IDM Mailing Archive

I woke up this morning, opened my Orange County Register, started paging through and what should I find? An interview with Aphex! In the Orange County Register?! Oh well, who am I to argue. It reads like a press release but here are some interesting bits: On America and Dance Music: "Britian has been into dance music for a while and I reckon it's about to kick off in America now. I guess it's a good for by bank account, and that's about the only good," he said."I guess more people will be recording dance music, but I don't know if they will have the right motivation. If they were really motivated, they would have been doing it by now." On the Chemical Brothers: "The Chemical Brothers aren't really pure electronica," James said. "But they will pave the way for other dance acts. They'll probably sell thousands more than other artists but increase the sales of other groups as well. The Chemical Brothers do good stuff, but it's all very poppy." And finally some real news: "I'm also going to do a remix of David Bowie's 'Heroes.' I think it's pointless to remix a song I don't like. If you are going to release something, you should put out something you like. I don't ever do remixes that don't sound any different than the original." If anyone else finds interview's with RDJ in their local paper send us any intellegence gathered. Especially US tour info and stuff about new releases/remixes. AMP:

quoted 1 line last nites play list:

> last nites play list:

You forgot Mr. Roboto by Styx which opened up the show. That video used to scare me when I was a little kid.

quoted 1 line aphex twin on

> aphex twin on

Greggy, please send videos of Donkey Ruhbarb and Ventolin to MTV. They obviously don't have them. G-Spot out... _____ / ,-,_) /,_) (/ RESH Live & Direct from the G-Spot, Orange County, California, USA http://www1.linkonline.net/fresh/fresh.htm

On 26-Jan-97, Gonzi (Fresh) wrote:

quoted 2 lines Greggy, please send videos of Donkey Ruhbarb and Ventolin to MTV. They

>Greggy, please send videos of Donkey Ruhbarb and Ventolin to MTV. They >obviously don't have them.

Oh but they do - at least the MTV Europe. :P -- .Mikko e.mail: yolk@sci.fi w3: http://www.sci.fi/~yolk

On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Mikko Karvonen wrote:

quoted 9 lines On 26-Jan-97, Gonzi (Fresh) wrote:

> On 26-Jan-97, Gonzi (Fresh) wrote: > > >Greggy, please send videos of Donkey Ruhbarb and Ventolin to MTV. They > >obviously don't have them. > > Oh but they do - at least the MTV Europe. :P > > -- > .Mikko

Yeah well, it's pretty obvious by now that eMpTyVee apparently are *completely* unaware of eMpTyVee Europe and their video library. :-( On Mon, 27 Jan 1997, Allert Aalders wrote:

quoted 6 lines speedy j evolution

> > >speedy j evolution > > If this was actually the AMP play list, please tell me what the vid looked > like cauz there was never a video made for my favourite Speedy J track > AFAIK.

It was one of those completely computer-generated videos and it apparently came from the X-Mix 3 videotape (at least that's what the little banner at the bottom said, but it *has* been wrong in the past). cya brian

I saw only the 1st AMP on tape. AFX's "On" was great, however, I was overwhelmed by the number of semi-boring screen-saveresque videos. (unfortunatley similar to the AII Motion video with endlessly repetitive animation). What are the other AFX videos like? Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well, somewhat comparable to looking through a kallidescope(which for me only retains my interest for less than 1min). I suppose they are attempts at visual manifestations of the sensations the music is supposed to create? Or maybe becuase they are really nice to look at if you are on some tye of chemical? Granted, these "computer generated" and swirly images(i.e. Kairo(STC), the Sun Electric video etc ad nauseum) could be excellent on a large scren in a club or at a live performance, with the music enveloping you, but, well, they seemingly lacked creativity while watching them in my bedroom on my TV. The whole idea seemed kinda trite. What medium/audience are most of these videos originally made for? Are they intended for homeviewers in Europe of for big "visual presentations" with live performances? I suppose it varies. I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel, AFX's On or even The Box over the redundant screen-saver stuff anyday. What about everyone else? WHy does this genre of swrily colors persist? I'm bored with it. andy, late at night, listening to ALec Empire On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Brian & Sharon Beuchaw wrote:

quoted 35 lines On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Mikko Karvonen wrote:

> On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Mikko Karvonen wrote: > > > On 26-Jan-97, Gonzi (Fresh) wrote: > > > > >Greggy, please send videos of Donkey Ruhbarb and Ventolin to MTV. They > > >obviously don't have them. > > > > Oh but they do - at least the MTV Europe. :P > > > > -- > > .Mikko > > Yeah well, it's pretty obvious by now that eMpTyVee apparently are > *completely* unaware of eMpTyVee Europe and their video library. :-( > > On Mon, 27 Jan 1997, Allert Aalders wrote: > > > > >speedy j evolution > > > > If this was actually the AMP play list, please tell me what the vid looked > > like cauz there was never a video made for my favourite Speedy J track > > AFAIK. > > It was one of those completely computer-generated videos and it apparently > came from the X-Mix 3 videotape (at least that's what the little banner at > the bottom said, but it *has* been wrong in the past). > > cya > brian > > > > > >

At 01:03 -0500 27.01.97, you wrote:

quoted 15 lines Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well,

> >Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well, >somewhat comparable to looking through a kallidescope(which for me only >retains my interest for less than 1min). > >I suppose they are attempts at visual manifestations of the sensations the >music is supposed to create? > >Or maybe becuase they are really nice to look at if you are on some tye >of chemical? > >Granted, these "computer generated" and swirly images could be excellent on >a large scren in >a club or at a live performance, with the music enveloping you, but, well, >they seemingly lacked creativity while watching them in my bedroom on >my TV.

There's the rub. When I saw the first AMP on a typical sized home TV, many of the visuals simply appeared dull and repetitive. Viewing later on a mega-screen projection TV was a completely different experience. Just sublime. Another question for those in the know: Why the constant emphasis on babies and psychadelic birth tunnels? Is this a latent safe-sex message? Zeno of Elea

On 27-Jan-97, Andy wrote:

quoted 5 lines I saw only the 1st AMP on tape.

>I saw only the 1st AMP on tape. >AFX's "On" was great, however, I was overwhelmed by the number of >semi-boring screen-saveresque videos. (unfortunatley similar to the >AII Motion video with endlessly repetitive animation). >What are the other AFX videos like?

The Donkey Rhubarb video has AFX teddybears in it, and they dance on stage while Richard is on the floor with all his gear, I've never seen it, but a friend told me this =)

quoted 3 lines Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well,

>Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well, >somewhat comparable to looking through a kallidescope(which for me only >retains my interest for less than 1min).

Probably psychedelic?

quoted 2 lines Or maybe becuase they are really nice to look at if you are on some tye

>Or maybe becuase they are really nice to look at if you are on some tye >of chemical?

Exactly :)

quoted 3 lines I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel, AFX's On or even The Box over the

>I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel, AFX's On or even The Box over the >redundant screen-saver stuff anyday. What about everyone else? WHy does >this genre of swrily colors persist? I'm bored with it.

me too.. :)

quoted 1 line On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Andy quoted what Brian & Sharon Beuchaw and Mikko K. wrote:

>>On Sun, 26 Jan 1997, Andy quoted what Brian & Sharon Beuchaw and Mikko K. wrote:

I wish people would bother to edit needless pages of back-quotes that have nothing to do with the current msg :P -- Hillie aka Aurafix / PHD ja DAMONES hillien kotisivu - http://www.clark.net/pub/buh/index.html easy internet services - http://huizen.dds.nl/~eis Do re mi fa so la ti.. Oh let's see if I can make it easier...

On 27-Jan-97, Hillie wrote:

quoted 3 lines The Donkey Rhubarb video has AFX teddybears in it, and they dance on stage

>The Donkey Rhubarb video has AFX teddybears in it, and they dance on stage >while Richard is on the floor with all his gear, I've never seen it, but a >friend told me this =)

Nopes. That's from the interview shown in MTV Europe.. the bears were on the gig. The video has the same bears, lots of children but no Rich himself. "AFX teddybear" is a huge neon coloured teddybear with the cover of "I care because you do" as its face. And there are three of them. :) They're dancing and then it seems like they're starting to get nasty at eachothers, kicking, throwing baseball bats and monkey-wrenches. Huh. -- .Mikko e.mail: yolk@sci.fi w3: http://www.sci.fi/~yolk

On 27-Jan-97, Mikko Karvonen wrote:

quoted 1 line On 27-Jan-97, Hillie wrote:

>On 27-Jan-97, Hillie wrote:

quoted 6 lines Nopes. That's from the interview shown in MTV Europe.. the bears were on the

>Nopes. That's from the interview shown in MTV Europe.. the bears were on the >gig. The video has the same bears, lots of children but no Rich himself. "AFX >teddybear" is a huge neon coloured teddybear with the cover of "I care because >you do" as its face. And there are three of them. :) They're dancing and then >it seems like they're starting to get nasty at eachothers, kicking, throwing >baseball bats and monkey-wrenches. Huh.

ah. I guess I got it confused with that then.. Tommi told me about both at the same time =) but I'm sure the more in-depth review is appreciated. btw.. Do you know if you can buy these videos anywhere? I mean ones that are not taped off of MTV Europe or anywhere else. -- Hillie aka Aurafix / PHD ja DAMONES hillien kotisivu - http://www.clark.net/pub/buh/index.html easy internet services - http://huizen.dds.nl/~eis Do re mi fa so la ti.. Oh let's see if I can make it easier...

In message <Pine.BSI.3.95.970126223817.6091A-100000@enteract.com>, Brian & Sharon Beuchaw <beuchaw@enteract.com> writes

quoted 11 lines On Mon, 27 Jan 1997, Allert Aalders wrote:

>On Mon, 27 Jan 1997, Allert Aalders wrote: >> >> >speedy j evolution >> >> If this was actually the AMP play list, please tell me what the vid looked >> like cauz there was never a video made for my favourite Speedy J track >> AFAIK. > >It was one of those completely computer-generated videos and it apparently >came from the X-Mix 3 videotape (at least that's what the little banner at >the bottom said, but it *has* been wrong in the past).

Just had a look at my copy of X-Mix 3, and yep, evolution is on there. The video for that track was done by bigboxpowders...but I think all the videos for all the tracks on X-mix are created well after the tracks came out, and were created especially for X-Mix, not for the artists who made the track. -- Ben Coffer Hybrid Productions

On Sun, 26 Jan 1997 23:26:58 +0200, you wrote:

quoted 6 lines On 26-Jan-97, Gonzi (Fresh) wrote:

>On 26-Jan-97, Gonzi (Fresh) wrote: > >>Greggy, please send videos of Donkey Ruhbarb and Ventolin to MTV. They >>obviously don't have them. > >Oh but they do - at least the MTV Europe. :P

talk to sire/elektra - their territory ;) g.

last nites play list: speedy j evolution faithless insomnia orbital are we here aphex twin on orson karte metamorphisis underworld cow girl howie b music for babies gus gus polyesterday alex reece candles fsol dead cities banco de gaia last train to llasha tom w np: michael rose - live, stamford, ct, 2/2/93

At 01:03 AM 1/27/97 -0500, Andy wrote:

quoted 9 lines I saw only the 1st AMP on tape.

>I saw only the 1st AMP on tape. >AFX's "On" was great, however, I was overwhelmed by the number of >semi-boring screen-saveresque videos. (unfortunatley similar to the >AII Motion video with endlessly repetitive animation). >What are the other AFX videos like? > >Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well, >somewhat comparable to looking through a kallidescope(which for me only >retains my interest for less than 1min).

I would venture to guess that they're really for people who are on acid or X. When I used to take psychedelics computer animations were about the best thing to watch.

quoted 3 lines I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel, AFX's On or even The Box over the

>I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel, AFX's On or even The Box over the >redundant screen-saver stuff anyday. What about everyone else? WHy does >this genre of swrily colors persist? I'm bored with it.

I'm really into computer art so it's interesting to me, but it's hard to beat some of the really creative videos like The Box, My Kingdom, On, etc.

quoted 5 lines Another question for those in the know:

>Another question for those in the know: >Why the constant emphasis on babies and psychadelic birth tunnels? >Is this a latent safe-sex message? > >Zeno of Elea

If you watch all the big hair guitar videos, you will notice lots of breaking glass and water. hmmmmmm. I mean besides the babes and cars. 10-4 over and out good buddy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chris Sattinger reprogramming our reality through disco new records coming on : Synewave(jan), Subvoice(feb), Sativae(?) NEW RELEASES - DISCOGRAPHY - INFO http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m082/satti002/ChrisSattinger.html US Techno House Business Resource : http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m082/satti002/DanceLabel.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Problem is that the bands and labels who decide what goes into the videos can only think of two kinds of videos, that being: 1) shots of band members being cute and participating in a narrative and singing 2) trippy computer graphics ... and since instrumental bands don't fit into category 1 so well (not that they're not cute!), everyone thinks that #2 is better. The producers think that the idm scene is completely populated by kids trying psychedelics out for the first times (which is partially true) and so they go with the trippy stuff. Even FSOL's beautiful new video has trippy computer stuff (not quite mandelbrot, but still needlessly trippy), even though the actual real-life photography and the character acting is breathtaking. I think things are changing however. The new popularity of idm on mtv will help make both of these two above options obsolete as people realize one thing - electronic music makes for a great soundtracks to short experimental, non-narrative filmmaking. We will start to see great videos and more collaboration between artists of different disciplines.

quoted 30 lines -----Original Message-----

>-----Original Message----- >From: SS [SMTP:sslayer@goodnet.com] >Sent: Monday, January 27, 1997 8:04 AM >To: Andy >Cc: Brian & Sharon Beuchaw; idm@hyperreal.com >Subject: Re: (idm) IDM videos and swirly colors > >At 01:03 AM 1/27/97 -0500, Andy wrote: >>I saw only the 1st AMP on tape. >>AFX's "On" was great, however, I was overwhelmed by the number of >>semi-boring screen-saveresque videos. (unfortunatley similar to the >>AII Motion video with endlessly repetitive animation). >>What are the other AFX videos like? >> >>Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well, >>somewhat comparable to looking through a kallidescope(which for me only >>retains my interest for less than 1min). > > I would venture to guess that they're really for people who are on acid >or X. When I used to take psychedelics computer animations were about the >best thing to watch. > >>I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel, AFX's On or even The Box over the >>redundant screen-saver stuff anyday. What about everyone else? WHy does >>this genre of swrily colors persist? I'm bored with it. > > I'm really into computer art so it's interesting to me, but it's hard to >beat some of the really creative videos like The Box, My Kingdom, On, etc. > >

In a message dated 27/01/97 17:49:27, buh@clark.net (Hillie) writes:

quoted 4 lines The Donkey Rhubarb video has AFX teddybears in it, and they dance on stage

> The Donkey Rhubarb video has AFX teddybears in it, and they dance on stage > while Richard is on the floor with all his gear, I've never seen it, but a > friend told me this =) >

Donkey Rhubarb is Hilarious, nutters in Teddy Bear suits in some kids playground or something acting odd, its quite sinister really, untill they start thrusting their hips in some old warehouse or something...

Andy wrote:

quoted 2 lines Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well,

> Anyone care to venture why so many "idm-ambient" vidoes are, well, > somewhat comparable to looking through a kallidescope(which for me only

They are probably soft on the wallet

quoted 3 lines Granted, these "computer generated" and swirly images(i.e. Kairo(STC), the

> Granted, these "computer generated" and swirly images(i.e. Kairo(STC), the > Sun Electric video etc ad nauseum) could be excellent on a large scren in > a club or at a live performance,

Yeah, it kind of lose's something on yer tele

quoted 1 line I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel,

> I'll take Autechre's Second Bad Vibel,

This is the only Autechre video i've seen and i really like it. is this similiar to other video's they have done? Another thing where on earth do they come up with the track names? | __ _ \\\\\\|////// |_ /_\ ( ||||||||| ) |__ / \ RESIDENT ALIEN ( 0 0 ) ( I ) * ( ___ ) * * \/ \/ * * * O * * * * O * * * * O * * {{{ {{ }} }}}

quoted 5 lines The video has the same bears, lots of children but no Rich himself. "AFX

>The video has the same bears, lots of children but no Rich himself. "AFX >teddybear" is a huge neon coloured teddybear with the cover of "I care because >you do" as its face. And there are three of them. :) They're dancing and then >it seems like they're starting to get nasty at eachothers, kicking, throwing >baseball bats and monkey-wrenches. Huh.

That reminds me...one of the bears was given out as a price in a Warp NME Aphex Twin competition. Does anybody know who won? And what his / her slogan was? Johan. ,,, /'~'\ ( 0 0 ) +----------------------------oOOO--(_)--OOOo----------------------------+ Johan Jaatinen Electronic music maker Anika@Info.LiU.SE Oooo. Radio DJ MU WILL RISE AGAIN .oooO ( ) Vegetarian +-----------------------------( )----) /------------------------------+ \ ( (_/ \_)

quoted 6 lines Nopes. That's from the interview shown in MTV Europe.. the bears were on the

>Nopes. That's from the interview shown in MTV Europe.. the bears were on the >gig. The video has the same bears, lots of children but no Rich himself. "AFX >teddybear" is a huge neon coloured teddybear with the cover of "I care because >you do" as its face. And there are three of them. :) They're dancing and then >it seems like they're starting to get nasty at eachothers, kicking, throwing >baseball bats and monkey-wrenches. Huh.

Has anyone noticed that at the very end of the video two of the teddy bears start shagging(one bends over..well, you get the picture!). steve.

I don't know ... for a genre so embracing of sonic abstraction and self-indulgence, it seems somewhat natural to engage in corresponding visual abstraction and self-indulgence. Most CG videos may indeed be crap ... most non-CG videos are crap too. Sure is a damn sight prettier than some wooly-hatted boffin Hi-8ing himself at a gig, but it does makes it easy to get lazy in terms of content. Point being: CG in itself can't really make _or_ break a video. I suppose that it will take a fundamental shift in paradigm to stop electronic music, fast swirly colors, and high technology from being lumped together in the "futuristic" cateogry as they are now. Oh ... and the drugs, too. A case in point no one seems to have mentioned is the video for Oval's "Do While". (Not CG, but the principle's the same.) As unexciting as it is, I thought they did a very good job of capturing the music visually, which in my mind makes it a good video. --Seofon P.S. Thanks for the sample ID for "Welcome to Central Industrial ...". And yeah, FSOL and Woob just sample the same thing; no other relation. While we're at it, aren't the samples from "Mould" from _Sex,_Lies,_and_Videotape_?