From Bordeaux Sent Tue, Aug 10th 1999, 15:55
From Bordeaux Sent Tue, Aug 10th 1999, 15:55
i think a lot of the DSP backlash is b/c a number of musicians seem to be substituting DSP plugins for well thought out musical ideas. it's cool the first few times to listen to sounds get morphed beyond recognition. but, eventually i just got a bit numb to it and feel like it's a cheap way out. not only that, but b/c there's a relatively high percentage of music makers on the list, we know that a lot of these musical treatments are much easier to create than they sound. as an example (and i hate to use them), autechre circa 96-97 represented the best melding of music technology and human emotion i've heard. anvil vapre, garbage, envane & chiastic slide all feel spot on perfect. they seemed to be using their machines to communicate. on lp5, it felt like they're the ones being used. maybe that was the point? at least on ep7 it feels like their regaining a bit of control. i really do hope they can reign in their tools a bit more and it becomes something beyond a collection of interesting noises. it's interesting (for me at least) to consider how undeveloped this genre of music is & how much potential lies within. i just hope that more people are able to get past the whizz-bang factor and go on to create something new and dramatic and musical... people seem to be arguing that IDM lacks too much I or D, well here's someone looking for more M... ethan ps - i think this minirant was partially motivated by listening to amber on the way to work. tomorrow i'll be lauding lp5 as the best thing ae's ever done...