My name is Matthew, but some of you may know me by my nom-de-
keyboard "Magic Hands." I am a young architect, just out of school.
I am now in the process of having my sensibilities bludgeoned by
work for a huge corporation, but that's another story. I've been on
and off this list for about a year now and I've a few observations
I'd like to make public.
In general, the concept of IDM seems flawed. I know it is just a
helpful handle, but intelligence is not readily quantifiable, not
in people and not in music. When I listen to music, my head usually
visualizes the accompanying "video," or, at the very least an image
which complements the mood of a song. I have not noticed any
correlation between the purported "intelligence" of the music to
which I am listening and the quality of the imagery which appears
in my mind's eye.
If "intelligent" is meant only to imply that those involved in
the production of IDM are more intelligent than their counterparts
in Happy Hardcore...well I don't care how smart they are, so long
as the music's cool.
As I said before, its just a handle. We might just as well
substitute "Quality," "Creative," "Interesting," or "Musicianly"
for the "Intelligent" in IDM. None of these would make it any
simpler to determine what qualifies as the kind of music we're
interested in discussing on this list. My point is a fairly
straightforward: only on the day we can definitively define
intelligence will we be able to determine absolutely what belongs
on this list. In the meantime, I think a lot of patience and
tolerance are in order.
(As an aside: why is it that music with a small DQ (dance
quotient) is so much more acceptable for discussion on this list
than music with a low IQ?)
Music Content:
Spooky: Found Sound--GREAT.
Due to budgetary constraints, my music purchases are limited to
1 CD per month. (How do I do it? 2 words: baby coming.) I do,
however, listen before I buy and I hang out with several other
serious IDM fans, so my exposure to the scene is not as limited as
one might first suspect. So it is with some measure of confidence
that I recommend Spooky's latest full length offering as a sound
investment for any IDM fan.
The appeal of this record goes far beyond nifty "found" sounds.
The sounds of banging metal which accompany many of the tracks are
just the beginning. Indeed, I bought the album not so much because
I enjoyed these noises, but because they sounded so different from
so much of what is out there. (I bought 2 Lone Swordsmen for the
same reason, but it has yet to grow on me in the same way.) They're
still harsh to my ears, but the interplay between these sounds and
the lusher ones which often form the melody flatters them both.
Charles Moore, an American architect, is quoted as saying "Contrast
supports meaning." Absolutely. The sweet bits sound all the moreso
because of the clangy bits stirring things up.
Listen to it ASAP.
other faves:
Orbital: In Sides
Woob: 1 & 2
Higher Intelligence Agency: Freefloater
Autechre: Amber, Tri Repetae
all for now,
magic hands