IDM Mailing Archive

Well, I popped on down to my local Tower to buy some exciting new discs and I couldn't find any. Sadness... I did get the new(ish) Grid single Diablo which is sort of good, but sort of cheesy. It reminds me of Swamp Thing, only it's sort of Mexican guitar rather than Banjo this time. I also got the new(ish) Deep Forest, Marta's Song, which is also ok. Kind of Deep Foresty. All in all, not the pile of new music I was hoping for :) Slim pickings at that thar Tower. They did have a lot of stuff which I would be excited about if I didn't already own it. Actually though, both these singles have a radio edit/mix and the radio mix on both of them is not very good in relation to the rest of the tracks on the disc. It's like they take a good track and then misadjust the pieces a little, make the transitions more abrupt, and call it a radio mix. No wonder this stuff isn't played on the radio! [fletcher]

Why waste your time in Tower looking for IDM discs? The last time I found anything worthwhile in a Tower Records in terms of IDM was C.J. Bolland's "4th Sign". Plenty of copies of the new Smashing Pumpkins and Alice In Chains albums. Air Liquide and Control X are nowhere to be found. Better sources can be found all over the net including E/R, Isolation Tank, Siren. Mod Lang, Strange, Future Sounds, and Modern Music do mail order. Paul Rafanello

At 1:54 AM 11/15/95, intone@warwick.net wrote:

quoted 5 lines Why waste your time in Tower looking for IDM discs? The last time I

> Why waste your time in Tower looking for IDM discs? The last time I >found anything worthwhile in a Tower Records in terms of IDM was C.J. >Bolland's >"4th Sign". Plenty of copies of the new Smashing Pumpkins and Alice In Chains >albums. Air Liquide and Control X are nowhere to be found.

in general, one should never generalize. the non-major-label-pop-music parts of Tower are run individually at each store, so the quality of the selection depends on the buyer for that particular store. the Tower on market street in san francisco has a kick-ass techno/ambient/whatever section, featuring Air Liquide at least. probably Control X as well though i've never looked for it. prices are very competitive, and the best part for me is that it's a 5 minute walk from my house so whenever i get the urge to spend way too much money. on the other hand, the Tower in mountain view around the corner from my office completely sucks. very occasionally something good slips through but it happens with decreasing frequency, to the point where i hardly ever bother going there unless i'm really bored. -- Name: Jon Email: jsd@cyborganic.com Web: http://www.cyborganic.com/People/jsd

quoted 2 lines The Towers near me (Paramus NJ, Nanuet NY, NYC, NY) all have a poor

> The Towers near me (Paramus NJ, Nanuet NY, NYC, NY) all have a poor > taste in their idm selection.

Same here... (Atlanta). Thing is, I've seen the guy who orders the "dance" and "imports" for the store at the main "DJ trendy" rekkid buying shop in town... Maybe their poor selection has to do with more than just the one person who buys music?

quoted 3 lines Last year, I was surprised to hear Snivilisation playing in the store.

> Last year, I was surprised to hear Snivilisation playing in the store. > It lasted for about ten minutes when some guy takes it off, and puts on Stoned > Temple Pilots instead.

Well, if 95% of the people who come into your store are going to buy that crap, you'll gladly sell it (well, maybe not _you_ :-) , but that capitalism thing'll nail you every time... I'm at least partially glad I can't find a lot of the better IDM releases at Tower... for one, I don't pay their rip-off price, and two, it makes it that much harder to classify the music. I'm a firm believer that the reason most "alternative" rock today sucks eggs is because it's been established by the major labels what defines that type of music, so any band that tries to push those limits gets shut out from ever being heard (save for very limited pressings ala indie labels). At least with labels such as Astralwerks, Wax Trax, Planet Dog, etc..., their size isn't of the magnitude that someone with enough creativity, but not necessarily the reputation of say Eat Static, Aphex Twin, or FSOL, won't be able to be heard... obIDM: I've spent _way_ too much money in past weeks, and need to review review review... Tops on my tables right now is DJ Food "A Recipe For Disaster"... it'll surely happen if I keep playing that record as loud as I do =^) -- guyjr@ulc49.residence.gatech.edu a.k.a., Guy Elden Jr.

quoted 5 lines Well, I popped on down to my local Tower to buy

>Well, I popped on down to my local Tower to buy >some exciting new discs and I couldn't find any. > >Sadness... >

Eh...Tower sucks................ .------.. _------__--___.__. / \_ / ` \ / \ |. \ / \ \ | / .--._ .---. | \ | | / -__- \ | ~-/--` \ | | | | | | \ | || || | | | || ,_ _. || | | | || e e || Hey Beavis, | _-- | | | _ |_ || Tower sucks!! | =-. |.-. | \| (o\_/o) |/ Heh,Heh!!! o|/o/ _. | | _____ | / \ | \ ( /uuuuu\ ) / Yeah! ( @ | \ `=====' / heheheh!! |______ | \ -___- / ________/ | | | \_________ | /-_____-\ \ | / \ _/-___-- -__ / \ / __\ /__| |__\ | || | | || |\ \ || || | | || | \ \ || || | | || | \ \ / | / / ============================================================================ = _`~=~=~`boom~~`boom~=~= _-I-__\ /__ ` ~ / \_ -I-

At 03:31 15/11/95 +0000, you wrote:

quoted 7 lines Why waste your time in Tower looking for IDM discs? The last time I

>> Why waste your time in Tower looking for IDM discs? The last time I > >Have to stand up and defend my local Tower here. I've seen A Guy Called Gerald, > >It totally boils down to whether the store wholesale buyers have any interest >in techno. Not too long ago all I could find was crappy rave compilations on >K-Tel. Things seem to be looking up now, though.

I saw 3 copies of Cylob _Industrial Folksongs_ in the Picadilly Tower Records. This was after I'd scoured the whole of the north of England for a copy (err.. slight exaggeration for effect :) I wonder if grant drops copies of stuff in there just to take the piss? :) Tower also had all it's CD albums 30% more expensive than eg. sister ray, which is unforgivable and should probably be reported to a trading standards body somewhere. g3 On Now: _Mu-Ziq Vs. The Auteurs_: side a track 1. which sounds frightingly similar to the Ultramarine Nav Katze remix in some ways, (Cim.) g The WARP Web Site 3 0 3 http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~n264671/wap-indx.html

At 2:53 PM 11/15/95, g303 wrote:

quoted 11 lines At 03:31 15/11/95 +0000, you wrote:

>At 03:31 15/11/95 +0000, you wrote: >>> Why waste your time in Tower looking for IDM discs? The last time I >> >>Have to stand up and defend my local Tower here. I've seen A Guy Called >>Gerald, >> >>It totally boils down to whether the store wholesale buyers have any interest >>in techno. Not too long ago all I could find was crappy rave compilations on >>K-Tel. Things seem to be looking up now, though. > >I saw 3 copies of Cylob _Industrial Folksongs_ in the Picadilly Tower Records.

The Tower at Market and Castro in San Francisco usually has an excellent selection of IDM. Past examples of purchases there include FSOL (all the lp's plus the earthbeat sampler. This store had a couple hundred copies of the "limited" ISDN as well), Balil, EBN, Intermix, all the TEX's, the AI series, Autechre, and on and on. There's also a good Industrial section. The cutout bins are awesome there, too... I got Balil's Parasight ep for $2, for example. Just FYI, -H-