First, there’s more to MIDI than piano-roll-type sequencing. I used very specific examples in my post to illustrate my claim and so there is no reason to repeat them here. Were you arguing with yourself in the comment above?

Secondly, you really should refrain from using pseudo academic language if you can’t even stick to the most basic critical approach muster, i.e., defining your terms. The one liner pseudo poetics also don’t do your attempt at a critique of my post any favors, either.

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As for Mills’s production techniques–you can read about them in quite a few interviews–I won’t do your homework for you, though.

If you can’t be bothered to research and/or read, then you shouldn’t engage in a potted attempt at a critique, of what are mostly your heavily altered quotations of ideas from my post.

Oh, and Mills makes great tracks, alongside great melodic music. You should listen to more of his output before casting misinformed judgment–and let’s not forget reading thoroughly what we’re responding to.

i leave you with my final words on the matter. for once i will leave aside the ideological problem i have with your assumption that composition is per se somehow equivalent to quality (i.e. “music” vs. “track”)

as for naming outcomes, the original analogy was:
MIDI piano-roll type sequencing = score notation.

your main example was jeff mills and your main argument that techno can be music of great quality (“soul”) because it uses compositional techniques as its medium.

some flaws i see in that thesis:

mills doesn’t hold as an example because you apparently don’t know how he produces his music, but simply assume that the process will involve some composition in whatever way (drum-machine sequencing, pre-recorded phrases).

this notion is furthermore troubled by the fact that there are of course many alternatives to piano-roll-style MIDI when it comes to making techno. you need to extend the notion of what a sequencer is, or how a sequencer works. how about considering the capabilities of dedicated analog sequencers for a change?

finally, the comparison between piano-roll-style MIDI sequencing and notated composition will naturally be compelling, simply because that type of sequencer was intended to do that very thing: arrange notes according to the system of notation.

since you are interested in exceptional characters (jeff mills, maker of music, non-maker of tracks apparently), i try a new analogy: limiting techno to the use of MIDI devices is like saying literature can only be written with laptops.

control voltage is the pencil of acid!

Feel free to judge your analogy any way you wish.

What would you make of jazz, since it’s a genre that can neither be called purely white, or purely black–classical orchestration, instrumentation (white) + live improvisation, time signatures, etc. (black)?

The distinction really isn’t as clear cut as you describe, unless you only referred to rhythm tracks or tribal stuff, which is NOT what my post addressed.

all i was trying express was this:

composition & writing are the ways used to express an idea, but this does not tell you anything about the quality of the outcome. and as such the analogy is so bland that it does not qualify to explain anything really.

My soul gets touched by two types of sound. i like to break it down/generalise/simplify these two sounds: one i call black music and the other i call white. Techno is the strong form of the former, while classical is the ultimate form of the latter.

To me these musics are cheese and chalk, although both strive for harmony of sound. Techno’s all about the rhythm, while Classical is all about the melody. Ya know what i mean?

When i listen to techno, samba, drum patterns, etc,,,these are powerful sounds, part of my soul is touched, i am energised, i am locked in, i am emotional.

When i listen to classical instrumentation, drawn out high notes, drawn out long notes, powerful sounds in their own right, a different part of my soul is touched: i am euphoric, i am melancholic, i am emotional.

So basically, comparing these two forms of music to me is ludicrous, cos they touch two completely different emotional strings. Kapeesh?

And i’d agree with skkatter, i’d like to see what some some ’shit hot’ techno producer comes up with when controlling violins, cellos, flutes, pianos etc.

Nothing very good i’d fucking wager.

So to finish, examples of these two strands of music that i talk of : ‘black’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iem9ojbIur8
and white http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygNuRpwZqRU

Some techno producers also happen to make great music in addition to what are good dance tracks, and some of the former examples can even be translated into an orchestral score, as the orchestrations in Blue Potential clearly show.