Thread for music such as IDM, glitch, abstract-oriented and all kind of experimental electronica.https://youtu.be/_8lKp4IerpA?is=vyYa_dUg3EoHQbci
>>129940605https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c5M7L90-iI the black dog, obscure
posting speedy j cuz he is quite overlooked from the original artifical intelligence series that created the term idmhis music is pretty good, arguably his later techno music is better but his role in idm is still importanthttps://youtu.be/T9358xriHR0?si=sH-PPQtApczfb4xs
>>129940605>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8lKp4IerpA&t=1570sdamn this part kicks ass
>>129941562Crunchy
I assume we may dance?Enjoy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imz3toPGVqk
>>129942845https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH6ppQ2-ya8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysY_uTor_0cGreed eats your soul.You don't need it.
I guess it was only a matter of time before this dude made a straight-up Jazz Fusion record. It's good for what it is, but it does absolutely nothing for me.https://squarepusher.bandcamp.com/album/kammerkonzert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApiSnfd4Srk>>129943029Never met the guy IRL yet, I think.But squares have been pushed, indeed.
Why are IDM nerds always so harsh with Tom Jenkinson? I swear, this never happen with any other of his contemporaries.I mean, RDJ could release a demo full of farts on soundcloud and everyone would be gushing over it.
>>129943296I love Squarepusher. I just don't like his newest album... at all.
>>129943296>I mean, RDJ could release a demo full of farts on soundcloud and everyone would be gushing over it.That's kinda the joke.I guess.If memory serves right, it was 1999 or so when IM posted a PsyTrance song made. I think, entirely of fart samples on Isratrance.
In the end, we're all just heaps of cells moving around, hoping to have a good time.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUio2S6A4mwWell, respect, you silly talented guys.Love ya.
>>129943296I'd say it's because he veers into quirky sporkcore but so does RDJ so idk.
>>129943583u drunk fäm?
>>129943708Drunk on what?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BACeVP7TTFo
>>129943755Jenkem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBMR1ti9E8o
new Lone album today. waited a long time for this
>>129943781That would just be methane, right?
>>129943946Not his best work but good shit anyhow
>>129940605>AutechreNext album when?
>>129948276They stated they're not interested in making studio albums anymore, only livesets.
>>129952475HELL YEAH
>>129943946I like it, but why did he remove most subbass?This album sounds so thin.
Is this the gabber thread? I want to get into the genre but my literal only experience with it is the Ridge Racer 1 soundtrack.
I've grown fond of the Illian Tape style ambient breakbeatshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPtlMAcHT7Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_yGsOV0hVs
>>129952601I miss albums honestly.
>>129948276I'm hoping the recordings from US tour get released sometime soon. The Minneapolis show was wild, I need to relive that set in some form.
>>129941211>>129942553BOC getting into the coffee bizRIP Starbucks
>>129940605I prefer rockhttps://youtu.be/fyo9v-9T8JI?si=h5_KPCCrYNz9E8el
>>129940674Coincidentally just found this guy a week or two ago.
>>129943029Usually I can take or leave Squarepusher but I'm digging this a lot actually, though I am a sucker for electronics mixed with orchestra
>>129952892Unironically just look up gabber/hardcore playlists on youtubeAlso there's this series of mixes called Thunderdome, but it's a lot of hit or misshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL17Zr7gW_shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei3i7W2nz74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQFfQqmIAiI
>>129943029That sounds like he just clicked ‘random’ in some AI MIDI generator and then threw in 25-year-old preset sounds from a DAW.
>>129960571I think a lot of this is "le classical music reinterpretation with midi, synths and VSTs", and it often sounds uncanny and that makes it associate with AI.
The legendary Out Ass Mao / Osamu Sato has released a couple of albums in the last years. Is electronica healing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi0I7fs8B5Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmg4842vjQg
>>129940605https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULRIzEjWEx8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xPKHnPJd6Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQzN4wFG0Yhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDxf-KZpcshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP8iYGSUzuAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Y4QyihHxMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQzCrGHx24khttps://youtu.be/PbHGVChb4rQ?si=qnZqkhn9AZbNhkIB&t=710 (aphex worship)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fivMJ4ExdoEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyURtvH6CXohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70nYnKbKdghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn6xVnYtMJYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoyiG9GzsTUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbB8l1yrNqYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RLrL5uFywwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMH9C8BgGLghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBbgW2Z3Kghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsl4qQtZ4-Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw9ZBp9vm4Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0aQ9sY90Bshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycVgiEH7kHYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPVLFmhcCeo (aphex worship)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=858pdeGJgCQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks1HCT31vH4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPaYYFFStf0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nfm0FZ7yB0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5oPN3QkdYkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrlEfuAl1Gkidm is fake and not a real genre>>129942845>>129942913>>129951734>>129959709but this isnt it and also bad
>>129959709>>129956756>>129952892Not IDM or related to the thread.
>>129969493This specific chart has been floating around since even before the /mu/ canon existed, true story
why are ppl spamming charts unrelated to this thread >>129964086thank you for these links, i have discovered something truly magnificent this day and i feel like i gotta share some stuff as wellhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSPSdpExfnkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SJWOCE1OE4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxYDOKL-sEYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAuehJyXu7Yhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkfpnFIDAschttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uu1r0nVcGEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwpQQPuraSE&https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi-ul8wHgB0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ItPUgVtAiQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQbueay1OYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHFbCWMnuz0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPc-cFGqWEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CxJf5Yhsaw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYj6-vWXWckhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73n8NeWbun4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvx8NrjPNBUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3g_TCWqPh8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rivCIGWG9aQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oEIlLLEuy4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR1LJr3lO1Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwPz48VpWvAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOQDQnnV8yIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFBRiSfHetEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa8IqCfYXzYwish i was this good at making music to publish such pieces of art
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B35LE3_9UM8
Anyone else into Future Sound of London? Their latest Environments trilogy has been quite nostalgic.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX9IEpZD2ygAre there any good copycats?
Favorite current labels? I'm digging Hymen Records
>>129978598I'm a Kompakt kinda guy.
>>129940605Grischa Lichtenberger https://youtu.be/I-0VweGWvwM?is=UPX4KGajBqyS2ayohttps://youtu.be/dDgrCa4ijWo?is=mg1aPvvF6XUUDuUOhttps://youtu.be/eRRmAOjTR_Y?is=1MB_vmTpnG4miePkhttps://youtu.be/xgmMQE6rDWg?is=z-gU2-kP3cUPrfwM
>>129978598Chain Reaction, Raster Noton, Editions Mego, Presto Records.
>>129980247Good taste In case you're not familiar, check out Evel, Nakid, Superpang, Nyege Nyege Tapes, and Pan.https://kakuhan.bandcamp.com/album/metal-zone
https://valentinamagaletti.bandcamp.com/album/seismothis is really good
>>129980551It's pretty good, but it would be better if it was a bit more stripped down imo
>>129981756nonce slop
Ass
>>129981756Why are you posting this here? Make an industrial general, retard.
>>129984404Don't forget that B12 thread which got killed off the board because an Anon spammed Pitchfork reviews in it
>>129985789>>129981756>>129975890>>129971937>>129969493>>129967319>>129959709>>129956756>>129951734What the fuck even is this bot, did it interpret idm as industrial dance music or what, why have random threads over the past month suddenly been spammed with this shit
>>129985012
>>129985012That B12 thread was in the catalog for a whole month. It had served its purpose within 72 hours. It was bumped by a bot 150 times without ever generating relevant discussion. Even the OP of that thread called numerous times for the thread to get archived after a week of nonsense bot bumping. The anon that spammed the pitchfork reviews performed a community service. How long do YOU think that B12 thread should have been in the catalog? A year? Should it be a permanent fixture of this board?
>>129986206>The anon that spammed the pitchfork reviews performed a community service.Completely agree, I wasn't disputing that. That Anon is based.>How long do YOU think that B12 thread should have been in the catalog? A year? Should it be a permanent fixture of this board?Absolutely not, I was only pointing it out as an example of how bad it can be. That thread should have fallen off within a week if not a shorter period of time.
>>129989091my bad
>>129989584Worst part is I'd be interested in posting in an IDM general but that retard ruins it.
>>129940605I miss when the idm old guard were putting out something new every year or so. It's been what, 8 years since the last vsnares album? Then again.. all these dudes are like in their fucking 50s. I hope they're doing well, with families and all.anyway listen to yiminohttps://youtu.be/HhznVDJCDYQhttps://youtu.be/k-O3szCfQNM
>>129993740Good pic anon never seen this one before
>>129940605Been gooning to this recently. It’s got an addictive aura
>>129994231Great album, although I'm partial to picrel.
>>129998180You suck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bxkdj9STu0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mBtgGmCbMY
>>129952601They're all variations on the same tracks. Really good, but not exciting at all. Their albums on the other band are diverse and exciting. Like going from Oversteps to Exai. That doesn't happen with live shows.
>>129940605This is one of the only idm artist I like with boc and aphex https://youtu.be/8Uib30agksI?si=nUnKgO9ZqAQ9V_bN anything similar? I dislike stuff like autechre when it's too experimental without melody
>>130005733https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stL5QcSGc50https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj_ImAwzoEghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgg-I17Za2khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgvAM18srr4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgvAM18srr4Autechre has plenty of melody:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KN_lc-rJIohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5P8TzBEPR0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIXpl4438qMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGA68vYFytwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vWoxs47oiEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nXcLBXR70Mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYikLIMPHSshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXx3sUb8Dqk
>>130005842Duplicated Datach'i, was supposed to be this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5uBDUe4zM4
>>130008260nigger
>>130012710>no orbital: (
>>129940605Autechre > Aphex Twin > Squarepusher > Bored of Canada
>>130014454ae > afx > vsnares > plaid > u-ziq > squarepusher > boc
>>130021375>irrelevant artist > irrelevant artist >irrelevant artist >irrelevant artist >irrelevant artist >irrelevant artist >irrelevant artist
>>130014454>>130021375ENTER
>>129978598Planet Mu
>>130042263>>130037425What the le fuck lol wot r u doin spambot
>>130044682Cool beans
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z2-bF5k74ssWhat artists is this copying? Its sounds like hyperPOP, but less noise.
>>130050800why are you asking this in the IDM general?
>>130051495Isn’t hyperPOP part of it? It’s glitchy and has breaks.
>>130051682also I do listen to IDM but a lot of the artists fell off. Warp records fell off in 2015 now it’s all black music.
What do /mu/tants think of Lone? is he idm?
>>130062031Great stuff, would love to see him live but he barely leaves the UK, feels bad man.Love: Emerald Fantasy Tracks, Galaxy Garden, Sing A New Sapling Into Existence (released under alias Kona Triangle)Like: Reality Testing, Always Inside Your Head, HyperphantasiaIndifferent: the restGenre-wise I think he sits in a nice middle ground where both IDM- and EDM fans will enjoy his work.
Mark fell the only one of the old heads still making music that sounds like the futureRest of us haven't caught up to the old geezer
>>130071167No owl sounds? :(
How does /IDM/ feel about predawka?https://youtu.be/wyOG7ZiVLLo
>>130071198>2026>still listening to intelligent owl musicI sure hope you guys do this
Any Shinra-heads ITT? I love this guy's stuff to no end.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfssh18KuTI>>129943029I love Squarepusher but this sounded quite horrible to me. I can tolerate harsh Ultravisitor type stuff but this just sounded like overproduced pots and pans.It's good that he tried it, I guess.
>>129978598Morr MusicMerck RecordsPeter, I'm Flying!Kaometry
oop, Peter, I'm Flying! Records is super dead so not current but what little they put out is pure gold
>>129941562I also fell in love with this exact moment in the Barcelona setfucking unrealhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhVrKMtnqo&t=642s
bomphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfATCEvWA38https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQFtvECZZnE
so much useless data
>>130088876throw a dart
any IDM albums where most tracks have vocals? recently got done relistening to afx's entire discog and i forgot how much i enjoyed milk man
>>130090373I honestly don't think they exist, sorry.It's not exactly IDM, but maybe check out Andy Stott if you haven't already. He makes some good left-field dance music with vocals.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EkmvXOQtmXk&list=PLl9Mxt2jYiNaFWgYubSQc0y5UpuVd_Fbn&index=2&pp=iAQB8AUB
>>130090455I'll take it, thx anon.That pulsating beat from 2:23 and onward is strangely relaxing. Cool stuff.
>FAVOURITE Aphex TwinI Care Because You Do>FAVOURITE Boards of CanadaThe Campfire Headphase>FAVOURITE AutechreUntilted>FAVOURITE ClarkTurning Dragon>FAVOURITE PlaidReachy Prints>FAVOURITE SquarepusherBuzz Caner or Just a Souvenir
Here's the most IDM-sounding song on my debut EP, Glowstick, if anyone's interested. It's called Curious:https://soundcloud.com/talking-to-yourself/7-curious-7?in=talking-to-yourself/sets/glowstick&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharinghttps://talkingtoyourself.bandcamp.com/track/curioushttps://youtu.be/-Uo52LcIyQg?si=RhmrK-4P37-x1fGC
>>130090619Pretty good
>>130090373Check out DMX Krew. I don't know how much of their newer work has vocals.
What's the big deal about Tim Hecker?
>>129952475Yeah, the pandemic striked that concept
>>129941562She's dancing intelligently
this is pretty coolhttps://catamitesouth.bandcamp.com/album/aa-sedna-probe-mix-7
>>130012710that Four Tet album is so fucking boring. If that was my introduction to IDM I probably would've stopped listening to the whole genre
>>130103281I do like Spirit Fingers from ithttps://youtube.com/watch?v=8JqGhLnBCCc
>>130106282the fuck is that Australian flag
>>130106293it's the Austrian one kek
Sorry I'm a newfag here, what should I check out if I like this? Orbital Brown was okay but too 'party music' and lighthearted.And no I didn't particularly like his releases under Plastikman. Maybe I haven't developed the taste or something
>>130115887Global Communication – 76.14, But it's more ambient. Datach'i - System, it's glitchier.Trickfinger - Trickfinger I and II, bit faster paced.Honorable mentions: the Analord series, Railway raver - Drop Acid Not Bombs.
>>130116594>Trickfinger - Trickfinger I and II, bit faster paced.Why has it taken me this long to learn John Frusciante has made multiple acid albums?
>>129978598>Favorite current labels?n5MDhttps://youtu.be/TtTGtn7cGno
>>129970291>blone koneI love you anon
>>129940605>idm>it's always just edm music posted
>>130124020It’s a bot
>>130124135how do you know
>>130125003Because it happened last month: https://desuarchive.org/mu/thread/129584348. There were at least two other threads being attacked by this bot as well. The only way it can be stopped is if the image limit is reached.Note the filenames all being hexadecimals in the same format and the fact every post was posted at roughly the same second of the respective minute. Looks like whoever's behind the bot realised how obvious it was and has changed it slightly so it isn't posting exactly on the minute as often.
Mental illness
>>130125183if they are posting music then who cares
>>130136288Probably people that want to talk with other sane humans.
>>130136288>spambot relentlessly bumps the thread with non-IDM charts and discourages any sort of discussion>you don't care because "hurr music being posted durr"
the automatic botspamming is condoned by mods/jannies in all but words.it's been made abundantly clear in the last few months that this place is not worth caring or getting aggravated about.
Been posting this in other thread, might as well repost here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ36_pCQY9k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_aln4bmtpA
New Autechre soundboards hopefully this year.
Post some good yt/sc mix/set with ambient breakbeat techno or idm? Pretty pwease :3I especially enjoy mysterious/astral type stuff, with time crystal sounding loops.
>>130145019look up aleksi perela stuff. not much breakbeat, but plenty of little bells.
>>130145019>>130145104don't know if this is what you're after, but only thing that comes to mind to mehttps://youtu.be/A18qG13SpdI?si=I_sZ029bJQGXpIiIhttps://youtu.be/i0QlcjFbr6E?si=0qbaSOYmZ0ewagWZ
>>130145019Monolake Live @ EGO is what you want.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QwYqpb0OpTs&list=RDQwYqpb0OpTs&start_radio=1&pp=ygUPTW9ub2xha2UgZGogc2V0oAcBEnjoy
>>130139861I don't know why people are so excited. You only need to listen to 4-5 of them, all the rest are just slight remixes.
>>130145587Autechre have reached the status where they could release an album consisting of songs made on Garageband by a 10yo, and people would call it genius.
>>130145620It's some of the best electronic music ever, and definitely their best work. But they're live shows so there's not much variety compared to their albums so it's hard to be excited.
>>130145587Yeah 'AE_2022 -' equals about 4 new sets/albums so far, and the rest are remixes/variations.But the new bundle should include 2 new sets, so you’re basically getting 2 new albums. That’s pretty good.
>>130146060I stopped paying attention to those, which ones are supposed to be new?
>>130145121Very nice, thanks!
>>130145244This is also seems promising, thank you
>>130146353None yet. But Sean said that hopefully new sets will be added later this year to AE_2002-
>>130148067>>130149326You should probably kill yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S14tIndT8pU
>>129942845Good shit, but that's psycho
>>130005842Love that Balloon track. Have it on vinyl, which I grabbed randomly from a stack at the store years ago, it sounds immaculate
>>129952892https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBjvN98U7Ws
>>129993740I remember an interview with Aphex Twin where he said his kid was thrilled to find out that Notch paid a bunch for his dad's album since the kids was really into Minecraft.Richard apparently though it was pretty cool that his kid had discovered that his dad wasn't just some weirdo musician, but someone with a bit of influence that way.
just discovered Roel Funckenreally enjoying this guy. a little Autchre'y, a little more relaxed and headyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM78et8FHzo&list=RDF2b5nYFHQOo&index=5
>>130173878>ooooorange>yeah, that's right!>sixty... ten...
>>130165643same here, really hitting well atm. Love that song you posted. He has a project dropping in 5 days with a collaborator (named Jeroen Bax). The single is quite good imoF~M - Fosehttps://old-technology.bandcamp.com/album/fose
Anything like this?
anyone got stuff similar to this ?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoL4y9Olq0g
why is there a bot that's necrobumping the thread with charts? haven't posted on /mu/ in a few years so this is new to me
>>130193991They’ve been doing this for months now. Jannie’s won’t do anything about it and delete any threads calling it out. People say it’s the Emily Armstrong waifufag but I’m not sure
>>130193991been happening for the past two months, jannies won't do shit, I've tried making threads bringing it to their attention but they just delete my thread and give me a warning for off topic post>>130043292>>130168295>>130101599>>130042220these threads are also botted
Notice how all the file names are random strings of numbers and letters, and that they are always posted in the first ten minutes of the hour. They used to all be posted on the dot but they changed it to make it less obvious
>>129951734a faggot made this for sure.I'm talking like, pounds and pounds of dick up the ass. I'm not reading all this
>>130194038>>130194041shame. I used to love this board. between the constant kpop/waifu threads and the chartbot spamming threads that are actually about music it's hard to do much here
>>130194249A few weeks ago there were literally a dozen Sabrina Carpenter threads being necrobumped for like a week, possibly by a completely different person
>>130071224gem, checked i this one out when it came out, very nice stuff, nice melodies.
>>130194249For me it's been the frog spam that every board has had for almost a decade now.
>>130194249Sadly certain spergs will kill fun parts of a board because they have petty grudges or pure autism. Sharethreads are all but dead due to one shilling retard using them to promote his dogshit and then playing the victim when he was called out. I barely visit /mu/ now.
>>129943479Got a link to this? Interested.
I just don't understand why someone would set up a bot to spam garbage on a thread meant for talking about a genre of music.I wanted a good IDM thread, man.
>>130201205It isn't just IDM. It's happened on multiple types of threads. At one point last month there were about 4 threads of different types of music being bumped mercilessly by the same bot. As sad as it sounds, the only way to stop the bot is for the thread to hit the image limit.
>>130197662The Emily Armstrong schizo does the same thing; taking over threads and playing the victim when called out. They were also behind the Sabrina Carpenter spam getting necrobumped >>130194349>>130194071Yup they check the board every hour or so, they bump so many threads they have started breaking them up into more manageable chunks of five or ten at a time, also to make it less obvious it’s one person
Where the fuck is the mod. Useless fucking niggerfaggot. This board is so garbage
>>130217891Careful now, you might get banned for being off-topic!
Does anyone in this thread like Bisk? One of my favourite artists I discovered in IDM, rarely see them talked about. I think his first three albums are classics. I also don't see much love for Phoenecia but they have many great and interesting releases too. Any reccomendations for artists similar to either of these guys or Atom Heart?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgmMQE6rDWg&list=RDxgmMQE6rDWg&start_radio=1
I do like that for whatever the chartbot sperg somehow decided to spam a load of hip hop charts in this clearly not a hip hop thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGHxth8rcBk
I approve this thread. This is fine.
t’s unusual to find glam-rock in the genealogy of an IDM album but, with The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash, breakcore artist and disco DJ Jason Forrest exuberantly weaves together samples from the likes of Elton John and Starship. It’s sort of a loving tribute but, while the odd bombastic drum solo or Beatles sample is left whole enough to be recognizable, these snippets of sonic excess combine into something singular and otherworldly. The sounds themselves are familiar, but they’re arranged in wild forms, the compositions often twisting in directions that are disconcertingly abstract.
Whether it was his young energy (he was 21 when Down With the Scene was released), his San Diego upbringing, or, more likely, all of that combined with his own omnivorous curiosity, Kid606 helped upend IDM’s stereotype of bloodless astringency. Everything from noise-rock blasts to hip-hop’s world-conquering bravado to jungle’s hyperspeed breakbeats fed into his chaotic, fragmentary, and compelling collages—works of experimentalism utterly unafraid to laugh at themselves and the world.
Blectum from Blechdom’s impulsive, glitchy electronic music is simultaneously challenging and unpretentious—fun, even. Kristin Erickson and Bevin Kelley, aka Kevin Blechdom and Bevin Blectum, met at Mills College in the late 1990s, and Haus de Snaus collects two of the women’s first releases, 1999’s Snauses and Mallards and 2000’s De Snaunted Haus. It charts an evolving—or maybe unraveling—sound built from a healthy dose of unhinged theatrics and fairly rudimentary software. (In an interview with Tara Rodgers in the book Pink Noises, Kelley recalls using a free, early version of ProTools that limited the number of times you could “undo.”)
When Chantal Francesca Passamonte’s full-length debut landed, she was 30 years old. That’s creaky by dance standards, yet youthful for institutional art music—in other words, the juncture suited her perfectly. By then, the U.K.-based Passamonte, who was born in South Africa, had already been releasing tracks for almost half a decade under the name Mira Calix, but it wasn’t until One on One that she committed to IDM’s native format: a proper album, the listener’s domain and wallflower’s autonomous zone.
There was a moment, around the turn of the millennium, when IDM-aligned figures like Matthew Herbert started to embrace the slinky sensuality of the house template while weaving in glitches and clicks from the Oval/Fennesz world. The term “microhouse” was yet to be coined in 2000, but this is the undefined zone into which Rest slipped to wow the cognoscenti.
M:I:5: Maßstab 1:5 (1997)It’s difficult to name an area of electronic music that Wolfgang Voigt hasn't touched, either via his many production aliases or his hugely influential labels, Profan and Kompakt. His M:I:5 project ran through the mid-’90s, concurrent with his more famous work as Studio 1 and before he began his seminal ambient work as GAS. Maßstab 1:5 collects some earlier EPs and augments them, landing on the edges of the IDM scene largely due to a squiggle factor and textural vagueness not commonly associated with Voigt.
Arovane: Tides (2001)Germany’s Uwe Zahn made a handful of IDM-leaning records as Arovane, but none were as satisfying or as perfectly formed as this 2000 album. Because of its gently ebbing synths and hip-hop undertones, detractors might argue that Tides owes an obvious debt to Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children—but Zahn’s innovations are significant enough that they don’t quite resemble anything else.
Bola: Soup (1998)Manchester’s Darrell Fitton has all his IDM bona fides: a track on Warp’s Artificial Intelligence Vol. 2 comp, an assistance credit on Autechre’s debut album, a hand in Gescom’s shadowy productions. But even without that history, his 1998 debut album as Bola puts him in the upper echelons of ’90s electronic music.
The Black Dog: Spanners (1994)The Black Dog emerged in early 1990s, during the heyday of Aphex Twin, µ-Ziq, and the like: a world ruled by grinning electronic pranksters, jokesters, and clowns. Spanners, the trio’s third album, is their cheekiest entry into the lexicon of dance music, and proposes a scenario for its listeners: What if you entered a club and it was just a never-ending hall of funhouse mirrors?
Anthony Manning: Islets in Pink Polypropylene (1994)Before IDM became a nation of Aphex and Autechre cosplayers, the genre was less defined by aesthetics than by a shared ideology. Here was a loosely connected axis of post-rave kids, united by little more than a shared willingness to subvert the tools of their techno idols and create sounds that hadn't previously been imagined.
Caribou: Start Breaking My Heart (2001)On his 2001 debut album, Ontario’s Dan Snaith imagined how IDM might sound if its usual iciness and austerity thawed, just a little. Although still a fundamentally cold-weather record, Start Breaking My Heart hums with traces of the same acoustic textures and percussive abandon that Snaith would later dial up on future Caribou outings—and they introduce some much-needed warmth into the genre.
Leila: Like Weather (1998)IDM, for all its love of the obtuse, has produced a number of fabulously esoteric pop songs over the years, from Squarepusher’s “My Red Hot Car” to Aphex Twin’s “Come to Daddy.” Leila’s “Won’t You Be My Baby, Baby,” the penultimate track on Like Weather, is another fine example of this art, the suck of a backward sample rubbing up against sun-shrivelled horns and an admirably lusty soul vocal.
Pan Sonic: Vakio (1995)IDM often emphasizes complexity over simplicity: tangled textures, intricate details, and convoluted rhythms. Finland’s Pan Sonic (née Panasonic, before the Japanese electronics giant got wind of their name) took the opposite route on their debut album, 1995’s Vakio. They don’t merely eschew software and other digital tools; they even forgo traditional polyphonic synthesizers in favor of rudimentary oscillators, noise generators, and hand-soldered behemoths that crackle with electrical currents and seem to breathe pure fire. Techno’s steady, four-to-the-floor pulse serves as the music’s rhythmic baseline, but the nuanced textures of their syncopated bleeps and sandblasted noise bursts tilt them away from club contexts and toward headphone listening. That said, abandoned meat lockers or frozen Soviet nuclear bunkers might be the most appropriate places to experience their chilling electronic minimalism.
Jon Hopkins: Immunity (2013)A key slots into a door somewhere in East London. Just as quickly, the door shuts, and all signs of human presence—the trickle of traffic in the background, foreboding footsteps—are sucked into a crisp whirlpool of synthesizer pulses. The interdimensional portal Jon Hopkins opens at the start of Immunity leads to a space that feels and sounds a lot like our world, but it’s darker, more private, and wildly mercurial. His palette of noises was distilled from common domestic objects—the vibration of a piano string, fingers drumming on the side of a desk, the shuffle of salt and pepper shakers. Hopkins applies these found sounds onto commanding analog synths, violent drums, and cold pianos, creating a soundscape both opulent and engulfing.
Plaid: Not for Threes (1997)IDM is rich with instrumental counterpoint, so it makes sense that many of its best practitioners come in pairs: two instrumental perspectives heard in tandem, and often at cross purposes. There’s Autechre’s Sean Booth and Rob Brown, Matmos’ Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt—and also Ed Handley and Andy Turner, who as Plaid made their Warp debut in 1997 with 16 tracks of perplexing beats and floral melodies. (The duo began as two-thirds of Black Dog, ceding the name to Ken Downie after becoming Plaid.)
Jlin: Dark Energy (2015)The history of IDM is, in part, the transformation of functional dance styles into forms that are weirder and more personal, with some of their rhythmic utility abstracted in the process. Acid, electro, and drum’n’bass are the styles that fueled IDM’s ’90s heyday, but more recent forms like dubstep and footwork have also followed this path. Footwork—a mutation of ghetto house that was born weird and inscrutable, with arrhythmia—was a particularly likely candidate to be put through the IDM blender next.
Pole: 1 (1998)As the story goes, Stefan Betke was working as a mastering engineer and DJ in mid-’90s Germany when he broke a Waldorf 4-pole filter module and liked the sounds that resulted. His 1998 full-length debut as Pole, simply titled 1, had a similar immediate appeal to IDM listeners worldwide. 1, and much of Pole’s initial work that followed, could almost be summed up as “dub meets glitch,” but that’s too reductive: From the opener, “Modul,” 1 feels like an accumulation of layers around careful, pinpoint precision and a dreamy, floating mix of elements that ebb and flow. Tics and crackles (courtesy of said damaged filter) often nervously sit up front in the mix—like a nagging insect, but with a quality that draws you in rather than prompts recoil—while bass tones, keyboard loops, and more emerge at points from swathes of reverb. If there’s an underrated quality to 1, it’s in the album’s sequencing: Consider how “Fragen” feels like a gentle acceleration and rise near 1’s start, or how a song like “Tanzen” in the middle keeps the energy pulsing perfectly.
Burger/Ink: [Las Vegas] (1996)[Las Vegas] marks a moment for IDM in which ideas were coalescing and new conversations were arising. Some of its influence is circumstantial; few predicted the globally prominent rise of Cologne’s dance music and Kompakt Records soon after its release, or that Matador’s issuing of the album in the U.S. two years later would open its indie-rock listeners to electronic beats. Yet it’s also true that the music made by Jörg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt (aka Mike Ink), two of the city’s techno lynchpins, was gorgeous and unlike anything that preceded it.
SND: Atavism (2009)When Mark Fell and Mat Steel released Atavism, it was their seventh album as SND, as well as their first in seven years. The hiatus wasn’t one of inactivity, though; their return—largely heralded by the triple-12” 4,5,6—was a blossoming of ideas. What once has been accomplished glitch electronica was now mesmeric, algorithmic shimmering punctuated with crisp percussion. A severe and reduced sound palette zeroed in on rhythms that were sometimes quite erratic, creating a transfixing listening experience.
Mouse on Mars: Glam (1998)Glam is an odd record, even within the catalog of the German electronic experimentalists Mouse on Mars. Initially recorded and rejected as a soundtrack for a Tony Danza comedy of same name, it went largely overlooked upon its initial release in 1998, and was issued only on vinyl in America during the peak era of CD sales. It wasn’t until a 2003 reissue on CD (with three bonus tracks) that Glam finally began to get the broader recognition it deserves.
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Seefeel: Succour (1995)On Seefeel’s 1993 debut album, Quique, the British quartet navigated a course between shoegaze and ambient dub—but by 1995, the electronic undercurrents of their sound had carried them to a very different place. Maybe it was the influence of Aphex Twin, whose remixes had honed in on the clean-lined rhythmic skeleton lurking beneath the group’s atmospheric swirl: The rolling, distorted drums of *Succour’*s “Fracture” and “Vex” are straight out of his playbook, and the beatless, bookending tracks “Meol” and “Utreat” both evoke Selected Ambient Works Vol. II at its most ethereal.
Carl Craig: More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art (1997)It might feel counterintuitive to think of a forward-looking, nebulous genre like IDM as having “roots revival music,” but if anyone had the means to make it, it would be a disciple of the Belleville Three. Carl Craig picked up the torch from the Atkins/May/Saunderson founding school of Good fucking riddance and thanks for nothing stupid mods and jannies
we did it bros
We’re finally free
>>130249773A crying shame this is what has to happen to these threads
