.f.
literal fascists? Is it contingent on the music itself - are relatable sadboi lyrics more sharply undercut when the singer is a
twat, or do good riffs depreciate just as fast? Or should we nuke the whole damn database and be done with it? To be clear, I (a 25-year-old manchild of meek intellect) do not know the answer to any of these questions. People are
bastards, music is
good, freedom of expression is a
thing (an important
thing) and people are
bastards. As I said, it’s a toughie.
Ghost Mice are/is/were a band and
All We Got Is Each Other is/is/is an album. The latter is
exceptional - the truest, harshest and goodest(?) account of death and loss and
fucking misery I’ve ever heard (Phil Elverum exempted). The former is a little bit more complicated. We don’t talk about Chris Calvin and Hannah Jones anymore. Once genre-leaders, since disowned: the duo were hurled immediately into the bucket of
badbadnotgooddonotlistentothisshit bands after a series of allegations that a good Google will inform you sufficiently of. Once again, I’m ignorant: I do not know the truth of it (and neither, I’m guessing, do you) but, if valid, the accusations are damning (and Calvin is a cunt). The truth packed within this 25-minute and 18-second LP, however, is
not rendered false by extension. Its slow, careful parsing out of the very essence of grief remains staggering and brutal and harrowing and
real to this day. It is still horrifically, painfully
authentic, still horrifically, painfully
sincere and still horrifically, painfully
human; and I’m not sure anything, no matter how horrific or painful, could ever change that.
Has my personal connection to Ghost Mice and this wonderful,
wonderful little record waned in light of the context and confusion surrounding it?
Yes, of course, obviously (idiot) - the morals of the man (as accused) and the music (as apparent) are
jarring, to say the least - and yet I’m convinced there’s a baby amidst the bathwater that’s worth sifting through this tangled, complicated mess to save. We didn't review
The Long Defeat in the end (it sucked, which helped), but I
am reviewing
All We Got Is Each Other. It is a very, very good piece of music. It will always be a very, very good work of art. If and how you choose to listen to it is another question. Please excuse my ignorance.
