(no subject)

[thejunipertree]

Fuck.

Diamanda Galas' "Vena Cava" is probably NOT the thing I should be listening to right now.

I never realized what it was actually about, before.

This hurts.

Bad.

The funny thing is, I brought all of my Diamanda CDs into work today as a celebration of the fact that my ex-husband, the Cheshire Cat, bought me a ticket for my birthday to see Galas at the TLA on October 11th. Every other time she's performed in Philadelphia, I've missed her and that fact has always made me extremely petulant.

So, I carted up all my CDs by her and brought them into work. Due to the nature of her work, I couldn't play them very loud because I know it would have bothered my boss (my office adjoins hers). The music loses a lot of its power when it's turned down low and you miss quite a bit, especially when she gets into her practically subsonic whispering.

I'd been saving "Vena Cava" for the end of the day, when Miss Angel had left. Now, sitting here alone and attempting to get some work done, I can play it as loud as I like.

And truly listen to what's being broadcast.

Pain. Brutality. Truth. Anger. Sadness. Joy. Denial. Regret. Isolation. Disorientation. Beauty. Insanity. Vulnerability.

I'm only on track #4 (none of them have names). I don't think I can handle the rest of this album right now.

Comments

[edwards.livejournal.com]

From the things you've said directly to me in this thread and the recent post you've written in your journal, it seems as if you automatically dismiss anything dealing with AIDS as activist bandwagon bullshit. Of course, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

You're wrong. My comments on my journal were made in the context of pure cynicism; the possibility that Diamanda's continuing promotion as an AIDS activist (even when her latest work is really quite unrelated) may have affected her direction - her popularity - is slim, and merely a cynical glance. Plague Mass predates the real period of AIDS being a popular 'cause' and is allegedly one of her most powerful works - I look forward to hearing it - but I'd like to read something about her technical abilities and production skills without the journalist in question having read the crib sheet and decided to throw the word AIDS in there.

In other words - Diamanda's motivation was to write about pain, and her experience of pain was AIDS related, but it could easily have been, I don't know, extreme sports related. Or old age. Or, well, pretty much anything. However, it is inevitable that when the respective markets went into AIDS overdrive - in the UK after Freddie Mercury died, in the US when people actually got that it was a serious issue (way before the UK, too) - there will have been people who bought Diamanda /because/ she was an activist in a popular cause.

Presumably she's human. She may or may not have played up to this, her PR/management clearly have. Again - why I want to hear her later work, to see how diluted it is, if it is. I don't want any preconceptions, but that doesn't prevent me from making snide remarks about bandwagoneers - which I don't believe Diamanda is.

[meetzemonsta.livejournal.com]

"The Plague Mass" came out in 1991. AIDS was a budding popular 'cause' at that point. Especially on the West Coast, where she is from. She's never 'played up' on the fact that she was an AIDS activist. She simply IS an AIDS activist. It has nothing to do with PR, it has nothing to do with attempting to gain some kind of popularity or having spins put on things.

If a journalist includes the word 'AIDS' in any of their write-ups of her work, they do it because she is effectively forcing it down their throats, most of her work is indeed AIDS related. Her name is always connected to the disease because of that fact.

Her latest works aren't specifically AIDS related, you're right. A handful of her work hasn't been (most notably, "The Sporting Life", you want an album you want to like, I recommend that). But that doesn't erase the fact that she is still very much an activist.

And if people buy her albums solely because of her being an activist with a 'popular' cause, so what? I don't understand this attitude, that so many people have, that if a cause becomes popular (or "trendy"), it's suddenly not as noteworthy and the people supporting the cause are just sheep.

If celebrities want to trot around wearing their little red ribbons, fucking let them. What's the harm in it? The name of the cause is getting out, education about it is getting out; who cares about the manner in which it gets out?

This is a very hot button with me, I've never understood the derision that people have for things like this. Especially on a subject such as AIDS. It's something which NEEDS to be popular and thought of and talked about. Who cares if it's a fashion statement? The information is getting out, in one way or another.

You'll have to excuse me, because I am beginning to get a bit frothy over this.

[edwards.livejournal.com]

According to her website, Plague Mass has been in development since 1984 - I take this to mean that it was first written or performed in 1984, so whilst the recording was made in 1991, the material is much older.

I'm not suggesting that the cause is less important, merely that I am cynical about the motivation of some people (NOT Diamanda by any means) to get involved when that involvement earns them and not necessarily the cause, any publicity. I'm not even suggesting that people supporting the cause are just sheep, just some.

What I am wary of with Diamanda and people who discuss her music elsewhere is the concept of her as an elitist taste; hence the remark about 'rarely played'. I've played Vena Cava more than many of the albums I own by artists I know I like; I've listened to it more than Bloodflowers, more than Captain Beefheart, more than Supe.. actually, I only bought Supertramp for The Logical Song *shame*.

I don't want an album you think that I, an uneducated peasant, will enjoy. I want Plague Mass because it's supposed to be Diamanda's most intense work, I want to actually feel something from the music. I want the same thrill up my spine that I got from listening to early prog, or even the same sadness I felt listening to War of the Worlds when I was a kid. It's trivial, but I haven't been made to think by any modern music and in many ways I've blocked out the minority acts that should challenge me.

I don't trust journalists. If she's forcing it down their throats, great. I can't help mistrusting them and assuming that in fact, they haven't listened to the CD, have read the PR pack, and don't actually have an opinion about her work.

[meetzemonsta.livejournal.com]

I don't want an album you think that I, an uneducated peasant, will enjoy.

I don't have the time or the energy at this moment to address any of the other things you've said (as I'm at work and dealing with myriad personal issues at the same time), however I will say this: "The Sporting Life" is my absolute favourite album that Galas has ever put out. I love all of her work, but that is the one I love the most. It's the first album that I recommend to every single person who asks me what I think is good by Diamanda Galas.

I wasn't snarking at you with that recommendation. I was suggesting something I figured you might enjoy on the basis that it's more intricate musically and less 'activist'.

[edwards.livejournal.com]

I was snarking at myself with the uneducated peasant remark, but when googling I hadn't read that many favourable reviews of "The Sporting Life" - not that I'd particularly base my opinion on reviews, but it seemed to be quite weighted towards people considering it a poor album - though I couldn't get the context they were reviewing it in, whether they'd bought it as jazz fans and hated Diamanda's voice (Amazon has "like a cat being beaten to death with another cat" in one review) or if they were Diamanda fans and found it too tame (in which case I'd suspect they were just fans for the sake of liking someone extreme).

Extreme Music. The latest Pepsi-Max inspired sport - listen to Diamanda on a 5000W stereo then switch to Salt 'n' Pepa's Greatest Hits before finishing with Isao Tomita, backwards, mixed with R Kelly.

Like everything, I'll try it. "Less activism" isn't actually that important to me in the music as long as it's good.