Talk:The Disintegration Loops

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Corrected

"In 2011, Basinski corrected earlier reports where he described recording the last hour of daylight of 9/11 in N.Y.C. with a video camera etc" the article doesn't say what he was correcting, and there's no source; it just describes the "earlier reports". What did he correct? Presumably he did record the last hour of daylight etc, because the article goes on to state that stills from the recording were used as the album covers. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 16:47, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

I am correcting the vertical bars in the record section descriptions to small letter "l's", which research tells me is correct. "Dlp" works as an abbreviation for "disintegration loop," whereas "D|p" does not. Greg Dahlen (talk) 17:27, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Never thinking about it, I took those bars for granted, but according to this box set cover, you seem to be right. Thanks. No such user (talk) 18:06, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

GA review

This review is transcluded from Talk:The Disintegration Loops/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Dentsinhere43 (talk · contribs) 11:42, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: Vaporstruck (talk · contribs) 05:34, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

haven't done this in a while! Might be a bit rusty with GA reviewing but this is one of my favorite albums of all time, along with Everywhere at the End of Time which I took to FA. dlp 4 is up there for me as one of the most beautiful ambient tracks of all time, alongside dsfwan's 砂粒 and the Caretaker's R1.

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Just from a quick glance, looks incredible so far! This article was very basic just a few months ago, and it's a relief for me to see how much it's improved since then. Expect comments until at most July 18. Vaporstruck (talk) 05:34, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

thanks! i've been interested in electronic/ambient music for a while and this article is certainly one of the wiki-projects i'm most proud of. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 07:56, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

--- (regarding the "kinda rusty" thing, yeah I genuinely barely remember how to do this...) based Wikitext editor btw. Don't tell me you're using the old Wikipedia layout as well :3

btw i am lol. dark mode though - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:36, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Infobox and lead

• "by the American musician" > "by American ambient musician"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "released in 2002 and 2003" > "released from 2002 to 2003"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "It comprises experimental, ambient, drone, and tape music composed of magnetic tapes of Muzak music degrading as they played." - this all seems a bit redundant, such as "tape music comprised of magnetic tapes" (?). Could be rewritten to something along the lines of "Sourced from magnetic tapes of samples from Basinski's earlier recordings, each album's tracks start decaying as they play, forming ambient and drone soundscapes." (also because the music itself isn't just Muzak"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "Basinski studied avant-garde music at university" - add "including musicians such as American composer John Cage,"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "and recorded his first tape experiments." add "which would be used in the series."
  • I'm pretty sure these aren't the ones used in The Disintegration Loops. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "between August 2001 and September 11, 2001," - remove the hyperlink and add "during the September 11 attacks" after "from his Brooklyn apartment."
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "and the work which popularized Basinski." > "and Basinski's most popular work, solidifying his status as an avant-garde musician."
  • Not sure about this; Seems a bit puffery and the article only says: "It has also been credited for popularizing Basinski's works." - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  That is what Treblezine says; "[dlp] elevated awareness of Basinski's work, establishing him as one of the most revered names in avant-garde music." You can use it as a ref for this section if you want to. Vaporstruck (talk) 20:03, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 22:30, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

• "the label Temporary Residence" > "electronic music label Temporary Residence"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "Temporary Residence reissued" > "The label reissued"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• no need for refs [1], [2], [3] and [4] given the info is already sourced in the article itself. Refs are only needed in the lead when direct quotes are mentioned (if I remember correctly..)
  • WP:REDFLAG statements are able to be cited in the lead. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  Absolutely fair. Vaporstruck (talk) 20:04, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

• add "|longtype = series" in the infobox, so it displays "Studio album series by William Basinski". To be clear, infobox instructions don't clarify that much on what to do in case a series of albums gets its own article, but this is the best solution I've personally found with EATEOT and the like.
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "The cover for the first installment of The Disintegration Loops" - the album's name is already mentioned right above it, so could be just "Cover art for the first installment"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "Released: 2002–2003" - list each individual release date
  • I don't think each individual release date is known, just the years. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  wow, that is true... Very odd. Vaporstruck (talk) 20:05, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

• "tape music" (in infobox) - could be just "tape"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• add Temporary Residence as a label in the infobox
  • Doesn't the documentation specify that it should be the original label only? - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  it does! Sorry, just got it mixed up with Template:Infobox musical artist which lists all labels an artist or band has ever been signed. Vaporstruck (talk) 20:07, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

btw, you should also listen to Telepath's 魅惑的な美しさ!!! (aight I know this is no place for listening recs, sorry)

i already have ;) - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 10:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

yuno ball. I'm currently going through the entire discography of this very odd, Bull of Heaven inspired vaporwave project, and 012 is a must-listen too imo. Vaporstruck (talk) 20:10, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Background and recording

• contextualize on who William Basinski is right from the beginning
  • Can you elaborate on this? The first paragraph pretty much describes Basinski's origins as a musician. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 12:06, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  that is true... sorry I don't know what I was looking at when writing some of these. Maybe just change it to "During William Basinski's time" so the hyperlink gets the job done? Vaporstruck (talk) 20:21, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

  Sure; done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 22:33, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

• "and in the 1980s," > "and later in the decade"
• "in an article from" > "in an interview with"
• "he thought:" > "he recalled having thought" (as the thought hadn't taken place during the interview)
• place refs [12][13] after [5] at the end (as a general rule, it's better to put refs at the end of sentences so they don't break up the text)
• "such as Anohni" > "such as British singer Anohni"
• "he added "dlp 1.1" > he added the track "dlp 1.1"

Done all of these except for the first. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 12:06, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Music

• is it necessary to include the titles of each track, as they don't really seem to pertain to the article's body in a relevant way? Could be rewritten to "It consists of nine tracks, which were ordered in the sequence of when they were recorded, forming around five hours of total runtime."
• last sentence from the first paragraph could be its own paragraph, going into further detail of why these comparisons were made, and the similarities between dlp and these works
  • Unfortunately I've lost access to the Mojo source (and also Uncut), so I don't think it's possible to do this. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 23:04, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
• "which Sasha Frere-Jones" > "which critic Sasha Frere-Jones"
• ref [23] lacks access date
• "to the works of Debussy," > "to the works of French composer Debussy,"
• "early works of Boards of Canada" > "early works of electronic music duo Boards of Canada"

Done all of these except for the second and fourth one. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 23:04, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Release and performances

• just wanted to point out that the first paragraph is really informative, and I had no idea about what was featured in the album's back cover
  • thanks! - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 00:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• put ref [28] after ref [7]
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 00:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• "Accompanying it, Basinski wrote an essay about making The Disintegration Loops and the websites NPR and WQXR-FM webcast and archived the performance." - um, what? Genuinely did not understand this sentence, except for the first part
  • Rewrote this part into two sentences. Hopefully it's more clear. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 00:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

  yes, it reads way smoother now. It's just the two ands really bugged me out at first. Vaporstruck (talk) 19:16, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

• "Anohni" - duplicated hyperlink
  • Anohni was last linked in "Background and recording", so I think it's fine. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 00:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• ref [30] lacks access date
• "though the Dusted writer" > "though Dusted writer
• "from the musician" > "from musician"

Will not do the last three comments. (see my comment on these) - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 00:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Reception and legacy

• could be more in-depth about how the album influenced later musicians, and the Caretaker's EATEOT
  • NYT just says their list of musicians are associated with hauntology (which I have added). For EATEOT though, I could not find a reliable source on The Disintegration Loops mentioning it. Looking at other sources in the article, none of them seem to explicitly cite musicians influenced by this project. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:32, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

  There's this interview with Leyland Kirby in which he "acknowledges his admiration of the producer". Maybe add that in? Vaporstruck (talk) 19:18, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

  Added. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 00:51, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

• "the former staff member" > "former staff member"
• "explains about how" > "explains how"
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:32, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• "Pitchfork - duplicated hyperlink
  • It was last linked in "Music", so I think it's okay. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:32, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• "In 2012, Pitchfork" "In 2012, the magazine"
  • (see Popcornfud's comment) - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:32, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• "Stylus - duplicated hyperlink
  • Same thing with Pitchfork. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:32, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
• the last paragraph could be its own accolades section, (though you might find creating tables kinda frustrating, as I do). Look to how A Crow Looked at Me lists its accolades and you'll find some good directions there
  • It seems fine as it is right now; only four of the six (or seven counting "dlp 1.1") accolades are year-end or decade-end. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:32, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

  That is also fair. Vaporstruck (talk) 19:35, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Track listing, charts and see also are all perfect

References

• refs 23, 30 and 48–50 lack access dates
• list AllMusic as publisher and not website, so it doesn't get italicized
  • Done. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 22:34, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

External links is perfect as well.

Overall

A very good read! Article just needs a little bit more info and some small corrections. Putting it On hold until issues are fixed; if you want, I can help expand the comparison paragraph, or do the accolades table. Vaporstruck (talk) 06:34, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

small addition: I saw in the Basinski Guardian interview that he apparently believes in the 9/11 demolition theory. Would this not be relevant to the article as well? Overall, still very broad and focused, of course. Vaporstruck (talk) 06:42, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Added. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:55, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Haven't done edits yet but I've got some notes on some of your comments:

• I tend to not like false titles, so I'm not going to do some comments only involving those.
• Some of the refs without access dates were added before I started working on this article, so I really can't do anything with those.

- Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 09:32, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

+1 on leaving the false titles out of it. See WP:FALSETITLE. I disagree with the WP:ELEVAR suggestion too (changing "Pitchfork" to "the magazine"). Popcornfud (talk) 11:07, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

That is absolutely fair. I'd still rather use pseudo-titles as I'm under the impression they're what I see most often replicated in FAs/GAs. Vaporstruck (talk) 19:51, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

I expect that's true, but only because false title/psuedo-titles are more commonly used on Wikipedia than not. Which, of course, is exactly what this essay is trying to change. :) Popcornfud (talk) 05:29, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

I think I've done all of the applicable comments. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 05:56, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Pretty much! Just waiting for your response on one last point before giving this a  Pass. - Vaporstruck (talk) 19:40, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

and that's pretty much it! Great work on getting this phenomenal album to good article status. - Vaporstruck (talk) 22:36, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

Timeline Correction

There seems to be a widespread misconception about the recording of the project being completed on the morning of 9/11, which is repeated multiple times in this article. According to Basinski, it is not true. The only source for the detail cited here is some 2008 music critic who had not spoken to Basinski. But according to at least two interviews already cited in this article, he started recording the project in July and completed it in August. In the Self-Titled Magazine interview he is asked directly "Did you finish the first volume on September 11, or the last bits of the entire thing?" and he answers "I made the work in early July and late August, then I was just listening and listening and listening." The Guardian Interview with Basinski and Anohni recounts the recording process beginning "in the summer of 2001" when "Basinski spent two days recording a series of loops as the sound gradually collapsed over the space of 20 to 60 minutes," followed by him calling Anohni to show her the recordings, followed by "Two months later, on 11 September, Basinski woke up – and watched the twin towers" etc. Basinki also says of the project "In the weeks before 9/11, I was playing it all the time on these massive speakers we had up on the roof" and Anohni says she had been doing the same, so the recordings had to have been completed weeks before 9/11, which lines up with the late August completion date from the Self-Titled interview.

I already changed the dates in the infobox and included the sources but the article is very well-written and the current phrasing kinda hinges on the recording being completed the same day as the attacks so I think someone well-versed in wiki etiquette should change it rather than me. ~2026-50070-32 (talk) 07:21, 16 September 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this up. As the main contributor of the article, I'll have to take some responsibility for this; I will try to address this error soon, possibly with a footnote explaining this discrepancy. - Dents (talk2me 🖂) he/him btw!!! 12:41, 16 September 2026 (UTC)