IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 4 lines I didn't like it. I thought it was technically over-sophisticated for

>I didn't like it. I thought it was technically over-sophisticated for >it's own good, as [name deleted in attempt to widen the discussion] >doesn't demonstrate enough practical skill in >song-creation, and focuses instead on layering sequenced noise.

do any other of y'all get this feeling with much of the idm releases that come up for your listening and purchasing (or for those unfortunate to not hear what they buy first, when you get home)? I'll drop (lay) the needle down on a record and go "Wow! Cool! Wicked beats, nice noises, etc." and then listen to the whole thing. What consistently happens is that the "artist" seems to have a handful of sequences they consider to be a song or something. They'll start off with a stripped beat or an ambient bit/loop (ambient loops?) and press the buttons on their sequencer every bar or two until, 3 or 4 minutes down the line, lots of stuff is looping in the mix and they're ready for some dynamics. Time for the ambient loop to be subtracted! Now that we, the presumed listeners, are in orgiastic freefall from not foreseeing this sudden change in mood and focus, the artist runs with it and subtracts elements from the mix on subsequent bars until half an EP side of vinyl is reached (last I checked, this was around 7 minutes). At least that's the only theory I can come up with that leaves the possibility open for the "I" to be kept in the IDMness of the work in question, and even THEN it's a technicality. Sorta formulaic, sorta critically reductive on my part, and sorta glossing over the bedroom-style tweakage on the particular sounds (a fetishized facet of idm that, I think, characterizes much of the hyped releases and classics and relates to the above comment about the possibility of technique overshadowing musicality [which is actually the larger issue here - ed.]) that are given more space to be contemplated when repeated semistatic. But the end result is that I don't like it, am unwilling to give it time to "grow on me," and trash it mercilessly to anyone within ear- or eyeshot. eric