IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 3 lines possibly, but my take on it is that the record industry has convinced

>possibly, but my take on it is that the record industry has convinced >all the people that deal with it that nobody can sell anything without >lyrics.

And whenever they try, they can't. They don't know how to market it, and by now there are no popular alternatives through which to hear music. USA Radio is very niche-driven, except for low power college radio which does its best to not cater to a mass market (not that there's anything wrong with that). How would it sound if KRock in NYC threw on Orbital (a poppy electronic group, but with little relation to rock) in between a tired grunge ripoff and Oasis? Good, poppy electronic has nowhere to go marketwise (on the most basic level, the songs are far too long, the hooks are structured completely differently, the repetition is of a different sort), except for the strictly partybased Eurobeat / highNRG stuff, which usually sucks (I have no problem with impugning this particular genre, I'm sorry to say). It's a bad form of disco, and people use it as background music, becuase there's no way of convincing the mass market that "electronic listening music" exists. People on this list may criticize a magazine like Spin, but I think it does a good job of presenting electronic, and other non-popular, but still pop, forms of music as viable alternatives. Problem is, relatively few people read it in the grand scheme of things. And honestly, even though stuff like jungle and house is nice to listen to, they are usually dance musics, which are better grooved to than sat down to. So, until the US changes its entire music culture/economic structure, stuff outside of the Prodigy, with vocal hooks, short songs, and rock sounds, won't sell much. That's whdant/right here I sound redundant." What's the radio/marketing situation like in Britain? Is radio so "nichey?" Don't outlets like the BBC present good listening alternatives? Why the hell did techno break through in England/Europe in the first place, and get out of the clubs? Did Strings of Life really change everything that much? It has to go deeper than that.

quoted 2 lines How about Amon Tobin? I have the Creatures EP and have heard his stuff

>How about Amon Tobin? I have the Creatures EP and have heard his stuff >as Cujo. Any tips on his Ninja releases?

Buy his stuff ASAP. The only jazzy jungle stuff I've liked, and I like what I've heard a lot, as does pretty much everyone on this list who's posted about it. The jazz is actually real jazz, instead of the Bukem noodling, and the jungle is halfway between dancefloor and experimental. Plus Brazilian breakbeats / rhythms, some dark stuff, some more ambient parts. Permutation would be the album to buy (the folks in the record store where i work have already dubbed it drum and bass album of the year, and we get a lot of jungle in), but Bricolage and the singles are supposed to be fine too. And guitars are great instruments, which have created much of the best pop/art music ever IMO. Even if there are IDM tunes up there in the pantheon, the sheer number of great guitar songs outweighs anything electronic. They just have a longer history, and frankly, lyrics can be very meaningful. Great rock is a good thing, all apologies to Che. People aren't closeminded to give rock the benefit of the doubt over instrumental electronic wanking. Let the music prove itself. Sam