Those nasty UK Dance people are saying horrid things about us again...
(see below)
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:55:42 +0100 (BST)
From: A Bhattacharyya
Subject: Fuck IDM
Re this IDM debate... the basic problem with IDM (and I'm talking
about the overall scene here as opposed to individual artists) is
its fundamental conservatism. Despite all the cliches about "pushing
the envelope", "breaking boundaries" etc it subscribes to a reactionary
notion of what art is that is little more than a caricature retread
of late 19th century and early 20th century modernism.
Specific examples: the artist-as-creative-hero motif, the sneering
cod-Nietzschean dismissal of the masses, the art-for-art's-sake
aesthete stance that can only conceive of the dancefloor as a
constraint, the disdain for "utilitarian" funktionality.
The fact is that despite the many creative and intelligent people
working in and around IDM, the scene is characterised by a bovine
dismal refusal to think through these questions, an uncritical
acceptance of bourgeois artistic values and a smug ignorance of
the key developments and debates around 20th century music.
Summarising: IDM just ain't intelligent *enough*.
Having said that, there are a few artists classed as IDM that soar
above the middle-brow middle-of-the-road mediocrity that characterises
the scene-that-pretends-it-isn't. I'd say Aphex Twin falls into this
category. As does Oval/Mille Plateaux. Should also stress that I don't
have a problem with experimentalism-for-experimentalism's-sake, my
problem is with conservatism-dressed-as-experimentalism.
<<<<<<
Is it ok to go out again yet?
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