Opaque Mediation

Playing with medium: Intertextuality and phonomatic transformation

“…And so when we sample something or when we even make a sample ourselves, which we have done on this record, to incorporate the sound of vinyl is as important as the instruments playing’ 5 . This interest in sounds from the past resonates with the wider retro movement and suggests an ambiguity about contemporary culture, in which neither the new nor the old are valued in their unmitigated form, rather new forms are created by reinventing the past from the position of the present (Brøvig-Hanssen 2013a, b). Askerøi (2013) argues that stylistic traits act as sonic markers and function not only as imitations of the past but also as representatives of the past's socio-cultural values.…”

“…At 0:27, a single trumpet note acts as a musical gateway and the harsh atmosphere of noisy drums, synth, guitar and vinyl is immediately replaced with a clean, hollow-body guitar and Beth Gibbons’ vocals. There is a significant amount of background noise, suggesting that someone else is in the room with the band, which associates the music with a typical live recording setup (Brøvig-Hanssen 2013a, b), particularly that which was common before multi-tracking became available. Gibbons’ vocals have also been prominently filtered to recreate the limited frequency response of earlier recording technology and we can hear a great deal of sibilance, which again references the low-fidelity recording techniques of the past.…”

“…This immediate juxtaposition reminds the listener that each medium not only carries its own signifier, but also reinforces the other: the emptiness of the digital ascribes greater meaning to the warm analogue, while the warm analogue renders the digital silence that much more barren. It is important to note that these juxtapositions should be heard as aesthetic choices rather than technological limitations, and the analogue sound aligns the music with an earlier era, while the brief moments of digital silence place the music firmly in the present (Brøvig-Hanssen 2013a, b). In ‘The Revenge of the Intuitive’, Brian Eno notes that the characteristic limitations of a medium, such as the scratching of a vinyl record, tell us something about the context of a work, about ‘where it sits in time’ (Eno 1999).…”

“…Of course, there are many examples of music that transforms or otherwise highlights a medium without making any reference to an outside work, such as ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975) by Pink Floyd, which mimics the sound of a transistor radio during the song's intro. Examples such as these, where no intertextual references are present, could be discussed using Brøvig-Hanssen's (2013b) notion of opaque and transparent mediation, as the framework discussed in this article focuses on those works that specifically foreground the medium while simultaneously referencing another identifiable work.…”