"Chaos and 'not safe' art are full of a novelty which does have a certain artistic value if crafted right but is ultimately far cheaper than DsO's pitch here. This is not to stay that DsO are a novelty act, but in failing to address the possibility of being received as such and to explain what elevates their (unconvincing) supposed preference for a politically polarised production environment from gimmick value, it's hard to not view this in cheap terms and as a thinly-veiled personnel defence."

I don't really the get the "ultimately far cheaper" counter-argument. Could you elaborate a bit ? In any case I find this interesting. Is it the artists role to address how their works are to be received ? I feel that it is a shared responsibility and how we deal with works that are problematic within our society tells us a lot about it. What is sure is that in this context the stance that DSO have chosen, and doubly chosen following the interview, is that of exposure after 15 years of near-silence on their albums. I think this should be taken into account before making assumptions about gimmick value of creating a politically polarising work when they could have just as well kept in the shadows attacking a spiritual subject in peace and success.

As for the decisions in production environment and collaborators they did give a clear response for once. The person was chosen for musical talent. Exclusion was not an option. It doesn't clean DSO and theres not much more we can do here but agree / disagree / not believe them unfortunately.

"Problem here is that the band have already attempted to pontificate the facets of value and encourage a process of engagement based on prescribed criteria. You cannot open your work to audience interpretation while pretending to transcend criticism of aspects of your production ethic or definition or artistic value, I'm afraid."

I feel this too. Theres definitely a paradox here. Although the values they have shared before this point in the interview are mainly within the intimate processes of production / creation that are exclusive to the artists. Less on the audiences prescriptions. I still don't agree about your idea of them trying to transcend anything as I've told about before ; but this does feel like a cope-out noneless on what they are exactly trying to communicate with this record. I do feel what they are doing is relevant (if only for the fact that we've been talking about it soo much already) but also this is where this interview does fail at times to shed a few lights I would have appreciated.

There these are some of my thoughts Johnny, thank you for having taken the time to read them.

My apologies to the thread :>

Album Rating: 3.5

It is us who apologize. Thank you for being cool, and most importantly, I agree with you.

Album Rating: 4.0

"Exclusion was not an option" except for one below their musical standards ahah

"they did however complain about totalitarian-owned systems of censorship of the past" and from nowadays I'd add. That's how I got it!...And btw, addressing this matter, have you seen how Blayne from BangerTV ditched the band and the rev for the album f.e.? You think the dude is that uninformed and only tried to be superficial politically correct?



I say they did it, at least...putting few guys discussing Bataille lol.



Great write TheBarber, I'd like my lazy mustache rolled up now please.

Album Rating: 3.5

Yo 3D I'm glad you found someone to make sense of this.

Album Rating: 3.0

This thread has been incredibly educational, I've learnt a very important lesson here...

My assumption that watching the interview would be an exercise in tedium appears fairly accurate. I will continue being totally apathetic from this point forward. Thanks guys.

Album Rating: 4.0

@demon lol

Album Rating: 4.0

"My assumption that watching the interview would be an exercise in tedium appears fairly accurate."

It is not for one to watch.

It is for one to read, thoroughly.

:| one should not disregard :|

This one, though, would amuse himself much more if one (this one) was able to really watch.

Album Rating: 3.0

Ok, I’ve listened to this again & after some soul searching & deep reflection, fully taking all the themes and philosophical nuances into account, I can indeed accept that this is in fact, an album...



I’ve lowered my rating on this basis.

K lol

respect

Bit late on this, sorry! Not much more to add, so thank you everyone else in this thread for your patience.

"If anything the feel I get is that they embrace the confusion, double or triple standards, negativity, chaos, etc that ensue from this records lyrical content as well as the people who contributed to it on a musical and emotional level."
Nice point; I feel this, but to me it suggests a messy contrarianism that isn't nearly as artful or profound as they pitch it. Don't want to comment much further because I need to give the lyrics some proper time, which I haven't been able to do in the last couple of days!

"I don't really the get the "ultimately far cheaper" counter-argument. Could you elaborate a bit ?"

Novelty as shock value - which I should have described explicitly as such - can be well-crafted and clever in its own way, but it doesn't tend to be particularly profound unless it resonates with a complex set of dispositions on the part of the listener (i.e. shocks them in a way that makes them question their beliefs). I don't necessarily associate DsO with shock-value novelty, but my point is that they haven't mapped out what elevates them from this in terms I find convincing. The contrarianism/chaos/provocation theme above puts further onus on this.

"Is it the artists role to address how their works are to be received ?"

Yes, in the process of craft. I believe this quite strongly (I do a lot of light and sound design work for theatre, which is often heavily geared towards creating a scene or environment that attracts the spectator's attention freely but also predetermines their responses as far as possible and have come to see this attitude as a criterion for craftful artistry everywhere, perhaps unfairly). My point isn't so much that DsO are gimmicky, it's that they haven't safeguarded against interpretation to that end as far as I think is necessary given that they want to (partially) explicate on the album, if that figures?

Album Rating: 4.5

Just ordered this and am excited to listen to it based on the praise it has been receiving. Had no idea they'd be releasing something this year. Also just finished the interview posted earlier and it's an excellent, insightful read into this extremely hermetic band. Pretty heady stuff as well (obviously) and full of philosophical and literary references. Good to see them distance (? not sure that's a great choice of word, oh well) themselves from Aspa somewhat, but yeah, he still seems like a fascist douchebag. I do enjoy his musical contributions, though. Anyway, I skipped 'Synarchy...' and need to go listen to that now.

whres jaq to let me know how to feel about this cause i def slept on this

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

pls refer to: user ratings

as is if that ever mattered lol

Album Rating: 3.0

This has worn off me slightly, but is still a pretty successful attempt at a more subdued and atmospheric approach.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

"as is if that ever mattered lol"



i was just letting you know where jac was, but do you

i understood. btw congrats on the promotion.