(This thread started on the Ambient list, but I'd like to expand it to
the IDM list also, since I think it is well worth discussing. So flame
me if you think it's just a waste of bandwidth...)
Just my 2 cents (or 2 _ecus_, as we say here in EUrope ;) to the ongoing
NME discussion: yes, I agree with everyone about their "hype 'em, and
after you've done it to death, start the backlash" politics concerning
all these here-today-gone-tomorrow bands like Oasis, Elastica, et al.
But my main reason for reading these papers is that there is *not* really
much info available on techno, IDM and ambient music, which I think are
my main interests at the moment, so you have to take all you can get.
For example, NME has their weekly 'Vibes' column with the artists'
interviews and reviews for the new releases, from which, I have to admit,
I have gathered lots of useful information during the last few years
(not to talk about forwarding it to these lists, as every IDMer must
have noticed ;)
If not for these mailing lists and some tidbits in Alt.rave and
Alt.music.techno every now and then (among the irritating flame wars
which are the main reason I don't read those news groups too often), and
those more enlightened sources in the mainstream music media, everything
you'd get on the new releases and artists would be the word of mouth and
rumours.
Also, you'd have to buy lots of useless stuff, because there would be
no one to ask about what is cool and what is not... (But maybe it
wouldn't be 'underground' enough anymore, and it would be losing its
credibility? ;)
I think there *ought* to be an international magazine specialized only
to the electronic (listening and dance) music in its various forms:
techno, IDM, ambient, electro, jungle, and so on. But before someone
with the knowledge and financial resources needed gets on the business,
all we have is the information gathered here from the Net and these
various sometimes-reliable-more-often-not sources in the mainstream
music magazines - like NME, Melody Maker, Select, Spin, Rolling Stone
(*grin*): the list goes on and on...
Yes, I know there are DJ and Mixmag in Britain, Frontpage in Germany,
various 'underground' magazines and fanzines around the world, but to
my experience, none of these have covered all these genres without
falling to their own biases, unexperted and outright amateurish writing,
record company hype (but this seems to be more a practice than an
exception), etc.
So there are a lot of questions unsolved, and I'd like to hear everyone
else's ideas on this, after unsuccessfully trying to launch our own dance
music magazine here in Finland last year (called 'ex' - a desperate
attempt to cash on the 'Generation X' hype?). Which mercifully died after
only three issues published, due to the lack of interest, money, time and
synergy needed from its writers and contributors :(
Greetings,
ERkki,
Tampere, Finland
<trerra@uta.fi>