“New music right now — and in fact, or so I’m thinking, most likely the entire music world—is best described with the old story of the blind people and the elephant. You know the drill. The blind people approach the noble beast. One touches its tail. “This is a rope,” he says. The next one reaches out a hand, and finds the elephant’s trunk. ‘It’s not a rope,’ she says. ‘It’s a snake!’ And so on, till they’re lost in confusion.”