IDM: At a loss for words

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Are there any IDM or "experimental electronica" artists working with lyrics or narratives ( besides R*d**h**d, of course)? the Beta Band might qualify. The last Mouse on Mars record has a few words. Prefuse 73 is about to release an album called "Vocal Studies And Uprock Narratives". And Pitchfork says that Capitol K record has occasional lyrics. It sounds like I'm answering my own question. Still, ( with the exception of the Betas) these records seem to use lyrics very sparingly and I think that the possibilities that spoken words coupled with experimental beats and rhythms might offer have been underexplored. Anything you good people can point me towards?

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One other thing: Perhaps the reason for IDM's reluctance to include lyrics is that part of that music's appeal must be the feeling that you are experiencing the sonic output of some alien, mechanical soul and conventional narratives might detract from that glorious abstraction.

― MitchLastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bogdan Raczynski sings alot. I sing alot on my songs... umm does Bjork count? Kid 606 and Mike Patton just did some stuff. Cex raps and sings alot on his tracks too.

― chaki, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

try mum, on fatcat. theyre from iceland. i saw them in russia recently and theyre really good live.

they have these icelandic girls singing on their tracks....

i guess icelandic is the way to go. maybe the best "idm"....errr track to use vocals is the funkstorung mix of bjork 'all is full of love'. thats on fatcat too.

― ambrose, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There seems to be some kind of narrative to Twitch's Mount Florida record. Something to do with Noam Chomsky and (not) having some champagne. It's a really lovely record, very sad in places, very celebratory in others... the narrative is still pretty implicit I guess. I agree - more radio-drama style records! The narrative can still be oblique and indeterminate and unobtrusive - but what a feeling of anticipation getting Mouse on Mars - The Next Episode!

On my college radio show I did a lot of stuff along these lines - Orb, Capleton, Gregory Isaacs, Karl Orff - and then old Incredible Hulk 45s played over the top in key spots.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's Underworld, obviously. The techno with vocals thing has always set them apart. It is odd that they haven't inspired more imitators, seeing as any other tweak of innovation in electronic music results in a new subgenre and a hundred dutiful practitioners.

But, hey, that Prefuse 73 CD truly is a stunner. The vocals are mostly cut-up rap samples "studied" more for sound than for lyrics. The title may be ironic.

― Curt, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i want that prefuse 73 album badly. underworld are bad-ass, but are they 'idm'? bjork is way closer. i love when rdj sings on tracks. every vocal pop song should have glitchy flourishes. god bless nsync's new one. i'm drunk.

― ethan, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It might be a bit too house-based, but Vladislav Delay's Luomo project (a combination of glitch/IDM with house beats) has great vocals. Of course they're usually love songs, so those looking for existential angst or surreal poetry would be advised to look elsewhere.

― Tim, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some great vocal stuff, mostly classified as nu-electro but definitely taking things beyond 1982, is coming out from Ersatz Audio label from Detroit. _Perspects_ (12" "Desire & Efficiency" features lots of vocals) is nearest to the IDM/DSP/glitchland with jittery synthpop-meets-laptop sounds and processed vocals. On the same label, _Adult._ is more straightforward electro, but with very detailed sound structures and way cool android dominatrix vocals: easiest to get is "Resuscitation" CD, which compiles stuff from earlier EPs such as "Nausea", "Entertainment", "Dispassionate Furniture" and "New- Phonies" (which came out on Dutch label Clone). And Ersatz released a theme-EP of vocal stuff, "Oral-Olio", trying to resuscitate the use of vocals in electronic music.

― Janne Vanhanen, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes,yes,yes...buy something from MUM right now..good,good,good

― A. Culler, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Capitol K's first album is great, as is the Roadeater EP, but Island Row is a bit boring. The album's littered with same fuzzy sounds which get rather repetitive after a while. Still, it has got the godlike 'Pillow' on it, so it's not all bad.

I bought Prefuse 73 at the weekend but haven't really got round to giving it a proper listen.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(I've too much to say about this)
Search: The Light 3000 - SchneiderTM

― K-reg, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

super_collider! super_collider! SUPER_COLLIDER!!!

seriously, though, their _head on_ was a damn fine combination of twisty/crunchy idm bits, funk, and a pinch of house and techno. IMO, much more interesting than some of the pale/wan/uninteresting stuff suggested thus far; i think the wire described it as something like "prince dueting with autechre in the bowels of HAL 9000."

― your null fame, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

K-Reg: thanks for the recommendation, "The Light 3000" really is truly excellent. As for MUM, I need to hear more to find out if they're not just "Switched On Sigur Ros". And I need to hear more Sigur Ros to find out if that's really a bad thing.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Sunday, 17 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

cex's academy award, which is based around a dismemberment plan record. and, as noted above, bogdan

― gareth, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

Has anyone discovered anything more in this vein? Only "The Light 3000" has really delivered for me, as an IDM/electronicwhateveryouwannacallit track containing some kind of actual lyrical narrative, and that's cos it's a cover.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

depeche mode? erasure? fuckhead? vvm (that's other people's vocals off other people's records)? third eye foundation (samples again but plenty of voice)? bogdan raczyinski is SO much better than people give him credit for. try the SYR5 record with kim gordon on vox & v.subtle guitar & ikue mori & dj olive on laptop & turntable / acetates respectively - a bit abstract but pretty good. madonna even? didn't the first oval record ever (now reissued?????) have vocals? nobekazu takemaura has a few here and there. does add n to x count? skinny puppy?

― bob snoom, Wednesday, 14 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Interesting how much this has changed in the last 15 months. Jan Jelinek is singing, for Christ's sake!

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 3 March 2003 01:47 (twenty-two years ago)

it's not really singing though is it

― zemko (bob), Monday, 3 March 2003 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

At points, yeah. ("There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)")

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 3 March 2003 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

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