From gg2g4ink Sent Wed, Dec 31st 1997, 23:49
From gg2g4ink Sent Wed, Dec 31st 1997, 23:49
while you all follow the vindictive ramblings of an idiot and track down e-mail
addresses which have been nonexistent for several years, enjoy this. i was going
to hold my tongue - but this is the last fucking straw. i'm sick of you people.
adieu, IDM-L. keep playing with merry little yourselves.
(from a conversation with someone who shall remain nameless... thanks mr-or-mrs.
you know who you are. you've been a rock of sanity in a sea of shit, to quote
Mark Burgess. bless you.)
>saying that it's grim reading trawling through the end of year charts
>from a lot people on IDM-L, do you think 80% of the list would buy a release
>on a-musik, erzatz audio, mego or rastermusic? do you think 80% of the list
>would actually listen to something that might be..yer know..a bit dangerous..
no, because even in the small-potatoes rebellion of being into "IDM" (instead of
just buying Bush and Spice Girls records like all our 'less clued-in' fellow
humans) there is a staggering amount of conformity. i get the idea that people
on the list wannabe (speaking of the 'Girls!) "different just like everybody
else!" it's pretty silly - and sad. i can almost see musical preference having
the same social effects as religion. oh no - not back to that again! but - check
it out: one person with some amount of 'saintedness', be he Mixmaster Morris,
Tony Marcus, or - hell, you! - says "check this out!" - and there's suddenly a
congrgation of blind followers. just because they're extolling the virtues of
Skam and not those of Aqua doesn't make them any more 'intelligent', per se. the
whole idea of 'intelligent' dance music is really the ultimate insult to the
intelligence of the music! why do so few people see this?!?!
but the would-be radicals will always run from anything dangerous. except when
peer-pressure comes into play. could you have seen Oval and Microstoria becoming
the hot property of a one time indie-shit nothing label like Thrilljockey?
credit one Jim O'Rourke, who genuinely knows what time it is (sorry, Flava
Flav), and who must have influenced John McEntire - and spread the word down
through the vast 'cooler-than-thou' indie network. it's great that a label like
Mille Plateaux can become a hot topic among people who still bow before some of
the most mindless shit ever captured on magnetic tape. almost fucking
inspirational. but this same Oval-worshippin' crowd is not going to take a leap
into the unknown, no matter how similar (i'm thinking a-Musik, Rastermusic, even
Studio 1) - until someone says that it's not only okay but also COOL to do so.
it must be the same way in the UK, if not even worse! we have the 'authority' of
noted musicians - you have the uncontrolled self-serving monster which is the
music press. both of them are going to keep labels such as Rastermusic and
Soup-Disk completely unheard entities - just by their very nature! i think we
both agree that Rastermusic isn't obscure because the music is any more
'difficult' or - lord help us all - 'intelligent' - than what people actually
read about in the papers. somewhere everything just got so bunged up... the
point was lost entirely, and we'll forever be laboring in the shadows of skewed
perceptions.
>the music from these labels over the past 12 months have warmed my
>cockles a lot more than any of the mancunian mundanity
what Skam were doing was once pretty exciting. but you can't run in place and
keep people interested in what you're doing. all you do is run yourself tired
while the few ideas (which you refuse to expand to a few more NEW ideas) simply
can't sustain your activities. i give massive respect to Dot for following their
initial burst of brilliance with records like Argonort's EP. that's vision - and
if a few of the subsequent releases have been a little water-treading in nature,
the label is still on the right track. Skam seem a little too eager to throw a
smokescreen in our faces - confusing the picture and distracting people from the
label's lack of forward-thrust. this nonsense with mega-ultra-limited-editions
and label identity games is VERY suspicious.
>i'm sick to death of reading about skam, gescom, or autechre
don't forget the other ubiquitous IDM rule. this one is carved in stone:
if it is a lesser-known project of an artist with whom the 'public' might
possibly be somewhat familiar ("heavens forbid!"), it is automatically more
worthwhile musically than said artists' more (now) "accessible" releases.
jesus h. christ! talk about losing sight of the horizon entirely! these IDM
sheep really can't see the forest for the trees, so warped are they by their
trainspotting and their own lack of vision. i have much more respect for someone
who buys a Gene cd because Martin's lyrics or voice - or even just the music -
really move him than i do for any of the everpresent alt.music.techno/ambient
posters (make that poseurs) who prattle about "i've heard that GESCOM is
Autechere. i'll kill for a copy of their cd, can anyone help me?" - this is
becoming the blind leading the blind!
look at Rephlex! i mean, Richard is conducting the most diabolical social
experiment here and people are playing RIGHT INTO HIS HANDS! the man is a genius
- i have no doubt - if he can perpetrate crap like Freakwincey and Sam & Valley
and have people tear their brains to bits searching for words about how Rephlex
is putting out 'cutting-edge', 'challenging', 'brilliant' music. we always say
that 'x' could publish his grocery list - or 'y' could record himself farting
and loop it infinitely - and the droves would buy it without a complaint. but
nobody ever had the balls to prove it. well, Richard just did! people wanted
farts. here you go - bon apetit! and while you're gorging yourselves on this
shit - and that's what it is, shit - marvelling about how delectable it is, know
that you've just proven yourself to be a sad lot of mindless morons.
intelligent dance music in-fucking-deed!
>i feel that vvm have benifited a lot from the association with skam and
>list members have utilised this as a sort of secular pecking order to be seen
>as being 'down' with the next big thing first, to my ears vvm havent really
>released shit that justifies the plaudits
i'm still waiting for my VVM stuff, but i just like what James and Broxburn
stand for. just talking to James was enough to convince me that they're
something different - putting The Fall on _0161_ - beautiful! same with Tye and
Lo opening their arms to Ganger and Hood. this is what we need. so even if VVM's
music is shite, i do respect them for having some sense of history and a bit of
perspective. it's a fuckload more than most labels have these days.
>idm needs more people like you upsetting the applecart
i should post this letter to IDM, shouldn't i? oooh - that would be gutsy. i'd
make a LOT of enemies. maybe that's the reason TO do it. of course you know what
would happen - it would polarize the list, and 9/10 of those following my lead
would go, "yeah - he's right. it's all crap." missing the point entirely -
AGAIN! so few people think for themselves. that's the real tragedy of the IDM
fiasco. could Warp have realized what they were setting in motion with AI?
i mean, sending this to you is great - if a little futile - since there's no
risk in preaching to the converted. it's good to know that we can at least see
through the smoke. so posting this to IDM would just prove all my points and
more. worse, the targets of this letter would simply end up signing their
credibility's doom with their own hands. it would be satisfying to watch - but
also somewhat sadistic. if these people really believe that they're better than
the rest of the world because they know about Musik Aus Strom now, so be it.
maybe it's a step in the right direction. maybe they'll see the light when MAS
is an indistinct blur of a memory, when Oasis are knighted, and when labels like
Sonig and Sub Rosa each have overflowing discographies of fascinating -
absolutely timeless - records. i think that would actually be a more satisfying
way to get our last-laughs in.
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have fun.
gg