Personally, I think our writers do a good job of describing records, their usefulness to DJs or at least a suitable context to hear them in. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to take the temperature of critical/popular dance culture, especially while being cognizant of the social environment in which we’re living (Pete, you do a fantastic job of this). If I’m understanding it correctly, that’s essentially what Vince Aletti’s Disco Files accomplishes. I look forward to reading it and finding out.

“i think there’s a distinct difference between someone looking back over a completed portion of music history and making sense of it all and trying to force a narrative on music’s evolution as it is happening.”

But Vince Aletti’s writing was done at the time was first being made and played out, experiencing the music as part of a broader culture and society. He wasn’t reflecting on more than what happened last weekend — not a long stretch of historical road. Whether or not our writing ever matches up to the quality of Aletti’s or, probably more accurately, if we capture anything worth knowing about 30 years from now, we won’t know until it’s done and gone. Just like you, Tom, I want to write about this great music now.

People can’t help telling stories about things, even records. Sure, sometimes Sherbourne and Reynolds put the horse before the cart, but I’d rather read someone trying to make sense of both individual records and larger trends than PR pap or fanboy “this is hawt” wank. Those are narratives too, just particularly undemanding and uncompelling ones.

I don’t want to speak for pipecock, and this is going off topic, but I think when we refer to “black music” it’s not really about race. It’s about a musical culture and heritage forged through the black experience of slavery and oppression and segregation. It’s not an assumption of racial superiority in relation to the propensity to make good music, it’s merely a recognition of the historical circumstances.

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