although I will say that when I was first getting into electronic music at all, this kinda thing was my entry point. I might have appreciated a list like this then.
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Exactly, best to approach these as a primer rather than an attempt to establish a cast-iron canon. Theyāre probably not really meant for anyone with a long running interest in the subjective genre
The more questionable approach is using a genre title that really discribes a movement at a certain place and time (and even then was not liked by the artists invoved) and using it a a catch all term for quite a wide variety of different styles in different places at different times.
I canāt really slag off the term āIDMā given that (like the similarly maligned term āpost-rockā) it turned me on to so much music and was part of the foundation for my whole current interest in music.
Theyāre both terms that are really linked to really specific periods, but, while post-rock seems to have morphed into its own thing entirely, IDM seems like a really weird term to hear now (esp. in the context of electronic music / music in general having only splintered off more and more subgenres, and esp. given that snobbishness is so frowned upon that many a person has been left in permanent states of hideousness)
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Finally ready to read this and, seconds in, Iāve got my first gripe!
The introās by Simon Reynolds. This does not bode well at all.
iāve not read this list but i quite like a couple of his books. whatās the ploblem?
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Agree. I love a good old list, even if I donāt agree with it, or itās a bit obvious. Still a few albums in there Iāve not heard of that Iāll be checking out, so whereās the harm in that?
Although I agree the term āIDMā is awful. I usually just describe it as āelectronic musicā or āexperimental electronic musicā.
And the preface is a bit pretentious and waffly.
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I canāt stand his style (see @cowmare above - āpretentious and wafflyā) and his attitudes to music are terrible. Iāve no time for anyone who passes off his midlife crisis as a āmovementā (Retromania - āOh, I donāt like modern music anymore, it must be EVERYONE ELSE whoās wrongā), and he seems convinced that musicās only ārelevantā when itās trying something new.
Now, the idea that music can be ārelevantā is suspect enough, but as far as Iām concerned, this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what musicās for, how music works, and the role music plays in peopleās lives.
This wouldnāt be a problem if he was just some tedious snob posting on some obscure music board somewhere. But heās not. He appears to be viewed as something of an authority, which means that if youāve even a passing interest in experimental music, heās inescapable.
Heās a relic of an old-school style of music criticism that should have died unmourned years ago.
Retromania was OK in places but most boring. He seems incredibly pompous. I hate the way heās deemed an authority on dubstep, but lived in America when the scene kicked off so had zero exposure to it.
These lists are mostly pointless. Nobody reads the intro or all the accompanying text. May as well just have the Apple Music link to all the albums.
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rip it up and start again was good though
i donāt really know anything about him other than that
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If you ignore the fact IDM is a bullshit and often loaded (though not here) term this is a really good list tbf
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Thatās about post-punk isnāt it?
Not sure Iād read that even if I didnāt think so little of his work. Post-punkās one of my least favourite variants of rock music.
you donāt like post-punk? that is an extremely strange opinion.
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Not really. Far too much of it is too dour - which is completely understandable, given the era in which it was made - but combined with a production style that makes all the guitars sound tinny and all the drums sound empty, the end result is a sound that makes me want toā¦ stop living?
I saw Wire last year and it was hell.
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The scope of what entails āPost-Punkā in that book is very broad. Thereās probably something there you would like though maybe not consider āPost-Punkā- he literally means it in terms of any moderately alternative music that came after punk i.e 78 to the mid-80s. Even the New Romantics get a look-in. Definitely the best thing heās written by a considerable margin.
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Oh OK. And youāre right, I have a very specific sound in my head when I speak of āpost-punkā. I donāt take the term to mean āanything that came out after punkā.
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potentially unpopular take: Never really thought of Boards of Canada as IDM
Agreed, I donāt think he was ever really that on it especially in the middle of last decade. Think he wrote a few blog posts the gist of which was āthe Hardcore Continuum is continuingā. He seemed a lot more excited about Hauntology and Hypnagogic Pop.
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OK, maybe thatās an exaggeration, but he seems to be the go-to guy for publications like Wire, Guardian, Pitchfork. Especially after he did those Hardcore Continuum pieces and talks.
i thought Retromania was an interesting premise and he raises some valid points - it did take me a few goes to get through the whole thing as it felt like he often went into great depth about very niche movements but otherwise it was alright - and itās not so much about him not liking modern music, itās much more about how everyone seems to be shifting their attention to the past and aping it, rather than looking to the future. personally itās not something that bothers all that much and i think itās kind of interesting that music has kind of broken free of āmovementsā now that musical history is so easily accessible and we can draw individual influence from any part of it we desire, but i thought it was a mostly interesting take on how things have changed, if admittedly a bit of a slog at times.
but either way, Rip It Up & Start Again is a really good book (as someone who loves post-punk)
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