IDM isn't a genre. It's a mailing list.
If I had to put a name to it, I'd say that "Electronic Listening Music"
fits better. The "Electronica" tag has been devalued because it's a
marketing tag that the majors adopted.
To my mind what is 'this-listy' comes down to any music that is at least
in part electronic, that defines and works by it's own conventions, instead
of the conventions of any fixed genre.
Obvious namechecks for the form would include Aphex Twin, Autechre, Muziq,
Black Dog, Plaid, Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, Global Communications.
Between them there are about 45 CDs to track down, at least half of which
are absolutely ace tracks.
But if you really want to do a radio program that does justice to the music
I think you have to branch out, because eclecticism is also an important
feature of the genre. So playing the original Steve Reich and Philip
Glass tracks just deepens the flavor. And you can't neglect the stuff
that inspired the current artists -- stuff like My Bloody Valentine,
Flying Saucer Attack, Seefeel and even Lush are touchstones of the form.
Ambient stuff like Vainqueur and Fluxion (Chain Reaction) and Reinhard
Voigt (Profan) are essential.
And I go even further than that. Debussy's La Mer, piano works by
Satie and Poulenc really mix in well. I don't know if Aphex Twin
has even heard Satie, but they share a very similar strategy when it
comes to using repetition and harmonic progression...
And the concept of DJ mixing can be stretched a lot. Beatmatching is
cool when it is possible, but since you can't expect everything to fit
in a narrow tempo band, it's not a requirement. Again, bringing in the
beatless stuff introduces a whole new dimension, since they can mix with
anything. Some of the coolest mixes can come from layering stuff against
all concept of congruent tempo.
kent williams -- kent@avalon.net
http://www.mp3.com/chaircrusher -- tunes
http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=chaircrusher -- mix
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