Autechre Newer IDM

[Guest theSun]

when i listen to new shit such as arovane, proem, telefon tel aviv, apparat, and a bunch of other newer idm artists, i generally come away feeling disappointed. it's as if they are able to define what is cool/desirable/listenable and just throw it at you in idm format. technically, a lot of these guys are great. TTA has some fantastic editing, arovane has nice melodies, apparat sounds very well put together, like a lot of time was spent EQing and mastering his tunes. but again, i don't feel the same excitement and i think i know why.

 

when listening to my own personal holy grail of music that is autechre, i find i have to work to figure out what's happening. it's the old "first time you hear it doesn't mean anything" argument that so many people employ. the first time i heard proem's negativ, i thought it was fantastic stuff. really ace edits, sweeping synths, complex beats, everything that i thought drew me to ae/afx/sp. but after a week or so listening i felt oddly turned off by it and haven't touched his stuff again until recently.

 

there is simply not enough conflict in this new shit. the arrangement of songs is such that everything is just blam! thrown at you here's a nice pretty song or here's a nice aggressive beat. whereas with ae, they throw those pretty things in there, bury them and wait for you to find how it redefines the song. take the 10 minute mark of sublimit. the synth line that is in there took me a while to discover, but once i did it totally opened the song for me.

 

but this is a constant battle in music, and it depends on what the artist is striving for. if they want listenability, there probably wouldn't be much room for songs like xylin room or 54 cymru beats. and that's my main point here, if you're still reading, is that i feel a lot of this new idm is idm without the innovation. it's all pop music. everyone knows how to make a glitchy beat with live presets and a warm synth, but that obviously doesn't mean anyone can make a quality song. it's why artists like ae and afx progress and arovane/apparat/etc all make similar sounding albums.

 

anyone share in my discontent for the majority of idm acts? some more that don't fall into this category are four tet, caribou (though not really idm anymore), clark, mouse on mars and of course wisp. all these acts bring something new to the table that is fairly unique sounding to me at least.

[Guest spraaaa]

idm is lumped together in a marketing sense only and these are probably people with totally different attitudes towards life coming at the music from different backgrounds. the others you mentioned compared to autechre that is. a lot of it sounds like people who want to chill out and not push things further or make them exciting, so does dubstep and minimal to me though. don't bother trying to be satisfied by it, listen to lightning bolt or some oldschool hardcore mixes instead.

[Guest chax]

Even though there are a ton of generalizations in your original post theSun, I definitely disagree with you on a bunch of things. First of all, not everyone is looking for crazy, abstract, experimental music like autechre, when they want to listen to alternative electronic music that isn't house, techno or pure ambient, or whatever. Sure, sometimes people want to be challenged, but I think that the majority of people would rather listen to something that sounds 'nice' with a good flow and medley while doing other things like maybe browsing the internet, reading, driving, biking, etc. The really abstract stuff requires your full attention, and is definitely not appropriate for a lot of different situations. Some artists could try to 'push boundaries' and go crazy but then the vast majority of the public wouldn't listen to them (which a lot of people already don't listen to IDM). In fact a lot of IDM on it's own really is a challenge enough for the average listener, coming from either a rock background or a pop/top 40 background. I have experience of getting people to listen to Boards of Canada who don't ever listen to electronic music and they were definitely "confused" by it, which is kind of funny but not everyone has the kind of musical intelligence or experience to understand IDM when popular music is "handed" to them in a way, if you get what I mean. But yeah not everything has to be "innovative" in itself, in order to create good music, and in fact it could be argued that just because something is labeled is innovative doesn't make it somehow better. I've listened to a lot of horrible innovative/experimental music. Overall though, the reason why there isn't more crazy music like you're talking about is that there just basically isn't an audience for it due to the fact that a lot of people don't have the musical literacy for it.

[QBLA]

one of my close friends used to make idm music. he had little to no gigs in those days... then he started doing hyphy style hip hop and has a pretty nice size following in southern california and had a mention in urb's next 1000 or something! i don't know where i'm going with this.

[Guest IRARI]

i definitely disagree with you about arovane, especially about him not progressing

[YEK]

the artists listed seem to be ambient techno. try some other stuff.

[Silent Member]

I understand this. I try to hide things in my music, but this is not about me,so I'll shut up about that. I find a lot of new idm to be pretty flat/empty/soulless the production is great, but there is no reward for repeated listening and it bugs the hell out of me.

[Guest hahathhat]

i've always preferred drukqs idm to autechre idm. vordhosbn... yeah. you'll get a lot with repeated listens, but it still gives you itchy tingles on the first pass.

[awepittance]

and that's my main point here, if you're still reading, is that i feel a lot of this new idm is idm without the innovation. it's all pop music. everyone knows how to make a glitchy beat with live presets and a warm synth, but that obviously doesn't mean anyone can make a quality song. it's why artists like ae and afx progress and arovane/apparat/etc all make similar sounding albums.

 

for me Arovane and Apparat definitly fall into this category of 'pop music' you are describing, so i can't get on board with the premise that they too don't fall prey to what you've just described. For me IDM always meant a fun playfulness with experimental electronic music in the confines of a pop like or dance structure. Very few artists still going channel this, most are just doing basically what you've just described, referencing the conventions of IDM without accomplishing anything that innovative. IDM like any other genre now has parameters and rules. It's no longer about experimenting and pushing the envelope at least as far as i can tell.

[AJW]

I know what you mean, theSun. After immersing myself completely in Autechre for an entire summer season, I was at a loss and no music could get 'up there' where Autechre is for me.

 

I have started listening to some hip hop again (Antipop Consortium, Quasimoto, DJ Vadim) having breaks from Autechre, managed to get quite into Druqks this time around.

 

Let us know if you find something comparable with Autechre

[awepittance]

i think richard devine has been pushing things and creating a new sound, but he hasn't released anything in so fucking long people forget about him.

Frog Pocket's also worth mentioning , as well as Team Doyobii think both of these artists stand out from a lot of the typical conventions of idm

[bossman]

"i have to work to figure out what's happening" is a good way to describe idm

[kakapo]

when i listen to new shit such as arovane

 

Arovane was about in the 90s and hasn't released anything for nearly six years.

[perunamuusi]

monster muncg > idm

[sneaksta303]

just about anything > "IDM"

[markedone]

I know you guys will jump on me for this (though I'd love for someone to defend it and point out my erroneous ways), but I get a strong feeling of this "by the book IDM" from Wisp. It sounds kind of cool, but has little lasting appeal to my ears. Have I just not given it enough of a chance?

[Blir]

i think richard devine has been pushing things and creating a new sound, but he hasn't released anything in so fucking long people forget about him.

Frog Pocket's also worth mentioning , as well as Team Doyobii think both of these artists stand out from a lot of the typical conventions of idm

 

I love Richard Devine, but when I listen to him I always get the feeling that he's "forcing" a mechanical IDM sound. Probably because he's so unbelievably skilled with his equipment. Doesn't seem to come naturally like AE, who you know were just fucking about with a hiphop beat before they mutated it into Pen Expers for instance.

 

Maybe I'm just pissy because Devine is always banging on about new kit he's tried, posting videos of this on his Facebook and releasing sample libraries but not working on new material it seems!

[Guest theSun]

when i listen to new shit such as arovane

 

Arovane was about in the 90s and hasn't released anything for nearly six years.

 

i'm basically talking about post-early warp era. i guess arovane isn't really new but he is a player the beginning of this trend that i see in idm.

 

for the record i'm only saying idm because i don't know what else to call this music.

 

as far as wisp, all i can think about with his stuff is playing epic video games from childhood to my fairly recent WoW addiction. i suppose he's not as innovative as ae/afx but i always know when i'm listening to wisp. i know a lot of people are gonna hate me but most times i prefer listening to his pre-nrthndr stuff. the newer stuff is fantastic but it has a certain maturity that seems a little limiting.

 

i'll have to check out team doyobi and more richard devine. anyone else have any innovative artists they'd like to recommend for instant street cred?

[Blir]

Pan Sonic maybe? Never really IDM and certainly not for everyone but they operate in their own lofi self indulgent niche which I find very appealing. Their latest album Katodivaihe is a great place to start.

 

Oh, not melodic though.

 

Also, give Download a listen if you're not familiar already. Eyes of Stanley Pain and Furnace are massive recommendations. Still not heard their latest though...

[awesomeperson]

I know you guys will jump on me for this (though I'd love for someone to defend it and point out my erroneous ways), but I get a strong feeling of this "by the book IDM" from Wisp. It sounds kind of cool, but has little lasting appeal to my ears. Have I just not given it enough of a chance?

 

 

It's the equivalent of fast food except it doesn't taste that great either and has too much cucumber.

[AJW]

monster muncg > idm

 

A bag of pickled onion flavour monster munch and Confield on some sweet headphones and I'm happy

[perunamuusi]

sweet headphones

[Guest reyde_espana]

i think people sometimes get too attached to the braindance of the past...

 

it sometimes happens to me too... you remember being completely shocked and amazed while hearing AFX or Autechre for the first time... but when you listen to lets say... Clark or Wisp it all just seems DONE...

 

well that is not the case... we must give new artists a chance... the genre if you think about is still in its early stages... every year we hear more and more inventive stuff... and in 20 years who knows... it might have super leaped into something unrecognizable...

 

rock and roll and surely gone through its paces... and you could say "nothing really exiting has happened since Little Richard".... but you would be missing a whole lot of progression.

 

ok then... those where my incoherent 2 cents...

 

the champagne is getting to my head...

[springymajig]

First of all... Arovane, Proem and Telefon Tel Aviv are hardly what I'd call new...

 

Secondly.... I think that artists like Wisp offer something other than innovation, I like Wisp cos he's always written really sweet melodies and something as simple as that is really really hard to find in ANY genre.

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

the name idm is so retarded. who cares what music is what anyway. sometimes it seems as if some people are just trying to make music just so it can be pigeon-holed into some pre existing genre and the preconceptions based on that genre.

 

if anything just make something without expecting the placement it will get