IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 4 lines Not to criticize non-Detroit influenced IDM at all.. I'm just making the

> > Not to criticize non-Detroit influenced IDM at all.. I'm just making the > point that techno (intelligently produced, of course) all-of-a-sudden > sounds very fresh, like something I haven't heard in a while,

i have to agree one hundred percent here. how much of the pure idm stuff can you listen to without getting completely sickened by it? i think this a great point that people new to the list should keep in mind: mix it up, and it all stays interesting. when alot of the recent idm seems kind of murky and foggy in what it's trying to say/convey, you have to just cut through all that. what really made this so clear to me was the latest stuff from Kit Clayton/Cytrax, Delay 01, The Mimic and the Model, and stuff along these lines. it just cuts through all the bullshit and is much more direct, but still contains alot of subtleties to keep it interesting. . i guess i'm just shouting out for people to take a chance with non-idm stuff and not be so obsessed with the new Bola, or East Flatbush remixes or whatever. go buy the Pole, the Plastikman, the Brinkmann, the Mos Def, the i-F, and *then* go back and listen to your idm collection, and i think you'll really come back to it all with a refreshed attitude. peace. ./ chris. p.o. box 771688 coral springs, fl 33077-1688 .do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own; you may both be wrong .

On Tue, 22 Dec 1998, Brad Shelton wrote: | >Michael Upton <username@sans.vuw.ac.nz> | >But, yes, indeed, the mainstream acceptance of all | >things Maurizio related has certainly dragged | >techno out in front of IDMers for consideration. | Many list members may have already been | schooled about techno before that, but I | wasn't. The Maurizio/Basic Channel/Chain | Reaction CD comps along with a couple of | time-release mix-tapes from a certain list | admin have really turned me onto the 'classic' | techno sound, and made me realize that it | could be just as emotive (if not more) as any | other kind of this-listy music. Yeah, maybe I should have put in "and it's all for the better, IMO". :) My intro was actually through the Black Dog. The only thing I really knew of Detroit etc. was through producers in my hometown. They all wrote really banging, un-soulful tracks, and said they loved Detroit, so it wasn't until I started finding out about Balil tracks on Planet E comps, etc. that I thought there was something more to it. And, yeah, I too pick up a kind of heartfelt, openly emotive vibe to a lot of techno which is a nice contrast to some of the "complexity by the numbers" tendencies of IDMers. As Carl Craig points out quite frequently, techno _is_ street music. It didn't start as the cold and flagrantly progressive thing which it is so often considered to be now. A bit like electro, in that respect, where "futuristic" gets reinterpreted in hindsight to ignore all the slap bass and rap and so on. Anyway, there's my pre-Christmas ramble. :) Have a nice break, all who get a break. I guess most are on the wrong side of the world to enjoy a bit of a summer holiday. Ah well. Michael np. 'Active 89FM birthday CD' (all respect to Wellingtonians doing their thing) ____________________________________________ "Also, he has automatic evasion devices" http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~michael/jj.html

Perhaps I'm wrong but haven't a good number of the discussions on this list in the past few months revolved around Pole, Plastikman, Brinkmann, etc.? Recent discussions have also included post-rock, East Flat Bush Project (a hip-hop group), Timbaland, hip-hop/idm hybrids and other topics. This list has been very diverse. This is not a jab. Its just an observation. :-)

quoted 21 lines i guess i'm just shouting out for people to take a chance

> i guess i'm just shouting out for people to take a chance >with non-idm stuff and not be so obsessed with the new Bola, or >East Flatbush remixes or whatever. go buy the Pole, the Plastikman, >the Brinkmann, the Mos Def, the i-F, and *then* go back and >listen to your idm collection, and i think you'll really come >back to it all with a refreshed attitude. > >peace. > >./ chris. > > p.o. box 771688 > coral springs, fl > 33077-1688 > >.do not condemn the judgement > of another because it differs > from your own; you may both be > wrong . > >

Oh, and Chester, I think the reason that people were a little offended at your across-the-boards dismissal of what you call "techno" (crap commercial music like Keoki and Moby, as I believe you put it) is simply that you got it wrong. Techno, in the strict sense, is a subgenre of electronic dance music which is defined by certain formal characteristics (4/4 beat, generally faster-than-house tempo, extreme repetition), and, often, geographical roots (Detroit, Chicago, etc.). Whatever your feelings for it, it's a vital musical form with plenty of offshoots, and it keeps morphing and creating new variations of itself. If you're going to consider techno, you really have to look at it for what it actually IS -- and not simply use the term as an umbrella for all "crap commercial electronic music." That's just, well, ignorant.