From Kent Williams Sent Tue, Jul 20th 1999, 16:00
From Kent Williams Sent Tue, Jul 20th 1999, 16:00
As much as I like the musicians who seemed to get tarred with the IDM brush, I think a steady diet of IDM is no more healthy than, say, a steady diet of breadsticks and tofu. Unfortunately, young people hit an age where they use their musical tastes to define their identity, and tend to over-specialize. Non IDM I love: Jazz: I could go on for days, but listen to Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Art Blakey, and get back to me. RAWK: Swervedriver, MBV (honorary IDM band), Stereolab, Spool, Tortoise, Bowery Electric, and the rest of the post-rock crew. Classical: I grew up with this stuff (my father was a symphony conductor, my mother a composer) -- Everything by Bach, Corelli, and the rest of the Baroque crew. Oh, and if you claim to like IDM, and you haven't heard Stravinski's 'Rite of Spring' you need to. Rite of Spring kicks ass, and the subject matter of the ballet goes to the very heart of what is compelling about dance music. Folk Music: This is hit or miss for me, but I like Ferron a lot, and well performed Celtic music. Plus Greg Brown, who is an insanely great song writer (his last album was nominated for a Grammy) is someone I run into in the grocery store on a regular basis. World Music: African drumming, Gamelan, Tuvan throat singing, Tibetan Medicine chants ... I tend to like the raw shit, rather than modern pop offshoots. DUMB Dance Music: GIMME THA STRAIGHT UP GHETTO SHIT! Iowa City has for years been the beneficiary of a lot of to-and-fro travel to Chicago. We have a whole lot of DJ's who grew up on Dancemania, Relief, and the rest of the amazing variety of Chicago House music. Dancemania artist DJ Milton now lives near me in Iowa, and rumors have it that DJ Deeon may be moving here too. Milton may in fact be the best DJ I've ever seen -- I saw him do a very mixed set of Hip Hop and Ghetto house that lasted 4 hrs without a pee break. Country Music: Errr...perhaps a bridge too far for most of you but the good shit is worth seeking out -- the classics (Hank, Patsy, Tammy, and Loretta) and Mary Chapin Carpenter squeezes off a really exquisite song now and then. Just don't make me listen to a country radio station. American Country Radio is enough to make French Pop music look good, and the French are known far and wide for their atrocious pop. Serge Gainsbourg being a notable exception.