KVR Audio

Steven West · Post by **Steven West** » Tue May 25, 2004 2:33 am

f**k!

I've been calling myself 'Techno Hardcore' and 'Alternative Hip Hop' all this time on the music sites!

I always thought IDM had to do with video game soundtracks?

Shit, I gotta go fix some things!

mooter · Post by **mooter** » Tue May 25, 2004 2:54 am

hmmm...
personally it may not fit in IDM
but I definitely agree with Orbital II, might as well throw in Snivilisation
Dabrye
I Am Robot and Proud
u-ziq-Royal Astronomy
Orb-Orbvs Terrvrvm
Four Tet
and what about that one Brian Eno did with David Byrne?
and Geoghaddis my fave BOC

Polychrome · Post by **Polychrome** » Tue May 25, 2004 3:57 am

I don't think I like the term IDM. Way back when, I was into "Art Rock" during the 70's, and the phrase "Art Rock" of course came off as arrogant, and helped marginalize that movement. IDM seems to have that same implied arrogance, although I'm a big fan of many of the bands listed in this thread, and love to see music push it's boundaries.

Eventually folks started calling Art Rock "Progressive Rock", and I think the same sort of approach would be usefull for electronica genres.

Then again, I think the whole ideas of genres is becoming increasingly unimportant. In most arts these days, the idea of "anything goes" is popular, and that defies the system of having genres.

Anyway, in case I just didn't notice them listed, I might add Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine", and Leftfield's "Leftism" as classics for this sort of music. And the Eno Byrne album mentioned in the previous post, which was pre-sampling era (oye tape loops)..."My life in the Bush of Ghosts".

pascual · Post by **pascual** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:02 am

visa tapani wrote:A few not mentioned yet:

Everything by Vladislav Delay and Luomo
Monolake - Interstate (and Gobi the desert and Hong Kong and...)
µ-ziq - Lunatic Harness (why hasn't Paradinas been mentioned?)
Plaid - Trainer
Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy
Venetian Snares - too many to mention
shuttle358 - Optimal.lp
The Books - Though for Food
Black Dog - Spanners
Amon Tobin - Bricolage, Permutations & Supermodified
Jan Jelinek - Loop-finding -jazz-records
Prefuse73 - Vocal Studies & Uprock Narratives
Speedy J - Public Energy No. 1 & A Shocking Hobby
Higher Intelligence Agency - Freefloater
Jega - Geometry
Dabrye - One/Three
Global Communication - 76:14
B12 - Electro-Soma
Plastikman - Musik
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

right up my alley....
dabrye is fantastic, aphex twin's selected works is the real classic, takes the cake in my book. check out Kiln and lusine, both on ghostly label. delicious!
and maybe not so idm but i must say, richi hawtin's 'closer to the edit' is gonna go be in heavy rotation in my house for another five years at least....

pascual · Post by **pascual** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:07 am

gmstudio wrote:Good point, spritex. I like my IDM with a little liquid feel to it. Aphex (other than "Selected Ambient Works II) has never really done it for me, and while I really like "Amber"...no other Autechre album has captivated me in the same way.

Almost forgot another favorite of mine: Pole.

pole's minimal dub is unlike anything i've heard before in my life. i love his stuff. check out barbara morgenstern...

ufff, and sami koivikko! he's doing some sweet stuff...and i believe he works with 'buzz', which is pretty admirable.

hoffy · Post by **hoffy** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:23 am

I find 99& of the music listed here as neither "intelligent" nor "dance music"

who the f**k dances to Selected Ambient Works?!?!

And anyone attempting to bust a move to squarepusher is surely going to appear to be in the middle of an epileptic fit.

Furthurmore, it is almost insulting that any music can be classified as "Intelligent". How can a word so subjective be used to describe a genre of music? Can you get any more elitist when describing a sound?

anyway...

Just being a smartarse here

for my 15 cents i would like to add:

EAT STATIC (anything by)

These guys get stereotyped as "Psy Trance" quite a bit, but they are so much more- twisted breakbeats, ambient masterpeices... check them out.

spritex · Post by **spritex** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:16 am

Yeah, the whole IDM term is unfortunate.

I guess the only thing that is kinda common with most of these is that it is not really neatly classifiable into any other genre and is somewhat experimental.

Not flat-out ambient, not simple dance music and not totally off-the-wall experimental, but listenable at the same time.

Though it brings to mind more the guitar-included bands, I think the term indietronics is quite a bit better.

.jon · Post by **.jon** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:27 am

Can't believe this thread got to page 4 without

Incunabula by Autechre.

It's nice to see Brothomstates's rather excellent Claro get a mention too, and everybody should really have a listen at Vladislav Delay.

Björk's "Vespertine" and something Telefon tel Aviv might become classics one day.

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:27 am

Most of the bands in this thread are not 'IDM', but as Genres are bollox anyway, it doesnt matter (unless you work for HMV or Virgin)

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:20 am

i work for tescos so i dont need to worry then
thats cool,i was worried for a bit whether i was still allowed to listen to LIQD(lowerintellingencequotadance) and 365D(will only make sense if you went to my school

so not many of you then)

but on the other hand i did ind out yesterday at least what the hell idm meant-its basically any music that people list in this thread

Post by **Ben [KVR]** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:27 am

Virtually everything mentioned is Techno AFAIAC

Dasein · Post by **Dasein** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:56 am

my fave IDM albums...

Gridlock: Trace
Gridlock: Further
Gridlock: Formless

do we see a pattern here? Gridlock are IMHO possibly the most brilliant and underrated IDM project ever.

although there are some other excellent albums by underrated artists also, such as
Mlada Fronta: Fe2O3
Lucine ICL: Iron City, or Condensed (Lucine ICL is possibly more downtempo / lounge, but people have been playing fast and loose with genres in this thread anyway)

hoffy · Post by **hoffy** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:57 am

i agree

mabye "electronica" is a good description

or "electronic"

or "music"

...

I've been listening to electronic music as long as any other music, and i've never even heard of IDM before!

kepa1 · Post by **kepa1** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:02 am

on the same level as Black Dog's "Bytes" are CiM "Do Not Multiply Models" on Ann Aimme or "Reference" on Defocus, worth a check cos they sound like instant IDM classics though dating from 2000-2002.

ZooTooK · Post by **ZooTooK** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:33 am

Aha, you guy can't stop discussing the term IDM

I'm not surprised!

At first I thought the term suck, as said above - you don't dance to it, it's not intelligent (

) - but it's music, right?!

From the artists point of view genres limits the scope of their work, but on the other hand for an unrecognised artist it makes it possible to talk about the music - to call everything just music doesn't really help you find new artists...

I think spritex nailed it: "Not flat-out ambient, not simple dance music and not totally off-the-wall experimental, but listenable at the same time". Add Bens comment that it's related to Techno, then we'v got it!

I feel the same towards "exprimental" - what's trial and error the first time is repetition the next - and whats new for some is old hat to others... if it doesn't sound like pop it's experimental, right

Personally I would prefer Progressive Techno (as in progressive rock, a development from rock into something more complex, more demanding for the listener), but that means something else...

In the end I think we got an interesting list of music that is somewhat similar and good starting point for an shopping list

Classic IDM albums?