IDM Mailing Archive

OK, in this day and age, when Simon Le Bon has a grown-up haircut, it may seem strange to think that Duran Duran actually meant something to IDM. But think about it--for myself, at least, being a sweet little Durannie in '82 led to liking Culture Club, then Depeche Mode, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, 808 State, Orbital, Aphex Twin, etc. So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) minds want to know! Relatively new at this sort of thing, NAR

Ned Andrew Raggett said:

quoted 1 line So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet?

> So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet?

Well, the first band I liked was ELO. Hmmm. I then (for some reason) bought a Smiths LP, then heard some New Order stuff (Became *heavily* into them and JD), then there was Talking Heads, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, Husker Du, Throwing Muses... ...German industrial, Orb, Harold Budd, etc. etc. (Oh and Kraftwerk from a very early stage.) I still listen to all of this stuff - It all has its place. john.. -- ATARIstCASIOht700KORGex800ROLANDsh2tr606cr8000SCIsixtrakYAMAHApf10dx7ii <<Evolving>>

quoted 4 lines So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we

> So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we > listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we > find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) > minds want to know!

I think the worst track I ever put my money down for was "Injektion 2" by Robotiko Rejekto. Lame beyond belief. They sampled a speak-and-spell. Oh well... Brian

quoted 15 lines OK, in this day and age, when Simon Le Bon has a grown-up haircut, it

> OK, in this day and age, when Simon Le Bon has a grown-up haircut, it > may seem strange to think that Duran Duran actually meant something to > IDM. But think about it--for myself, at least, being a sweet little > Durannie in '82 led to liking Culture Club, then Depeche Mode, New > Order, Nitzer Ebb, 808 State, Orbital, Aphex Twin, etc. > > So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we > listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we > find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) > minds want to know! > > Relatively new at this sort of thing, > > NAR >

Did anyone get my actual reply, not just the copy of NAR's note? I think my mailer screwed up... :( I asked it to do a reply including, then canceled that and asked for a reply including all. Honest, I wrote something! Phil Z

quoted 1 line So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet?

> So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet?

When I was little, my parents couldn't always afford a babysitter, so they'd often bring me with them when they went to visit friends. One night in 1968 (I was six), they were trying to find something to keep me occupied. Fortunately the people they were visiting had a good stereo with good headphones (yes, if you knew where to look, you could find fantastic audio equipment back then). My parents' friends thought I might like this album of "electronic music" they had picked up recently. I listened to Switched-On Bach straight through three or four times that night, and to this day it remains one of my desert-island records. I have four copies of it: The original, which my parents bought me a few days after that night, the "audiophile" pressing which came out in 1982, the extremely rare "sitting Bach" cover, and a CD. Thank you, Ms. Carlos. -Ed SLiP "into something more comfortable"

quoted 1 line Lame beyond belief. They sampled a speak-and-spell.

> Lame beyond belief. They sampled a speak-and-spell.

GOD FORBID!! What kind of lame-ass band (from Germany) would sample a speak-and-spell (while wearing matching outfits)?

quoted 4 lines So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we

> So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we > listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we > find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) > minds want to know!

Good discussion question. I've seen Samu in his underwear, now I can't wait for Drukman to show his. My first album ever was Foreigner 4. Somehow my friends convinced me at that tender age that "Juke Box Hero" was the coolest song on the planet. I also was once very into Styx. I think I later burned Foreigner 4. My real music awakening came to me when I saw The Police doing "Don't Stand So Close To Me" on a K-Tel (American cheap-o music collection label) commercial. Since that time I've collected a massive collection of Police and Police related material. It is a weakness that goes on. As for the rest of my formative music, I'm thankful that I can still go back to my old vinyl and enjoy most of it. I had a Ska phaze with Madness, The Beat, and eventually General Public. It all still sounds good. I saw Cocteau Twins live in 1985 on a trip to New York and have been amourous of them ever since. I do have one Depeche Mode 12", mainly for the b-side "Flexible" and that along with my signed NIN singles must be the most embarrassing part of my collection. There was one period of time where I didn't buy *any* music for about three years. That was my hacking/phreaking/phuking phaze and I didn't do much of anything short of staring at a screen. Then one summer I sold my computer and bought a mountain bike and a six-disc CD player. The beginning of the real end. I got into industrial heavily, then while I was in Europe on a vacation, I saw the original video for "Make it Mine" on MTV.

hmmm lets see...i am a youngone kinda (18) and up til last year, when i came to college, i never really had anyone but my dad (a confessed raver-wannabe) to share my traste in music with...though now i see it is pretty common i remember in 2nd grade i think, buying my first record...the single "Come on Eileen" by dexie's midnight runner which noone seems to remember, but i loved it. then i started to buy myself stuff like Men At Work, Duran Duran, the Police, Adam Ant, Ah hah etc...then just kinda faded back and listened to the radio for a few years. My dad kinda got me into Emerson College's station, but i hated the droning voices between songs so i faded into top 40. Then in high school, after going back and forth between styles (folksie, pop, etc) i happened upon somone's quote book and i made him make me a mix tape...to myu experience, good quotes=good taste in music too...and i think i wound up buying most of the stuff on it and finding an area in music i liked...it had stuff i knew and loved like sinead..then really got me addicted to siouxsie and the banshees, oh god awhole lot more basically led me into the alt scene. Now my non-dance obsession is female vocals they have this unique power to send shivers up and down my back if i let my throat move with the voices. So i love the breeders, melissa ferrick, siouxsie, sinead, the cranberries, the sundays, etc etc etc (oh tribe and hammerbox fall in here too :) ) and yes i did like bananarama and i still reminisqu about the first video i ever saw...>"Black Coffee" by some early 80's band whose name escapes me love and frogs!!! neith

quoted 2 lines Good discussion question. I've seen Samu in his underwear, now I can't wait

>Good discussion question. I've seen Samu in his underwear, now I can't wait >for Drukman to show his.

this quote will come back to haunt you, mark my words. so, the embarrassing truth... well, i was into music from a very early age since my dad is/was a professional musician and music teacher. first things i can remember - i had a copy of sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band that got played to death. my cousin bernie came over once and left behind a copy of Frank Zappa's double live album "Zappa Mothers Roxy And Elsewhere." no doubt repeated listenings to that at age 8 are responsible for a lot of my mental state today. i was really into disco when it was big (yeah, i had the saturday night fever soundtrack, donna summer's greatest hits, and some of those k-tel collections like "disco inferno" and "music machine"). of course i was only about 10 at that point so it wasn't a big lifestyle thing, and i wasn't tooting coke and hanging out with gold chains on. i probably would've had i been old enough though. lucky escape, i guess. when i was 13, i had my bar mitzvah (a jewish religious ceremony expressly designed to foist LOADS of cash on young men). with the proceeds, i bought an atari video game and one of those panasonic all-in-one record player/cassette/radio thingies. that stereo saw me through a lot, and it's still in operation in my parents' basement! right about the same time, MTV started. this was a crucial juncture, cos i bought lots of albums that i saw on MTV. fortunately, MTV was really cool back then and some of the things i was influenced to buy: peter gabriel, art of noise, thomas dolby, heaven 17 & duran duran. i'll never forget seeing "close (to the edit)" and immediately running out and buying "who's afraid of the art of noise." that album totally changed my entire life. heavy shit for a 14 year old. it was more or less coincidental to my immersion in synth-pop that i also found out about more traditional synth stuff. i raided the local library's electronic music section and heard stuff like Switched On Bach, and Subotnick's Silver Apples Of The Moon. a friend turned me on to Jean-Michel Jarre and Deuter. i stayed in my room a lot when i was in high school, listening to these albums that i'd buy and playing games on my computer. meanwhile, i got a job at a pizza place that was right near a really excellent record store. they got tons of promos so everything was dirt cheap, and i became a very regular customer. the guy who ran it started to learn what i liked and recommended some really cool stuff, so i never ran out of new things to hear. i remember buying the english beat, howard jones, altered images, funkadelic, let's active and a trio album there. unfortunately, that shop didn't last long. things remained the same until i entered university. now i was exposed to a whole host of influences i had never had before. for one thing, i got into email and discovered love-hounds and the nm-list. i also met some email correspondents with similar tastes who recommended stuff. at this point i got into the industrial disco thing heavily, with skinny puppy being my fave band (still one of my all time faves, in fact, although their relevance is slipping daily.) in junior year of college, i bought a CD player... a very costly move, as i now have something like 500 CDs... junior year i discovered public enemy and i got heavily into hiphop/rap. but the other big discovery in college was HOUSE MUSIC! my first exposure was probably a tape my friend Fidelis gave me which had coldcut, bomb the bass, krush, s'express, simon harris and a few others from that period on it. i started reading Melody Maker, mainly because i really loved the writing style, and found out more about the house scene. i hooked up electronically with a guy who was also really into it, and we started trading tapes. we didn't meet in person until about 5 years after that first electronic communication, but we're roommates now! well, that's about it, really. i guess the only skeleton in my closet is the disco stuff, but what do you want, i was only ten... Jon Drukman jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.

Neith:

quoted 1 line i remember in 2nd grade i think, buying my first record...the single

> i remember in 2nd grade i think, buying my first record...the single

^^^^^^^^^ !!!!!!!!!

quoted 2 lines "Come on Eileen" by dexie's midnight runner which noone seems to remember,

> "Come on Eileen" by dexie's midnight runner which noone seems to remember, > but i loved it.

Excuse me while I crawl back into my coffin.

quoted 4 lines So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we

> So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we > listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we > find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) > minds want to know!

Aerosmith and Rush were my first 8-tracks (remember those? :) Let's see, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin -- hell, just turn on your 'favorite' Classic Rock station and you'll get an idea. :P Must have had something to do with growing up in Ohio. Btw, why do 90% of the classic rock stations have names like The Fox or The Wolf or The Buzzard? From there, went thru jazz fusion (Jeff Beck, Al Dimeola -- I was guitar From: ??? Date: ??? Subject: ??? Status: All that confusion ended after my first rave. Whatever circuits got energized that night have been on ever since. Of course, the Shamen helped point me in the right direction, too. :) -/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\- Activate the rythym that has always been within. Shamanic, artistic, archaic revival. -\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-

} > So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we } > listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we } > find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) } > minds want to know! } } Good discussion question. I've seen Samu in his underwear, now I can't wait } for Drukman to show his. } } My first album ever was Foreigner 4. Somehow my friends convinced me at that } tender age that "Juke Box Hero" was the coolest song on the planet. I also } was once very into Styx. I think I later burned Foreigner 4. Domo ori gato, Mr. Roboto! (What does that mean, pet the cat?) Anyways, my musiqual hystery: ~4th grade - my dad bought Synchronicity (the Police) and Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits), and I put those two albums on a tape that I listened to every night as I feel asleep, for about a year. I also bought Duran Duran's first 3 albums (all of this on good old LP, mind you) and a few other random items from that era... 5th grade-8th grade - basically lost touch with music. Watched a lot of MTV in its early days, so I was hearing what was out there but not buying a whole lot. Got turned onto KROQ, and started making tapes from there, but as a whole I couldn't bring myself to spend good money on a slab of vinyl. Summer after 8th grade - listened to a LOT of KROQ, finding there were lots of groups I really liked (DM, U2, Sioxsie, etc).... I took about 10 tapes with me on my trip to Russia, and found music to be an incredible bond between cultures.... 9th grade - went to the U2 concert in LA, with the Pretenders, with my dad and 4 friends. Convinced him that music like this NEEDED to be heard on CD. He agreed - that Christmas I got a CD player and "The Joshua Tree", and my life has never been the same since. 10th grade - discovered Poobah's record store in Pasadena - the best CD store I've EVER been to. Cheap, and you could get almost anything there Also started listening to the Swedish Egil's All Night Radio Mix on KROQ, where he counted down the top 20 club hits and added a few songs of his own. This is the first place I heard acid house music - I think it was "The Acid Commandment" by Camouflage where I first recognized it as a separate musical entity. I also got a job at the Wherehouse (music and video chain store), which feuled a lot of purchasing on my employee discount, and which introduced me to even more music. 11th grade - branching out in musical tastes - got into Industrial, 4ad... just about everything KROQ was playing I would at least check out, then usually buy, then usually look into everything else they've ever done, etc. I developed a strong taste for obscure bands, sometimes liking them more for their obscurity than their talent. I also started going out to raves in LA, and LOVING the music they played. Went to TONS of concerts. 12th grade - Discovered This Mortal Coil, whose music sent me to new emotional extremes. Discovered Psychic TV's "Turn On To Thee Acid House", which was the first time I ever considered a song to have a true... mindfuck aspect to it. My tastes were very wide - everything from the Cowboy Junkies to the Revolting Cocks, from Baby Ford to the Fatima Mansions, from the Stone Roses to the Church. And yet I loved it all. I found it hard to do ANYTHING unless I was listening to music. Freshman at college - Beginnings of music confusion. The "rave music" that I had loved was turning sour, and while I threw good money after bad trying to recapture the thrill of hearing "James Brown Is Dead" for the first time on a booming system, I felt like my tastes had reached an apex, like it was only downhill from here somehow. I didn't have a job and I realized I was depleting my financial resources in vain. Even the new song my a most-ballyhood group, the Orb, "Perpetual Dawn" failed to grasp me. So I laid off from buying for awhile, and kept up here and there buying the new stuff from familiar groups... and tried new stuff like Negativland (success) and Nocturnal Emissions (bomb)... Sophomore - Job! Money! I persued my musical search with renewed vigor, and this time was more careful with my selections. Had a brief flirt with the possibility of being a DJ, but gave that up when I realized I'd have to dedicate all my buying power to dance music and my time to mixing if I wanted to pursue that. As usual, my first exposure to the Aphex Twin (digeridoo) wasn't that impressive, but the B-side... ooooo, the b-side! Analogue Bubblebath 1 completely turned me around. So now here I am.... I've been going through my collection recently, pruning out the stuff I don't listen to anymore, to make room for the stuff that in the future I won't listen to anymore.... hmmmmm.... where does this cycle end? Brian

Yeah, it's wierd how your musical tastes progress/digress - I was into Heavy metal for about a year - I can't stand its pomposity now, but at the same time, bands, like Joy Division, The Fall and a few other wierdo acts used to get me going. Then in '87/88 I got into Acid House and away we went.... I've got some unfortunate records in my collection ;-) they're banished to the back cupboard :-) Cheers, Mark B.

quoted 3 lines My first album ever was Foreigner 4. Somehow my friends convinced me at that

> My first album ever was Foreigner 4. Somehow my friends convinced me at that > tender age that "Juke Box Hero" was the coolest song on the planet. I also > was once very into Styx.

The first concert I ever saw was Styx, The Grand Illusion. All I remember was that the guy next to my friend and me puked all over the people in front of him. Ah, the tender memories this thread's evoking... :) Phil Z

From the cyberdeck of Brian Behlendorf... From: ??? Date: ??? Subject: ??? Status: No, it's thank you very much (more or less) in Japanese. o v e r h e a t m y d a t a s i n k steve j white aragorn@convex.csd.uwm.edu

quoted 4 lines So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we

>> So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we >> listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we >> find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious) >> minds want to know!

Alright, alright, I know this was discussed over a week ago but I've been busy and I thought I'd save the most embarassing for last 3:) Here goes: First favorite song: Song, Song Blue : Neil Diamond (Age 5) (needs no explanation. By the way, this is completely off topic but has anyone heard rumors that Neil is a total pothead? I've heard this from someone who is good friends with his guitar tech. who has (supposedly) witnessed Neil's ritual of getting baked before going on stage. Hearing this made my day :) First (good) record purchased: Whip it 7" - Devo (Age 10) Followed by : Fredom of Choice - Devo Pleasure Principle - Gary Numan B52's - First Album By 6th grade (age 12) I was heavily into AC/DC ("Back in Black"), Queen - ("Jazz (came with cool poster of naked girls on bikes, major prize for a little kid", "The Game"), and above all The Rolling Stones ("Emotional Rescue", "Some Girls", "Tatoo You") I idolized the stones, even though they were as old as my parents. I even went as far as naming my cat "Mick Jagger". Mick still rules. I'm really not sure what caused the transition to more guitar-based music, but it happened. Once I got to junior high (age 13-14) I got really into Heavy Metal/lame classic rock, thanks to my cousin who I idolized. First Concert: (This is really embarassing) Yngwie Malmsteen at the Pamona Valley Auditorium. Follwed by Ratt/Bon Jovi, Van Halen, etc.. which led to a lame speed metal period (Metallica, Slayer, etc..). By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I hooked up with some new friends, turned punker =:) , went to punk shows, tried psychedelic drugs for the first time, and joined a band. Major transition. By the time I graduated high school (barely) and started junior college (default), my musical tastes expanded to everything from Sonic Youth to the pixies to Public Enemy to Nirvana, etc.. After a couple years of college I started getting into industrial dance type stuff (Thrill Kill Kult, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, KMFDM, etc..), which evolved to real industrial (TG, Coil, Non, etc..). During this time I was still into guitar based pre-grunge/punk but I dug industrial too. Ever since I went heavy metal, I always thought that synths and like sounds were "wimpy"and "not real instruments". This was embedded in my skull until I came across Industrial Dance with synths-yet-still-harsh-sounding and later with acid-housey psychick TV. Then "it" happened: In '90 some friends started to go to "raves" and I didn't get it until I actually went to one and discovered what a perfect drug-environment the music created. The first ravey song that really had an impact was "cubik" by 808. Later on came "James Brown is Dead" and the rest of the first really big techno stuff. Along with this came Mars FM, a decent sized commercial station that played all the techno hits. My first techno 12" was "Spice" by Eon. I loooved that song. After a little more than a year of listening to a lot of (what seemed to be at the time) really cool stuff on Mars, the station went off the air (new management), a very sad day. I had been into Mars from day 1, and now my main source for new music was dead. With no mars, the only place you could hear good music was at clubs/raves and it's pretty much been that way ever since (except for college radio of course). These days (Age 23, senior in college) I'm very much into ambient stuff, happy housey stuff, cool acid/trance shit, acid-jazz, hip-hop, Japanese Noise or anything that's good really (There was a brief breakbeat/hardcore period about 1.5-2 years ago but that's over). Everything from Cajmere to Aphex Twin to the Orb. Still like some of the noisier rock/industrial stuff but don't buy much these days. Industrial Dance and Geek Rock really bothers me. Favorite "bands" : The Orb, Orbital, LFO, KLF/JAMS, Deee-Lite, FSOL/Amorphous Androgenous, Irresistable Force, The Grid, Aphex Twin, Sven Vath, Black Dog Productions, CJ Bolland, Speedy J, UltraMarine, the list goes on... One thing I've noticed about these confessions is that most people came from a more synth background, which would seem to be a natural progression I see my musical history as a definite progression (albeit a very strange one) and I am almost positive the music I will be listening to in the future will be technology based rather than rock n' roll based. If someone would've told me ten years ago that I'd wind up listening to music made for the most part by "synthesizers (yuck!)" I would've laughed in their face. ("Fuck you man, guitar solos..."). If someone would've told me four years ago that I would be spending most of my money on vinyl instead of cd's I would've laughed harder. Whelp, there you have it, the (sometimes pathetic) skeletons of my musical closet. I hope you had a good chuckle. Andy (Former owner of a Ratt concert t-shirt)