IDM Mailing Archive

Cex has an interesting perspective on IDM, the list, not the music: http://tigerbeat6.com/cex/news01/cnews043001.htm "Here you have 1000 or so people getting messages in their mailbox from the same 50 or 60 people -- the vast, vast majority of whom are easily identifiable as electronic music artists of some caliber or another by the (frequently lengthy and shockingly immodest [oh god, you're one to talk about modesty, rjyan...]) tag-lines at the end of their emails which give their name, email, web site, their label's website ... And they're all talking about music as if they were just regular people whose own identities weren't completely at stake with every single judgment they make." (ellipsis are mine -- bracketed digression is Rjyan's. Well, shut my mouth, Rjyan ;-) Guilty as charged. But ... I feel sentimental about this list. There are people on here that subscribed before me, but not many, and not a lot of them still here. Hell, Cex was 11 years old when I subscribed. I started out listening to Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream in the early 70's, and then early hip hop, along with a lot of rock ... XTC bwoy. About 10 years ago some new shit started leaking into my midwestern home, and I began buying everything I could find. There was no one I knew who knew what was up. So I found this list and subscribed. It was cool -- people talked about new records coming out, live shows, etc. I became good buddies with Teep whose cheery vibe and enthusiasm for the music was contagious. I have a drawerful of mix tapes from him, which are still absolutely the shit. 'ZiqZaq' -- an all-muZiq mix is a masterpiece, and should be released on CD. At the same time, I was discovering that my computer was good at keeping a beat. If you really dig in the archives you can find posts from me asking people about gear. I won't go into a long self-promo rant, but the support of friends from IDM (some of whome I still haven't met IRL) is an important reason I'm making music now. Which is the long way around to saying this: If I have an axe to grind here it's as a cheerleader. I'm MUCH less critical than a lot of people here. I rarely post anything negative about anyone. The only time I ever panned anything it was an Alec Empire CD "Les Etoiles Des Filles Mortes" which I found so lugubrious and excremental that I had to warn people off. More to the point, I don't want IDM to turn into the sort of incestuous cockfight that Rjyan described. Back in the day I studied poetry in college, thinking I could be a poet. Whether or not I had any talent at that, I gave up after a few years because I hated the circle-jerk aspects of that scene -- the only audience was other poets, and the whole thing ran on who was fucking who. In my opinion, the ONLY thing the Internet is really good for -- besides ordering up too many books on Amazon when you're drunk -- is that it's a way for like-minded individuals to congregate without distance. IDM used to be that, without people stressing all the time and getting into pissing matches. I'd like it to be a place where people come and leave their agendas behind, and can inform and entertain each other, and be fans. The problem with the IDM-list is the problem with the real world. There's the Heads, and there's the Haters. Heads have to stick together. Jesus said, "the poor will always be with us." Well I'm telling you the Haters will always be with too. Heads need to ignore the haters and carry on. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

I read Cex's half-rant as well, and I quite agree with most of what he has to say. Personally, I do find that, although I get sucked in occasionally, for the most part I ignore most of the list. The reason I remain subscribed is for news related to IDM/experimental electronic music, and people's reviews and suggestions of new releases or artists I haven't heard of. Every once in a while I try to give content to the list in the form of a reivew or mention of something I've liked, because everyone just listens, there's nothing to hear (let's not get into a discussion of minimalist art which then will digress into the "what is music?" thread again) I think Cex was trying to say that when musicians just play to themselves to much, they forget why they liked music in the first place. The purpose of creation gets mutated into something else, which is alright if you're into it, but boring if you're not, and it really shouldn't be at the exclusion of everything else. Example: the interview with Sean of Autechre just linked to the list today - here's a pair of guys who seem to be totally into just what they do, but they're into it for the music and the parties, not the endless rants about what music is or should be. Kind of like, you grow up watching movies or seeing plays, and you really want to be an actor, so you take an acting class, and then you take more and more and get totally caught up in the world of acting, where actors act to each other in classes and comment on each others' performances and what they could improve, etc. etc. - but forget what got them into it in the first place: that magic of creationg and stuff - there's a magic in sitting back and *not thinking* and just absorbing. Maybe that's where all the difficulty comes from - somehow there's come to be a division between peeps who want to think and dissect, and peeps who just want to sit back and absorb. I'm more of the sit back and absorb type, myself. I think the two mentalities produce different types of music, which can be taken both ways (absorbed or dissected), but the creators don't think they can be taken both ways. I'm beginning to not make sense, and this is much longer than I'd intended. Basically, respect to Cex for doing what he wants, and respect to the people on the list who do what they want, but no respect to those who think the list should be "this way" or "that way" - it is what it is, and I'm OK with it so far. As long as I continue to hear about new artists and the occasional label news and the even less often free music offers, this list will serve its purpose for me. If all of that disappears and is replaced by a bunch of technical discussion and back-biting amongst artists who have lost sight of the magic in music, that's when I'll unsubscribe. -adam PS - I don't make computer music and have no intention of starting; I just like listening. Although someday I'd like to get back to pretending I can play the drums, like in high school :P --- Kent williams <kent@avalon.net> wrote:

quoted 4 lines Cex has an interesting perspective on IDM, the list,

> Cex has an interesting perspective on IDM, the list, > not the music: > > http://tigerbeat6.com/cex/news01/cnews043001.htm

__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org