Gee whiz. I come back to the IDM list after several years, just
looking for some recent record recommendations, and I find the place
is just as pretentious as when I left. Certain IDM names were
formative for me when I was starting to make tracks, just discovering
what was possible. Now find that if an artist is trying oh so hard to
be "Intelligent," my bullshit meter goes off in an instant. Give me a
solid, uplifting groove any day of the week.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the very qualities in music
that set off my bullshit meter are the same ones upon which praise is
heaped daily on this list. Yet, there's good IDM out there. I hope I
can find it despite all the fetishization of the new that appears to
be a constant feature of the scene.
You see, music is simultaneously both the most important thing in the
world and absolutely trivial. When you realize that, you see that
underworld have no obligation to blow you away with every release.
Boards of Canada have no moral duty to make sure geogaddi is what you
expected.
One day several years ago, I bought the Richard D. James album and
Orbital's in sides on the same day. I thought the orbital was crap,
but Aphex blew my mind. Within a year, I felt no desire to listen to
RDJ any more, but in sides still -- in 2002 -- moves me and touches
me. It's easier to get attention if you're avant-garde, but it's only
in very rare cases that the work stands up to repeated hearings. It's
the death of all the arts these days. The pressure to get attention
is so great that there's no room to be still and quiet and make your
art from a place of calmness and wholeness.
So I'll try IDM-m for awhile. Have fun, and remember, "The arguments
are so petty because the stakes are so low."
Au revoir, James
At 22.22 +0200 8/21/02, Peter Heide wrote:
quoted 7 lines holy shit......man, you got it right.
>holy shit......man, you got it right.
>
>both ae + the new underworld is beyound bad.....especially the last one
>is the worst "techno" drivel i have listen to yet this year.
>
>and if i must have another say : the same goes for BOCs "geodaddi"
>....brothers, its a stinker too
--
______ | "To be thoroughly lazy is a tough
\ / H. James Harkins | job, but somebody has to do it.
\ / jamshark70@yahoo.com | Industrious people build industry.
\/ | Lazy people build civilization."
| -- Kazuaki Tanahashi
http://www.duke.edu/~jharkins
"Never does hatred cease by hating in return; only through love
can hatred come to an end. Victory breeds hatred; the conquered
dwell in sorrow and resentment. They who give up all thought of
victory or defeat may be calm and live happily at peace."
-- Dhammapada
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