05 May Music Business WIP session 2016

A great flurry of activity prior to our first Work In Process with Music Business students who came across from Leederville.

Students were able to listen to each other present, hear general feedback directly from the client groups and shortlisting of the various music festival was able to occur immediately.

Just like cooking rice, it is important to leave the lid on to cook thoroughly and completely. Not opening the lid every five minutes to see if it is ready…

Fantastic to also have Radiohead give us a masterclass on How To Disappear Completely earlier this week with its internet presence slowly fading to a sterile white over the space of a day. Then, with the release of Burn the Witch on the same day as our WIP, set in an idyllic British village (notably in the style of 60s childrens’ show Trumpton), we watched friendly-looking clay figurines grow a feverish nationalism in the presence of a visitor. A persistent, oppressive string-staccato foreshadows the visitor’s helplessness in the face of the mob, and burns in a crescendo.

Groupthink is the enemy here, as Thom Yorke sings (rather coherently, and with an even-keeled fragility) via warnings from the authorities, whatever they might be policing. “Abandon all reason,” he directs, “Avoid all eye contact. Do not react. Shoot the messengers.” And, above all, “burn the witch.” This deep sense of dread and skepticism manifests into the kind of music that is capable of spurring what Yorke would call a “low-flying panic attack.” – Pitchfork