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Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: minkles on 01 Feb 2007, 12:32
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So, lately I've been needing some weird music to space out to. From what I've heard, there's a whole world of IDM that I might like to enter, but I have no starting point. Autechre? Mouse on Mars? Squarepusher? I just don't know. Help?
Sorry about the cliche thread title.
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Autechre and Aphex Twin have stuff of varying quality, from "really good" to "mildly annoying". Mouse On Mars is excellent, though. Future Sound of London is probably the best, get Dead Cities. Also try Four Tet, Mum, Two Lone Swodsmen, Boards of Canada.
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the fuck is IDM?
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i'd throw fridge into the mix. pick up the 'eph reissue' cd and prepare to be amazed. great stuff.
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the fuck is IDM?
You're doing it wrong.
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psh, Intelligent Dance Music. obviously.
i'm kidding actually. it's yet another stupid genre title so it's best not to even regard it.
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the fuck is IDM?
You're doing it wrong.
doing what wrong?
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the fuck is IDM?
You're doing it wrong.
doing what wrong?
Participating in this forum. If you don't know what a term someone uses is, you should probably google or wikipedia it instead of saying "the fuck is that?" You'll get a quicker answer and won't be seen as a dumbass.
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Quoting the post above yours is also a bad idea, guys.
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Quoting the post above yours is also a bad idea, guys.
You do realize that this is the only forum where people make a big deal about that, though. It's not standard Internet ettiquette. As long as you're quoting to preserve context, I don't see a reason not to do it.
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you just answered your own question. people here do make a big deal out of it. this includes people who have been here for a very long time and it also includes mods. it may not be general internet etiquette but it kinda is here.
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Quoting the post above yours is also a bad idea, guys.
You do realize that this is the only forum where people make a big deal about that, though. It's not standard Internet ettiquette. As long as you're quoting to preserve context, I don't see a reason not to do it.
I agree with this guy.
Oh, and thanks for the suggestions thus far. Are there, like, free mp3s or anything of these artists I can listen to? Or any other way I can hear them?
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you just answered your own question. people here do make a big deal out of it. this includes people who have been here for a very long time and it also includes mods.
It just seems like a very arbitrary and silly thing to constantly harp on, though.
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So far we got along great with that arbitrary and silly rule, so lets not ruin it for everyone, shall we?
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Well, Wikipedia has samples, and, I guess you could always search mp3 blogs. The only other place I can think of would be MySpace, that bucket of, well, I won't get into that, but anyway. If it's good for anything, it's good for listening to an entire song without illegally downloading it, if the song is on the site that is.
Now for some recommendations! I'll probably end up recommending what most others would, but I can only say probably.
(Band, Album)
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Four Tet - I like Rounds, but then again, I haven't listened to Everything Ecstatic yet.
(Dare I recommend it. I do!) Dntel - Life Is Full Of Possibilities
M?m - Yesterday Was Dramatic
Leftfield maybe - I would say Leftism. I like that a bit.
Mouse On Mars - Mouse has some cool stuff. Talk to others about them. I prefer Glam.
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Thaanks.
Re: Aphex Twin: Really? Ambient Works over Richard D. James?
Re: Dntel: Right on, dare to reccomend it. I haven't heard any Dntel, but I'm not ashamed to admit I love The Postal Service, and have wondered what that guy can do on his own.
Ooh, someone give me an Autechre reccomendation. I like what I've heard of them/him/her/it.
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they.
I think I've always liked Chiastic Slide the best
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Autechre have gone through some pretty distinct phases. I'll stick to the albums...
'Incunabula' and 'Amber' (maybe along with Aphex's 'Selected Ambient Works Vol 1') are basically the blueprint for the mellow end of IDM... artists like Phonem, Arovane, Xela, Opiate etc. Very synth based, a lot of drum machine beats, etc.
Around 'Tri Repetae' and 'Chiastic Slide' the sounds start to get more industrial, touches of distortion, hissing noises, the infamous sleeve note "all surface noise is intentional", etc. and the beats get more fiddly. Melancholy synths are still very much the order of the day, but things are getting a little more difficult. A clear influence on groups like Funkstorung, Funckarma, a lot of stuff on labels like Merck, MD, and so on.
From the 5th album (untitled, but usually referred to as 'LP5') things get more process-oriented. It's a completely subjective call, but for me the music gets more and more cold and less "human". The rhythms get more complex, the sounds more noisy and they go nuts on all kinds of techniques used in electroacoustic music. To my mind they cross the line from pop/folk music to academic music, although not so much in their remixes and on their last album, the often mis-typed 'Untilted'. I mostly hear people enthusing about 'Confield' out of their more recent releases.
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As you may be able to guess, my interest has waned. I went fucking nuts for them in the early/mid 90s, they were basically my idols and I listened to their albums over and over... but my favourite period is the middle one. If you can find 'Tri Repetae ++' you get the album + the 2 EPs that came out before it, 'Garbage' (4 amazing close-to-ambient tracks) and 'Anvil Vapre' (where they introduced the more industrial sounds for the first time, worth it for the mighty opener, Second Bad Vilbel).
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I'd second the recommendation of Aphex's SAW I over RDJ album, but it depends what you want. If you want skittery drill-n-bass beats mixed with whimsical melodies, then obviously go with RDJ. I think SAW I is just ... a fucking classic. And I don't like Aphex much at all. Beautiful, kinda naive tracks and such a stark contrast to today's electronica... shitty sounding tape recordings, lots of hiss and fuck all clarity, synths overdriving accidentally, beautiful beautiful atmospheres...
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Listening?
You can actually come across one or two example tracks for a lot of artists on Youtube or Google Video or wherever. Also, Warp's MP3 shop, bleep.com has heeeeappppps of great IDM music on offer and you can listen to decent length previews of almost everything there. So even if you don't want to use the shop, that's a good way to hear the music.
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Recommendations will be kind of random, bceause there's not much common ground between the artists you mentioned in your first post, but here are some: (labels in brackets)
Two Lone Swordsmen - Stay Down (Warp)
Kim Hiorthoy - Hei (Smalltown Supersound)
The Remote Viewer - Here I Go Again On My Own (City Centre Offices)
various - Intermission (Plug Research)
The Black Dog - Spanners (Warp)
The Bionaut - Lush Life Electronica (Harvest / EMI ... I think)
Mouse On Mars - Iaora Tahiti (Too Pure)
Aspen - Are You That Retail Snob? (Involve / Surgery)
Electric Birds - Strata Frames (U-Cover)
To Rococo Rot - The Amateur View (City Slang)
There's heaps of great singles etc. out there, but a lot of it is lost in the mists of time (although probably coming back to an MP3 blog near you :-P) so I've tried to give you a list of things that I believe are still in print.
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I think it's worth a separate post to point out that there is absolutely shit loads of free IDM/electronica/antisocial dicks writing derivative nonsense which they somehow consider is more inventive than dance music.
Popular net labels for classic IDM sounds include:
monotonik (http://www.mono211.com/content/news.html)
sutemos (http://www.sutemos.net/en/)
kahvi (http://www.kahvi.org)
Autres Directions In Music (http://www.autresdirections.net/inmusic/)
As I said, there're huge numbers of labels out there... I'm not as interested in classic IDM stuff as I am in quiet clicky dubby things, "microhouse" (/me dies a little inside), and soundscape / post-post-post-post-post-rock stuff. So I could recommend more things if you want. After all, it's all free... :-)
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Thanks fishyface, that was very helpful. And yeah, the other genres you mentioned are ones I have some interest in I think, I guess. So yeah, lemme have em. Your reccomendations.
So I'll probably first be looking at:
Autechre: Amber ; Tri Repetae
Aphex Twin: Richard D. James Album ; Selected Ambient Works
Mouse on Mars: Autoditacker ; Radical Connector ; Iaora Tahiti
Four Tet: Rounds
Boards of Canada: Music Has the Right to Children
Two Lone Swordsmen: Stay Down
Future Sound of London: Dead Cities
Mum: Yesterday was Dramatic-Today Is Okay
Venetian Snares: Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett
Squarepusher: Hard Normal Daddy
?-Ziq: Lunatic Harness
From there, once I've found my starting point, I'll be looking into the rest of stuff you mentioned. Ah, I've got a lot of listening to do.
If anyone's favorite was left out, let me know.
By the way, what's with IDM artists and having lame puns for names? Four Tet's pretty bad, but ?-Ziq is nauseating.
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I think you've made yourself a decent list of the relatively popular IDM artists. Really good starting points, even if I don't personally like all of them.
So, some other net label recommendations:
Filtro (http://www.filtro.com.mx) - the mysteries of Mexican electronica explored... coming from a techno aesthetic, but very little DOOF DOOF DOOF stuff
Test Tube (http://monocromatica.com/netlabel/) - basically sprawling drone, ambient and kinda post-rock business... at least some guitars pop up in the mix and one or two releases involve whole bands
Stadtgruen (http://www.stadtgruenlabel.net/) - the Stadt releases are techno, the Gruen ones ambient (um, loosely). I like the Gruen ones. My God, the site is so beautiful too. :-o
Standard Klik (http://www.standard-music.net/home.php) - some difficult, noisy ambience here, but there are some goodies in there for sure
Yuki Yaki (http://www.yukiyaki.org/) - Yay for having a label showcase on the front page
I think a lot of these guys use archive.org to host their files... one thing I like about browsing archive.org directly is that they have a little flash player thing so you can listen to each release a little just to check it's not completely hideous.
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The Venetian Snares is pretty damn good. Go for Chrome Cylinder Unfolding and work from there (for a good laugh, listen to the creator slag his hometown on the brilliant gabba album "Winnipeg is a frozen shithole").
Amon Tobin isn't bad either.
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the fuck is IDM?
You're doing it wrong.
doing what wrong?
Participating in this forum. If you don't know what a term someone uses is, you should probably google or wikipedia it instead of saying "the fuck is that?" You'll get a quicker answer and won't be seen as a dumbass.
i honestly dont care if anyone thinks im a dumbass, this is the internet. i never knew people were so negative about helpin people out and explainin shit to them. what a world! im going to grab my e-knife and slash my forum wrists. [/emo]
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The Venetian Snares is pretty damn good. Go for Chrome Cylinder Unfolding and work from there (for a good laugh, listen to the creator slag his hometown on the brilliant gabba album "Winnipeg is a frozen shithole").
Amon Tobin isn't bad either.
It's just venetian snares. no 'the.' it's actually just aaron funk and he does some pretty awesome stuff. definetly check out "Rossz Csillag Allat Sz?letett" because it's a fantastic album with all sorts of cool hungarian folk influences and cool/bizzare samples. it's my favorite VS album for sure.
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i honestly dont care if anyone thinks im a dumbass, this is the internet. i never knew people were so negative about helpin people out and explainin shit to them. what a world! im going to grab my e-knife and slash my forum wrists. [/emo]
I don't think you get it. I'm not speculating on whether or not you "care", I'm simply saying that people will respond more positively and helpfully to your posts if you don't start out on the wrong foot.
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UPDATE:
I downloaded and listened to some tracks by some, here's my opinion thus far:
Mum- fantastic, excellent, life-changing
Venetian Snares- likewise, excellent
Aphex Twin- very very good
Mouse on Mars- quite nice
Squarepusher- sweeet
Boards of Canada- nice
The Future Sound of London- decent
Autechre- interesting, harsh and soulless
Four Tet- eh.
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the fuck is IDM?
You're doing it wrong.
doing what wrong?
Participating in this forum. If you don't know what a term someone uses is, you should probably google or wikipedia it instead of saying "the fuck is that?" You'll get a quicker answer and won't be seen as a dumbass.
i honestly dont care if anyone thinks im a dumbass, this is the internet. i never knew people were so negative about helpin people out and explainin shit to them. what a world! im going to grab my e-knife and slash my forum wrists. [/emo]
Guys I'm going to report this to a mod if this goes on. Stay on the damn topic. This is a waste of a perfectly good recommendation thread.
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i honestly dont care if anyone thinks im a dumbass, this is the internet. i never knew people were so negative about helpin people out and explainin shit to them. what a world! im going to grab my e-knife and slash my forum wrists. [/emo]
I don't think you get it. I'm not speculating on whether or not you "care", I'm simply saying that people will respond more positively and helpfully to your posts if you don't start out on the wrong foot.
understood, i will respond more positively in the future.