j.random hermeneut

God is dead. And we have killed him — you and I. How did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? (Nietzsche, The Gay Science)

The essence of the power of finance capital is not the accumulation of past labour. To the contrary, the history of past monetary transactions merely determines one’s present accumulated stock — a quantity, not a power. When one turns to the power of capital, however, one steps into an entirely heterogeneous element: value of credit is determined by expectations of future interest. The transcendence of capital is its appeal to the future. This finite expectation in then combined with the violence of coercion, the infinite demand, to ensure the power of capital. Just as the slave is controlled by the threat of death, a future recompense, capital seizes sovereignty by a combination of debt, the finite threat of future reparation, or abandoning the contract, the infinite threat of exclusion from the means of subsistence.

The result is that the system of finance capital has usurped the prerogatives of right, liberty and piety. Advancing its control over nature by fixing prices, it controls right; advancing its control over history, by controlling labour — preventing some from working while assigning many others ephemeral jobs which merely serve the interests of capital and are of little benefit to anyone — it controls liberty; advancing its control over expectations of the future and transcendence, it controls piety. Usurping the sovereign yet independent functions of law, government and religion, the system of finance capital gains a despotic sovereignty by stealth. Thus this newly ascendant god, visible nowhere, emergent from the future, executes the murder of God.

Philip Goodchild, Capitalism and Religion: The Price of Piety, pp. 37-38.

Annual Analysis of My Top 20 Scrobbled Artists of the Year

I deleted all my old blogs along with all of the content and kept no backups, deliberately, so I have no means of comparison of this data with prior years. Oh well. I’ll just have to throw it up on Tumblr.

Anyhow, for what it’s worth, which is undoubtedly nothing, here are my Top 20 artists listened to this year (excluding the CDs I listen to in the car which would probably have put Dave Douglas in 1st place).

1. Miles Davis [244]
2. Genesis [157]   
3. Freddie Hubbard [144]
4. David Bowie [116]    
5. Dave Douglas [113]
6. Gregorian Chant [107]
7. The Rolling Stones [102]
8. Thelonious Monk [100]
9. Squarepusher [95]
10. Charlie Parker [88]
11. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers [82]   
12.*(tied) Charles Mingus [81]
12.*(tied) Lee Morgan [81]
14. Donald Byrd [77]
15. Gentle Giant [73]
16. Uri Caine [66]
17. Béla Bartók [65]
18. Weather Report [57]
19. Ornette Coleman [56]
20. Roxy Music [55]

I first wondered whether the top 20 were in any way even significant to my overall listening patterns. After all, I scrobbled 406 separate artists with a total of 7094 tracks in 2011. But the top 20 represent roughly 28% of this total so I guess  that’s of some significance. Here’s the analysis.

Last year I predicted a big year for The Rolling Stones. That turned out to be a fad but nevertheless there they are. Every year I have some manner of regression to a listening period from my youth. A couple of years ago was the American Hardcore era. Before that, Bauhaus and Tones on Tail, Led Zeppelin - been there done that. (The whole Industrial/Skinny Puppy/Wax Trax phenomenon has yet to be revisited in earnest - surprising since in my undergraduate days this was a Big Thing, I DJ’ed a slot devoted to this on college radio for a number of years). This year I revisited to some extent my short stint (most everyone’s had one, no need for regret or embarrassment) with prog. Genesis was always hands-down my favourite of the proggers and I gave them a good re-listen this year. Gentle Giant tagged along for the ride.

Artists I can’t account for: Squarepusher and Roxy Music. I don’t recall listening that much to either of them and sort of surprised that they both rank where they are.

The leading light of the modern, creative sort is hands down Dave Douglas. Uri Caine’s work, which I haven’t spent too much time with yet, is a bit of a discovery.

But the big stories are as follows:

Ecclesiology: The complete disappearance of J.S. Bach (who at 4531 has absolutely dominated my charts since 2006) and his replacement with Gregorian Chant. I will resist the temptation so speculate on any wider significance to this.

Trumpeters: 5/20 are trumpeters. Granted they tend to lead combos a lot.

Blue Note: 7/20 have cut at least one side for Blue Note. Most of these were hard bop mainstays for the label. Well-represented BTL as well with Lou Donaldson, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Hank Mobley making the top 40. In fact, I think that classic hard bop in general and Blue Note Records in particular is the big story of the year.

The Death of Western Classical: Béla Bartók alone makes the top 20 at a paltry 17th place.

Conservativism: Maybe it was the Tories coming to power or something but this was an incredibly conservative listening year.  No real “fresh” currently-creating artists apart from Dave Douglas and Uri Caine (and Squarepusher I guess). No major discoveries as has happened in years past.

So that’s that. 2011. Done. Predictions for next year. Much more Blue Note. And…expect the unexpected.