IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 12 lines I guess I'm a fucking fool, then... 'cause as much as I really like Aphex's

> I guess I'm a fucking fool, then... 'cause as much as I really like Aphex's > work... there are boatloads of others who have received far less attention - > and did work a lot earlier... > > Investigate the likes of Arthur Brown, Delia Derbyshire, Neu, early Portion > Control, Wire... and follow that up with a thorough investigation of the > careers of folks like Adi Newton (Clock DVA, TAGC), Richard H. Kirk (from > Cabaret Voltaire, solo work, collaborations with Hope - to his pioneering > techno work in Xon, Sweet Exorcist), Marc Acardipane (two of the cuts on > Aphex Twin's Classics are RDJ remixes of his seminal track We Have > Arrived)... even the guys in 808 State (read a piece just yesterday where > RDJ mentions the impact of hearing Newbuild on John Peel's show).

Hang on. Genres are (thankfully) not strictly defined never changeing absolutes, they're patches arbitrarily fenced of from a whole continuum of music, so arguing about who was the first artist in X or what was the first Y record is pretty academic. OTOH, I'd definitely have thought that being in a general sense influenced, informed or reacting to techno or hip hop was pretty much a requirement for IDM, so although a lot of the people you mention may have either inspired IDM artists or sounded like them, not many of them could really be called early IDM. I thought, though, IDM started as a catch all term for a lot of quite disparate artists (one of them being Aphex) and that variety was what made it interesting as a 'genre'. People developing an 'IDM sound' and having a well defined genre of IDM, and trying follow an IDM template was, IMO, a bad thing for producing interesting music and having it discussed on this list. (I've said this before and God knows I'll probably say it again.) David -- "And then what do they do?" "Er, quadratic equations mostly, sir. Fiendishly difficult ones by all accounts." This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org