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PERIPHERAL VISION / February 2007 Voices Inside My Head After a lengthy period of reflection and reorientation, and after much water under the creaking proverbial bridge, finally e/i the “rethought” digital version assumes legitimate form post e/i the analog (as in “print,” like on paper). Ideally, I would have preferred that e/i remain an actual tactile entity, something you could hold and touch and archive, but, as I stated clearly enough in the final issue’s editorial, circumstances dictated otherwise. Nevertheless, something is better than nothing, and as there’s just too much music to discuss, and too many people out there who are eager to share their opinions about it all with you, gentle reader, it was obvious e/i continue rather than disappear. There were simply too many little voices murmuring in my ear, murmuring their opinions of all the sounds showing up daily in both computer and mailbox, and I wanted those voices to be heard beyond my little solipsistic realm. Too much music. Yes, the eternal “bane” of sonic hounds. Of course, to use the phrase “too much music” is to use it as an oxymoron, because we all know that to be bitten by the music bug means that you can’t help but attempt to obtain it all, to listen to as much of it as you possibly can. And one of our jobs is to provide you with as much critical, intelligent and passionate direction as possible to enable you in your quest. Here at e/i, we share the same love for all things electronic, experimental and otherwise as you do, so take comfort in the knowledge that you’re not the only musical obsessive in the universe. Some thoughts on the new site’s modus operandi. Particularly because 2007 has just begun (not that there’s already a voluminous amount of recordings hatched in a little over 30 days time), we will be covering many many recordings, particular in this year’s first quarter, that eluded us during our 2006 “hiatus.” So, to a degree, topicality be damned; of course we fully intend to get caught up, as it were, once the ball gets rolling, but these next few months will be spent reviewing the hundreds of discs that arose out of this past year. There’s simply too much in the cache requiring critique that summarily dismissing it on the grounds it wasn’t released today is foolhardy at best (blame again that peculiar Westernized need for instant gratification). Sometimes we might even cover older recordings because their merit outweighs their chronological stamp. Such is the nature of these genres we ardently embrace: week after week, new artists and labels seem to multiply and advance wildly outward like viruses eagerly subverting the genre body politic, and as with e/i the print, we endeavor to get to as much of it as we can via e/i the pixel. One of the newest things being unveiled is our regular mailing list, free to subscribe to, featuring dozens of reviews, plus additional profiles and the odd feature, all linked to the main site, where it will of course be further augmented and archived. So, much, much more to come. Where will this digital incarnation take us? Hard to say in the short term. But the anticipation of what the future might hold is what makes it something to look forward to, right? Thanks for visiting. Onward. DARREN BERGSTEIN |
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