IDM - does it still exist? What's good?

not sure but i like that on 'OK Cowboy' Vitalic hints at some very odd tangents with things like 'Polkamatic' - that idea of messing around with extremely ancient, traditional styles linked to Euro/Eurasian heritage. it may not blow the mind but it does sound wonderfully odd. he needs to integrate Russian church bells more tho probably < /ambrose/gareth >

xpost

Yes, the term IDM came from the IDM Mailing List back in the day but I picked it up from posting on the Warp message board back in 1999 and it was used as a term on TEFOSAV which was my own music-making board/soc from 2000-2004. Of course it's well documented that no-one likes the term and maybe it is the conception of having to ascribe a label to the genre which killed it. Before then I think the bands on Warp just called themselves Techno acts. Once the term had been described it let a lot of people attach themselves to it and start making stuff which was only "intelligent" if you see what I mean.

The cooler-than-thou schtick was what dragged it down it the end - I remember going to the Warp/London Simfonietta (sppp?) thing which made Squarepusher and Jamie Liddell look like a couple of insolent kids while the orchestra blew them off the stage inbetween with 200 year old classical pieces and Reich stuff. Warpers and etc were really going for the credible bit, more so as they went on and when it comes down to it Squarepusher's too hit-and-miss and RDJ's too derivative to bat at that level and so on.

Also I think a lot of people got bored trying to keep up. There's been a huge shift over to fun and accessibility which was hardly their strong point and people have left them behind. Trip hop and then IDM became the philately of music until they lost people.

nah, half of em got girlfriends and started into microhouse

I think I just threw up in my mouth

for all current IDM the listeners ARE producers! its a genre which is totally self contained! so the producers make things that appeal to producers, but not to ordinary ol' listeners. this has had the unfortuante effect of making it incredibly boring. The removal of laymen funsters from the scene (eg people who wanted to dance) made it hermetically sealed and cut off from vitality or outside influence. Eg, removing the dance aspect of it. all the breakcore stuff is designed not to make you dance, or to challenge you to dance (although its wrong to assume that you cant dance to it). i think that overriding ethos, of "you will NOT have fun!" has killed the whole scene

i know that i migth be overstating the case here, but i think the dramtic rise in bedroom producers within this scene has definately had an effect

yeuch, what a nightmare idea! especially "splat"

That said, the ease with which the newly accessible, easier than ever to use software packages have allowed a lot of people to swiftly create watered-down versions of bands/artists/records that they like has had an impact. I don't think it's anyone's fault- people are going to try to sound like the records that they like, and software developers are going to make and sell tools that will allow consumers to do that (and ease of use is not a bad thing either).

Furthermore, I don't think the "either play by the dancefloor's rules [whatever those are] or fuck off" attitude is warranted. There are still many situations where people want to listen to electronic music at home. Decent IDM records made to occupy that niche shouldn't be slagged off for fairling to be the party rockin' jams that they were never meant to be in the first place.

However . . . genres have lifespans. They must mutate or die, and they must earn their right to exist by continuing to provide pleasure, formal rewards, surprises, comfort . . . something. If "IDM" was a mirage sustained by hype about the futuristic "next level" sound design rhetoric surrrounding some of its key players, and as a generation has cottoned on to 20th century classical, concrete, shoegaze, free improv, etc and realizes that the textures and tactics of IDM can also be heard elsewhere by people who aren't as shackled to certain stylistic templates endemic to the genre, it's only natural and just that some of the borrowed finery of hype and "complexity" and "advancement" that IDM enjoyed will be stripped away.

Fair enough. I, uh, don't even remember who I stole my dis from.

i've asked many ex-IDM fans what they're playing at home/dancing to now, and for most of them it's minimal techno, deep-tech and the likes, and a huge percentage of them are secret deep-house lovers (me included). anyway, there's always something from IDM in any nowadays music.

Most of the music retained a link to its roots - and I will always think of Black Dog, Aphex, B12, BoC etc as techno...

(There's supposedly a new Land Of The Loops album coming out this year, but otherwise, the only artist whose active from that camp now is Andy aka Scientific American (who apparently figured out it was ok to put the "c" back in "Scientific" as long as he didn't release magazines, I guess.) The new album is alright, but the split release with FCS North called fcssa has Andy's best track "Unamerican Activities".)

then a quick dig in here and there reveals that they reunited ages ago .. anyone here know where i can read more ? cos the album/pr etc give no details as to exactly make up the dogsquad these days ..

I'd love to. It's clearly been well put together & thought out this time, focused & simple, nicely thematic, the production is indeed immense over a good hi-fi.

So, I'm not sure what my problem is exactly but it just feels so, so trad at this point in time (they were probably aiming for a classic/timeless feel).

I can imagine lots of people really liking this, but I'm struggling. It's almost into Morr/CCO records territory here, albeit with a bit more low-end, and the tunes do keep the attention. Less superficial fluffy electronica ear candy though. Unfortunately I'm not sure that's a good thing. I put Arovane's 'Lillies' on after this, a record I'm never 100% convinced about (except for the 3 genuinely stunning tracks) and it sounded quite a much fresher in comparison.

Listenable, melodic, 'quality' ... zzzzZ

This self proclaimed 'Death of a Genre' vs. The No. Of Freaks on the Internet who bandwagoned from IDM to the 'Third Generation Indie Rock' is the vibe i'm kind of getting from this thread. Reminiscing about the "Good Ol' Days", that was less than four years ago is so ridiculous!

NECK UP CUNTS. BACK TO YOUR ELECTRONIC ROOTS YOU WILL COME!

one of these 2 groups is 'intelligent', surely, people are embarrassed by this?

Lies. Very few genres truly die, they just fall out of favor with the masses. Or, in this case, the music geeks.

People will be churning out microvariations on the basic melancholy melodies + weird drum noises template forever. You and I and everyone else will fall in and out of like with it on a regular schedule, but the music will stay the same. Which isn't unusual in any genre - it's just idm's misfortune that its founding myth revolved around innovation.

That's not meant to be an insult, I know I haven't exactly sold it here. It's just far more direct and vaguely 'song-like' than previous releases ever have been. More Plaid basically! Except I can't call it that, it doesn't have the same lightness of touch really. It's a solid release worth a download though. Which again doesn't convey much positivity, oh well.

I kind of like the second disc of "Trainer" as oddly funky ambient music. It reminds me of Fila Brazillia more than anything(!) I don't much care for the nu-electro bits, and taken as a whole it's very monocolour & not hugely memorable... but it has made me more interested in checking out other Plaid* full-lengths than I was before.

*I have heard "Not For Threes" didn't leave much of an impression (and it has Björk on ffs! how can that be I didn't love it??) but possibly worth a revisit.

I'm gonna check out the new album now though :-)

The vibe of likely inconsistency, vagueitude & nicey niceyness, plus the (to me) deeply ugly artwork has always put me right off! I'm prepared to admit being wrong though. That said, the "Spokes" cover is ace, but I know the music won't live up to it!

It's like they knew they were going to split so filled the CD with everything they had. It's the only one that drags a bit for me. I could happily lose a couple of the tracks near the end of the disc.

What I have heard of Spokes just didn't have ... anything I liked. But it does take a while to sink in with BD/Plaid I'll admit.

I'd LOVE to have heard a version of "Temple Of Transparent Balls" with a mix/bolts to tie the tracks together. That shit is just unreal. It's EASILY the equal of Bytes creatively, if a bit less 4/4 techno friendly. Sometimes I even think it's the real best. And the most 'far out', I've heard almost nothing else like it in electronic music.

It's also much less harsh on the ears than "Bytes". The digitalism of the drums is a major barrier to enjoying that particular record. And weird because the "Parallel" material isn't really afflicted that way.

Dog Latin I can't believe you haven't heard Bytes!

-- terry lennox

Well yeah. This is why I like to call it all techno ;-)

(except Derrick Carter is house isn't he?)

And it's not as if they have the get-out clause that in a DJ set another record wold get mixed in before the end comes.

Genre Name:
IDM
Root Genre
Electronica

Years
1990-present

Description
IDM, or Intelligent Dance Music was a term first coined from an internet mailing list in the mid-90s to describe a style of Techno music that concentrates on experimentation and an emphasis on home-listening rather than the dancefloor.

Whilst many of it's detractors and fans criticise the term - the argument being that it is hard to dance to and it implies that other dance genres are "stupid" - the term IDM has stuck fast and is now widely recognised.

Probably the first true IDM music to be released were the Artificial Intelligence compilations from the early nineties on Warp Records. Taking the minimalist sounds of Detroit House and Sheffield "Bleep" Techno, the compilation featured the now legendary acts Black Dog, Speedy J and of course, Aphex Twin (under the alias of "Dice Man").

Throughout the early nineties, IDM became the soundtrack to every post-rave comedown - something to put on after a night of hard revelling. But rather than becoming mere chillout music to mong about to, artists like Andrew Wetherall, Richard D James and Autechre began experimenting with their equipment, trying to push their machines to the limit. In many cases artists would often completely rewire their synths and mixers in order to create even more outlandish sounds. Certain techniques such as "snare rushes" (the rapid triggering of a percussive noise) led to micro-genres like Drill'n'Bass and Glitch.

The scene climaxed around the early 00's, after which IDM had either splintered into so many different subgenres that it became lost in a sea of never-ending headuparsery. Geekinness took over where originality once was and Aphex Twin's disappointing yet long-awaited Druqks album heralded the death knell of IDM. The Warp record label all but stopped signing new electronic acts in favour of post-rock bands, while other labels floundered or faded away.

The development of better and better computer software and music hardware also meant that it was easy for producers to recreate a lot of the once inexecutable sounds of earlier pioneers, making these commonplace in other kinds of music from House to R'n'B, thus making IDM an increasingly out-dated genre.

IDM as we know it may be dead, but it was always seen by it's fans as the sound of the future and if this is true then they were correct. Many techniques and sounds which debuted on Autechre and Aphex albums can be heard in genres as diverse as Grime, Electro, Dancehall, Post-Rock, Noise and even in the charts today.

The genre continues in some form or another but very few artists and labels continue succesfully in making pure-IDM. Newer artists such as Khonnor, Digitonal and Venetian Snares prefer to add guitars, vocals, orchestras or elements from other genres to spice up this now defunct style. Veteran acts like Two Lone Swordsmen seem to have gone the same way.

Artists
Aphex Twin, Autechre, Venetian Snares, Plaid, Boards of Canada, µ-ziq, Squarepusher, Bola, Two Lone Swordsmen, Autofire*, MDK, Metamatics, CiM

Essential Tracks
Aphex Twin: Bouncing Bucephalus Ball
Squarepusher: Cooper's World
Boards of Canada: In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country
Joseph Nothing: Disc O'Nostalagia
Chris Clark: Diesel Raven
Autechre: Arch Carrier
Coba: After Dinner (Plaid Mix)

Essential Albums
Autechre: LP5
Boards of Canada: Geogaddi
Aphex Twin: I Care Because You Do
Plaid: Restproof Clockwork
µ-ziq: Royal Astronomy
Digitonal: 23thingsfallapart

In the original, six-month old discussion, I think most of us were in agreement with you about this. Part of the old crowd moved on to dancier, club-oriented stuff and those who didn't want to dance stayed home and bought Lali Puna records (I am paraphrasing one of my posts upthread).

also gotta second Ai, Toytronic, Spezial Material labels, lots of good stuff there.