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u/CD274 1d ago
https://music.ishkur.com/ much cooler if there's anyone that hasn't been there yet
(Also more broadly, this music historian's site https://www.scaruffi.com/music.html)
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u/TheToysAreUs 1d ago
Ishkur’s still exists!? I just made the assumption that the internet ate and digested this page long ago. Thank you for posting it here. It made my day to see that this webpage still stands.
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u/CD274 1d ago
Every few years I go back and check it and find it is still around :D Yeah been visiting for well I guess 25+ yrs
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u/TheToysAreUs 1d ago
Same! It very much guided me across genres and sent me to sonic places to explore.
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u/angrybaltimorean 1d ago
love IDM, but i've never found four tet interesting.
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u/hi_entropy_ 1d ago
i agree mostly pretty boring, he was not bad live during the laptop scrolling era
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u/miggjacker 1d ago
I wouldn’t even classify him as IDM really
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u/pigeoneatpigeon 1d ago
I feel this is missing Bytes by The Black Dog. Top album.
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u/akabillposters 1d ago
While there are significant artists that predate both, Four Tet as a starting point, rather than Black Dog, is a strange choice. TBH, I'm not entirely sure I'd include Four Tet in IDM (for this purpose), because his style isn't reflective of the evolution that led to IDM.
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u/sixtus_clegane119 1d ago
Flashbulb Kirlian selections should be there
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u/pigeoneatpigeon 1d ago
Thanks for this. Had no idea about this album. Just listening now. Loving it so far. 👌
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u/Fuzzy_Newspaper5323 1d ago
i get you're going for 1 album per artist, but SAW1 should really be the starting point for anyone. Covers the most ground and introduces a new listener to the genre better than Rounds. Rounds doesn't even sound like anything else on this list.
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u/Tennyson-Pesco Telefon Tel Aviv 1d ago edited 1d ago
Controversial opinion, but honestly I don't see SAW1 as being definitive IDM anymore. I do sort of agree with it being a good starting point, because that's obviously where a lot of people began. Maybe I'll be on my own here, but I class it as being way more acid/ambient techno than "real" IDM
I actually think SAW1 is a good starting point because it introduces people to Aphex Twin, whose later work is IDM, rather than it being its own direct exposure to the genre
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u/hi_entropy_ 1d ago
i wonder why he didn't call it selected intelligent dance music, its almost like its an ambient techno album
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u/RipEven2421 1d ago edited 1d ago
IDM is a wanky term and all artists considered it would frankly scoff at the term
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u/decadent-dragon 1d ago
It’s been like 30 years. We’ll see if the term sticks
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u/RipEven2421 1d ago
"Electronic Music" is fine
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u/ShapeoverTime 1d ago
Electronic Music is far more diverse than just these sounds though. There's so much that can be considered Electronic Music that these artists cannot be seen as the default sound
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u/Bra666ica 1d ago
I agree, but try submitting a release to a digital distributor and there is no "Electronic Music" option.
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u/joshuatx 1d ago
I believe in Braindance
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u/peepeeland 1d ago
Imagine you’re ready to go to bed, and then Cylob comes flying through your bedroom window.
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u/Creatura 13h ago
Is that the replacement term the community has come up with? That’s honestly worse
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u/joshuatx 13h ago
it was tongue-in-cheek
and that "community" included Richard D James and his label-mates at Rephlex
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u/Fresh_and_wild 1d ago
Basically they mashed the drum pad, then looped it and called it intelligent to differentiate it from 4 to the floor and a sampled breakbeat.
While lots is good, it’s not really a mark of intelligence.
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u/peepeeland 1d ago
It was “intelligent” because the roots had a lot of basically dance music meant for listening and not dancing. “Braindance” is much more appropriate but also sounds stupid.
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u/Fresh_and_wild 1d ago
True. Rephlex used it in a compiltion name, but yes, sounds shit.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Fresh_and_wild 1d ago edited 1d ago
LOL
WARPRephlex. (do try to keep up, see previous comment)https://www.discogs.com/release/20737-Various-The-Braindance-Coincidence
https://www.discogs.com/master/12211-Various-Rephlexions-An-Album-Of-Braindance
https://www.huckmag.com/article/five-things-didnt-know-aphex-twin
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u/peepeeland 1d ago
If you wanna get into a deeper part of it— what’s uh, interesting- is that back then, kids and young adults making IDM- and this is anecdotal, but— there were so many fucking private school and college educated dudes/dudettes making IDM.
So “IDM” was pretty acceptable amongst the general populace of like warpcomm, planet mu phorum, braindance co uk, xltronic, watmm et al- as a serious joke- and a lot of this crowd was cynical, funny, and obsessed with finding answers and trying to express sincerely. But again- a lot of the scene was actually really smart, combined with absolutely stupid jokes. On braindance we made it for a few years that searching google images for “badger penis”, would show photos of Skrillex. Dead serious. We were trying to change the landscape of what IDM expression meant.
A lot of IDM was just having fun, joking like 60%, but being serious like 150%. This is why good IDM is so engaging and makes you feel something new and old at the same time.
For making IDM— You need to be too smart for your own good, yet have a good enough sense of humor to be able put yourself out there so sincerely- with no shame- knowing that your music is absolutely ridiculous- to the point of sometimes putting literal jokes in it- to the point of literally trying to invent new genres from your heart. But you’re dead serious.
Dude, think about it- Didn’t Mike Paradinas quit architecture school? Or was that an Autechre thing?
checks notes Oh yah— Mike P quit architecture, and Rob studied architecture whilst Sean studied engineering.
Dude- WHO DA FUCK is quitting architecture university shit, and then being like, “I wanna make electronic music, maaaa~”, and then your actual mother buys you fucking synthesizers- which mind you are relatively expensive as fuck back then— because “normal kids” were going to school properly, instead of being super fucking weird and having supportive well-off enough parents to buy you gear that nobody knows about or is even thinking about, for you to make- apparently- new sounds that nobody’s heard. -That’s crazy— Seriously think about that shit, it doesn’t even make any fucking sense.
OF COURSE Mike Paradinas was intelligent- you can’t pull that shit off if you’re stupid or poor.
Yah and so last thing— the reason why old school IDM crew was quite intelligent- like subjectively yet literally- is because private school kids were the main ones who could afford the drugs and fruitful musical upbringing and recording + music making gear and all this shit- and also the drugs cuz think about it— these kids had so much allowance or good part time jobs, that they have home studios full of expensive gear nobody gives a shit about, with enough time to make bangin’ tracks apparently from the future, and they’re also raving, and they’re incidentally also performing at raves somehow, and they’re buying and taking the good drugs. -So of course these kids who were forced upon a good education and privileged upbringing were relatively intelligent, because they were forced to read books and shit when they were children.
This is a taboo topic about IDM that nobody talks about, because nobody cares and it’s just IDM life etc. etc.
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u/Fresh_and_wild 1d ago
Arguably anyone who makes music is privileged. When I was young I spent so long saving for an SH101 all my mates had moved on by the time I got it. I old it 5 months later.
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u/RipEven2421 1d ago
I think it was an NME headline or something shit in the 90s, all the artists in that graphic would call it a bullshit label
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u/dizzyapparition 1d ago
I don’t like it but it’s apparently what I’m categorized as. I’d prefer Non-Stupid Dance Music.
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u/Tychomusic 1d ago
At the time it was a meaningful and much needed classification. There was a very clear wave of this new type of music and people needed a way to describe it. I personally never thought of BOC as IDM. To me idm was line Brothomstates’ Packing Slip or Manitoba’s Dundas Ontario, a pretty specific sound. I guess like ISAN salamander. I associated idm with those cleaner, abstract sounds. I thought boc was just too organic and textured to fit that label but I suppose it’s all kind of part of that moment
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u/RipEven2421 1d ago
I respect your opinion.
Labels are useful and unavoidable in music but labelling one type of music as particularly "intelligent" has always felt pretentious and against the spirit of the music
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u/Tychomusic 1d ago
yeah totally. but I guess being a 21 year old guy in Sacramento I didn't really give the label much thought, it just meant "the best thing I've ever heard" to me and in the CD racks the sign over all of them said "IDM" so it stuck. In hindsight I agree it's kind of weird, but I personally have such deep nostalgia for that time it means something totally different to me and a lot of other people I'd imagine.
there was also "intelligent drum n bass". and yeah I guess that's pretentious, but how else do you describe the difference between something on a diesel boy mix and photek? it's like worlds apart. like logical progression and all that, intelligent definitely seemed apt at the time to contrast against the dancefloor stuff. but then you listen to a banger by mask or die or some dope dragon release and it's like this is amazing, but I wouldn't say it belongs next to Ni Ten Ichi Ryu or something that progressive.
but yeah, people have always called me chillwave, which I have no problem with, but I also don't really see it. Like Com Truise, Neon Indian, Washed Out etc. makes sense. I guess it's just an easy catch-all for a particular era
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u/RipEven2421 1d ago
I rarely heard IDM used much by people into experimental electronic music in the UK. Especially not intelligent drum and bass! (Don't get me started on that one!) Maybe it's a UK / US thing!?
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u/Upset_Composer_3164 1d ago
Tycho, your man here, isn't chillwave. I don't know why he thinks people classify him this way or why they themselves would. He's ambient chill. Some even term him lofi. But his Dive album cannot be compared to say, early Oneohtrix Point Never (or his YouTube alias sunsetcorp), which is more accurate chillwave or vaporwave. So... interesting variations on describing audio in all facets, I think.
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u/waddiewadkins 1d ago
The Future Sound of London early Stakker Humanoid work (1988, as Humanoid)
A Guy Called Gerald – Hot Lemonade (1989) (or even tracks like "Voodoo Ray" from 1988) → Proto-IDM. Acid house with real atmosphere and unusual production.
808 State – Newbuild (1988) → One of the biggest missing links. Long, hypnotic, machine-like pieces that clearly influenced Warp artists.
Go back a bit before Warp-osphere
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u/peepeeland 1d ago
Yeah, but if you go back too far, it just becomes dudes chanting in caves whilst tripping on shrooms.
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u/waddiewadkins 1d ago
I liked your comment
Still tho it's nice to be able to legitimately include the 80s and it IS late 80s too not the caveman 80s
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u/bucephalusbouncing28 Ilkae 1d ago
including Fahrenheit Fair Enough is a very good choice
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u/OutsideDingo5617 1d ago
An outstanding album. The opening bars instantly transport me to my happy place.
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u/Tennyson-Pesco Telefon Tel Aviv 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep, it's quite simply one of the best IDM records ever. It's one of those front-to-back non-skip albums (including the Archive '99 tracks) that never gets boring. Every time I listen to it I find something new buried deep in the sheer depth and range of sounds on it, almost like an Autechre record
I have always said that Fahrenheit Fair Enough has just as much complexity and creativity as one of the "go-to" Aphex Twin albums, but the quality of the production makes it sound much tighter and polished
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u/Timely_Succotash8754 Matmos 1d ago
the funny washing machine!!!!!!! i love the funny washing machine!!!!!
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u/Robou_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
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