"It seems to me that such 'collectives' are only interested in their overall 'sound' and not very interested in the content"

That's not the idea I get, but to each their own.

"It may be that what they are attempting to do is difficult and/or demanding technically"

which, of course, would be totally lost on those used to the soundbite approach to music. The same complaint about being too long, was said by many people when the length of a 45 rpm went from the two and a half minute format to five or six minutes in length (The Animals, The Byrds, Don Mclean's two sides of a single, American Pie)Someone once asked Kevin Costner why the European version of his film, Dances With Wolves, was longer that the American version, his answer was quite simple.....attention span, the same, I think, can be said for music and for sound in general.

Charlotte (all ears on Ma and Pa's piano stool)