From flesh-coloured anti-aircraft alarm Sent Fri, Apr 9th 1999, 14:47
From flesh-coloured anti-aircraft alarm Sent Fri, Apr 9th 1999, 14:47
[some sarcasm might be used and some jokes might be made below]
>I call it geektronica because the people into it have the same
>trainspotter obsessive-compulsive collector mentality as lo-fi
>nerds, and because musically, it's deliberately enfeebled or
>impaired sounding.
actually, i kind of agree with that last bit - in some cases, the
"childlike" quality is getting wearing. i've heard lots of 'IDM'
stuff that just clones AI/Ae/AFX/Amiga ad nauseam (ooh! fuckin'
video game melodies! fuckin' chip music!).
but then again.... the majority of the endless stream of funk-lite
two-step jungle-disco boogie crap reynolds has championed could be
easily accused of lacking weight, listenability (outside of a club)
or any kind of interesting structure.
but comparing music made to serve the fascistic needs of dance clubs
to music made for (whoa) listening might be a might unfair. just
like comparing lo-fi to arena rock.
>I'm not saying that good music hasn't come out of this area--IDM's
>patron saints Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert are household gods chez moi
>(although Autechre and Squarepusher, also patron saints, are
>decidely not), I dig Mike Paradinas, Jega and Boards of Canada.
aphex, sure, but vibert? sounds like elevator jazz to me. and to
ignore/downgrade autechre and squarepusher (who, in my opinion, have
advanced the cause and form of electronic music light years past
anything vibert has done or will ever do) seems kinda... stupid.
>But this music's strongest trait isn't rhythm but melody (all those
>poignant or chipper or glum tunes) and timbre (another thing it has
>in common with lo-fi, an obsession with different grains of
>distortion).
oh, jesus! kill them all! stomp them to the nazi rhythm of techstep
and speed garage! heil heil heil!
i think his inaccuracy is in implying that rhythm isn't an important
part of 'idm' - it is, it's just not club riddims. there's an
interesting article in perfect sound forever
(www.furious.com/perfect/) about tonal and atonal music and the
upsetting qualities of the latter; maybe the same sort of
psychological effects apply to rhythmic and deliberately arrhythmic
music.
and if timbre (sound/tone color) isn't important, let's just go back
to using 303s and 808s. or, hell, the drum machine in my home organ
and an ondes martenot. (hey...might not be a bad idea...)
>Lo-fi and geektronica fans have the same commodity-fetish for wacky
>sleeves and peculiar configurations of vinyl --split singles, one
>sided discs with drawings etched into the other side, flexis, 10
>inches and 7-inches (and soon 8 inches, apparently), double-7inches,
>maxi-EPs and mini-albums.
ahh, to quote abe simpson, "bitch bitch bitch." are you also getting
the feeling that someone kicked this guy out of the 'idm' treehouse
at some point?
>With records coming out in pressings of 250 or even fifty
>(with handpainted covers etc), you have to wonder what's the
>threshold below which music ceases to be a "cultural practice" and
>becomes mere hobbyism? As the phenomenon of music distributed
>through the Internet, downloaded and CD-burned continues to develop,
>this global geektronic network may well devolve into a barter
>economy, with bedroom producers trading their music
>with other artists through the Net.
"DEVOLVE?!?!?"
wouldn't it be horrible if the artists controlled the means of
production and distribution?
this actually brings up an interesting point - when masami akita
started his merzbow project, he wanted the package in it's entirety
to be considered a fetish object - and low production runs were a
necessity caused by a lack of interest in the population at large.
personally, if i ran a label, i doubt i would press more than 500 of
something, AT A TIME. i don't buy the bullshit about "keeping the
music scarce so only true fans will get it," but it's hard to gauge
demand when you're working on such an obscure level. i do think
labels should do something like notype, keeping the music available
in mp3 format. or re-pressing vinyl or compiling things on CD if
there's a demand.
all of the "ultra-rare" records that i've wanted, i've gotten; the
ones i've had to fight to find (supposeX100 or mask3, anywon?) were
rarely worth it.
>Momus recently suggested that rather than everybody being famous for
>5 minutes, in the future everybody will be famous for 15 people.
>That's what it's getting like, and that's why we should be getting
>worried.
what a lot of shit. i wholeheartedly support the breakdown of the
music 'industry' into smaller and smaller pockets as demand dictates;
i think reynolds is more worried about the breakdown of the
social/societal structures of the club scene, 'his' scene, where
music is tangential at best, strictly there to justify peoples' goofy
body movements.
just IMO. of course.
let's change the name of this list to "geektronica-L", huh?
[gr]
--
[http://listen.to/treblequake] [eleet fnema]
trentonian headline 03/23/99:
WHIZ KID'S ROBOT STOLEN
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