On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Ethan wrote:
quoted 7 lines IDM is all about crappy melodies. look at aphex twin - arguably the king>
> IDM is all about crappy melodies. look at aphex twin - arguably the king
> of crappy melodies, he is nonetheless usually able to make their
> crappiness somehow appealing. the whole genre is afflicted with people
> who think they can program some cool midi patterns and then throw lame
> keyboard noodle loops on top of it.
>
That's perhaps the least charitable way of putting it. Really, it reflects
more musical naivete than anything. You're hearing the musical ideas created
by people who aren't really musicians. That isn't a diss to them -- that's
basically the way of folk musicians throughout time.
The result is different depending on the individual. Less satisfactory
are people who carefully ape what they've already heard -- a lot of trance
has this kind of thing. More interesting are people who just bang shit out
semi-randomly, and then edit by selection to save the best bits.
My personal rule is to never buy a record where you could play the lead line
with an orange on the black keys.