IDM is a term/genre widely and understandably loathed by many. few genres can cause irritation based on name alone, but the horrible term for this acronym is "Intelligent Dance Music"

this should already legitimately raise a few hackles among dance and electronic fans everywhere. how the fuck is it intelligent? how is other stuff not? aren't we basing this off the ubiquitous and american stereotype of dance music being mindless club filler and video poker music? is this basically dismissing the dance music that is significantly less 'experimental' but is nonetheless intelligently done and wonderful overall?

listening to it is pretty much an invitation to confirm the initial irritation. it's basically got two modes to choose from: hyperventilating beat fetishism that wont say much to most people except OMG FAST LOL or really epic ambient monoliths of noise and formless drones. it's got tons of sub-categories inside, like the downtempo-but-not clickity clack, but basically you dont want any of it in your car. "oh, i get it. it's 'intelligent' because it's too ADD to patiently and adequately realize its own vision so it just resorts to speed, weirdness, blurts of noise and break fetishism. cute."

i understand this. however. this kind of stuff can be really fucking great.

normally i just leave this alone. nobody except anorak-wearing, bald-guy-from-high-fidelity, two-fisted-mp3-scouting types honestly like autechre, and the whole genre has a cloud of self-important, "open-minded", "music appreciator" hipsters crowding around it ever since thom yorke name dropped half the warp catalogue when kid a came out. they usually get through the outer atmosphere triad of APHEXTWINAUTECHREBOARDSOFCANADA before they burn out. they might get to squarepusher or plaid before being fully satisfied that they have educated themselves properly and they are the good kind of music listeners who like "a bit of everything"

i remember the exact moment i wrote this kind of music off for dead. i think it was in 2001. Broadcast were exciting everyone by dicking around and throwing stuff down the stairs, and Aphex Twin disappointed nearly everyone with Drukqs (dont give me any shit on this. the few tenacious sad sacks who rated it 10 stars were in shock and denial. RDJ blew his wad on programming stunts that were half shit and a quarter solid, making the rest, a bunch of treated piano tracks, the best part), and u-ziq's label were busy making drill n bass even more drill-y and obtuse. my favorite, Autechre, seemed doomed to pioneer the sexless land of studied abstraction of hip hop and dance by themselves after Confield, which was amazing, but no one could copy them after that stunt. Then came Brothomstates. i suppose everything was coming to a head anyway, but my frustration with shitty, SHITTY similes ("like a robot garbage truck trying to fit under low-clearance bridges"), an increasing predictability, and FOUR years of recycling Autechre's ultra-limber metal acrobatics of LP5 (which was still better than all the copycats), i came to the realization that this is the end. it's gone where it could, and its producers were just jacking around with what was given to them. it became filter without a cause, making no attempt to actually progress and make an identity for themselves. Brothomstates were the most identifiable parts of Plaid (who were strangely popular at the time before everyone realized how boring 'double figure' was and left) and Autechre clumsily blended, made boring, and spat back out. it made me sad, because it had a fantastic album cover.

Warp probably knew this, and stuck with their big names, but began to noticeably add music with guitars, real drums... basically, bands. !!! and gravenhurst infiltrated and Broadcast made the song-oriented 'Haha Sound' while beginners like Milanese were dropped. Milanese would go on to make "Extend", which was sorta kinda lumped into the "if you like dubstep..." category but i personally thought it was too stupidly abrasive to fit there. i left just as everyone was lining up to poke around, asking what else they should listen to because "man, boards of canada are awesome!"

since then warp has had time to make a healthy blend of things, and next to the white-boy soul-freak Jamie Lidell we have young french perverts like Jackson and his computer band and detroit-bred designer drug user jimmy edgar keeping sounds alternately lewd, and slick, weird, and new. battles acheived the impossible by making an offshoot of mathrock that was both listenable and maddeningly fun.

i wouldnt have taken this as an actual resurgence in Warp's relevance, more of a fluke or a good run, until i heard some of that proper IDM stereeotype with a twist that would be at least three of the four things: interesting, different, fully developed (non-gimmicky), and with some weight. too often this genre likes to skitter around with no substance to its beats and empty calories for melody, building that emaciation as worthwhile when it just pisses off perfectly reasonable people.

And then there's Chris Clark.

he's fast turning into one of my favorite musicians ever, based on the releases surrounding and including Body Riddle (Throttle furniture, ted ep, throttleclark, throttle promoter), and having a newfound appreciation for "empty the bones of you". Body Riddle especially, is one of those very special albums to me which feel so natural that i feel that those sounds mirror those i'd want to hear if i made music. it's not just being inspired or getting inside, but living in those sounds and feeling at home instead of "approaching it"

he fits pretty comfortably on the warp label, but it's got punch and an impact that feels more acoustic and solid. it tears fabric and sets its layers down like enormous wooden logs. it doesn't just sound organic, but like the dirt and the earth itself moving underneath. his ideas get more distinctive and fully realized with each album, but he has surprising versatility, being effective and nuanced with grand ambience, singe-inducing d'n'b freakout, and everything in between. i'm not saying that there's not some heavy influence from people exactly like autechre, 1996 era type stuff to be specific, and it's still not anything you want in your car, but my faith in the genre working today has been restored in a big way as something still changing, developing, and being exciting again.

so i picked out some tracks that, if you're a bit interested, i hope you listen to. i add them here instead of leaving well enough alone with one because he has such a range and it's all beautiful.

03 Bruise Animations.mp3 03 Urgent Jell Hack.mp3 05 Ted.mp3 07 Vengeance Drools.mp3 07 Wolf.mp3 10 Farewell Track.mp3 04 Herzog.mp3 12 Gravel (Obliterated).mp3

his new album, Turning Dragon, comes out in a few weeks, and although it hasn't leaked yet, i'm pretty excited about it. press releases are saying the layered swirl that was all around body riddle is largely absent in favor of even heavier productions and rave-tinged pounding, but the album sample clark put on his own website gives it a bit more dimension than that.

throttleclark.com

(image by me)

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i havent even gotten that good at it but making mixes with the kind of "High Fidelity"-esque flow that's almost subconsciously effective has gotten so boring to me in the last year. a great mix is a great mix, but stepping back and looking at the process of it, there's not much joy in it after the creation of it. runs like clockwork, nothing to jar you out of the groove or rudely interrupt the vibe. sure, you can gradually get there, but come on.

boring.

does anyone else know what i mean when i say i'm making ones that are more of a "goodie bag?"

i made this monster 50 track mix the day the new year. it's badly mixed and most of it is picked on instinct. far too much of it is throwing in tunes i had forgotten about from years ago that i still like. i like it a lot more conceptually than trying to make a perfect, diverse, and thoughtful one. the kind you listen to again and again until it's becomes inseperable from the mix and the time you made it. seems so pointless at that stage, like that's exactly what you arent supposed to do with music. as for actual listening it makes for a strange, formless thing where good songs just lines themseleves up without much a care where it came from. and they;re good so i dont end up skipping them. i feel better about this. like i've made a mix that wasnt distracted with work and jut exists out of goodness and spontaneity. this doesnt mean i'm mixing the new Goldfrapp with Whitehouse anytime soon, but it's certainly freed up the fun factor.

aaaanyway, some of you should get ready to laugh (with a bit of fondness anyway):

Koji Kondo - Lost Woods (ocarina of time sndtrk ftw) Wagonchrist - Lovely Sissy Spacek - Song 19c Beck - Diamond Bollocks Underworld - Born Slippy 2003 (Down Version) Tepr - Minuit Jacuzzi Brendon Small - Hot Dog Music Spank Rock - Race Riot on the Dancefloor Cyriak - No More Memory Shining - The Red Room Sebastian Tellier and Mr Oizo - Hashis Vers Funkstorung - Dirt Empire Westbam - Beatbox Rocker Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - Apache Buffalo Daughter - Robot Sings (as if he were frank sinatra with an egg and the salt shaker on a breakfast table) Herbert - Birds of a Feather Jacques Brel - Quand on a que l'amour Air - Le Soleil est pres de moi Stevie Wonder - I Wish Feadz - Edwrecker Underworld - King of Snake (september 97) Chok Rock - Buzz Clark - Urgent Jell Hack Chromeo - Opening Up (Ce Soir on Danse) Cassius - Cassius 1999 Fatboy Slim - Always Read the Label The Gossip - Standing in the way of Control (Soulwax rmx) Jamelia - Something about You (Oizo rmx) Hostage - I'm High Shy FX - Bambaata Back to the Core Prodigy - Rhythm of Life British Murder Boys - Don't Give in to Fear Chris Liebing and Speedy J - Cream 3 Jonny L. - See Red Amon Tobin - Four Ton Mantis Matmos - Live Balloon track Underworld - Autotrader4/Fonestrap6 Caribou - Sunsesame Books - Classy Penguin Kalabrese - Heartbreak Hotel Digital Mystikz - Awake Kode 9 + Spaceape - 9 Samurai Chemical Brothers - These Beats are made for Breakin Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya - Fuck Friend Squarepusher - Chin Hippy Shitmat - That goat's skull aint no good for salivating k-head zombies Cornelius - Seashore and Horizon Avalanches - Little Journey Avalanches - Live at Dominoes Thomas Bangalter - So Much Love To Give

here's Westbam's ludicrous party-baiting gem of 1998 german technoelectro ridiculousness. i still love it today!

ps: i wont be mixing the new goldfrapp with anything by the way because it's a bunch of bullshit nonsense. chemical brothers did that whole album better in one song called "asleep from day"

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