IDM Mailing Archive

Ravis One

quoted 1 line Syncing as in on beat. Even funk players play on beat, or on the back

> Syncing as in on beat. Even funk players play on beat, or on the back

beat

quoted 1 line with some shuffle. RDJ showcases some sloppy programming. If that's

> with some shuffle. RDJ showcases some sloppy programming. If that's

what

quoted 1 line was intended, fine. If he's laughing at the people who bought it, so am

> was intended, fine. If he's laughing at the people who bought it, so am

I. Everyone's always talking about "sloppy programming"... Isn't there a "quantize" button in just about every sequencer which ensures that your track will be perfectly mechanically rhythmic, even down to the 16th and 32nd note? And isn't this feature frequently subverted intentionally (and even scoffingly disregarded) by creative programmers because of the way it takes a soulful, sncopated beat and turns it into robotik soulless monotony? So when you purposefully don't use (or abuse) the quantize feature, its hard to call it "sloppy". Misguided maybe, but "sloppy" implies a lack of attention or intention. RDJ's rhythms are "off beat" on purpose. The purpose, to me, is the interplay between your expectations and what he actually does. When you expect a beat to occur and it doesn't until a moment later, or if it hits a moment too soon occasionally, you get this extra surprise, it wakes you up and draws you in and makes the music less like the background music most dance music is designed to be. The "hey, you're not supposed to do that!" aspect of much of what we all think of as the IDM genre is what I like best about the music I listen to. It's why I used to listen to a lot of Punk Rock. It's why I still like the Ramones and Devo. It's why my DJ name is "Stupid DJ Chris". There are hundreds of pop music "rules". I like to see some of the big ones broken in the playful, intentional, and (I think) *careful* manner RDJ does. -CF