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Underground > Radio & Music >

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

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10:17 / 17.11.05

it reminds me of the place between sleeping and waking

funny, that's exactly what I would say - I like to listen to them just as I'm drifting off, warm under the duvet. Which doens't mean they're sleep inducing. Just WARM. I do agree with some of the criticism though - most of the electronica that I've heard recently doesn't seem to have moved on from the grooves of Autechre and BoC. Someone care to prove me wrong?

Crux Is This City's Protector.

05:21 / 18.11.05

I think we could possibly say that it's not that electronic music hasn't moved on, but that "electronica" (for want, as ever, for a better term) as a genre has, as genres are wont to do, calcified; we can go to a record store and pick up a half-dozen new Autechre or Aphex Twin or BoC soundalikes, and in that respect, those are sounds which are indeed getting tread over and over. But that said, there is a great deal of new, exciting electronic music, which is not being considered when we say "Why has intelligent electronic music gotten stupid?" because it is not released in that context.

Fr'instance: in Norway, there is a lot of work, much of it on the label Rune Grammofon, and here I am thinking specifically of the group Supersilent, with a lot of electronic instruments, sequencers, effects—as well as live instrumentation like drums and trumpet, all working together in free improvisation. Likewise, Craig Taborn in the States has come at the problem from the opposite perspective on his record, Junk Magic, taking jazz piano and going nuts with a variety of electronic collaborators—both with sequenced percussion and with sound manipulation. Neither of these groups are much like Autechre or Aphex Twin, but I defy you to tell me that it's not Intelligent Electronic Music, at least in part, and I know it's good.

Likewise, as I type this, I'm listening to Insen, the second of two collaborations between electronic artist Alva Noto (another electronic, and this time even fully sequenced, artist whose name is never mentioned when making the IDM rounds) and all-round musical superstar Ryuichi Sakamoto. Electronic percussion and sound manipulation, Sakamoto's peerless piano; a unified, electronic and absolutely goooorgeous body of work.

And then of course there's Kompakt/BPitch/et cetera, and I'm sure nobody needs to tell me that of all the hundreds of tech/house/tech-house/microhouse records coming out of the Continent, many of them are quite smashing.

In summary: There's new stuff, and there's GOOD new stuff. But it won't do, anymore, to look for it in the 'IDM' section.

07:59 / 18.11.05

Illmatic: I've noticed a lot of people express similar thoughts on the state of electronic music, and while to an extent I agree with Crux Destruct that it depends who you're listening to (I'm enjoying Jackson and his Computer Band, Max Tundra, Fennesz and Matmos) I'm also hoping that a lot of this disatisfaction is caused by the unhealthy assumptions that music should be in any way progressive or experimental. I like that these sounds have become a firmly established form now. The whole *experimental* tag is unecessary dead weight shackling too many artists. Ditch it and the expectations that come with it.

The Natural Way

15:45 / 19.11.05

Thanks, Crux, for the music headsup. Really NOT listening to peeps like Boards anymore, but still need my dose of electronic goodness. I think, for too long (and very weirdly, when u think about it), peeps have somehow conflated "electronic music" w/ "dance music" and, of course, this has proven incredibly limiting in terms of artist's output (I mean, these days, I infinitely prefer Squarepusher when he's NOT all about the tired old drill and bass [that gorgeous tune from Lost In Translation; what's it called....?]).

D Terminator XXXIII

21:44 / 19.11.05

Not much to add 'cos I'm not into BoC but I nearly choked to death when I read that "it reminds [TeN] of the place between sleeping and wanking."

03:03 / 20.11.05

Crux: You're dead right about Insen. What a marvellous, marvellous record. x

Crux Is This City's Protector.

03:00 / 21.11.05

Wedding, what's funny is that I think it's remarkable from precisely the opposite angle. From the time that I got into electronic music until the ascension of Kompakt et al (no indie points for me there; I discovered them along with the rest of the masses), I totally ignored and disdained all forms of "dance" music, prizing Aphex and Co. as inherently more valid than anything with a steady 4/4 pulse, regardless of other features. As my adolescent taste for Progressive (so-called) Trance died within months, and my later adolescent investigations into the minimal techno of Plastikman produced no fruit, it wasn't until I discovered all the tech-house and minimal techno and microhouse and stuff that I really understood that even without hyperkinetic, squiggling acid lines and pro-toolsed percussion tracks there is an awful lot of beautiful and/or deeply affecting (not to mention, let's face it, fucking GROOVY) electronic music.

Not to mention, my mention above of 'acid lines' reminds me of I think a very valuable fact to bear in mind: Aphex, of course, grew directly out of the Rave scene, and Autechre and the rest of them almost all have similarly low, vulgar beginnings. If anything I think the division between Electronic Dance Music and Electronic Music (Other) is one that could do with a lot more holes in it.

09:21 / 21.11.05

Crux: Appreciate the headsups also. Will have to check some of them out.

Seth: The whole *experimental* tag is unecessary dead weight shackling too many artists. Ditch it and the expectations that come with it.

Totally see what your saying mate, I accept that out expectations can hinder us from hearing what's really happening - but I dunno - I'd expect something creative from these artists - perhaps this is linked to the futuristic feel of the genre? Who knows? Will keep me ears peeled.

06:17 / 22.11.05

Creative and experimental are not synonyms. Nor does experimental does automatically equal quality.

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