(idm) 1991-92

From Chris Fahey
Sent Thu, Jun 25th 1998, 23:22

    Over the past few days I've been listening to a lot of circa 1991-92
electronica/IDM (Old Orb, Seefeel, Renegade Soundwave, SAW2, Artificial
Intelligence, old FSOL, etc) and I thought to myself that almost none of
this fantastic music used any drum-n-bass gestures at all, and none involved
anything like *gag* big beat.

    I thought also that this stuff holds up *extremely* well over time,
whereas a lot of more recent stuff even by the same artists (i.e., RDJ) gets
tired for me after one or two listens.

    I mean, how much drum and bass/breakbeat/big beat can you listen to
before it loses it's novelty? And who's doing music in the tradition the
aforementioned artists were practicing in 1992 (actually, I'd say BoC is to
a certain extent, and some of Squarepusher's less hectic stuff does too).
What happened to melodic, dancy, trippy dub? Beat-oriented ambient? It's all
a wash of plinkityplinkitychikachikaboom 180+ bpm nowadays.

    Don't get me wrong, I love the speed and power of hard ass dnb, but
right now I'm listening to the Orb's Adventures beyond the Ultraworld and
I'm thinking damn this stuff is well-crafted and melodic and enveloping and
I don't hear that much anymore.

-Cf


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