IDM Mailing Archive

while you all follow the vindictive ramblings of an idiot and track down e-mail addresses which have been nonexistent for several years, enjoy this. i was going to hold my tongue - but this is the last fucking straw. i'm sick of you people. adieu, IDM-L. keep playing with merry little yourselves. (from a conversation with someone who shall remain nameless... thanks mr-or-mrs. you know who you are. you've been a rock of sanity in a sea of shit, to quote Mark Burgess. bless you.)

quoted 4 lines saying that it's grim reading trawling through the end of year charts

>saying that it's grim reading trawling through the end of year charts >from a lot people on IDM-L, do you think 80% of the list would buy a release >on a-musik, erzatz audio, mego or rastermusic? do you think 80% of the list >would actually listen to something that might be..yer know..a bit dangerous..

no, because even in the small-potatoes rebellion of being into "IDM" (instead of just buying Bush and Spice Girls records like all our 'less clued-in' fellow humans) there is a staggering amount of conformity. i get the idea that people on the list wannabe (speaking of the 'Girls!) "different just like everybody else!" it's pretty silly - and sad. i can almost see musical preference having the same social effects as religion. oh no - not back to that again! but - check it out: one person with some amount of 'saintedness', be he Mixmaster Morris, Tony Marcus, or - hell, you! - says "check this out!" - and there's suddenly a congrgation of blind followers. just because they're extolling the virtues of Skam and not those of Aqua doesn't make them any more 'intelligent', per se. the whole idea of 'intelligent' dance music is really the ultimate insult to the intelligence of the music! why do so few people see this?!?! but the would-be radicals will always run from anything dangerous. except when peer-pressure comes into play. could you have seen Oval and Microstoria becoming the hot property of a one time indie-shit nothing label like Thrilljockey? credit one Jim O'Rourke, who genuinely knows what time it is (sorry, Flava Flav), and who must have influenced John McEntire - and spread the word down through the vast 'cooler-than-thou' indie network. it's great that a label like Mille Plateaux can become a hot topic among people who still bow before some of the most mindless shit ever captured on magnetic tape. almost fucking inspirational. but this same Oval-worshippin' crowd is not going to take a leap into the unknown, no matter how similar (i'm thinking a-Musik, Rastermusic, even Studio 1) - until someone says that it's not only okay but also COOL to do so. it must be the same way in the UK, if not even worse! we have the 'authority' of noted musicians - you have the uncontrolled self-serving monster which is the music press. both of them are going to keep labels such as Rastermusic and Soup-Disk completely unheard entities - just by their very nature! i think we both agree that Rastermusic isn't obscure because the music is any more 'difficult' or - lord help us all - 'intelligent' - than what people actually read about in the papers. somewhere everything just got so bunged up... the point was lost entirely, and we'll forever be laboring in the shadows of skewed perceptions.

quoted 2 lines the music from these labels over the past 12 months have warmed my

>the music from these labels over the past 12 months have warmed my >cockles a lot more than any of the mancunian mundanity

what Skam were doing was once pretty exciting. but you can't run in place and keep people interested in what you're doing. all you do is run yourself tired while the few ideas (which you refuse to expand to a few more NEW ideas) simply can't sustain your activities. i give massive respect to Dot for following their initial burst of brilliance with records like Argonort's EP. that's vision - and if a few of the subsequent releases have been a little water-treading in nature, the label is still on the right track. Skam seem a little too eager to throw a smokescreen in our faces - confusing the picture and distracting people from the label's lack of forward-thrust. this nonsense with mega-ultra-limited-editions and label identity games is VERY suspicious.

quoted 1 line i'm sick to death of reading about skam, gescom, or autechre

>i'm sick to death of reading about skam, gescom, or autechre

don't forget the other ubiquitous IDM rule. this one is carved in stone: if it is a lesser-known project of an artist with whom the 'public' might possibly be somewhat familiar ("heavens forbid!"), it is automatically more worthwhile musically than said artists' more (now) "accessible" releases. jesus h. christ! talk about losing sight of the horizon entirely! these IDM sheep really can't see the forest for the trees, so warped are they by their trainspotting and their own lack of vision. i have much more respect for someone who buys a Gene cd because Martin's lyrics or voice - or even just the music - really move him than i do for any of the everpresent alt.music.techno/ambient posters (make that poseurs) who prattle about "i've heard that GESCOM is Autechere. i'll kill for a copy of their cd, can anyone help me?" - this is becoming the blind leading the blind! look at Rephlex! i mean, Richard is conducting the most diabolical social experiment here and people are playing RIGHT INTO HIS HANDS! the man is a genius - i have no doubt - if he can perpetrate crap like Freakwincey and Sam & Valley and have people tear their brains to bits searching for words about how Rephlex is putting out 'cutting-edge', 'challenging', 'brilliant' music. we always say that 'x' could publish his grocery list - or 'y' could record himself farting and loop it infinitely - and the droves would buy it without a complaint. but nobody ever had the balls to prove it. well, Richard just did! people wanted farts. here you go - bon apetit! and while you're gorging yourselves on this shit - and that's what it is, shit - marvelling about how delectable it is, know that you've just proven yourself to be a sad lot of mindless morons. intelligent dance music in-fucking-deed!

quoted 4 lines i feel that vvm have benifited a lot from the association with skam and

>i feel that vvm have benifited a lot from the association with skam and >list members have utilised this as a sort of secular pecking order to be seen >as being 'down' with the next big thing first, to my ears vvm havent really >released shit that justifies the plaudits

i'm still waiting for my VVM stuff, but i just like what James and Broxburn stand for. just talking to James was enough to convince me that they're something different - putting The Fall on _0161_ - beautiful! same with Tye and Lo opening their arms to Ganger and Hood. this is what we need. so even if VVM's music is shite, i do respect them for having some sense of history and a bit of perspective. it's a fuckload more than most labels have these days.

quoted 1 line idm needs more people like you upsetting the applecart

>idm needs more people like you upsetting the applecart

i should post this letter to IDM, shouldn't i? oooh - that would be gutsy. i'd make a LOT of enemies. maybe that's the reason TO do it. of course you know what would happen - it would polarize the list, and 9/10 of those following my lead would go, "yeah - he's right. it's all crap." missing the point entirely - AGAIN! so few people think for themselves. that's the real tragedy of the IDM fiasco. could Warp have realized what they were setting in motion with AI? i mean, sending this to you is great - if a little futile - since there's no risk in preaching to the converted. it's good to know that we can at least see through the smoke. so posting this to IDM would just prove all my points and more. worse, the targets of this letter would simply end up signing their credibility's doom with their own hands. it would be satisfying to watch - but also somewhat sadistic. if these people really believe that they're better than the rest of the world because they know about Musik Aus Strom now, so be it. maybe it's a step in the right direction. maybe they'll see the light when MAS is an indistinct blur of a memory, when Oasis are knighted, and when labels like Sonig and Sub Rosa each have overflowing discographies of fascinating - absolutely timeless - records. i think that would actually be a more satisfying way to get our last-laughs in. --------------------------- have fun. gg