# Stylistic Schizophrenia Open Thread... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2008-03-07 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2008/03/stylistic-schizophrenia-open-thread/ I'm going snowboarding today, largely because I can, so this is an open thread. The topic: as was mention often and vigorously in the previous thread (but one), I've made a reasonable career despite having the consistency of, well, nothing springs to mind. I've made single albums that had both big-band swing and 135 bpm 4-on-the-floor industrial stompers on them, and somehow managed to do it rather unironically, at least in my own head. When do you draw the line? Should you rein in your less reasonable creative impulses to suit your chosen genre? Or should you just let it all hang out, and fight the good fight, which is invariably a losing battle? ## Comments (10) **UpAngel180** (2008-03-07): Let it all hang out and fight the good fight. Eclectic / genre bending music is some of the most interesting and moving music out there right now, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the artists passion for the music shines through better. You can tell when an album or song is forced in an effort to keep a cohesive whole or satisfy a recording obligation. It's the people that go out on a limb and make the music they want to while drawing from all of their influences that make the best stuff. Don't believe me? Pick up Amon Tobin's Permutation or Supermodified albums....or the 'When I Met You' DJ set by the Avalanches. All very eclectic....all have a great amount of staying power (in my stereo at least). Unfortunately, these types of artists seem to be doomed to obscurity (at least state side). **angstrom** (2008-03-07): oddly I was thinking the same thing to day as I trawled through my ' unfinished works & mix reminders' audio folder encountering tuneful lounge-jazz, glitchy yet entertaining looped singing, thudding grindhouse, etc, etc. It seems that rather than writing 3 albums worth of coherent material I have written 30 songs by different people. None of whom like each other. I have no conclusion. **vae** (2008-03-07): I'm pretty much on the same boat as Angstrom, I guess... My folder or half-finished and unreleased tunes must have pretty much everything from banging techno and glitchy beats through jazzy house and corny '80s italo crap to a single half-assed classic blues number and scandinavian folk meets electronica / hiphop bastard (that's one project I'd like to actually finish one day though). The Aleksi Virta album I posted at some point was a pretty consistent end result and even that one is bit of a mishmash in my ears. I guess as long as several tunes have kind of same vibe or sound in some way, they can work well together no matter which genres they represent. Witness Luke Vibert who manages to always sound like Luke Vibert - stoned and groovy - no matter if he's doing D&B (Plug, Amen Andrews), downtempo stuff (Wagon Christ, etc... the new'ish co-op "Moog Acid" with J-J Perrey is awesome) or house / disco (Kerrier District). I actually think the guy could very well release an album of stuff that was all over the map genre-wise and still manage to make a coherent package out of it. FWIW, Amon Tobin's newer stuff (Chaos Theory soundtrack, Foley Room) are fucking brilliant sound-wise but feel kind of boring to me... But Supermodified must be one of my all time top albums. **puffer** (2008-03-07): "I've made single albums that had both big-band swing and 135 bpm 4-on-the-floor industrial stompers on them..." Really? *That's* cool. Where can I find it? I like albums/artists that veer all over the map personally. If the force of personality is genuine and true the style is almost incidental. What I'm doing to reconcile my own stylistic floundering/"exploration" (or lack of original ideas) is to spread out my "catalog" into a few different entities. You know, like Richard James, only stupider and not as talented. **JSRockit** (2008-03-07): Most of my songs follow the same formula... since I'm obsessed with early 90s style repetitive hip-hop loops... **vae** (2008-03-07): Oh yeah, and many producers (in the electronic music side) I admire are actually awesomely eclectic in their output even though they would have a signature vibe. I already mentioned Luke Vibert who is probably releasing stuff in a dozen different genres with a dozen different names and still manages to sound like himself. Another example being Scott Herren who's made one of the mellowest and most beautiful sounding folky electronica albums I've heard (Savath & Savalas - Folk Songs for Trains, Trees & Honey), was one of the pioneers of the glitch-hop stuff as Prefuse 73, made really nice IDM and ambient excursions as Delarosa & Asora... And so on. Most of them seem to use different pseudonyms for different kinds of stuff though, or at least release records that are kind of coherent even though the style would change from album to another. That's one way to do it if you don't want to make an album that has 14 tracks and 14 genres for some reason or another, I guess... **inasilentway** (2008-03-07): I think it depends. It's great to jump around styles but you need to make them your own. I've heard a few albums lately where there was a very dilettante feel to them because the artist was incapable of making their personality the glue that holds the different styles together. I am helping someone record an album where there is some stylistic jumping around but her distinct voice makes it all hold together. In completely unrelated news, my harmonium arrived today and it's everything I'd hoped and dreamed for out of life. I can't recommend one enough. **shamann** (2008-03-07): I like to do lots of different things but generally compartmentalize it to different project names, or simply not release my least consistent stylistic ventures. If I were to start singing along to a skiffle beat, I'm sure anyone who has listened to my ambient noise stuff would be hit by a truckload of "WTF?". As a music listener, based simply on the way I listen to music (an album start to finish), I'm fine with stylistic variety as long as it somehow still fits together. Sometimes the variety is preferable. Take something like They Might be Giants, I really enjoyed their albums that were all over the place (Flood, Apollo 18), but lost complete interest once their sound went more consistent (pretty much everything after Apollo 18). I suppose it depends on circumstances, for instance, had the the first two Sister Machine Gun albums been stylistic soup, I suspect we'd be discussing a fairly different narrative. **Jeff C** (2008-03-07): Let it all hang out! And I say that with all sincerity as I think I've been pretty consistent in my support of your creative endeavors over the years, monetarily speaking. Have to say, though: I, for one, do miss that big band swing plus industrial four-on-the-floor stuff. - Jeff **Tomer** (2008-03-07): I too work mainly on a "4 on the floor" project as you call it. My approch is this: Always put some homeric stuff into your music,wheather its funny sounds,amusing\deliberatly corny chord change,weird rythem,Over the top effects ,nice cute little melody or something fun like that. If you take your music too seriously you must be doing something wrong. :P I think that is what seperates my music (dou to this approach) from others.