I vote for this: Since the Forces of Good have not been able to prevent
IDM from becoming a genre label, lets stop seeing it as an acronym for
anything. When the IDM Mailing list started, there was still a strong
connection to the dance floor. What has been called in latter years 'IDM'
drifts further and further away from that original intent.
And a personal aside: I got into the Genre Referred to as IDM by way of
Seefeel. Seefeel is the thread connecting all the indie rock I was listening
to in the late 80s to electronic music in general. I'd always been into
Kraftwerk and German Synth music from the 70s, but by 1990 I was more
interested in Sonic Youth, Swervedriver, etc.
So when I started buying Aphex Twin and Orb stuff, I found the IDM list. The
whole idea of 'Intelligent' dance music in opposition to 'Dumb' dance music
made sense, when all one was exposed to was crappy commercial dance music.
But when I started discovering Underground Resistance, Lil Louis, Juan Atkins,
Chez Damier, Gene Farris, Boo Williams -- the distinction seemed like a
real insult to absolutely fantastic musicians.
That started the journey to this day, when I'm obsessed with tracking down
obscure underground disco records from 1975. That disco music that I reviled
back in the day -- while I rocked out to the Stones and (urk) Fleetwood Mac
and (double urk) Yes.
Which is a long way round to saying what I said up top -- let's stop
pretending IDM has anything to do with dance music any more.
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