IDM Mailing Archive

On 09/20/99 16:15:45 you wrote:

quoted 10 lines On Sat, 18 Sep 1999, Irene McC wrote:

> >On Sat, 18 Sep 1999, Irene McC wrote: > >> Recently I find myself drifting more and more towards what might >> be classified as deep house, especially the more melodic end of >> the IDM spectrum rather than power drills and washing mashines. > >i think tetsu inoue says in the urbansounds interview something about >anyone can make weird, fucked-up sounding music, the harder thing to do is >make it accessible.

I'm not really sure Tetsuo had that one nailed down right. After writing D&B and techno stuff for years, I did a little expirement last year about this time: try and write some pop songs. I got a female vocalist fot the tracks and everything. I actually found it a little bit easier to do. Most accessible music relies on very predictable ] formulas which are pretty easy to pick up. I think the only real challenge,at least for me, was not not to fuck with the sound. Rob listening to some kick ass Xyn tracks component records http://www.mindstorm.com/component codec-fragments coming soon!

I think its somewhere in the middle; the difficulty is in making unique, 'weird sounding' and yet accesible music. I guess this is my biggest beef with the recent Ae output, including the peel seesions last week someone was kind enough to post. It seems they are too wrapped up in mechanical processes. Amber and Tri Repatae-period Ae really grab me with the combination of the sobering melodies and complex (well I guess not to today's standards) programming. The strings on these records! Sheesh! Whatever happened to them? LP5 did a great job of giving us a thorough(SP?) dose of the abstract combined with great melodic progressions. Unfortunatley I haven't lately heard too much 'over-programmed' music with this human quality to it. 2 fairly recent records that do succeed in this respect is Colongib's Mapping Music and the new Hravtski. That last track! whew! On Mon, 20 Sep 1999 phlux@ix.netcom.com wrote:

quoted 27 lines On 09/20/99 16:15:45 you wrote:

> On 09/20/99 16:15:45 you wrote: > > > >On Sat, 18 Sep 1999, Irene McC wrote: > > > >> Recently I find myself drifting more and more towards what might > >> be classified as deep house, especially the more melodic end of > >> the IDM spectrum rather than power drills and washing mashines. > > > >i think tetsu inoue says in the urbansounds interview something about > >anyone can make weird, fucked-up sounding music, the harder thing to do is > >make it accessible. > > I'm not really sure Tetsuo had that one nailed down right. After writing > D&B and techno stuff for years, I did a little expirement last year > about this time: try and write some pop songs. I got a female > vocalist fot the tracks and everything. I actually found it a little > bit easier to do. Most accessible music relies on very predictable ] > formulas which are pretty easy to pick up. I think the only real > challenge,at least for me, was not not to fuck with the sound. > > Rob > listening to some kick ass Xyn tracks > > component records > http://www.mindstorm.com/component > codec-fragments coming soon! >

I'm not sure that you are making a strong argument for the ease or difficulty of writing a house track. House tracks are accessible but they are not pop songs. Good house tracks are accessible, usualy soulful or funky and often trippy or experimental without ever falling into a trap of being chin-scratching music for music listeners. House music is first and foremost about a vibe. You can't think your way into it though it might be impressive from a production or technical viewpoint. From a DJs perspective, house music is some of the more difficult music to mix. It is difficult to conceal mistakes in beat matching during mixes because all of the quarter notes are marked with kick drums. Mistakes in beat matching sound like flams or stutters of beats and are very apparent. House music is not accessible because it is simple and the history and present of house music is not simple. It is almost spiritual, there is no point in me trying to describe it. House music is the foundation of idm, d & b and blah, blah blah. Or at least those genres would not exist without house music getting the whole thing going. Idm would not exist without DJs and clubs and parties creating a possibility of dance music that you listen to outside of a dance music enxironment. If you guys can even ponder the interest of house music or whether or not house music is interesting, you realy should get out from behind the computer and go out to a party or a club, live a little and see why the music that you discuss exists in the first place. phlux@ix.netcom.com wrote:

quoted 26 lines On 09/20/99 16:15:45 you wrote:

> On 09/20/99 16:15:45 you wrote: > > > >On Sat, 18 Sep 1999, Irene McC wrote: > > > >> Recently I find myself drifting more and more towards what might > >> be classified as deep house, especially the more melodic end of > >> the IDM spectrum rather than power drills and washing mashines. > > > >i think tetsu inoue says in the urbansounds interview something about > >anyone can make weird, fucked-up sounding music, the harder thing to do is > >make it accessible. > > I'm not really sure Tetsuo had that one nailed down right. After writing > D&B and techno stuff for years, I did a little expirement last year > about this time: try and write some pop songs. I got a female > vocalist fot the tracks and everything. I actually found it a little > bit easier to do. Most accessible music relies on very predictable ] > formulas which are pretty easy to pick up. I think the only real > challenge,at least for me, was not not to fuck with the sound. > > Rob > listening to some kick ass Xyn tracks > > component records > http://www.mindstorm.com/component > codec-fragments coming soon!