I'm not dogging you phillipe, but it's always interesting to me that
when women artists collaborate with men, the standard assumption is that
the men are somehow the 'real' brains in the operation. It's really unfair,
and I've noticed women artists being defensive in interviews when this comes
up because they're fighting against that assumption.
Off topic for IDM, but from what I hear from my mole from the commersh world,
most of Jacob Dylan's songs with the Wallflowers are ghost-written with little
input from him, and his guitar isn't plugged in at live shows ;-) He's
basically cheekbones, blue eyes and a famous name fronting a marketing
machine. So it's not just women who are Svengali'd up the charts.
Bjork has always worked with collaborators, but she is very firmly in
control. More than someone like Madonna, who seems to put her street cred
on her platinum card every album. Reading between the lines of Matmos'
interviews, in fact, they would have done things completely differently if
they'd had more control -- she was a fan of their work, but their contributions
were very carefully delimited by her overall conceptions of the songs.
She knows her way around a laptop as well -- a lot of the noises and effects
on 'Vespertine' are things she did herself.
As for Radiohead, Thom Yorke actually was an accomplished DJ before the band
really took off; his credentials as an electronic music head are solid. He
'got it' long before most IDM'ers 'got it.'
What Radiohead has done is if anything more interesting than
a lot of electronic acts, because they are above all a real band that plays --
they did hundreds of live shows before they got signed, and they still tour
a lot. Their approach to electronic music was to widen their pallette but
keep the electronics as live and organic as their drums and guitars. They
tour with an Ondines Martinot, which is an antique and probably requires
it's own tech to get it working before each show ;-)
On Sat, 2 Nov 2002, philippe-petit wrote:
quoted 16 lines That's likely because she's pretty pop herself; she just has an
> > That's likely because she's pretty pop herself; she just has an
> > ear (and money) to hire/bribe people in the IDM "scene" to work for
> > her :)
>
> > I mean, I can't stand radiohead, but at least they're making
> > their> stuff on their own (and not hiring Matmos to do it for them).
>
> > ;)
>
> > derek
>
>
> I wouldn't try to defend Bjork as her talent and honesty needs not be
> reaffirmed, but the comment above is one of the most unfair thing i have
> read on this list. She certainly didn't exploit Matmos, I'd rather say
> that she has helped them get more popularity.