IDM Mailing Archive

CiM wrote on Wed, 14 Feb 96 11:47:51 GMT :

quoted 4 lines Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to

> Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to > know - what do other list members think about a complete night of DJ'd IDM? > Would it work? Would it fail? (Assuming here, that the DJ has a certain > degree of competence).

Well it depends how broadly you define IDM, but I always enjoy nights at Oscillate here in Birmingham. The DJ's don't even mix, but the music is great. They start early on with mellow, even dubby stuff like Seefeel and as the place fills up they crank the volume and the tempos. I can recall hearing stuff like Biosphere, Black Dog, Orbital, The Fires of Ork, getting a very good response, but they don't go into pure 313 or harder techno territory too much, often working instead on the syncopated stuff. I must say I can't really remember clearly what was going on any particular occasion I was there (once I get on the floor I'm in my own little world), and of course they always have 1 or 2 live acts - last one I went to was Autechre and Freeform, which is a fair indication of where they're coming from. There's plenty of bangin' dancefloor oriented music out there with a definite intelligent side to it. J ^ __________ ________.__/_____ _||_/ James Skilton aka Steady J _[]/_____________[.__\____-_ DJ and Party Animal | | Part Time Hedonist |____________________________| Full Time Technohead |__|-' '-|__| Steady-J@Firefox.co.uk

On Wed, 14 Feb 1996, CiM wrote:

quoted 6 lines Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to

> > Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to > know - what do other list members think about a complete night of DJ'd IDM? > Would it work? Would it fail? (Assuming here, that the DJ has a certain > degree of competence). >

I think I am finally going to have to jump into this discussion. I DJ idm and trance/acid, though not at the same time. When I dj at one of the local clubs I tend to play idm when I am on early in the night, and the bar is mostly empty. I never expect people to dance, but I am always very pleased when people get up to dance to some good idm. example: Once I was playing Orbital and nobody was dancing, went into Donkey Rhubarb and people actually got up to dance. Same thing happened when I went from New Order to Balil - Parasight one night. The lesson from this is: I usually think of idm as sit-down and appreciate music, but you never know just what people will dance to. As for doing a whole night of idm, I think it would be very hard. Mostly because it can be rather difficult to follow the beat (vide Flutter or Quoth), and the 16 year-old cokeheads in Toronto can't dance to it. I will be able to give a much better opinion of this after March 30 when Toronto and Transcendence actually do host a night of complete idm, with Autechre, STC, Mark Broom, Legion of Green Men, and Mixmaster Morris. This will undoubtedly be the biggest night for idm since AFX/Orbital/Vapourspace. (I won't mention Moby was there;)) Phil Downey

On Wed, 14 Feb 1996, CiM wrote:

quoted 4 lines Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to

> Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to > know - what do other list members think about a complete night of DJ'd IDM? > Would it work? Would it fail? (Assuming here, that the DJ has a certain > degree of competence).

It would *totally* work, I just don't know if we're ever going to see it anytime soon. Heck, I'd just settle for *one* experimental techno DJ at parties around here. Plenty of IDM'ers spin and are fuly capable of rocking the joint. The problem is that those who throw the parties just aren't open-minded enough to take this music out of the ambient room, and that's a shame. I think that if we *really* wanted a night of IDM, we'd have to throw our own jammie-jam. :) - Matthew P.S. Saw IDM-don Fluid at a little net-raver party last weekend wearing a funky-fresh IDM t-shirt (limited-edition pressing of 1). I think it's now every list member's duty to bug his ass to print up some more. How 'bout it, Alan? ;) "I grew up thinking that techno music is actually something that you can't imagine. That is techno at its best. If you hear something that you'd never expect to hear - that's techno. If you hear something that kind of sounds like you've heard it before, then it's not techno." - Jeff Mills

Hey, NOW WE'RE TALKIN! This is exactly what we IDm'ers ought to be discussing so those who, like me, may be frustrated at the scenes can develop ideas to form our own possible events. Thank you CiM for diverting the discussion. Personally, as with techno DJ'ing, the answer is TRACK selection. It also involves how we are gonna define IDM for the night. Now lets not get off to a tangent on defining IDM, that would take too many posts. I think we can all agree it revolves somewhere around the types of styles demonstrated on the ARtificial Intelligence series I+II. I agree that there are difficulties in entertaining a crowd with IDM, but that is a problem in any entertainment sphere. peace GIL /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ NAME:Gil aka GMV500 E-MAIL: videla@colorado.edu WEB PAGE: yeah, right! check out my friends- http://ares.csd.net/~albumsup - http://www.uea.ac.uk/~u9506276 PHILOSOPHY: AMBIENT+BREAKDANCE= IDM FINAL WORDS: MORE BEER! \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\\/\/\/\\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ On Wed, 14 Feb 1996, CiM wrote:

quoted 23 lines At 00:58 14/02/96 -0700, .GMV500 wrote:

> At 00:58 14/02/96 -0700, .GMV500 wrote: > > > >I am through with this discussion. Many of you should just read the my > >first post, maybe read two or three times. a DJ discussion wasn't my > >point, > > Okay, but you did bring it up - that was the point that most people were > concerned over. The reason I didn't respond to your spleen venting about > Denver is that I personally don't give a shit how bad the scene is there - > just as I'm sure you're not interested in how bad the scene is in Norwich, > England. However, if something good happens, post it here - I'll be > interested then. > > Which brings me to your other point - about DJ'ing IDM. I'm intrigued to > know - what do other list members think about a complete night of DJ'd IDM? > Would it work? Would it fail? (Assuming here, that the DJ has a certain > degree of competence). > > || [CiM] > || s.walley@uea.ac.uk > || http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/~u9323899/ > >

quoted 3 lines what do other list members think about a complete night of DJ'd IDM?

>what do other list members think about a complete night of DJ'd IDM? >Would it work? Would it fail? (Assuming here, that the DJ has a certain >degree of competence).

i have spun idm sets here and there, including local bars. the main problem with idm sets is that a lot of songs have airy breakdowns and other more subtle parts that really don't get through to people unless you are actually listening to them closely. this is why i believe much of idm remains in the chill room. even at times when the bpms are up there it just has this sit-n-veg sort of vibe to it. promoters/club owners generally think that if the floor isn't full then people aren't having fun. this goes against the very grain of electronic *listening* music. in a small lounge setting idm works well and i've had people really dig the music. i get surprised comments like; "thats actually cool to just listen to." however at raves or dance clubs the floor needs to be full and a lot of idm is not designed to do that. *disclaimer* for those likely to be offended or vehemently disagree i'd like to suggest you insert IMHO before and after every single sentence and realize that i know there are songs/artists which may not conform to everything i have said. :) -- Mark Bowen mb@gettins.bche.uic.edu

Phil Downey wrote:

quoted 6 lines The lesson from this is: I usually think of idm as sit-down and

> The lesson from this is: I usually think of idm as sit-down and > appreciate music, but you never know just what people will dance to. > > As for doing a whole night of idm, I think it would be very hard. Mostly > because it can be rather difficult to follow the beat (vide Flutter or > Quoth), and the 16 year-old cokeheads in Toronto can't dance to it.

Yeah - I don't know about a whole night, but a good 2-3 hr. set would be quite manageable. I guess it would just depend on the individual tracks - there are a number of tunes which are more suited for chill-out rooms etc. and some which would work better on the dancefloor. And since IDM verges into a number of different genres, it might be best to play tracks that are similar in style all in a row to keep the mix a little more cohesive. GD