curious

anyone here aware of Sophie before her death yesterday? i'm kind of amazed to find myself so ignorant of someone being portrayed as a major musical figure.

You took the words right out of my mouth. My wife and I said the exact same thing, seeing her obit on The Guardian. Granted, we're old, but I do read The Guardian, BBC news, and The Quietus [on occasion]. So I am dimly aware of the [larger] world that spins on without much intervention from me. For instance, if Robyn had died, I would have a sense of her place in the world, even if I've not deigned to hear a note.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2021 11:02AM by Post-Punk Monk.

Mmm... you’re not THAT oblivious, I didn’t even know of the death until you posted it.

I actually do know the name because her 2018 album was on many year-end best of lists (and I always like to look at these lists, even if I’m unfamiliar with many of the releases). While it sounded like something I might like, I never got around to listening.

Certainly not a ubiquitous name.... at least in my radar.

Nope. News to me. But I’m kinda living under a dome of my own creation.

My dog's name is Sophie, and I always joke with my wife that she's going to die any day now. So I chuckled at the headline on Pitchfork: "Sophie is Dead." I know I shouldn't have, but that was my gut reaction.

Anyway, no, never heard of her before seeing the headline about her death.

I had never heard of her. But then, I'm pretty much divorced from mainstream pop music in the 21st century.

I've never heard of her.

From looking at this Wikipedia article, I'm not surprised. She worked with a lot of names I've read but music I've never heard. Almost everyone in the list of names at the bottom who paid tribute to her upon her death are completely unfamiliar to me.

I live mostly in a jazz bubble these days. I wouldn't know who the big rap or indie rock names are either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2021 09:49PM by Michael Toland.

I posted about her in the Facebook thread you started, but I'm a big fan of her music and was actually thinking of posting a link to the Guardian's article about her death before you put this up. OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES is a great album, one of the foundations of the burgeoning hyperpop genre. The ballad "It's Okay To Cry," which is the first song she produced that also featured her own vocals, and the near-industrial clank of "Faceshopping" show the full range of her work. "It's Okay to Cry": [www.youtube.com]
"Faceshopping": [www.youtube.com]

The Autechre remix of her 2013 single, "Bipp," might be a good starting point as well; sadly, it was released only a few days before she died: [www.youtube.com]..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2021 09:51PM by steevee.

"one of the foundations of the burgeoning hyperpop genre"

Annnnd you killed my interest in her music right there.

My nephew is studying music and very interested in working with hyperpop. He sent me some examples and it pretty much made me want to claw my ears out. But that's OK. As I told him, if the younger generation isn't creating stuff that pisses off the older folks (or, to be more accurate, makes no sense to us), they ain't doin' it right. And it's good to know that every time I think rock and pop can't be pushed down the evolutionary road any further, I'm wrong.

Regardless, an accidental death at 23 is always sad. She seemed set to become one of the voices of her generation, too.

Hyperpop?

Like MrFab, I also live inside a battle-hardened firewall of my own creation. What I let in is only after careful consideration, since you can't unhear anything.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2021 10:32AM by Post-Punk Monk.

Steevee, hyperpop or not... anyone nice enough to have written a song all about me called “bipp” is okay in my book!! ( I thought the track was kinda cool actually, not THAT bizarre).

Mr Toland nailed it, though... if my parents ever would’ve told me they liked the Gang of 4, it would’ve been all over.

Keeping things interesting often involves making sounds that make older ears uncomfortable!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2021 04:11PM by Bip.

> If my parents ever would’ve told me they liked
> the Gang of 4, it would’ve been all over.

I'm kind of funny in that department ... or at least I was. My parents didn't appreciate much of my musical taste when I was growing up, but whenever they did hear something they liked, and told me so, it really meant something to me.

I liked that my mom appreciated ELO when she heard them on the radio. I really liked it when my dad heard the first Cars album on my stereo and said he dug it; to him, The Cars sounded like a modernized version of Buddy Holly.

When my dad saw ZZ Top on television for the first time, they just tickled the heck out of him: "I had no idea the Mennonites had their own rock 'n' roll band!" He got interested enough to check out their music further, and decided he wanted to come with my brother and me to see them. That was a fun night.

My mom liked when I played Blondie and The Cramps [!]. Hated my insufferable ELP phase! "Longhair music!" she said. I never rebelled against my parents so even though I sometimes played extreme noise music of its time, it was not personal.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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Your mom hated ELP ... and dug The Cramps? Wow! Mrs. Monk gets my vote for coolest mom of all time!

I was definitely aware of her and I had heard the song "it's OK to cry," but I was not aware of the extent of the discography or of her backstory. I feel like I've read some interviews and overviews of her in 2016 or so in Pitchfork or the New York Times, but her music certainly was not close to my level of attention.