Re: (idm) Global Communications for Beginners?

From Che
Sent Tue, Feb 16th 1999, 09:49

At 03:20 PM 2/12/99 +1300, Michael Upton wrote:

>Stil, my impression is that if you substitute
>rhythm sections (and tempos) between the various
>styles, the actual music is often pretty
>interchangeable. NB. _often_, I'm not saying
>that's always the case.

This might be true in the case of a few Global Communication, Reload, and
Link tracks (where there's a bit of genre overlap anyway), but overall it's
not true.  The emotions evoked tend to change w/ the name, and this is a
function of music.  Compare the version of "Natural High" by Global
Communication w/ the version by Chaos & Julia Set.  The former is dreamy,
the latter is sinister and paranoic.  Even though they share a chord
progression, the supporting music is wildly different.  Also, their Deep
House tracks tend to be less dense and structurally simpler than their
other work. 

Here's a (partial) mapping of Moods & Genres to Names:

Name                        Mood                        Genre

GlobComm                Dreamy                        Ambient

GlobComm                Upbeat                        House

Secret Ingredients        Upbeat                        Deep House

New York/New York        Upbeat                        Deep House

Reload                        Sinister                Techno

Reload                        Thoughtful                Soundtrack

Pelusha                        Dreamy                        Beatless Ambient

Link                        Thoughtful                Techno

Chaos & Julia Set        Sinister                Drum&Bass

Chameleon                Dreamy                        Drum&Bass

Jedi Knights                Upbeat                        PseudoFunk/Big Beat


This is, of course, not absolute, just a generalization, as there are
overlaps between their various recording personnae.    I'm trying to
capture the overall feel here.  Reload has done dreamy techno (On Remix, Le
Soleil Et La Mer), GlobComm has done dreamy trip hop (Funk In The Fridge,
Natural High), and Jedi Knights have done dreamy techno (Science Friction
was originally a Link/E621 track, and The Truth, Human Blancmange, Solina
Ascension, and Afterlife sound more like Link than they do the other JK
tracks).  I think that most of the genre overlap is attributable to
contractual obligations.

I think the underlying link between all of Mark & Tom's work is that they
seek to make music with a high emotional content.  In that they rarely fail.

And I hope that their virtual silence in '98 will be followed by a creative
explosion in '99.

Che