It seems that many people on the list are assualting orbital (as well as
other artists) purely on the basis that they are either a) somewhat
commercialized or b) musically appriciable by the general public. This
attitude reeks of musical snoobery and in reality makes very little logical
sense.
Commercial or Popular is not synonymous with bad. If the general public
can enjoy a composition, that only adds to the strength of the composition.
Personally, I rate music by how enjoyable it is and how long I can listen to
it without becoming bored. Many, many great musical works have sold alot of
records, and were very commercial in their time.
Consider works by artists such as Miles Davis or Duke Ellington. I am
willing to bet that they have sold far more records than orbital or any
other idm artist. Mozart was highly popular in his time (and commissioned by
nobility which was the equivalent of being commercial). Still, upon
listening to his work, one cannot deny the utter genius of the composition.
The same goes for Beethoven, Bach, Lizst, Handel, and many other composers.
When rating idm, I would call anything that sounded interesting,
pleasurable, and intellectually stimulating a good composition. If after two
years and many listenings I still enjoy the piece, I would call it an
excellent compostion. I don't care whether the album was produced by MTV and
sold 18 billion copies or if it was part of some obscure, european, 500 copy
limited edition set. The same rules of judgement always apply.
` -Reagan
(Helium is NOT a dairy product)