Intelligent dance music

Intelligent dance music
Stylistic origins experimental, hip hop, house, electronica, techno, ambient, industrial, drum & bass,
Cultural origins Early 1990s, United States, United Kingdom and Germany
Typical instruments Synthesizer, Human voice, Drum machine, Sequencer, Sampler, Electronic keyboard, Personal Computer
Mainstream popularity High in North America and Europe
Subgenres
Glitch
Fusion genres
Breakcore - Microhouse

Intelligent dance music (commonly IDM) is a term that describes an electronic music genre that emerged in the early 1990s at the end of the British rave era. The genre is influenced by a wide range of musical styles particularly electronic dance music (EDM) such as Detroit Techno.[1][2] Stylistically, IDM tends to rely upon individualistic experimentation rather than on a particular set of musical characteristics.[3] The range of post-techno[4] styles to emerge in the early 1990s were described variously as art techno,[5] ambient techno, intelligent techno, and electronica. In America the latter term is now used by the music industry as a catchall to describe EDM and its many derivatives.

The term IDM is said to have originated in the United States in 1993 with the formation of the IDM list, an electronic mailing list originally charted for the discussion of music by (but not limited to) a number of prominent English artists, especially those appearing on a 1992 Warp Records compilation called Artificial Intelligence.

Usage of the term "Intelligence Dance Music" has been widely criticised (see IDM reception) by leading electronic musicians and is still seen by some as being peculiar to the U.S.[6][7] but it is routinely used by music journalists, record labels, and fans on both sides on the Atlantic.[8]

Because of this lack of consensus, many electronic musicians, music journalists and fans prefer the terms Electronica (USA) or Electronic Music (UK) over "IDM".

Contents

History

At the beginning of the British rave era a number of UK based electronic musicians were inspired by the underground dance music of the time and started to explore experimental forms of EDM production. By the early 1990s the music associated with this experimentation had gained prominence with releases on a variety of record labels including Warp Records (1989), Black Dog Productions (1989), R & S Records (1989), Carl Craig's Planet E, Rising High Records (1991), Richard James's Rephlex Records (1991), Kirk Degiorgio's Applied Rhythmic Technology (1991), Eevo Lute Muzique (1991), General Production Recordings (1989), Soma Quality Recordings (1991), Peacefrog Records (1991), and Metamorphic Recordings (1992).

By 1992 Warp Records was marketing the musical output of the artists on its roster using the description electronic listening music, but this was quickly replaced by intelligent techno.[9] In the same period (1992–93), other names were also used, such as armchair techno, ambient techno, and electronica,[10] but all were attempts to describe an emerging offshoot of electronic dance music that was being enjoyed by the "sedentary and stay at home".[11] Steve Beckett, co-owner of Warp, has said that the electronic music the label was releasing at that point was targeting a post-club home listing audience.[12] In 1993 a number of new record labels emerged that were producing intelligent techno geared releases including New Electronica, Mille Plateaux, 100% Pure, and Ferox Records.

Artificial Intelligence

In 1992, Warp released Artificial Intelligence, the first album in the Artificial Intelligence series. Subtitled "electronic listening music from Warp", the record was a collection of tracks from artists such as Autechre, B12, The Black Dog, Aphex Twin, and The Orb, under various aliases.[13] These artists, among others, would eventually become the main topics of conversation in the Intelligent Dance Music List, an electronic mailing list founded in August 1993.

The IDM List

In November 1991, the phrase "intelligent techno" appeared on Usenet in reference to Coil's The Snow EP.[14] Another instance of the phrase appeared on Usenet in April 1993 in reference to The Black Dog's album Bytes.[15] Wider public use of such terms on the Internet did not come until August 1993, when Alan Parry announced the existence of a new electronic mailing list for discussion of "intelligent" dance music: the Intelligent Dance Music list, or IDM List for short.[16][17]

The first message, sent on August 1, 1993, was entitled "Can Dumb People Enjoy IDM, Too?".[18] A reply from the list server's system administrator, Brian Behlendorf, revealed that Parry originally wanted to create a list devoted to discussion of the music on the Rephlex label, but they decided together to expand its charter to include music similar to what was on Rephlex or that was in different genres but which had been made with similar approaches. They picked the word "intelligent" because it had already appeared on Artificial Intelligence and because it connoted being something beyond just music for dancing, while still being open to interpretation.[19]

Artists that appeared in the first discussions on the list included Autechre, Atom Heart, LFO, and Rephlex Records artists such as Aphex Twin, µ-ziq, and Luke Vibert; plus artists such as The Orb, Richard H. Kirk, and Future Sound of London, and even artists like System 7, William Orbit, Sabres of Paradise, Tycho, Orbital, Plastikman and Björk.

Autechre, notable electronic music act associated with IDM.

As of 2008, the mailing list is still active.

Artificial Intelligence Vol. 2

Warp's second Artificial Intelligence compilation was released in 1994. The album featured fragments of posts from the mailing list incorporated into typographic artwork by The Designers Republic. Sleeve notes by David Toop acknowledged the genre's multitude of musical and cultural influences and suggested none should be considered more important than any other.[1]

During this period, the electronic music produced by Warp Records artists such as Polygon Window (an alias of Richard D. James), Autechre, LFO, B12, Seefeel, and The Black Dog, gained popularity among electronic music fans, as did music by artists on the Rephlex label. Lesser-known artists on the Likemind label and Kirk Degiorgio's A.R.T. and Op-Art labels, including Degiorgio himself under various names (As One, Future/Past and Esoterik), Steve Pickton (Stasis) and Nurmad Jusat (Nuron) also found an audience, along with bigger-name, cross-genre artists like Björk and Future Sound of London.

IDM in America

In the mid-1990s, North American audiences welcomed IDM, and many IDM record labels were founded, including Drop Beat, Isophlux, Suction, Schematic, and Cytrax.[20] In Miami, Florida, labels like Schematic, AiRecords, Merck Records, Nophi Recordings, and The Beta Bodega Coalition released material by artists such as Phoenecia, Dino Felipe, Machinedrum, and Proem. Another burgeoning scene was the Chicago/Milwaukee area, with labels such as Addict, Chocolate Industries, Hefty, and Zod supporting artists like Doormouse, Trs-80 and Emotional Joystick. Tigerbeat 6, a San Francisco based label has released IDM from artists such as Cex, Kid 606, and Kevin Blechdom. Contemporary IDM artists include Team Doyobi, Quim, Himuro Yoshiteru, Kettel, Ochre, Marumari, Benn Jordan, Proem, Lackluster, Arovane, Ulrich Schnauss, Wisp and Zygote. [21]

Reception

British electronic music and techno artists, including Aphex Twin, Cylob, and Mike Paradinas, have criticised the term IDM. Paradinas has stated that the term IDM was only used in America.

Allmusic Guide describes the IDM name as

A loaded term meant to distinguish electronic music of the '90s and later that's equally comfortable on the dancefloor as in the living room, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) eventually acquired a good deal of negative publicity, not least among the legion of dance producers and fans whose exclusion from the community prompted the question of whether they produced stupid dance music.

In a September 1997 interview, Aphex Twin commented on the 'Intelligent Dance Music' label:

I just think it's really funny to have terms like that. It's basically saying 'this is intelligent and everything else is stupid.' It's really nasty to everyone else's music. (laughs) It makes me laugh, things like that. I don't use names. I just say that I like something or I don't.[22]

Aphex Twin's Rephlex records official overarching genre name is Braindance, of which Dave Segal of Stylus Magazine asked whether it was a "snide dig at IDM’s mockworthy Intelligent Dance Music tag?"[23]

Kid 606 has said,

I hate IDM and its elitist champions. It makes the music sound so much more than it actually is. It's a label invented by PR companies who need catchphrases. I like sounds, but hate what people attach to sounds.[24]

Chris Jeffs (Cylob) said, "Also, anyone who applies the term IDM to my music deserves to be shot."[25]

Thaddeus Hermann of City Centre Offices has said:

Nowadays, I do not like the sound of the term. Whenever someone mentions it, or uses it to describe their own music, I immediately become skeptical, expecting weak and boring tracks.” [21]

Matmos (Perfect Sound Forever) has said,

I belong to the weblist called "IDM" and occasionally enjoy the discussions there, because I like some of the artists who get lassoed into that category (not to mention that we, occasionally, are lumped into that category too), and because you can occasionally find out about interesting records on that list... Matmos is IDM if that only means "might be talked about on the IDM list"- but I don't endorse that term "intelligent dance music" because it's laughable. Rather Interesting Records had a nice slogan that kind of says it all: "Remember: Only Stupid People Call It "Intelligent".[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The electronic listening music of the Nineties is a prime example of an art form derived from and stimulated by countless influences. Partisan analyses of this music claim a baffling variety of prime sources (Detroit techno, New York electro + Chicago acid, Eno + Bowie, Cage + Reich, Gary Numan + Tangerine Dream) but this is beside the point. To claim ascendancy of one source over another is to deny the labyrinthine entwinements of culture: rooted in political history + the development of science + technology, yet tilting at the boundaries of society + language." Toop, David, in the Artificial Intelligence II sleeve notes.
  2. ↑ Toop, D. (1995),Ocean of Sound, Serpent's Tail, pp. 215-216. (ISBN 978-1-85242-743-6).
  3. ↑ "…the label ‘IDM’ (for avant-garde, ‘intelligent dance music’) seems to be based more on an association with individualistic experimentation than on a particular set of musical characteristics." Butler, M.J., Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music, Indiana University Press, 2006, (p. 80).
  4. ↑ Post-techno is "Any form of electronica genealogically related to Techno but departing from it in one way or another. Akin to 'intelligent Techno' or 'intelligent dance music'". Cox C. & Warner D. ed. (2004), Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, London, (p. 414).
  5. ↑ "Art Techno Favorites". Reactor Mega-Magazine (4): 21. December 1992. 
  6. ↑ "…use of the idiom was initiated online with the conception of the IDM mailing list in 1993, which functioned as a forum for discussion on leading IDM artists and Artificial Intelligence. Incidentally, when I questioned Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq) on his feelings towards the term, he bluntly answered: 'No one uses or used it in UK. Only Americans ever used the term. It was invented by Alan Parry who set up the IDM mailing list'." Adam Winfield (2007), Is IDM dead?, Igloo Magazine, 24th November 2007.
  7. ↑ "'No one really listens to IDM over here,' says Mike Paradinas from his home in Worchester, UK. 'You just say stuff like the Aphex Twin, and they might have heard of him.' It's a bold statement for Paradinas, who, along with friends and contemporaries like Richard James (Aphex Twin) and LFO, was one of that genre's defining artists in London's fertile dance music community of the early 1990s." "'No one says IDM in England? No, only on message boards when they're talking to Americans!" Ben Stirling (2003), Junkmedia.org, published July 28, 2003.
  8. ↑ "the development of IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) is closely entwined with a mailing list established to discuss the work of seminal post-techno producers like Autechre and Aphex Twin; in fact, the name ‘IDM’ originated with the mailing list, but now is routinely applied by reviewers, labels and fans alike." Sherburne, P. (2001:172), Organised Sound (2001), 6 : 171-176 Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  9. ↑ Reynolds, S., (1999). Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, Routledge, New York, (pp. 180-205)
  10. ↑ "Of all the terms devised for contemporary non-academic electronic music (the sense intended here), 'electronica' is one of the most loaded and controversial. While on the one hand it does seem the most convenient catch-all phrase, under any sort of scrutiny it begins to implode. In its original 1992-93 sense it was largely coterminous with the more explicitly elitist 'intelligent techno', a term used to establish distance from and imply distaste for, all other more dancefloor-oriented types of techno, ignoring the fact that many of its practitioners such as Richard James (Aphex Twin) were as adept at brutal dancefloor tracks as what its detractors present as self-indulgent ambient 'noodling'". Blake, Andrew, Living Through Pop, Routledge, 1999. p 155.
  11. ↑ Reynolds (1998), p181.
  12. ↑ …the dance scene was changing and we were hearing B-sides that weren't dance but were interesting and fitted into experimental, progressive rock, so we decided to make the compilation 'Artificial Intelligence', which became a milestone… it felt like we were leading the market rather than it leading us, the music was aimed at home listening rather than clubs and dance floors: people coming home, off their nuts, and having the most interesting part of the night listening to totally tripped out music. The sound fed the scene. Birke S. (2007), "Label Profile: Warp Records", The Independent (UK), Music Magazine (supplement), newspaper article published 2/11/07
  13. ↑ Allmusic Guide, Overview of Artificial Intelligence
  14. ↑ Google Groups archive of rec.music.industrial, "Coil, The Snow EP"
  15. ↑ Google Groups archive of alt.rave, "miniREVIEWS galore (No hardcore please, we're Finnish)" [1]
  16. ↑ [Intelligent Dance Music] "is a forum for the discussion of what has been termed 'intelligent' music – that is, music that moves the mind, not just the body. There is no specific definition of intelligence in music, however, artists that I see as appropriate are FSOL, Orb, Orbital, Richard James (aka Aphex Twin), Black Dog, B12, and various others from Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' series. Of course, the list is open to all interpretations of intelligent dance music." Quote by Alan Parry in an IDM mailing list announcement posted on alt.rave, dated Aug. 1993
  17. ↑ Google Groups archive of alt.rave, "list announcement: IDM"
  18. ↑ Can Dumb People Enjoy IDM, Too? IDM lists first posting.
  19. ↑ Re: Can Dumb People Enjoy IDM, Too? post from Brian Behlendorf.
  20. ↑ All Music IDM
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 igloo magazine: Is IDM Dead?
  22. ↑ Aphex Twin interview, September, 1997
  23. ↑ Rephlexions!: A Braindance Compilation, 20/11/2003, Dave Segal, Stylus Magazine, [2]
  24. ↑ Kid606 Ultrahang festival
  25. ↑ Intelligent Dance Music @ Everything2.com
  26. ↑ Matmos interview

Further reading

External links

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