Re: (idm) Necessary IDM albums /Thoughts on Ischemic folks
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quoted 2 lines Howdy! I was just wondering what albums you folks consider vital to an IDM> Howdy! I was just wondering what albums you folks consider vital to an IDM
> collection?
there isn't really anything vital in idm, it's mostly whatever you find
that tickles your fancy. most of the 'classic' stuff that's talked
about on this list doesn't do much for me. the most interesting music
usually ends up being the stuff that gets talked about the least (but,
yes, that _may_ just be me).
autechre's been copied so relentlessly they're barely interesting
anymore (especially since they've taken that 'chiastic' slide down the
path of 'incomprehensibility as communication'). the only warp person
who's yet to be copied properly is aphex twin circa 'rdj album' (bogdan
hasn't even come close) but he seems to have decided to take a long
break (understandably) & everyone has inexplicably lost interest in
drill n bass (perhaps after it was deemed too playful by members of this
list? i hear idm-l has _some_ influence on the music that gets released
nowadays, you know... it's the easiest way to know your target
market... & to reduce it to a bunch of tonedeaf collectors.)
what else is there? oh, there's plenty of minimal techno, but very few
gems. & of course, for most of it, 'minimal' is to be understood as
'make the track as unchallenging as possible' rather than the more
accurate 'exploit the possibilities with a minimum of means'. if
there's a minimal album i could live without, i've yet to hear of it:
though, there are interesting artists to look for (but don't ask me who
as this genre is not really my bag most of the time).
of course why overlook the recent flurry of 'melodic idm' whose idea of
melody is a rehash of the dreaded eighties (a sterile period in melodic
terms if there's one.) they're fun for a while & easily disposable. of
course many of them use either old electro beats (belch) or watered down
autechronica & that's usually the best you can get. you won't want to
have anything to do with those in a year, so i wouldn't consider those
vital.
what's left? very little. the few interesting producers usually have
little way of promoting their music, little encouragement, & rarely end
up producing truly VITAL albums. for most of these guys, a slightly
personalized rehash of what's there already is the best they can come up
with. very little sense of purpose or whatever, but that's partly
because of the scene they come from.
but allow me to suggest the following paths, recently released albums
which manage to carve a sound of their own out of the always eroding
'idm parameters' & which could be considered 'vital':
~ hrvatski 'oiseaux 96-98' (reckank...)
~ low res 'approximate love boat' (plug research)
~ kit clayton (all recent stuff)
~ lithops (most of it)
the bottom line being that idm is an extremely disposable genre. it
doesn't mean it's bad or useless. just that you'll find yourself bored
with it eventually. especially if it keeps going the way it does.
quoted 4 lines I got Ischemic Folks last week after the recommendations of several on this> I got Ischemic Folks last week after the recommendations of several on this
> list and I must say that nearly all of it (especially R. Devine) sounds
> quite a bit like Autechre (circa Chiastic Slide)... I was rather
> disappointed by its lack of freshness. Anyone else think this?
ischemic folks = intrinsic variations on the sounds uncovered on
chiastic slide. the interest was in the fact that nobody really ever
focused on those sounds themselves, but rather in how to integrate them
in the (usually) idiotic melody they just came up with to justify
'listenability'. that said, 'ischemic folks' is musically rather bleak,
but its rhythmicality can be quite fun to listen to, in a norman mclaren
kind of way (though mclaren did it better in the 1950s by scratching
pieces of film... what can you do.)
have i been bitter & annoying enough by now? i hope so, because i hate
to be so. please direct flames elsewhere, intelligent rebukes are
welcome.
~ david
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