Re: (idm) Water testing

From Michael Upton
Sent Mon, Jan 4th 1999, 05:20

On Fri, 25 Dec 1998, Stuart McDonald wrote:

| I write stuff and I've compiled some tracks to
| send to record companies. Does anyone know of
| any labels that would be good to try?

| Style and genre are difficult to define but I
| guess what I do could be described as Jean
| Michel Jarre but with irony, and with
| occasional country loops.

I thought I'd get in and try to describe Stuart's
music myself, cos I don't know much JMJ, and
thought my idm-trainspotter angle might inspire
a few more responses. ;-)

Most tracks are warm and laid back, and have a 
more melodic focus than most IDM stuff I've heard.
Recently I've been reminded of Sun Electric's 'Via
Nostra', with regards both sharing a lot of
swirling digital synths, lots of portamento and
plenty of shifts in key. Beats are either in a
kind of early-90s acid housey vein or more drifty.

Also plenty of tracks are silly, in a good way. As
he says on his webpage "My friends like my
amusing voice samples. My mother likes me as I
am." :-)
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~stuie/sonic/satori.html

For some reason, I think it's worth saying that he
likes 'Music for Adverts' more than 'Not for 3s',
cos I think it shows. As with Ken's stuff, Stu's
music doesn't always have a commercial polish, and
doesn't need too.

Michael

____________________________________________
"Also, he has automatic evasion devices"
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~michael/jj.html