BT

[mcbpete]

Real WATMMers only listen to his CDs after first smashing them into pieces then melting them back together, to add the appropriate amount of glitchiness.

[kaini]

Real WATMMers only listen to his CDs after first smashing them into pieces then melting them back together, to add the appropriate amount of glitchiness.

 

yeah, oval's new album is gonna be great

[purlieu]

let's have a thread about Chicane and then one about Cascada.

Now come on, Chicane's first album was at least 60,000 times better than anything BT (and fucking Cascada) ever did.

 

The Antikythera Mechanism is awful. This is the best thing from This Binary Universe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvFpWCUlxQ

[Guest couch]

As I'm a fan of music, not musicians, I don't care about the first point.

Seriously, I envy you on this. I will not/cannot listen to music if the person who makes it is a douchebag, even if I would otherwise like it (last step and acidwolf, for example) because I cannot separate their personality from the music.

I think it depends on the music. Glen Benton being a douchebag greatly enhances the image of Deicide. Though I know from hanging with him he isn't a douche until you put a camera on him.

[autopilot]

*builds a fort and climbs to the highest parapet before delivering his opinion from safely out of reach*

 

I've avoided most of this guy's music, but I feel that it could suit under specific circumstances. like, if I was in da futuristik club with outrageously hot females, in a scene out of some movie or, indeed, that Somnambulist clip. I would probably dance to this garbage and have a good time. I mean, I've danced to fucking T-Pain

 

does anyone else feel like they'd be weirded out if IDM or whatever other hardcore non-mainstream music was being played in popular clubs? I'd rather not mix those two worlds. although I suppose there are exceptions in terms of good places with good crowds...

 

I played a party last week where we were all getting crunk to some glitched out live electronica & DJ sets. There's a pretty popular IDM monthly here (though nobody calls it that). I opened with the Autechre remix of Skeng and people were flipping out.

[Npoess]

Oh god. This could turn into a new Skrillex thread.

[ZoeB]

does anyone else feel like they'd be weirded out if IDM or whatever other hardcore non-mainstream music was being played in popular clubs?

 

I don't really go to clubs or pubs, but if an American director / digital historian who isn't particularly into IDM has seen the video to Rewind (I didn't even realise it had a video until he mentioned it), I'm guessing the whole genre isn't exactly a secret. :) I remember a TV show using snippets of Windowlicker as the stinger music, and you can barely watch a BBC documentary without some Brian Eno or Boards of Canada playing. So people are being subjected to that kind of music quite a bit, just maybe not as consciously as at clubs. Then again, I've heard of people playing such music at clubs too, so great.

 

I don't really get why people want the things they like to be unpopular. Or, for that matter, why some artists seem to want the things they make to be unpopular. For all this posturing, if you specifically want things you make to be a secret, then you do care what other people think.

 

Self disgust is self obsession, honey.

[ZoeB]

Oh god. This could turn into a new Skrillex thread.

 

Seriously, you people aren't just ranking musicians based on how boring their haircut is, right? That'd see Kraftwerk and Ursula Bogner slugging it out for the most nonchalant credibility, while Skrillex and BT wouldn't have a chance. Meanwhile, Daft Punk and Deadmou5 are too mainstream to even have visible hair. It all makes sense now...

[Guest Fatcaesar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_tjQSdl30

 

This is good, no one can say otherwise

it's *decent* and as it's not really king douche himself behind most of it I'm sure, I probably wouldn't mind listening to it if it didn't have the name BT attached to it. the BT stigma is just too much for me though.

also as it's more of a product and not music as an expression, it doesn't have any real emotion to it.

 

It might be a product yea, and that's bad alone, as you say i have a hard time listening to anything that has "BT" written to it, but this album, i just forget it's him (or maby someone else as you say?) and i like it, soul? hmm.. i think it has, it's beautiful, but it's the same there, a matter of taste, like some hate hecq and some love him, same with the flashbulb.

 

Dunno if aphex twin's quote fits here, "i just listen to it" can't really remember the exact quote, but he said there's no meaning to electronic music, just listen to it.

 

And don't crucify me for this, i might be wrong on the quote.

[Guest Fatcaesar]

Oh god. This could turn into a new Skrillex thread.

 

Seriously, you people aren't just ranking musicians based on how boring their haircut is, right? That'd see Kraftwerk and Ursula Bogner slugging it out for the most nonchalant credibility, while Skrillex and BT wouldn't have a chance. Meanwhile, Daft Punk and Deadmou5 are too mainstream to even have visible hair. It all makes sense now...

does anyone else feel like they'd be weirded out if IDM or whatever other hardcore non-mainstream music was being played in popular clubs?

 

I don't really go to clubs or pubs, but if an American director / digital historian who isn't particularly into IDM has seen the video to Rewind (I didn't even realise it had a video until he mentioned it), I'm guessing the whole genre isn't exactly a secret. :) I remember a TV show using snippets of Windowlicker as the stinger music, and you can barely watch a BBC documentary without some Brian Eno or Boards of Canada playing. So people are being subjected to that kind of music quite a bit, just maybe not as consciously as at clubs. Then again, I've heard of people playing such music at clubs too, so great.

 

I don't really get why people want the things they like to be unpopular. Or, for that matter, why some artists seem to want the things they make to be unpopular. For all this posturing, if you specifically want things you make to be a secret, then you do care what other people think.

 

Self disgust is self obsession, honey.

 

 

Two really good answers, i fully agree.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Fatcaesar

[Guest CraniumXII]

Please, no 100 page thread!

 

I used to like BT, before I discovered better music :/

 

Sorry, this can easily get into the subjectivity of music, a discussion which was talked about at length in the Skrillex thread. I'll just say that I prefer dissonant sounds, or awkward chord progressions. I find that his music is very major, and I wanna say it's formulaic because I think it's music made to be widely accepted. Nothing wrong with that... just not my cup of tea.

 

The vocals completely kill it for me, but otherwise there are redeeming qualities in some of the music. I dunno about shadow producers, but I'm inclined to believe that he has a lot of help. I thought the first bit off his newest album, sounded pretty good... That lasted about 1 minute, before the terrible vocals kicked in. He could at least have something better to say.

Edited April 16, 2012 by CraniumXII

[Guest CraniumXII]

Too late to re-edit...

 

I shoulda said that "This Binary Universe" is a fairly good album, BT's name aside. Reminds me of the Flashbulb.

Edited April 16, 2012 by CraniumXII

[Guest Fatcaesar]

http://www.discogs.com/BT-These-Hopeful-Machines/release/2114367

 

he's been working with pretty big names

[joseph]

lol at how ppl are jumping into the personality issue

 

just listen to the music

 

it fucking sucks!

[soundwave]

BT was a cut above the rest back in the good ole days of progressive trance and all that PVD, Sasha/Digweed bollocks that was ace at the time but kinda makes me cringe now but thats not to say the likes of Four-tet arent trying to recycle this shit to hipsters today

 

I liked the first two BT albums back then especially being a Jarre fan as a youngun but found the later stuff disposable and forgettable (same with jarre) but my tastes have become more refined since online shopping and discovering Autechre properly.

 

Oh yeah and i also think Uwe Schmidt should have his own sub forum.

Edited April 16, 2012 by soundwave

[SCONES TO DIE FOR]

BT...

 

 

Kato Kaelin...

 

 

Separated at birth?

[Goiter Sanchez]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_tjQSdl30

 

This is good, no one can say otherwise

 

This is actually pretty good...

[Guest CraniumXII]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_tjQSdl30

 

This is good, no one can say otherwise

 

This is actually pretty good...

 

That is actually the track I played most. I heard this album when I decided to revisit his music. I enjoyed it a fair bit.

[acid1]

BT has more skills then most of the people on WATMM. BT thinks he's IDM and probably is but the IDM community hasen't allowed him in the front door yet. BT graduated from Berkley, so the the IDM community thinks he believes he is better then everyone else. BT probably is also friends with Skrillex and was nominated for a Grammy last year, but didn't win, as Skrillex did.

 

/me enjoys the next 5-10 pages of hate

[Goiter Sanchez]

does anyone else feel like they'd be weirded out if IDM or whatever other hardcore non-mainstream music was being played in popular clubs?

I don't really get why people want the things they like to be unpopular. Or, for that matter, why some artists seem to want the things they make to be unpopular. For all this posturing, if you specifically want things you make to be a secret, then you do care what other people think.

 

I think it derives from the conceit of people wanting to displace or distance themselves from what they perceive to be unrefined, junk-culture that is easily metabolized by the philistine masses. These people feel they have earned the right to listen to more left-field music because certain compositional elements or production tricks deviate from the Pop-music idiom of 4/4, I-IV-V, 3:30, Love/Sex/Adolescent Angst lyrical content...

 

Once elements of this experimental music are diluted, refined and repackaged as a snack that everyone can enjoy (as has already happened many times before with countless musical genera) these self-professed musical cognoscente are up in arms because they're forced to forge something more concrete (a personality perhaps) if they are to continue to distance themselves from the cultural identity they don't want.

[guyd]

I use to be a fan of his stuff when I was 15, but I can still fuck with a couple of his songs. The vocals he uses in his tracks are complete shit, but when I hear Flaming June, I can't help but get nostalgic. This is the only track by him that's on my ipod now. The lyrics are kind of shit, but the beat is pretty good.

 

 

 

Also, he did some production on Raekwons Only Built for Cuban Linx 2 which was decent.

[kcinsu]

He did not graduate from Berklee. He attended for 1-2 semesters and dropped out. Berklee just likes to make it sound like famous people graduated from there, regardless of how long they attended. They call Chick Corea an alum despite the fact that they expelled him for smoking weed.

 

He does have strong ties with Berklee now, though.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Kcinsu

[ZoeB]

Well now this thread is getting interesting... It sounds like acid1 and Goiter Sanchez are onto something.

 

I think I've had this argument before, when I was a teenager. I drew an anarchy symbol with the letter A neatly inside the circle and someone told me I couldn't do that. I never did like the idea that I have to do something a certain way, even when it simply means I have to rebel all the time and can't ever do the "normal" thing sometimes just because it's fun... If you feel like you constantly have to act a certain way just to be different for the sake of it, then that's not really freedom.

 

I've been listening to These Hopeful Machines a bit lately, and I believe it's good for the same reason Drukqs is: someone with a love of sounds and music has spent many years honing their music making craft, and then has spent many more months on a single album, painstakingly micro-editing together an eclectic blend of sounds and styles as they see fit. I don't really see how one is IDM and the other is... whatever it is... or why one has artistic integrity and the other doesn't. If it's just because one of them is more successful than the other, then that's silly, he's only more successful because of things like his inclusion of lead vocalists singing lyrics as the focus of the songs. I think both instrumental music and songs can be great, and wouldn't want to live without either. Of course, everyone has their own valid personal preferences, but it seems silly to dismiss music just because it's unashamedly enjoyable to listen to, or popular.

 

This is my own fault, for listening to pop music the other year, and discovering that some of it is good. Now I realised how elitist I was being before, and I really can't go back to that.

 

I don't know... if I have to be against people who studied music at uni, that's just as bad as if I have to be against people who didn't. Both are valid paths to pursuing a passion for music making. I came here to share a fanaticism of good music, not to squabble over whether someone has artistic merit due to their lack of a decent haircut and shoes. That's completely besides the point. Really though, I shouldn't do either, when I should be actually making music instead of merely talking about it.

 

I think I'm out. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

[Guest Ron Manager]

What a dandy fopp. 100 page thread? Let's do this.

Oh god. This could turn into a new Skrillex thread.

Please, no 100 page thread!

 

To the oldies: wasn't BT the circa 2004 WATMM equivalent of Skrillex? Or am I thinking of another forum?

[YO303]

Zoe:

 

You lost me when you compared BT with Drukqs. BT is just a dutch wannabe that wants to be Autechre so bad but doesn't have the intellect nor the creative vision to archive those high standards. Its all good if you like his music but when you start comparing him with artists such as AFX and Autechre i'm just gonna think you are either mental or trolling.

Edited April 16, 2012 by YO303