IDM Mailing Archive

i do rather like this thread, but let's not forget about certain groups of people who have played rather large parts in creating the music but come from a slightly different musical tradition than the entries so far. not that i'm a huge expert or anything but a lot of what is regarded as canonical idm was greatly inspired by american electro, house and hip-hop, and beyond that by "cheesy" funk artists and disco producers. actually some of these people were mentioned in recent threads concerning transmat and old school hip-hop, but people like: the bomb squad/PE (not real early, but sure had style) juan atkins/cybotron giorgio moroder marshall jefferson etc. nick

Nick Yoder wrote:

quoted 7 lines i do rather like this thread, but let's not forget about certain groups of

> > i do rather like this thread, but let's not forget about certain groups of > people who have played rather large parts in creating the music but come from > a slightly different musical tradition than the entries so far. not that i'm a > huge expert or anything but a lot of what is regarded as canonical idm was > greatly inspired by american electro, house and hip-hop, and beyond that by > "cheesy" funk artists and disco producers.

"Cheesy" funk and disco?! Whatever. How about this for a roots of IDM riddle: A vital part of the roots of electronica is DJ culture. It is usually suggested that Kool DJ Herc was the great originator. He moved from Jamaica with his family and brought his records, sound system and DJ skills with him. It wasn't long before he learned that American audiences weren't into the reggae and dance hall sounds from back home so he started mixing with funk and disco records. Grandmaster Flash took his cue from Herc and developed cutting skills etc. (There is a lot more to this but it really isn't my point.) DJ (beat mix) culture grew out of gay bars in the seventies. The owners of clubs usually found difficulty in hiring musicians to perform at their clubs so they hired DJs instead. DJ skills evolved into an art form of extended beat mixed tapestries of disco and funk. At some point the disco movement grew out of this. Kraftwerk spoke of hearing their songs stretched out and remixed in black dance clubs in the seventies before Bambaataa ever touched them. So, where does hip-hop DJ culture and gay disco DJ culture merge? I am guessing that part of the history of hip-hop culture has roots in the gay disco club scene but this is very difficult to trace since both DJ cultures are historys that were?are unrecorded. Any ideas?

quoted 3 lines Grandmaster Flash

>Grandmaster Flash >took his cue from Herc and developed cutting skills etc. (There is a lot >more to this but it really isn't my point.)

quoted 4 lines I

>I >am guessing that part of the history of hip-hop culture has roots in >the gay disco club scene but this is very difficult to trace since both >DJ cultures are historys that were?are unrecorded.

Flash's cutting skills developed from his rivalry with Herc, apparently. There's an an interview I've read with Flash where he talks about going to one of Herc's parties, where Herc called him out and demonstrated what a *real* sound system was supposed to sound like (Herc's speakers were famous as the loudest in New York's club circuit at that point) - "most of all, you must have BASS." Anyway, Flash went on to say that, thus motivated, he turned to a disco DJ for pointers. That DJ, who either went unnamed or I've forgotten his name, showed Flash how to get the beats to match perfectly every time by cueing up the next record on headphones (Apparently hip-hop DJing was a very much hit and miss style up to this point, at least as far as transitions go). Flash found the sound of moving the record back and forth to find a cue point interesting, and scratching was born. At least, that's how he told the story - there are those who say that Flash's place in the history of hip-hop DJ technique has been overstated in the 'official' histories. C. -- C.Hilker (cspot@hyperreal.com) "He was mesmerized by the light-pictures, and the music sent him right into dreamland"