From Chris Fahey Sent Wed, Jul 1st 1998, 14:55
From Chris Fahey Sent Wed, Jul 1st 1998, 14:55
> Some Andrew Weatherall remixes of My Bloody Valentine and other (Creation
> label) stuff sometimes would have idm-ish moments. They are mostly great
> grooves with odd percussion, but don't syncopate quite enough to really
> get the retroactively labelled "idm". By the way, for those concerned
> about the "intelligent" part of idm, why not call it "sdm", for
Syncopation is certainly a common characteristic of much IDM. But it's
not at all a steadfast rule - Aphex Twin is not a funky person and to call
his beats syncopated would make Duke Ellington spin in his grave. On the
other hand, people like Global Goon don't use it at all and are still IDM to
me. Although I find the syncopated beat to be potentially a very beautiful
thing, I think it's overused in IDM to the point of defeating the purpose,
which is to be funky.
Syncopation is what makes funk. Syncopation is what makes swing.
Syncopation is a *dance* motif. All IDM (and some recent d&b tracks with
programmed beats) have accomplished is the reintroduction of syncopation to
a genre (electronic dance music) which had forgotten it for so long (due to
the lack of live drummers and the emphasis on mechanical repetition).
I would say that when it comes to effective, beautiful syncopation, hip
hop has IDM beat by light years, in both beats and in the rhymes. Listen to
Snoop or Wu-Tang (get well soon ODB!) rhyme and you'll hear amazing
syncopation. Remember Black Sheep's "The Choice is Yours" with the
"yeah...c'mon?" sample? That was some dope syncopation. Most IDM syncopation
is the result of either a blind pursuit of "totally fucked up beats" or the
result of sampling a genuinely funky drum loop. Rarely do I hear IDM get
funky. Plug does it best I'd say, some Squarepusher too.
-Cf
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