IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 3 lines From: s9530165@student.anu.edu.au (Kristy Shugg)

> From: s9530165@student.anu.edu.au (Kristy Shugg) > Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 17:36:05 +1000 > Subject: (idm) idm a visual art?

quoted 4 lines I'm curious to know if there are any 'classically trained' idmers

> I'm curious to know if there are any 'classically trained' idmers > out there, 'cos almost everyone seems to come from a non-music > background. I'm hoping it's not because musical 'training' closes > peoples' ears/minds...

Just for the record, I am 'classically trained', having learned to play the piano (badly) and the French Horn (well) while at school, and followed this by playing in an Orchestra at University In my case, the effect this has had is that I did not have to learn how to keep rhythm, recognise the start of a bar, avoid key clashes etc. when I taught myself to mix. What effect it has had on my musical taste I cannot discern - I followed a route from pop radio through rap and funk to dance/house to techno and beyond... J ^ __________ ________.__/_____ _||_/ James Skilton aka Steady J _[]/_____________[.__\____-_ DJ and Party Animal | | Part Time Hedonist |____________________________| Full Time Technohead |__|-' '-|__| jamess@ftp.com Autechre and SKAM discogs: http://subnet.virtual-pc.com/~sk393820/

quoted 2 lines I'm hoping it's not because musical 'training' closes

> > I'm hoping it's not because musical 'training' closes > > peoples' ears/minds...

I only wish more musicians would learn how to play their shit. Not just in IDM, but music in general. In related news, I think the MC303 is a bad idea, because it encourages more of the "I don't need to know anything about making music in order to make music" mentality... the teenage garage punk pop thing all over again. If and when I ever make any music that I'll release, it will be after I have learned to play my instruments VERY well and write good, complicated music. I feel so many instruments, these great, rarefied, expensive analog things used by many IDM people, are SO underutilized in the music. Listening to Wendy Carlos' stuff and then comparing it to most IDM leaves me wishing that more artists would get some classical training. You can do so much with synthis though... I mean all you need is a DX7 or a Prophecy or something and you have almost unlimited sound creation possibilities at your disposal, and yet almost invariably artists of this genre limit themselves to a few simple chord progressions and timbres/effects when so much poetential is there...

quoted 5 lines Check out Cosmic Baby 'Thinking About Myself' for techno on the

>Check out Cosmic Baby 'Thinking About Myself' for techno on the >classical tip. I read somewhere that he's quite the accomplished >pianist. You can here it in a lot of his songs. Some good stuff, but >might not grab you right off. Defenitely worth a listen. >

I gots to be agreeing wid it. Funky that you sez dis kuz I waz jus listen diz plastik. Oh, sorry. The C-Baby could be a C#-Baby because he's right on. "Thinking About Myself" has nothing to do with a Rodin sculpture of Billy Idol, and even less to do with mental ... uh ... debating. This record is basically piano with a beat. And the result - it works. Techno grooves with classical riffing (well, is it improvised or scored? difficult to say, but no more difficult than "technology heterogeneously geologizes hysterical histeriography"). Clean beats and sweeping mod moods. Most trax have a fairly driving riddim, with technique-y and freaky (chakra) piano displays. The last cut (title forgotten; and sometimes I fear that my brain's OS was written by Microsoft, with an impressive panel of "Start" buttons but lacking buttons for "Stop", "Finish", "Shut Up and Play Yer Sampler") breaks it all down into slow and moody ecstatic grooves, which makes one want to say "Give Peace a Dance". Did Art of Noise out-Glass Phil? Finally, is it pronounced with comma or coma? "Cosmic, Baby..." or "Cosmic Baby (thud)" Just wondering. Zenon M. Feszczak Bankrupt Philanthropist

At 4:39 AM 10/11/96, Brock Suter wrote:

quoted 6 lines sugatis@inreach.com wrote:

>sugatis@inreach.com wrote: > >> in IDM, but music in general. In related news, I think the MC303 is a >> bad idea, because it encourages more of the "I don't need to know >> anything about making music in order to make music" mentality... >

Hey! Watch it there! With that sort of attitude, you'll find yourself one step away from Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The *best* thing about IDM is that the kids don't know what's "right" and "wrong" and just fuck around until they figure out how to put down on tape whatever it is that's running around in their heads, without filtering it through a varnish coat of music theory or training. On the other hand, I'm always fascinated by how people who do have some training and some theoretical grounding interpret these primitive ramblings into a coherent, organized form. In other words, both are valuable. Peace, -Phil [----------] [---] [-----] [-----] [-----] [----------] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [----------] [----------] [---] [---] [----------] [----------] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [---] [--------] [-----] [-----] [---] [-----] [----------] Home is where the stereo is!