I’m on the Artificial Lounge group page right now. I believe user “Silben” wrote the introduction, although he no longer wants to lead the group:
Eventhough the music you can hear in our station often sounds
similar to music marked as ‘Inteligent Dance Music’. In most ca-
ses our radio isn’t quite dancable, and it’s less extreme. It’s a sta-
tic mood, of a low paste that’s merely enough to be headnodding
to, and the intelligence of it is ofcourse disputable.
I’m wondering if Silben thinks the IDM category has failed its music. One can dance to anything, if that’s really an issue. I don’t dance to IDM, but I had a girlfriend that could. I wouldn’t blame IDM’s name for its music’s unpopularity. A literal reading of the name “IDM” (Intelligent Dance Music) doesn’t convey much, even if people admit they dance to this music.
So what is IDM? Another way to explain it, IDM is non-vocal, electronic, and the push/pull of melody against abstraction, foreground against background. Slower than techno/drumnbass/jungle, faster than ambient/space/drone. The best IDM is not brooding, ominous, or sinister. I think this music does portray intelligence, and the artists are heroes to create it with so few listeners.
To be more specific, Silben defines “Artificial Lounge” by referencing specific artists:
Think of artists with the likes of Boards of Canada, Tycho, Vesna, ISAN, Bola and Arovane.
Here are the weekly top artists of the group: Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Autechre, Air, Squarepusher, Tycho, The Future Sound of London, Plaid, Amon Tobin.
You can see, as is the case with most Last.fm groups, the listeners are out of alignment with the intent of the group. (Edit: As it turns out, I don’t understand the intent of this group. Maybe Silben just wants people tagging whatever sounds “relaxing” to them? I’m listening to the Artificial Lounge radio now, but I have a feeling I will stick to surfing “similar artists” stations like Landau Radio.)
My analysis of this weekly top? Boards of Canada has tracks I love, but the vibe is too adolescent most of the time. Aphex Twin is ugly, period. Radiohead I don’t think melds with the intent here, Radiohead is about vocals. But Radiohead at least serves as a gateway to electronic music appreciation. Autechre has good tracks, I sold a painting influenced by Eviscerate. But like Squarepusher, Autechre can wear on your nerves with excessive randomness. Air lacks substance. I love Tycho.
My musical preference is 77.72% similar to the Artificial Lounge Group group. Musically, I fit in!
The “Artificial Lounge” name is interesting. Writing about IDM is about as lounging as I get, right now I’m listening to Landau Radio. I’m not “passing time idly and indolently” but bordering on it. The name “Artificial Lounge” seems to play on “Artificial Life” and “Second Life”. I suppose this music can sound artificial, but for some reason I appreciate the resolution of electronically created music more than I appreciate the resolution of electronically created visual art. It is artificial in the sense we are connected here by way of the Internet, hearing blips and beeps, yet we still know these musicians worked through what sounds like new ideas, with and without difficulty, through their ears, and through our ears, and that is real.
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Thanks Silben, you have good points. Especially about the “weekly top”. I really do like that it is there. This is the first weekly top I’ve seen where Radiohead isn’t #1, Beatles #2, NIN #3, you know what I mean? OK, so the talent emanates from the artists, but I think pulling people together helps to validate good work, for example, the way Impressionism validated Monet. Now I see the radio button for “Unique to this Group” (vs. Overall) and I’m not sure what the difference is ;-)
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I think any genre name fails it’s music, because the names create boundries that only the artists themselve can create. The Artificial Lounge name isn’t quite accurate, just like the IDM name. But the purpos of the Artificial Lounge tag wasn’t to explain anything about the music. I could have chosen a name like ‘Sounds for people’. It doesn’t really matter. The tag is just a tool to be able to create a radio station with laidback spacemusic. And the group is a tool to share the radiostation.
At the time I thought it was necesary to explain to people what the radio sounded like. I explained that ‘yes we were looking for the sound some people call IDM’ but ‘no we didn’t wan’t to hear ‘Come to daddy’ when relaxing to the radio’
I like many of the sounds that people call IDM, I love aphex twin’s harder stuff but the radios intention is to be a relaxing radio station. Whatever it’s name claims the music to be, wasn’t on purpose.
The weekly top artists list has no function in the group it is something that comes with groups on last.fm automaticly, If I could I would have removed it. Being a member of the group shouldn’t stop people from discovering new/different sounds.