i don't know if i agree with everthing the writer says, but i do agree that
it's an uncomfortable synthesis at best...years ago before the whole
"intelligent" drum and bass thing creatively dried up, people started to
rap over the stuccatto beats...logical progression II...(i know this wasn't
the first DNB album with a rapped element) with the same results, although
drum and bass lends itself very much more to the talk-over Mcing, i found
myself then as now just listening harder to the music and wishing the MC
wasn't there...in fact i hardly ever listened to CD 2 of the album, the one
with MC conrad...
just a thought.
greg
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Greg Malcolm
Twine/Twinesound Audio Productions
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http://www.inneractions.com/twine
http://www.adastra-records.com
http://www.zero1media.com
http://www.mp3.com/twine
http://pulserecords.com/twine
330.677.8332
gemalcolm@hotmail.com
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/56/3rdwave.html
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quoted 94 lines From: Neujinn01@aol.com
>From: Neujinn01@aol.com
>To: idm@hyperreal.org
>Subject: [idm] Rap in IDM...?
>Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 06:05:37 EDT
>
> I just got finished listening to the new Funkstorung as well, and for
>me
>it begs the question that I must ask: Does the fusion of IDM an Rap really
>work all that well?
> I generally really like Funkstorung, and have consistently enjoyed
>their
>work pretty much up to this point. I have noted obviously their
>fascination
>with infusing hip-hop/rap elements in their music with such tracks like
>their
>remix on the East Flatbush project and Add'l Prod., both of which I think
>succeeded only moderately well. The fusion both times I felt to be tenuous
>at best. It always seems forced, or strained. Like an element that
>doesn't
>belong. (Of course, there are loads of other IDM artists who incorporate
>hip-hop elements in their music as well, Autechre being no exception, and
>each time, from what I can hear, to questionable results.)
> The problem is I think they are just two very different genres of
>music
>listened to for very different reasons. A good rap track can have steady
>beat (usually a typical 4/4 or otherwise), a funky baseline, hopefully an
>original sample, and an MC whose rhymes flow in tandem with the beat and
>rhythmn. (When it's done well, that is.) And that's fine.
> IDM can have a similiar mindset, but is ever moving forward as a
>genre,
>pushing the limits of sound and structure into bounds well beyond what any
>average listener would even call music. And that's fine, too. Great even!
>It is why I've always liked it and listened to it.
> Rap, however (primarily in it's current state of stagnancy) isn't
>concerned with any of these things (as neither is most anything
>mainstream),
>probably because simply it doesn't need to be. It will all make it onto
>MTV
>just the same. And it just never seems to work when these two conceptually
>opposed musical cousins are brought together.
> Having an MC rapping over Funkstorung's beautiful squeeches and
>squelches, disjointed rhythms and distorted melodies just doesn't work for
>me. Sorry.
> And while the singing vocals weren't as jarring, I found myself
>groaning
>every time an MC chimed in over the glitchy squelchy rhythmic mayhem of
>Funkstorung, which is solely what I was looking forward to when I bought
>the
>cd. I found all the MC'ing to be an unwelcome addition. I think it
>grounds
>the album's otherwise impressive sonics down in a way which I felt worked
>against it, rather than with it.
> You've probably surmised by now that I'm not the biggest fan of Rap.
>Well, it's really only modern day rap in particular. The reason being is
>that I think it has descended into nothing more than yet another commercial
>medium absorbed whole by the mainstream, and, in a striking bit of irony,
>has
>become the very thing that's initial inception was meant to defy against.
>Gone is the classic originality of the old school, where a clever sample, a
>catchy beat and a good rhyme got you everywhere, and not just what hit
>single
>from a decade ago you can get the rights to, add a new beat, rap over it,
>and
>make millions of dollars from.
> IDM is one of the few bastions of hope I have left in a largely
>uncreative, cruel mainstream MTV world. It could be that my alarm in
>hearing
>more and more rap/hip-hop elements creeping into my IDM is the sign of the
>Mainstream finally making it to the shores of IDM it getting it's money
>grubbing hands on my music (shudder to think), and it in turn suffering a
>similiar commericial fate and losing it's potency, much like rap did. (The
>day I hear Ae or Funkstorung in a Mountain Dew commercial, I'll KNOW it's
>the
>end and just commit Seppuku.)
> Of course, any artist should always be free to explore whatever
>creative
>avenues they wish in their music. But really, If I wanted to hear an MC,
>then I'd go to down Tower Records and pick up whoever newest commercial
>sensation is this week off the Top 10 chart.
> Bottom line, I'm just not interested in hearing it over my squeeches
>and
>squelches.
> Again, it could just be my own bias talking, brought on by my groaning
>frustration with all things mainstream.
> Or maybe, like I said, MC rapping and glitchy squelchy IDM just don't
>mix
>well.
> I don't know....
>
>
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