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GEEKTRONICA, A/K/A IDM (INTELLIGENT DANCE MUSIC)
This international network of home-studio-made, pressing-of-500 electronic
music is basically the new lo-fi rock. That much is clear from the fact
that Matador, home of Pavement and Yo La Tengo etc, now has a roster of
seriously hip techno (Pole, Jega, Burger/Ink, Boards of Canada) and has
done a deal with Warp, the pioneers of first-wave "intelligent techno".
Then there's all these Pastels/Mogwai/Low type bands putting out remix
albums with their tracks revamped by all the usual geektronic suspects.
I call it geektronica because the people into it have the same trainspotter
obsessive-compulsive collector mentality as lo-fi nerds, and because
musically, it's deliberately enfeebled or impaired sounding. Just as the
demographic constituency/class-base for lo-fi doesn't like rock that's too
rockin' and rhythmically muscular, similarly the geektronica audience
prefers dance music that isn't danceable. I'm not saying that good music
hasn't come out of this area--IDM's patron saints Aphex Twin and Luke
Vibert are household gods chez moi (although Autechre and Squarepusher,
also patron saints, are decidely not), I dig Mike Paradinas, Jega and
Boards of Canada. But this music's strongest trait isn't rhythm but melody
(all those poignant or chipper or glum tunes) and timbre (another thing it
has in common with lo-fi, an obsession with different grains of
distortion).
Lo-fi and geektronica fans have the same commodity-fetish for wacky sleeves
and peculiar configurations of vinyl --split singles, one sided discs with
drawings etched into the other side, flexis, 10 inches and 7-inches (and
soon 8 inches, apparently), double-7inches, maxi-EPs and mini-albums.
There's a whole on-line world of obsessives who trade and hunt down rare
early 12 inches on labels like Skam and Rephlex, which sometimes fetch huge
prices.
Nothing against obscurity (that would really be the pot calling the kettle
black I suppose) or unusual formats/packaging, or coveting rare records.
But a lot of this geektronica stuff has crossed the line into wilful
obscurantism. With records coming out in pressings of 250 or even fifty
(with handpainted covers etc), you have to wonder what's the threshold
below which music ceases to be a "cultural practice" and becomes mere
hobbyism? As the phenomenon of music distributed through the Internet,
downloaded and CD-burned continues to develop, this global geektronic
network may well devolve into a barter economy, with bedroom producers
trading their music with other artists through the Net. Momus recently
suggested that rather than everybody being famous for 15 minutes, in the
future everybody will be famous for 15 people. That's what it's getting
like, and that's why we should be getting worried.
Simon Reynolds
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