Nail on head.

Hey man if you are going to quote me do it right, I never said you were obsessed with music I said you obsessed with IDM. Don't take me for a fool.

Please quote me right or don't do it man.

EQUINOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!! rules are being broken I demand some law here.

Oh man, lighten up. He did it to prove a point, without spelling it out. At least he didn't put 'you cunt' on the end...

Halcyon, i understand your sentiments, but do you not agree that there are still artists in the genre breaking ground?

Hard to say, autupt. I guess it depends on your definition of ground breaking. By my estimation the music itself has ceased to be groundbreaking for a long time... right around when 'jazzy' was a term that described anything involving synthesizers and breakbeats. What I see in the music now is a tendency towards intellectualism, but to me that really has nothing to do with the music. The whole 'granular synthesis/quanta' idea, like the field recording idea, is strong in theory but weak in execution. Do While, or Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain even, capitalized on the 'quanta' idea before it became a fashion term for the late-stage IDM scene. Same... the field recording idea itself was something that was exploited by Eno, Fsol, and many many others. So in reality its all bullshit to me, because sound-wise very little has changed. All that I see are people putting new labels to the same old shit. The music has been relatively static in its evolution.

On the flip side, Im not terribly suprised. Further still I dont even really care. In my mind there is no possible way to recapture the magic and originality of the forefathers of all this because back then the sounds and the style really WERE tremendous. I remember listening to Amber for the first time and thinking wow. Same with early Shadow, or Mu-Ziq. FSOL and The Orb especially. Not to labor the point, but those two groups were hugely important. But the bottom line is that IDM was original in the early days and I dont think that you can relive that in the music today. BOC, for instance, is great but they arent groundbreaking. There is a difference between greatness and groundbreaking, and thats what people need to recognize. I like BOC because they can realize ideas in their own unique way... same reason that I have so much respect for Biosphere. But neither were groundbreaking.

The future of IDM was Back To Basics. I can respect that album because there was no pretense about it - it is an IDM album. The whole lot of artists who are out there right now, desperately voguing about the importance of their music or their theoretical approach, are tiresome loathesome impotent bores. At least with The Orb, Fsol, Shadow, Eno, early Afx and Ae, I can still listen and capture SOME PORTION of those early days, even if by nostalgia. Back then things were great. It was a good time to be into the music.

it is a bit tiring thinking of the roots of my electronic listening experience, but i can relate to your comment. back when i first heard Cfern on Confield my life changed. but now, i have binged on countless albums only allowing my musical inspiration to be halted by repetition. as you said, there is a stagnant quality to the music now.

as much as i love Proem and his new material, i think a good example would be his "Socially Inept" album. it stands for all of the cliches in electronica today. ambient glitches without a whole lot of archetectural structure. this is my opinion, but that's why ive always put Autechre ahead of the others. they built destructive machines that made sense and even elaborated on those ideas. there's such a joy to witness such a composition as Envane or Tri-Repetae that has such an interface to its character.

but really, i agree with you, (and as i have stated before) the Back to Basics album has kind of preserved the quality of what idm is. the various bedroom artists (including me) who try to live up to such an expectation usually come up with something as stagnant as the rest of the current material. im just hoping that the structure of this music can regain its once powerful motive and build the interest back into fresh and new ideas.

...that's what i hope to do one day (just a goal/dream/inspiration).

I'll tell you what I hope. I hope that my harddisk and the assorted media I've used to archive everything will survive the next 25 years. Because I guarantee you, in 25 years all this stuff will be THE freshest shit available. Sound contradictory? It isnt, if you think carefully about it. More of a comment on the state of music in general.

no, it doesn't sound contradictory. once again, i must refer to Gimmik. when i heard his stuff on B2B, i was still refreshed even though i'd been listening to a lot of shit at the time. just goes to show the roots will always prevail as being the freshest in style and innovation..even after their time.