IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 11 lines Preface:

>Preface: > >We all know that different IDM related artists create >with vastly different methods, thoughts and >approaches. >And, many of your are indeed music creators. > >Question: > >What methods can an artist use to "keep it fresh, >interesting, and emotive?"

Sometimes, they don't even *have* to. (btw, the use of "emotive" is questionable there.) I like when artists get in grooves and release consistently fantastic records. I think the typical characteristic of these "grooves" is that they don't step too far from their earlier work, but still add *something*. I think an excellent example of this is Autechre, from Amber to Chichli Suite (sp, probably. But i dont want to look it up right now). In these albums, you can definitely listen and hear how their style changes through each release. But what is important is that they did not lose what made their music good. What that is was, to me, the overwhelming atmosphere Ae was able to create. When LP5 came out, everything changed. The focus went from atmosphere to mere sound interaction. This was less than desirable. What I loved about Ae was gone. I think the methodology of keeping it fresh and interesting is to be yourself. I think anyone who continues to do anything, be it painting, sewing, playing basketball, whatever, will continue to advance, and go about doing things in more advanced ways. If they do not try to clearly imitate or follow outside influences, they will develop their own style and tweak it, creating new things with the essential parts that they used previously. Using the Ae example brought up before, I strongly believe that Booth and Brown were really *trying* to get away from their old ideas. They had made 4 stong LP's, a bunch of EP's, many remixes, etc. using their old techniques. So they make LP5. It may be what they are interested in doing now, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear. So I am done with the new Autechre. If they had continued to do their "old" style stuff, I think they could have continued to push and tweak it. I think it takes conscious effort to change the way they did. I think that this happens often. Which is why artists continually are losing fans due to changing their fundamental ways of creating music. I am not really faulting artists for wanting to keep things fresh for themselves, as long as they are making music they enjoy. They just can't make me buy it. I think for an artist to keep fans interested, it requires consistency. The fan needs to understand what kind of stuff he/she is going to be buying. I'm not saying make 40 tracks in a month, and slowly release them over a few years, thus making everything sound the same. I think that if the artist goes on developing his talents, the fan will grow with the music. Sometimes the fan cannot do so, as with myself and Ae, and thus they lose my cash. Whether or not I am the one missing out, or the artist, is up for debate. Shane --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org