What’s the consensus on repetition as a marketing tool, and why aren’t publicity-seeking individuals looking to utilize it in a more blatant way? Arguably, as a society, we would descend into a constant state of annoyance, whereby TV advertisements would be the immediate precursor to deliberately bashing one’s head against the wall, but the technique seems to at least work in small doses. I mean, speaking of head injuries, do I even need to mention the name of arguably the most-well known (by virtue of being known) topical headache reliever in North America right now? You don’t know where to apply it? You’ve got be fucking kidding me.
In the independent music world, I suppose there’s a need to be a little bit less aggressive, as a band’s image suffers if they’re seen as having too much in common with malevolent money-makers, but here’s an example of doing it right, even if they probably didn’t intend it as a potential name-recognition-increaser: Mountains, a.k.a. the ambient-prone duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, and their 2008 release Mountains Mountains Mountains.
Now seeing a limited-edition reissue courtesy of Thrill Jockey, due out August 20, the cover for the original release has a fairly interesting backstory, as Holtkamp relates, “We made sign up sheets with instructions for people to right [sic] the word Mountains which we had by the door at a few of our shows and left in a couple record stores in NY. Each ‘signature’ is in a unique handwriting by a different person, but all writing the same word.” And participants later went home and inevitably pondered the vast and dangerous slopes of K2… for some reason. Also, the music.
Hear a track below, if you previously avoided unconscious persuasion:
• Mountains: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountains/144778962219270
• Thrill Jockey: http://www.thrilljockey.com
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