February 21, 2004

• {b-boy banana} this goes on my page tomorrow.
• This is an amazing resource! I keep going back again and again to learn more about music - and I finally can put genre names to music I like. New wave, synth pop, Ital disco, happy hardcore - yay!
• Genre classification is debatable. For example, I would never call Boards of Canada "Illbient." But a great resource overall, glad to see it updated.
• i thought BOC was always IDM. Indeed, wikipedia agrees with me. Still, a good resource; even if the author's writings are so polemical.
• What is IDM? Intelligent Dance Music? That can't be right, surely? Sounds so damned elitist. Also, this is good.
• Wow, cellar, this is great. Some classics I haven't heard in a while, some that I missed on the way. However, he did forget about "ambitechoracitrancillminalism". Also, if you want to drive enemy combatants from their hiding places, the "Happy Hardcore" samples sound like they would be quite effective.
• The main thing I have never liked about Ishkur's guide(s) are the opinions. He comes off as downright condescending of anyone not sharing his taste.
• I don't care about his condesention - because I know nothing! I just like the samples, and the chance to learn more.
• IDM isn't elitist at all. First off; it's a misnomer. Much of it isn't intelligent or dance music (although BOC is damned smart; albeit cryptic). I havn't met many snooty/stuck-up IDM fans as of yet. Don't worry.
• Gyan: I dunno; it seems tongue in cheek to me.
• I didn't mean the fans were elitist - I like a lot of what is called IDM on the site. Its just I'd never heard the name before (its probably an American thing), and it just sounds elitist, or superior, or something.
• IDM is a really aggravating name (as is anything that starts with "Progressive", with the exception of perhaps prog rock), but it is unfortunately a reality. Yep, people really call it that. Some of it is really great stuff, too, which makes it a shame. Ishkur's site is great, though I have a few quibbles with definitions (for example, he doesn't seem to realize the origin of "illbient": ambient which makes you feel uncomfortable (hence ill), and instead goes off on "ill" in the "You be illin'" sense). The only one that kills me, though, is his placing of most epic trance stuff in a category called "Crap". It doesn't kill me because I disagree (I do, but that doesn't bother me), but because it's so useless. That is, the info on the page is so good that a friend who doesn't know electronica might be able to use it to describe something. For example: "Have you seen the new Audi commercial? It uses gabba in the background!", but "Crap"? Me: "How was the club?" Friend: "It sucked. They played crap." Me: "What kind of crap? Minimal? Italo?" Friend: "Uh, no, you know, crap. Like, the genre, crap." Me: "The genre 'crap', huh...Very useful..." Other than that, it introduced me to the Venetian Snares, which I am now gobbling up. Plus, he calls guitar oriented goa "butt-rock goa", and then procedes to praise it. As a fellow fan of guitar based goa who also calls it "butt-rock goa", it's great to know I'm not the only one who uses that term.