IDM Mailing Archive

Regarding India and IDM ... I think that if you look at the question in a larger context, Indian music doesn't really pop up more often than other world music. I think that it's especially well suited to IDM because of its complexity, both rhythmic and harmonic, and because of that sort of ethereal feeling to it. Tribal, on the other hand, is influenced mainly by African and Latin music. Latin house also draws largely on Latin American music. I think that if you look at the larger techno/house/IDM spectrum, just about every ethnic genre that uses rhythm has been incorporated somewhere. Is there anything that has used Japanese music? How about central Asian/Siberian? peace, abulafia danjlav@midway.uchicago.edu

on Tue, 15 Mar 94 15:59:39 CST, danjlav@midway.uchicago.edu (abulafia) wrote:

quoted 9 lines I think that if you look at the question in a larger context, Indian music

>I think that if you look at the question in a larger context, Indian music >doesn't really pop up more often than other world music. I think that it's >especially well suited to IDM because of its complexity, both rhythmic and >harmonic, and because of that sort of ethereal feeling to it. > >Tribal, on the other hand, is influenced mainly by African and Latin music. > Latin house also draws largely on Latin American music. I think that if >you look at the larger techno/house/IDM spectrum, just about every ethnic >genre that uses rhythm has been incorporated somewhere.

i hesitate counting african (not-so-polyrhythmic-as-west-african-ewe-style) and latin music to world music in the sense that it's not yet an accepted part of our culture. what is also important to hold apart is the overall ethnic appearance of sounds, instruments and such and the deeper structural properties (reich's music doesn't sound african, as he doesn't use those african instruments, but structurally, it depends a lot). the boundaries are not clear-cut, of course, but i don't have the impression that the differences between latin/afro-cuban, and (some) rock/pop and jazz music today are much deeper than surface.

quoted 2 lines Is there anything that has used Japanese music? How about central

>Is there anything that has used Japanese music? How about central >Asian/Siberian?

in a very superficial way, this damned shakuhachi sample... but seriously, the anti-structural approach in japanese music is hard to incorporate. some free jazz might come close to it, and some ambient stuff, john cage of course, but all this is less musical influence than philosophical. the love for unplanned noises the instruments make when played has occasionally surfaced, eg when guitar players put the micro at the point where the fingering is done, but this also is rather a gag and reinvention. so i don't know. jean-michel jarre has made an interesting album "concerts in china" that has some successful mixtures of chinese orchestral sounds with his synthesizer stuff (at least i thought so when i heard it last time...). what musical wonders does siberia have in store, i wonder?... peace, p.