House Is A Feeling

You all probably know what “feedback” means in techno. In 1745 British traders travelling through what is now Berlin used the term when exchanging a harpsichord for several bags of salt, and it has been embraced by Europeans ever since.

They have added their continental flair to the term: eg “give us your feedbacks” has a nice French revolution feel to it.

If you don’t know your history (the above anecdote comes from “Loving the A-Side, Thanks Man!: A History Of Independent Record Label Promotion” by Laurent Garnier) I’m talking about those quotes from DJs that appear on websites or on the piece of paper that comes with a promo vinyl (prompted by a discussion on ILM.)

They tend not to be Wildean in their insight. “B1 is the one for me” has become such a cliché that I’ve seen people on Bodytonic or Resident Advisor saying the exact phrase as if it makes them more DJ-like. I mean seriously, “the one for me”? As with all clichés, you’d love to know how it began. And perhaps execute the person responsible. Either that or give them a stern telling off.

I’ve often sent people “my feedbacks” over the years but it’s almost always been when I’ve got mailed a link to a record and I listened, then replied to the mail with my two cent (although many were worth even less than that, ho ho.)

Like most people, if I don’t like the record I don’t mail back, unless the record company or whoever sent it really wants a reply. Partly because I don’t want to upset people, but also because it’s not a review, and hence not something I have to comment on.

Of course I’m at the bottom of the food chain anyhow. If I say “B1 Is The One For Me” nobody really cares if me and B1 move to the Seychelles and have a briefly happy marriage before I start drinking and sleep with the digital bonus track on B2, “that little minx”. But for people whose opinion sells more records than mine ever will, I assume there is even more demand for feedback.

When this happens, there is a trade sentence which miraculously removes any need for opinion or further elucidation. An inner sanctum of DJs actually hired a panel of Oxford University wordsmiths (including Susie Dent) to come up with this. Since bloggers are now increasingly part of the promo circle I’m going to reveal it now.

“NOT FOR ME THANKS”. Make a note of that, it could save your life one day.

So recently I’ve started getting more formal promos. This means it’s not as simple as mailing a record label who give you something you really like to tell them that. When you’re sent something by PR firms if you like the sound of the record you often have a form to fill out before you can download it. The forms usually require you to give the tracks a mark out of five. When you see one you know you’re sitting in the players bar of the “B1 is the one for me” ballpark.

So how to respond? Well I mostly can understand the utter blandness of feedback comments. Firstly, the vast majority of the people responding are not writers. But secondly and more importantly, I think it’d feel even more shady to put your heart and soul into a feedback response that you know is meant to drive sales.

What I try to do, assuming I really like the record and want to play it, is just mention I like the artist’s stuff to date and that it’s another good release, or say that I am enjoying the label so far, or say something useful for someone involved to take heart from and for people reading to agree or disagree with. My first concern is almost always for the label owners.

But it’s hard not to slip into cliché or just dull comments that call to mind Simon Reynolds’ almost perfect criticism of bad dance reviews: that they read like racing tips.

As I said on ILM, I’ve been thinking of ways to spice things up a bit. Maybe when I like a record I can Irish the hell out of my responses and say “That’s lovely hurling on B1″, or “A1-Now we’re ’suckin diesel!’”, or “STL is a terrible man for the dub all the same!” etc.

The funny thing is I think this whole process, though seldom discussed, actually carries a significant weight of influence. For a journalist reviewing a record (or someone buying it) they’re often confronted with this wall of opinions before they’ve even played it. There’s no escaping comments in 2009 is there?

For STL’s “Silent State”, the very first comment by Efdemin says: “Charts #1. THIS IS A CLASSIC! One of the best tracks I heard in years.” Is that not influential? You can be as hardcore as you want, but personally I respect Efdemin’s DJing a lot and it’s very hard to ignore that. The only litmus test is hearing the record, but there’s a lot of extra context attached.

The issue isn’t that people are led astray by feedback, or automatically agree with it, but rather that we’re in a critical climate where reviewers or DJs are often forced to react to reactions. How comfortable are people with that?

Back when I wrote single reviews for RA, most of the time I reviewed things I had bought myself, because ironically by the time I’d be sent promos of something it was already on the feedback wagon and praising it felt somehow cheaper.

I do think there’s a value to feedback. It provides another filter, a nebulous filter like the name of a record or the cover, and one that’s no more reliable than either of those. But it’s still a filter, a way for you to decide which record to listen to after you’ve already spent an hour listening to the ones by names you recognise. Hell, maybe it makes you listen to a record you would have otherwise skipped.

The fact that these filters aren’t failsafe is just another reason why we’re all missing out on great records all the time. But let’s just try and make the actual comments a bit more interesting, and name and shame the positivity whores. On which tip poor old Laurent Garnier has to take the ultimate prize!