IDM music - Blue Swell

One of my absolute favorite styles of music is IDM electronic music. Most people I play it for really like it, at least some sub-style or artist. IDM or intelligent dance music is an Electronic sub-genre of music that generally has three to four features:

1) the song's beats per minute, or tempo is slower than most electronic music (techno/trance/rock) but still with a dancing feel. Sometimes you have to listen a few times to identify the part of texture that makes you wanna dance.

2) they tend to be instrumental songs that start slow and calm, and build upon itself with new melodies, harmonies and rhythms until it reaches a climax - which slowly returns back to the soft and simple sound like it was in the beginning... until it fades out. This makes them lengthy- the average is probably 5 minutes, although some artists have some songs less than two minutes and some songs they make go well over 8 minutes.

3) percussion instruments are active, complex, and the rhythms are very jazzy, but the bass, feel and sometimes the melodies are very disco- and funk- influenced.

4) melodies tend to be polyphonic, there isn't a standard harmony and melody but multiple melodies working together and independantly.

With all IDM music, you have generally extremely affected parts, with lots of sound editing. If you have good speakers or headphones to hook up, I recommend it for this post. The sound can lose a lot with electronic music through weak speakers.

Examples of different IDM music are:

The slightly frenzied and maybe a little weird, but designed to make you think - old-school electronic (90s) extraordinaires:
Aphex Twin (goofy NSFW lyrics at the end)
Autechre
Squarepusher (so fun to dance to! think twice as fast.)
Venetian Snares (totally new feel at 1:55, and it keeps progressing like any venetian squares song to some crazy stuff later)
mu-ziq (just discovered this song! fabulous)

The happier, upbeat IDM'ers:
Four Tet
Ulrich Schnauss (vocals)

Many of those artists above have some songs that are the chillest and most ambient stuff on earth, as these dance moves slow way down:
Boards of Canada (short)
Animals on Wheels
Aphex Twin's other calmer side

--

I only bring this genre up for one reason, I have finished a song featuring IDM and downtempo influences. You can find it at my myspace.com page, here.

My new song is entitled Blue Swell. It is an extended groove of a down-tempo dance beats and melodic explorations with synthesized instrumentation and effected voice, with hints of IDM elements (intelligent dance music) and progressive roots.

In other words, that means it has a danceable feel while it keeps the speed of the song slow and steady. It builds to a few climax points before fading in conclusion. And, when the song could seem like the feel is getting a little old, a new feel takes place, thus it progresses through different styles.

My addition to this genre is that I sing-scat a melodic line with added sound effects such as echo, reverb, and phaser; whereas much of the genre, especially earlier keeps instrumental, or other artists tend to focus less on the vocals (such as having background oohs and aahs)

I hope you enjoy it! A full-length album featuring this and many other songs will be out for download over the internet in the not-too-distant future!

----------------
Now playing: Tangerine Dream - Dies Martis [Transmercury]
via FoxyTunes