It鈥檚 hated by artists, ridiculed by label owners and seems to have outworn its welcome by nearly two decades. So why is Intelligent Dance Music still being used?
IDM is one of the oddest terms in music. It refers to Intelligent Dance Music, and you鈥檇 have to look very far and very hard to find any other term that inspires so much scorn. However, at the same time, the term has persisted: unlike so many other labels and sub-genres, it鈥檚 still around, nearly 20 years after it was first coined. Most musicians don鈥檛 even stick around that long.
To find out what鈥檚 behind IDM鈥檚 incredible staying power 鈥 and to understand why it鈥檚 loathed as much as it is 鈥 it鈥檚 worth looking at what it actually means. This isn鈥檛 easy. IDM is the musical version of a flake of soap: the moment you think you鈥檝e got a handle on it, it jumps out of your hands. In very broadest of terms, it refers to a type of dance music that is characterised by atmosphere comprising unusual, often non-repetitive sound elements, as opposed to the more traditional dance music, which focuses on steady beats and repetitive loops.
鈥淸People look at it] and go, 鈥榯hese are the noises of dance music, but not made for people getting drunk in a disco鈥,鈥 says Leila Arab, a Warp Records artist often referred to as an IDM DJ. Arab 鈥 a spiky, Iranian-born producer who provokes as much in her conversation as she does in her deeply experimental music 鈥 describes the term succinctly: 鈥淚 understand why the label exists. It鈥檚 saying, 鈥榳ow, arpeggiators, sub-basses, kicks and snares 鈥 oh look, it鈥檚 like dance music, but not for being drunk on a Saturday night. Dance music, but not for the brave new world鈥.鈥
The origins of the term are unclear. Depending on who you talk to, it was either coined by i-D magazine in 1992, or by dance music enthusiast and newsletter author Alan Parry in 1993 (neither magazine nor writer could reached for comment). It came to be applied to several labels and artists who are still around today: Aphex Twin, Autechre, Plaid, Warp Records, Rephlex Records; and here鈥檚 the kicker, we spoke to quite a few of these people, and they hate it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a terrible name for a genre,鈥 says Grant Wilson-Claridge, one of the owners of UK label Rephlex, which is home to artists like Aleksi Perala and Jodey Kendrick. 鈥淚 refuse to even acknowledge the existence of IDM, unless it means the skip full of rightly unsigned demo music people endlessly send in or post on internet forums.鈥 Wilson-Claridge criticises it for implying zero sense of humour, and jokingly says he prefers the term 鈥渂raindance.鈥
It鈥檚 not just the labels. Strictly Kev (Kevin Foakes) is a member of the collective DJ Food 鈥 although to be strictly accurate, he鈥檚 the sole remaining member of the crew. His new album, The Search Engine, is certainly not your typical dance record, and it comes with a series of shows Foakes is planning at the London Planetarium: 鈥淲hen you take people out of a club setting, they respond differently to music,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not expecting to hear something they know, they鈥檙e not expecting to be made to dance. It places a very exaggerated emphasis on the visual side of things.鈥
Signed to Ninja Tune 鈥 a label which has also been tarred with the IDM brush 鈥 the soft-spoken Foakes says he鈥檚 not convinced the term IDM has any merit at all. 鈥淚t鈥檚 rubbish,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of insulting in some ways. You鈥檙e the intelligent people, but this is just nonsensical dance music鈥obody would want to be put in that genre. It鈥檚 a means to an end, but it鈥檚 meaningless because it has been around for so long.
鈥淎t the time it was coined, it described a sector of music: electronica, techno, anything else, in the same way that trip-hop described Ninja Tune at one point. But time moves on, and it鈥檚 almost meaningless, because there are swathes of artists and labels that fit into that category, who make different kinds of music. What is it? Is it a little more cerebral than club music? It requires some thought or more than one listen to get it? Nothing wrong with that, but it is fairly pointless.鈥
None of this, however, answers the question of why the category has persisted and is still being used in discussions even today. After all, if someone at a party were being insulting, humourless and pretentious, you鈥檇 kick him out 鈥 or at the very least, move to the other side of the room. So why is IDM still used to describe people鈥檚 music?
Perhaps one of the reasons is that artists who are filed under the term are remarkably persistent. Unlike their club-friendly brethren, they can afford to be resistant to changing fashions. Given that they鈥檙e not pressured to have a radio hit, or are quite comfortable surviving on a small, dedicated audience at a boutique label, they don鈥檛 have to change much. And a good deal of the music described as IDM today sounds awfully similar to that which was being released in the early 1990s. We don鈥檛 mean to suggest that artists haven鈥檛 progressed or pushed boundaries 鈥 say what you like about dance DJs, they鈥檙e not scared of experimenting 鈥 but there do seem to be certain key threads which run through the music.
If any label could ever be described as the home of IDM, it would be Warp, who have been putting out introspective, experimental electronic music for decades. Leila Arab might have described the term brilliantly, but she still hates it with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 really see what I do as [IDM],鈥 she says. 鈥淚 use the apparatus of dance music 鈥 electronics and beats and basslines 鈥 to make noise. I don鈥檛 think I make dance music at all. The only element of mine that would fall into IDM is the apparatus. Historically, that鈥檚 really not the music I was into. I鈥檓 into it now, but it鈥檚 got nothing to do with what I was raised on.鈥
More importantly, she says, part of the reason the label has persisted is thanks to the journalists, music industry folk and fans who wish to define music, rather than just accept it as is: 鈥淛ournalists are incredibly lazy. At the end of the day, you lot need to [package things]. And the other thing is, all the labels I鈥檝e been on are kind of dance labels: Rephlex, which was Aphex Twin鈥檚 label, and then XL, and now I鈥檓 doing stuff for Warp, who are the highest end of the best producers in the world.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 a weird one,鈥 she continues. 鈥淢y loyalty is just to noise; I have no loyalty to anything else.鈥 Arab鈥檚 new record for the label, U&I, certainly bears that out: it鈥檚 simultaneously bewildering and deeply brilliant, not to mention noisy.
Perhaps this is all overwhelmingly negative. You could accuse Arab, Foakes and Wilson-Claridge of ridiculing a term that they have, at least in some part, profited from: any cachet IDM might have had with fans rubbed off on them as well. Surely there must be some positive consequences of its use?
Foakes gives a qualified response: 鈥淚n the 1990s, when trip-hop as a word was hot, as much as we hated it and still do, it got you work at that point. Now everyone wants dubstep and in a couple of years, they鈥檒l want something else. You need a label to sell yourself in the first place. It鈥檚 a double-edged sword.鈥 The work that artists potentially get from being pigeonholed can be very welcome 鈥 there might be very few IDM-themed gigs around, but there鈥檚 certainly an audience for it.
He goes on, saying that there appears to be a need among listeners (and those who write about music) to put new sounds in little boxes. 鈥淧eople need categories,鈥 he muses, 鈥渢hey need to put things in boxes, to file them away, to sell them, to write about them, to describe. That鈥檚 not really a problem I have either. Enough people call my music trip-hop and maybe it is trip-hop to them. That鈥檚 the trouble.鈥
Maybe, but there is the notion that Intelligent Dance Music as a term might just be useful, however loathed and despised that it may be. When music refuses to fit into any genre, there鈥檚 arguably no harm in throwing a blanket term over it 鈥 though the artists we spoke to feel very differently. Ultimately, it鈥檚 just a name, and it will be interesting to see whether it survives the next 20 years.
For more information on DJ Food visit www.djfood.org and for Leila Arab check out www.warp.net/records/leila. For further details on Rephlex Records visit .
Rob Boffard
