Question

Last night, under circumstances that don't really bear mentioning, I got into a conversation with someone on a subject that I've been thinking about on and off for a few weeks now. Last night was the first time that the situation and the company had conspired to give me a good chance to bring it up, although in the end I didn't come any closer to finding an answer.

One thing I find endlessly fascinating in music is variation -- someone finding a melody or rhythm (or whatever) and playing variations on it. I also love to hear music deconstructed, whether that means pulled apart intentionally or just randomly falling apart. I could happily sit and listen to that all night. But I have no patience at all with jam bands.

For example, one of the artists in my personal heavy rotation is Kieran Hebden, playing under the name Four Tet. Hebden has a knack for pulling all the threads out of a piece, examining each one individually, and then recombining them into subtly different form. I can't get enough of it.

But 15 minutes of Phish is about all I can take before it starts to grate on me.

What's the difference between these two things? |