Theoretical vs. actual fusion: Case study of A-RBMLL

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Cynth
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Theoretical vs. actual fusion: Case study of A-RBMLL

Post by Cynth »

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A-RBMLL does not exist. We may wish to ask "Why?"

I. First, let us consider Black Metal for Lapsed Lutherans.

This is really a redundant statement. As can be seen, any Lutherans out there listening to this music must be lapsed. The Norwegians responsible for starting up this music could hardly be in good standing with the Lutheran Church either. These are not your bachelor farmer types. So let's drop the LL, and just address Black Metal.

"Black metal is a musical genre which emerged in the early 1980s predating the great expansion of heavy metal 'extreme' genres. It evolved out of thrash metal, like death metal.

There are two views on the genre. One views black metal as a very specific form of music that must adhere to a particular 'style' in order for it to be a part of the genre; while the second considers the lyrical and philosophical/political ideology of the music (likely to be heavily inspired from Friedrich Nietzsche) to take more precedence in defining the genre itself, rather than 'style'

The most prominent figure of the original Norwegian scene was Øystein Aarseth, better known as Euronymous, the guitarist in the band Mayhem. Also being black metal's most vocal proponent and visible figure.

The scene was deeply anti Judeo-Christian, and had a stated goal of removing the influence of Christianity and other non-Scandinavian religions from Norwegian culture and to effect a return to the nation's Norse roots. ...... Deathlike Silence's stated goal was to release records by bands "that incarnated evil in its most pure state." "

II. Secondly, let us consider Reggae.
"Reggae is often associated with the Rastafarian movement, which influenced many prominent reggae musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the subject matter of reggae songs deals with many subjects other than Rastafari, with love songs, sexual themes and broad social commentary being particularly well-represented."

This dude is happy. He is looking up at the sky. He is not into evil.

III. Thirdly, let us consider Andean music, the folk musc indigenous to the Andes. Don't these people look happy? They are not into evil. It's El condor pasa music.

IV. Think of fusion as being like welding or soldering something together. The materials have to be right. You can't solder a brick to a tree branch. The same goes for musical fusion. You can't fuse evil-loving thrash death mongers with spiritual happy types. El condor itself would be frightened away. It just ain't gonna happen, dude.

V. However, there is a tangled line of relationship that has been, with diligent, yet not over-exacting, research, elucidated between Reggae and Andean music.

Reggae leads to dub and hip hop in Jamaica.
Son with hip hop influence leads to Cuban rockoson.
Son with some other influence leads to nueva trova at the same time in Cuba---so, you know, there could have been a little hip hop influence there.
Andean leads to nueva cancion in Chile which is influenced by nueva trova .

VI. Thus, I would conclude that nueva cancion is about as close as we are going to get to Andean-Reggae fusion.

Okay, so like they are not exactly fused, but more like cousins or something. A very great nueva cancion group is Inti-Illimani. I actually went to one of their concerts and I will never forget it.
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Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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scottielvr
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Post by scottielvr »

A nice piece of not-overly-exacting research, Cynth. The line of reasoning leading to the reggae-Andean connection is particularly well executed. I hate to say it, but I'm not convinced that your thesis is proven: look closely at the cancion group. Particularly the guy with the tambourine. And the one in the light gray sport jacket wears a smug grin of faint contempt often correlated with chronic immersion in nihilist thought. Can their potential to be turned toward pure evil be entirely ruled out? If not, the fusion remains possible. Further studies may be necessary.
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Cynth
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Post by Cynth »

Well, sad to say, you are right. I had hoped this wouldn't come up, but apparently the group split up in 2001 in a very controversial fight. Then both groups started calling themselves by the same name. So I basically don't know who the heck these guys are. That journal will never publish this now.

If they are new guys (and the one in the dark jacket--the tambourine man I think---looks quite young for a 40 year old group), who knows why they took the job, anything is possible. If they are the old guys (as I think the guy in the lighter jacket is), clearly some very dark thoughts must be lingering in their minds about the fight.

Even worse, on another thread a group called Wailing Puma Skull, whose existence you can bet I verified, was shown to be a fusion group of dub reggae and thrash metal :boggle: . This, of course, completely trashed my main thesis that reggae and metal were inherently incompatible for reasons of spirituality.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=33014

Although a reggae-metal-Andean fusion group has not been identified as of yet, I really have no idea why not. Heck, give Wailing Puma Skull some panpipes and there you go.

In any case, I am hoping to find greener fields in Industrial-Polka Fusion. There is always hope. :wink:
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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Post by mickspangle »

Don't know about panpipes, but I believe the WPS guitarist is currently learning Uilleann pipes - hopefully this will lead to a death/dub/ITM crossover...

Actually, since a lot of bands (Abba and the like) end up being re-recorded with soothing pan-pipe lead lines, perhaps all we have to do is sit and wait for Muzak to release the WPS pan-pipe version?

Of course, for me it's not all about pan-pipes. Any A-RBMFLL group worth their salt ought to include Llama samples too.
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Cynth
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Post by Cynth »

How oddly all the little weirdnesses in the world connect up. The Salt Lake Piping Club has a llama for a mascot. Uh, so..how...does this really connect up with anything? No, sorry. Here he is anyway:
http://www.uilleann.org/Llamas.html
Well, like maybe he could work part-time in A-R-BMLL or something.
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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