Realistic - Private Moments
(Illegal Art)
How does elementary-Negativland-meets-common-house-beats sound to you?
Sounds fairly boring, doesn’t it? Yeah. But look at it this way-- sometimes,
it’s also annoying. A John Adams-esque juxtaposition of minimalistic synth
riffs in "Colossal Metal Anxiety" might prove that the guy knows more about
making music interesting than he lets on, but the fact is that irritatingly
cliched beats pervade the entirety of Private Moments. That, and some
overly repetitive samples. The most interesting moment on the record comes
with... oh, nevermind, just buy the Plunderphonics box set. It’s not
daring to sample "American Pie" or the Intel jingle for free and get away
with it, especially since I can’t imagine Don McLean or, uh, the Intel Corp.
caring about such a small release. And when some pleasant melody comes
through on "The Introduction Ditty," James Towning, Mr. Realistic himself,
isn’t responsible for it. Negativland were doing "Illegal Art" a whole lot
better with Escape from Noise. Take "Time Zones" and "Christianity is
Stupid" as a relevant lesson from the masters way back when, and leave
Private Moments in privacy to those who don’t know better.
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