IDM Mailing Archive

I dug through some CDs and found _(Who's Afraid of?) The Art of Noise!_ today and am marveling at how primitive it sounds. Not that that's bad, of course - it's been ten years since it came out - I still find it fun. Just noticed, too, that "Snapshot" contains bits and pieces of "Teenage Wasteland" which I probably wouldn't have noticed when I first got the record. Oh, well -- ramblings on a Saturday. DaveM .----------------------------------------------dmanning@dreamland.unomaha.edu | "There's something the matter with me" dmanning@cwis.unomaha.edu | --Intermix dmanning@eworld.com .-------------------------------------------- dgmanning@aol.com

quoted 7 lines I dug through some CDs and found _(Who's Afraid of?) The Art of Noise!_

> >I dug through some CDs and found _(Who's Afraid of?) The Art of Noise!_ > >today and am marveling at how primitive it sounds. Not that that's bad, of > >course - it's been ten years since it came out - I still find it fun. > > i was just listening to it recently and marvelling at how fresh it still is. > this is definitely one disc that changed my life, and bits of it are still > amazing.

This album absolutely changed my life. I can trace the entire development of my musical taste back to that album. It opened the mind of a willing 13-year-old to a world of strange, weird, new musical possibilities, completely apart from top-40 radio. Granted, it doesn't sound "clean," but then, the best experiments never are. It's got a sense of humor (even if you don't read the liner notes), it's got just plain strangeness, it's smooth, it's abrupt, it's got style and grittiness. My early musical diet (courtesy of my father) consisted of Elton John, the Rolling Stones and Dire Straits, and I can still remember the look on my dad's face when I played this tape for him, and it was not a look of bemusement, a look of disdain, or a look of helplessness, but a look of wonder, just like mine. And, yes, it is a fun record. But not a novelty. It's a very "important" album, at least to me, and I think it's underappreciated just how much this album contributed to the music we hold so dearly today. It was certainly ahead of its time, if not way ahead. Every time I go back to that album, there's something new in it, and it sounds like it could have been put out today. It is more than occasionally that I think, "the world hasn't quite caught up with this yet." - Adam J Weitzman INDIVIDUAL, Inc. weitzman@individual.com

Wow! I actually contributed something there. :-) I think what Adam, Lazlo, and Jon all pointed out is still true: AoN, in spite of recent embarrassments (or rather, because of them) clinch the "what the hell is happening" award. I was playing the disc at work and someone just looked at me, blinking, and asked what I was listening to. It's either a miracle or a crime that such music still turns heads after so long - a miracle that it remains fresh, and a crime that said co-worker had never heard anything like it before. Nods in this area should also go to Colourbox, if not just for "Hot Doggie" then for "Pump Up the Volume" which probably did more for house/dance music then anything before or since. On the "D" removal problem: I'm torn on this one. While I agree that sometimes I want to be ambient, there are those times when I want something to totally floor me, pick me up, dust me off, and get me moving. Front 242 *still* does it, Orbital (of course) could push me all over the planet, and the first AI release is a real toe tapper. But, as Pete, et al, have mentioned the Orb in this regard, I'm kind of puzzled. Does it have that much of a beat, or is it a *groove*? And am I just dealing in language here, or does anyone else see the difference? I mean, there are certainly beat elements, especially "Little Fluffy Clouds" and some of the mixes for "Perpetual Dawn", but I could sway to my death listening to "A Huge Ever-Growing..." and not be happier even if the Brothers Hartnoll came to my house to spin just for me. :-) Dave, who needs to go home for awhile. .----------------------------------------------dmanning@dreamland.unomaha.edu | "There's something the matter with me" dmanning@cwis.unomaha.edu | --Intermix dmanning@eworld.com .-------------------------------------------- dgmanning@aol.com

My mailer says that Dave Manning said:

quoted 5 lines On the "D" removal problem: I'm torn on this one. While I agree that

> > On the "D" removal problem: I'm torn on this one. While I agree that > sometimes I want to be ambient, there are those times when I want > something to totally floor me, pick me up, dust me off, and get me moving. >

I'm with you on this one... however, i for one do /not/ regret the broadening of the ambient and IDM genres. as i've mentioned before on this list, there is more than one kind of dance in this world, and more than one kind of "measure". while many folks do respond to repetitively structured music, and this is in defiance to the second law of thermodynamics <big wink>, there are a broad variety of dance forms which don't require repetitive structure. there is also the everyday variety of dance forms which require no structure at all: ordinary human movement. -- ----Bryce Ryan------------AMBIANCE-----------------brycer@ultima.org-------

On Mon, 22 Aug 1994, Jon Drukman wrote:

quoted 9 lines dave manning sez:

> dave manning sez: > > >I dug through some CDs and found _(Who's Afraid of?) The Art of Noise!_ > >today and am marveling at how primitive it sounds. Not that that's bad, of > >course - it's been ten years since it came out - I still find it fun. > > i was just listening to it recently and marvelling at how fresh it still is. > this is definitely one disc that changed my life, and bits of it are still > amazing.

Damn straight... like that massive breakdown about 2/3 of the way through "Beatbox" -- I still get shivers whenever I hear it. And I have to think that the footsteps-as-percussion in Global Communication's "Gamma Phase" is an homage to a similar bit that shows up in that ambient suite on side two. PS: Bleep fans should check out the "Cowboyphunk" single from Hardtrax on Probe... ----------------------------------------------------------------- dave walker, detroit art services _ marmoset@msen.com freeke robot luv

Tritto on the "changed my life" bit. My current tastes in music can be traced directly back to the moment when I first saw the "Close (To The Edit)" video and sat slack-jawed in amazement at what I was seeing and hearing. Before AoN, music was just background noise to me. -- Lazlo (lazlo@rt66.com)

quoted 2 lines PS: Bleep fans should check out the "Cowboyphunk" single from

>PS: Bleep fans should check out the "Cowboyphunk" single from >Hardtrax on Probe...

I've heard from several different record store owners now that Hardtrax (or the Hard Brothers as it says in small lettering across the bottom) on Probe is just another pseudonym for Richie Hawtin... possibly working with some other folks? The Cowboyphunk/Elektrophunk tracks are rather experimental yet danceable. Interesting and weird at the same time. Rather nice. I like the previous Hardtrax record much more, a single sided 12" called Hardphunk. I've been hearing it a lot lately wherever I go out. I hope it doesn't get overplayed. ___ / / / / / / _ __/ (_/__/ / (__ (__ ___/

On Tue, 23 Aug 1994, WILL-E wrote:

quoted 7 lines PS: Bleep fans should check out the "Cowboyphunk" single from

> >PS: Bleep fans should check out the "Cowboyphunk" single from > >Hardtrax on Probe... > > I've heard from several different record store owners now that Hardtrax (or > the Hard Brothers as it says in small lettering across the bottom) on Probe > is just another pseudonym for Richie Hawtin... possibly working with some > other folks?

I hadn't heard one way or the other, though stylistically it certainly seems possible. Add this to the fact that Richie staged a series of parties here (Hard, Harder, & Hardest) and it starts to seem likely. Hawtin & Acquaviva, maybe? Shouldn't be too hard to find out -- I'll ask around.

quoted 6 lines The Cowboyphunk/Elektrophunk tracks are rather experimental yet danceable.

> The Cowboyphunk/Elektrophunk tracks are rather experimental yet danceable. > Interesting and weird at the same time. Rather nice. > > I like the previous Hardtrax record much more, a single sided 12" called > Hardphunk. I've been hearing it a lot lately wherever I go out. I hope it > doesn't get overplayed.

That one didn't do as much for me -- I like it, but it's *extremely* (almost to the point of plagiarism) derivative of Basic Channel (at least the middle section is). "Cowboyphunk" sounds a lot fresher to my ears. All the tracks are in heavy rotation around here, as you might expect :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- dave walker, detroit art services marmoset@msen.com me & my robots