Intelligent dance music (IDM) is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, defined by idiosyncratic experimentation rather than specific genre constraints. It emerged from the culture and sound palette of electronic styles such as ambient techno, acid house, Detroit techno and breakbeat; it has been regarded as better suited to home listening than dancing. Prominent artists associated with it include Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Amon Tobin, Higher Intelligence Agency, Telefon Tel Aviv, μ-Ziq, The Black Dog, The Future Sound of London, Mouse on Mars, Biosphere, Orbital and Luke Vibert.
Michael Robert Paradinas, better known by his stage name μ-Ziq, is an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He was associated with the electronic style intelligent dance music (IDM) during the 1990s, and recorded on Rephlex Records and Reflective Records. His critically acclaimed 1997 album, Lunatic Harness, helped define the drill 'n' bass subgenre and was also his most successful release, selling over 100,000 copies. Paradinas founded the record label Planet Mu, begun in 1995, where he has championed genres such as juke, IDM and footwork.
Reflective Records is an independent San Francisco-based record label for electronic music, operated by Jonah Sharp and his wife. The first release was the Fluorescence 12" EP by Spacetime Continuum, which was released in August 1993 with an initial pressing of 500 copies. In the mid-1990s, Reflective's releases were known for featuring holograms on the CD or record cover, as well as on the label in the middle of the record.
In Pine Effect is the third studio album by English electronic music producer Mike Paradinas under the stage name μ-Ziq. It was released on 31 October 1995 by Hi-Rise Recordings in the United Kingdom, and later by Astralwerks in the United States.
Lunatic Harness is the fourth studio album by English electronic music producer Mike Paradinas under the stage name μ-Ziq. It was released on 30 June 1997 in the United Kingdom on the Planet Mu label, and on 29 July 1997 in the United States on the Astralwerks label. It was rereleased with bonus tracks from the My Little Beautiful and Brace Yourself singles in 2022 for its 25th anniversary.
Leafcutter John is the recording name of John Burton, a UK-based musician and artist. He makes frequent use of Max/MSP in his compositions. Much of Burton's style is based in computer music and use of samples of everyday sounds. However, he also has roots as a folk musician, and this influence is apparent in his more recent work.
Tim Exile is the recording alias of Timothy Charles Shaw, a producer and performer of electronic music spanning drum and bass, IDM, breakcore and gabber.
Jochem George Paap, known by his stage name Speedy J, is a Dutch electronic music producer based in Rotterdam. His breakthrough came with the release in 1992 of the minimal techno track "Pullover". He released music as part of Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence series in the 1990s, including his debut LP Ginger (1993).
Expert Knob Twiddlers is a 1996 studio album by Mike Paradinas and Richard D. James. It was released in 1996 on Rephlex Records and is the only release credited to the two as Mike & Rich.
Ad Noiseam is an independent record label that has from 2001 onwards published electronic music in the form of as well as hip-hop and jazz based in Berlin, Germany. Ad Noiseam was founded in April of 2001 by Nicolas Chevreux, who also has done some of the design work for the label's releases. Ad Noiseam originally started out as a webzine but quickly moved on to being a record-label establishing a name for itself with its first release "Krach Test", a true tour-de-force 3CDr set featuring anyone who was anyone in the 2001 electronic music scene. After releasing high quality, small batch (mini)-CDr releases, the label phased out the CDr's in favour of factory pressed CDs with 2001's "Subfusc" by Tarmvred, after which numerous releases on both vinyl and CD followed. Continuing its forward vision music- and designwise, Ad Noiseam built a huge following of music enthusiasts as well as musicians.
Jega is the recording name of the Manchester-based electronic music artist, Dylan Nathan. Jega has released records on the Planet Mu, Matador and Skam record labels.
Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique is the seventh studio album by British IDM producer μ-Ziq, released on Planet Mu in 2007.
Drill 'n' bass is a subgenre of drum and bass which developed in the mid-1990s as IDM artists began experimenting with elements of breakbeat, jungle, and drum and bass music. Artists utilized powerful audio software programs and deployed frenzied, irregular beats that often discouraged dancing. The style was often interpreted as having a lightly parodic relationship with the dance styles that inspired it.
Footwork, also called juke, footwork/juke or Chicago juke, is a genre of electronic dance music derived from ghetto house with elements of hip hop, first appearing in Chicago in the late 1990s. The music style evolved from the earlier, rapid rhythms of ghetto house, a change pioneered by RP Boo. It may draw from the rapid rhythms and sub-bass frequencies of drum & bass. Tracks also frequently feature heavily syncopated samples from rap, pop and other sources, and are often around 160 bpm.
Boxcutter is the pseudonym for Barry Lynn, an electronic musician from Northern Ireland. Early Boxcutter material from 2005 and 2006, like that released on Hotflush Recordings and on the debut Planet Mu album Oneiric, was frequently associated with the genre dubstep, although it was also compared to experimental artists such as Amon Tobin and Boards of Canada. The second Boxcutter album Glyphic was more influenced by classic dub music such as King Tubby, but also drew comparisons to artists such as Squarepusher, Foul Play and Seefeel, and continued Lynn's reputation for working outside of conventions and taking a genre-hopping approach. In 2009, Lynn released the SETI-themed album Arecibo Message. In the same year, he also founded the Kinnego Records label, on which he released a collaboration with Kinnego Flux featuring artwork by London designers La Boca, and the first vinyl single by Space Dimension Controller.
Jerrilynn Patton, known as Jlin, is an electronic musician. She began producing music in 2008 and received early attention for her 2011 track "Erotic Heat". Jlin's debut album, Dark Energy, was released in 2015 to critical praise. Her follow-up Black Origami (2017) received further acclaim.
Aaron Funk, known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to be signed to Planet Mu, an experimental electronic music label. His signature style involves meticulously complex drums, eclectic use of samples, and odd time signatures, in particular, 7
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Dark Energy is the debut album by American electronic music producer Jlin, released in 2015 by Planet Mu. It received acclaim from critics and was named the best album of 2015 by The Quietus and The Wire.
Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk, better known as Venetian Snares, has released 24 studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, 19 extended plays (EPs), eight singles, four promotional singles, one remix, and one music video. Funk began producing music in 1992 and self-released several cassettes during the 90's. He released his first three studio albums in cassette. These albums are Spells and Subvert! both released in 1998, and Rorschach Stuffoacte released in 1999. He released the 1999 EP, Greg Hates Car Culture, followed by his fourth studio album, printf("shiver in eternal darkness/n"); in May 2000.
Greg Hates Car Culture is a breakcore EP released by Venetian Snares in 1999 on Minneapolis-based label History of the Future. It was his first official release and led to him being signed by Planet Mu. Twenty years later, a re-mastered version was re-released with three extra tracks on Timesig, a sublabel of Planet Mu as the twenty-fourth studio album of Venetian Snares. The tracks were originally made using an Amiga 500 and an effects pedal.
