Burger Flippin' Blues?

July 7, 2010 9:23 PM

He's no Trent Reznor or Radiohead, but Volker Kahl is pushing from the bottom of the sales charts, making his post-Beefcake work (under the nom-de-sampler Kattoo) available online.

Volker Kahl is one half of the now-defunct German electronic music duo Beefcake (with Gabor Schablitzki). He has expressed more than a little bit of bitterness about the state of the music business -- on that page alone he notes that when he offered his music up, Radiohead-style, on a pay-what-you-will basis he got 14000 downloads with only 31 donations. Despite that, his new album l--ll-ll l-ll ll-ll- l-ll- l--l-ll l--l-ll ll-- ll-- l- l--l- has a very optimistic feel to it.

For an idea of what you'll be experiencing, check out a few youtube samples:

Place 8
l-l l-ll l- l--ll- l--l-ll l--l-l
Are You Normal Enough? (Beefcake And The Burger Flippin' Blues)

posted by ChrisR (53 comments total)

"He's no Trent Reznor or Radiohead"

That's a compliment right?
posted by oddman at 9:41 PM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's more of a reference to the relative popularity of those acts, and their resultant successes with online distribution as an alternative to physical media.

In general I like both of the above, but Volker's work does more for me than the two of them put together.
posted by ChrisR at 10:02 PM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sounds a bit like a combination of a poor man's Aphex Twin meets Enya to me.
posted by stevenstevo at 12:08 AM on July 8, 2010

Volker Kahl

Gabor Schablitzki

Some names can be attached to rock stars, and some cannot.
posted by clockzero at 12:34 AM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow, I really, really love Beefcake, but had no idea what happened to them. Thanks for finding this.
posted by wrok at 4:34 AM on July 8, 2010

I got into a big argument with this guy last year about downloading, where he said that he wasn't going to make any more music because downloaders would just steal it all anyway, and that maybe it was fine for me to give away my music but his was much more complex and took eight months of full-time work.

He's a really talented musician, but like so many other musicians he feels entitled to making a living just because he wrote some music, and the world doesn't work that way anymore.
posted by Jairus at 6:00 AM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

" ... like so many other musicians he feels entitled to making a living just because he wrote some music ..."

Wow. Usually this is at least couched in a coy 'musicians will need to find a new model to make a profit' kind of way. Not sure if you are simply reporting on what you think the reality of the situation is or actually advocating it, but either way, thanks for the honesty, I guess.
posted by kyrademon at 6:07 AM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

stevenstevo: Sounds a bit like a combination of a poor man's Aphex Twin meets Enya to me.

That sounds a bit harsh, but I guess that sums up what I like about his music; it combines the rhythmic variety of a top-shelf IDM act with an ear for melody that so many of them (Aphex Twin included) seem to lack.

A friend of mine compared him to Information Society and Burial, neither of whom I've had any experience with, but I plan to remedy that when I can.
posted by ChrisR at 6:36 AM on July 8, 2010

Oooo I'll have to check this at home. I loved earlier albums Coincidentia Oppositorum and Drei.
posted by Theta States at 7:07 AM on July 8, 2010

Holy Crap, I know that Kattoo song from last.fm, I like it! Thanks for this post -- i shall support him, me thinks, if the rest of his stuff is like this...
posted by symbioid at 7:20 AM on July 8, 2010

" ... like so many other musicians he feels entitled to making a living just because he wrote some music ..."

Seems like a fair statement to me. Even at the best of times artists weren't guaranteed a living. The model is broken. There seems to be two options. More money than god or none. Sorry he didn't land on the right side of the equation.

(Note: I am seldom a consumer of music and can't remember the last song or disc I bought.)
posted by cjorgensen at 7:23 AM on July 8, 2010

Wow. Usually this is at least couched in a coy 'musicians will need to find a new model to make a profit' kind of way. Not sure if you are simply reporting on what you think the reality of the situation is or actually advocating it, but either way, thanks for the honesty, I guess.

I'm just so tired of seeing musicians treat fans like thieves because they feel like they are owed a regular paycheque by virtue of having released an album.

There's been a bubble in the economy of music for the last forty years or so. The majors controlled supply/demand tightly enough so it was simple to make decent cash by releasing decent records, but that's not the way things worked for the thousand years before MCA Records came on the scene, and it's not the way things are going to work anytime soon.

'Success' as a musician used to mean a big label contract, touring the world and living high. Musicians need to manage their expectations, because 'success' in any other art form means you can pay rent and spend some money on gear.

Could you imagine if painters whined as much as musicians do? Complaining about how a painting took a year to complete, and goddamn it they are entitled to compensation for their hard work?

Painters who manage to make a decent living off their art are the best-of-breed. They're the people who have worked their asses off for years while starving, know a lot of people, gotten really lucky, or some combination of the three. It's a lofty goal and most of them will never make it there.

So many musicians, on the other hand, expect to start there and then work their way up. It's bullshit, and the sooner they realize that it's not the case, the sooner the ones who want to pack up their toys and go home will get the fuck out of the way of everyone else.
posted by Jairus at 7:28 AM on July 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

Could you imagine if painters whined as much as musicians do?

You know what? I know many very hard-working, honest, non-whining musicians who just appreciate the opportunity to make _some_ money doing what they love. Not wealth by any stretch, just _maybe_ enough to survive, maybe. And they whine a lot less than you do about it.
posted by kingbenny at 7:34 AM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

I know many very hard-working, honest, non-whining musicians who just appreciate the opportunity to make _some_ money doing what they love.

So do I. I book shows, I tour, and occasionally I even release other people's music on a label. But I have no patience for musicians like this guy who take time out of their day to insult their fans.
posted by Jairus at 7:42 AM on July 8, 2010

Ooooh Jairus, I'm favouriting on your comments so hard.


Even in the best of times (1998?), a long-tail genre like IDM-industrial is hardly going to put food on the plate. I imagine they got SOME money from their releases on Hymen way-back-when, but I can't imagine it was ever enough to quit their day jobs.

I can definitely understand how they might have angst towards at least getting their modest compensation, but as it has been said, times have changed. Especially for experimental electronic musicians. The amount of comparable work that is released for free every month by online labels is astonishing.
posted by Theta States at 7:44 AM on July 8, 2010

"Ralph America [home of The Residents] will be closing after 11 years on August 15, 2010. Changes in the music business have made it very difficult for small operations to exist as the world goes download. There are sites where you can download all RA titles for free (RSD ones too) so trying to stay in business no longer works very well. RSD will also be pulling back on issuing music due to the free download sites. EuroRalph faced a similar situation last year and also closed down [after 17 years]. Welcome to the new reality."
posted by eccnineten at 7:47 AM on July 8, 2010

Jesus, people still use tired, hackneyed genre designations like IDM? What are you people, 90 years old? Have there even been any 'IDM' records released in the past decade?
posted by koeselitz at 10:50 AM on July 8, 2010

Have there even been any 'IDM' records released in the past decade?

Start here and work backwards.
posted by Jairus at 10:54 AM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Aww - koeselitz is offended the someone defined a genre.

I dunno - ask Autechre if they've released any albums that could fall under that genre (answer, yes). Yeah most of RDJ these days is Acid shit, but he did release Drukqs (was that in the last decade? it's damn close)

I guess it's a question of what precisely IDM is, and maybe that's why you hate it...

And yes, in fact... ok, no, I'm not 90. What am I supposed to say "Ex-per-i-men-tal e-lec-tro-nic mu-sic" (what's that like 12 syllables?) vs I D M (3 syllables) I'll take 3, thanks.
posted by symbioid at 11:05 AM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Have there even been any 'IDM' records released in the past decade?

Yes, plenty.
Naono, Wisp, Flica, Hauschka, Discuss, Lusine ICL, Welder, Apparat, aus, Bichi, Helios, Tycho, Recue, Trickform, etc etc etc etc.

IDM hasn't been a description since 1995. It's a long since been a genre.
posted by Theta States at 11:11 AM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

symbioid: “I guess it's a question of what precisely IDM is, and maybe that's why you hate it... And yes, in fact... ok, no, I'm not 90. What am I supposed to say "Ex-per-i-men-tal e-lec-tro-nic mu-sic" (what's that like 12 syllables?) vs I D M (3 syllables) I'll take 3, thanks.”

Well, yeesh. I guess it's just that – I mean, glitch happened ten years ago. It ain't 1992 anymore. I dig Autechre just as much as anyone else, although that last one from a few months ago is a bit boring. It just funny to me that the only touchstone in experimental electronic music that people can think of is Aphex Twin. I'm guessing that's because they knew somebody who played them an Aphex Twin record years ago.

Also, I thought people had grown up enough to stop using a bullshit term like IDM. 'Intelligent Dance Music'? What, so dance music that is smart, in contrast to all that other dance music that is dumb? Apparently Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Blake Baxter, et al make DDM, which is to be avoided by us smart people who listen to IDM. Heck, most IDM isn't even DM. When the hell was the last time you saw somebody dance to an Autechre song? IDM? Complete misnomer.

Which is reflected in the industry. You can say you're into "experimental electronic music" and just want a shorthand for it, but plenty of people have made "experimental electronic music" in the last ten years, and none of them call it "IDM." Mostly because they're respectful, and they know it's a stupid term. I remember hearing at some point that it's an American term, which I guess would make sense; even Squarepusher never called what he was doing "IDM."
posted by koeselitz at 11:21 AM on July 8, 2010

“IDM. Intelligent Dance Music. A genre name as absurd as the music is, or at least was, brilliant... The term was born out a seemingly necessary desire to lump ground-breaking artists in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s into the same category.” Is IDM Dead? [2007]
posted by koeselitz at 11:28 AM on July 8, 2010

Parising the meaning behind "IDM" is so 1999. What are you, 90?
posted by Theta States at 11:34 AM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

"When the hell was the last time you saw somebody dance to an Autechre song?" Last tour? I think it was like 2008 or so? (of course their live stuff isn't quite "idm"/glitch/experimental or whatever -- i guess it's "dumb dance music") - but it is original autechre material.

I dunno - I guess I just never got too hung up on it, and it was the first term I'd heard used when I discovered this style in the mid/late 90s so I just stuck w/it. I certainly don't mean to offend anyone.

Glitch to me denotes a certain sound that's a subset of what I've called IDM...

Anyways, I like a lot of the artists Theta States recommended... Maybe I'll start using a different term than IDM, but old habits die hard.
posted by symbioid at 11:37 AM on July 8, 2010

To get back on track - I did like Jairus referencing the current music industry as a bubble, a nice perspective and very apt w/r/t the whole economic situation we find our self in.
posted by symbioid at 11:40 AM on July 8, 2010

Theta States: “Naono, Wisp, Flica, Hauschka, Discuss, Lusine ICL, Welder, Apparat, aus, Bichi, Helios, Tycho, Recue, Trickform, etc etc etc etc.”

None of those people ever seemed like 'IDM' to me, and I'd be frankly surprised if any of them would refer to their work as such. It's hard for me to even say what that would mean; as far as I can tell, 'IDM' just means 'beat-focused electronic music that's not in 4/4,' which seems pretty broad. The closest thing to a real definition of IDM that anybody's ever given me is 'music released on Rephlex Records,' and even that definition doesn't work given that everybody I know of on Rephlex who's expressed an opinion on the matter is pretty vocally against the term IDM in the first place, particularly μ-Ziq.

Electronic music is full of generally useless designations like IDM, although IDM is probably the one that bothers me most. Another annoying one is 'ambient,' which I can't for the life of me figure out; people say The Field is "ambient," but they say the same thing about Wolfgang Voigt's stuff; people can go nuts to a Field song in a club, whereas Voigt's music isn't really danceable at all, so it's hard to say what binds them together besides some sort of airy, ethereal quality. And 'ambient' gets thrown around all the time. And also 'microhouse.' Heck, most of the 'microhouse' stuff I've heard could probably pass for 'IDM' if it was released a few years earlier. How is half of what Ricardo Villalobos does not 'IDM'? Oh, I guess it's mostly in 4/4, so it's apparently not 'intelligent' enough.
posted by koeselitz at 11:44 AM on July 8, 2010

As a followup, this album is just plain fantastic and now I have to buy/donate/download the rest of them.

Also, arguing over the term IDM is such a blast from the past! P.S. it's just a nice helpful term that generally encompasses a concept, get over it
posted by wrok at 11:46 AM on July 8, 2010

Yeah, though - sorry for the derail, just hadn't heard 'IDM' in a long time.

Mostly I was just pissed off by stevenstevo's comment up above, which was ridiculous. I actually kind of liked the music in the post, and it annoyed me to see someone trying to impose a really weird, ill-informed framework on top of it. 'IDM' as a term sort of brings that all up in me, too, so the whole thing irked me a bit.

Anyhow, thanks for the post, ChrisR. Good stuff!
posted by koeselitz at 11:49 AM on July 8, 2010

wrok: “it's just a nice helpful term that generally encompasses a concept, get over it”

Not to belabor a stupid point that I probably shouldn't have brought up, but: what concept? Nobody's ever actually explained this to me. What the hell does IDM mean? I seriously want to know. I listen to a lot of things that people call 'IDM,' and a lot of things that people don't call 'IDM,' and I have never, never been able to tell the difference.
posted by koeselitz at 11:51 AM on July 8, 2010

Theta States: “Naono, Wisp, Flica, Hauschka, Discuss, Lusine ICL, Welder, Apparat, aus, Bichi, Helios, Tycho, Recue, Trickform, etc etc etc etc.”

koeselitz: None of those people ever seemed like 'IDM' to me

Let's see what last.fm's crowdsourced tags have to say:

• Naono: idm, ambient, electronica, downtempo, chill out
• Wisp: idm, electronic, ambient, experimental, electronica
• Flica: ambient, electronic, idm, experimental, malaysia
• Hauschka: piano, instrumental, ambient, minimal, experimental
• Discuss: electronic, idm, downtempo, bliss
• Lusine ICL: idm, ambient, electronic, glitch, minimal
• Welder: ambient, idm, downtempo, electronic, lounge
• Apparat: idm, electronic, ambient, experimental, electronica
• Aus: ambient, idm, japanese, electronica, electronic
• Bichi: idm, glitch, electronica, electronic, experimenta
• Helios: ambient, electronic, idm, downtempo, electronica
• Tycho: ambient, idm, electronic, chillout, downtempo
• Recue: ambient, idm, experimental, electronica, netlabel
• Trickform: idm, downtempo, endpilot, electronic, chillout

Seems like IDM to the fans of 13 out of the 14 artists Theta States mentioned.
posted by Jairus at 12:29 PM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

None of those people ever seemed like 'IDM' to me, and I'd be frankly surprised if any of them would refer to their work as such.

I am not having this discussion. This is the worst kind of music discussion possible on the internet.
Perhaps you'd also like to passionately tell me what "punk" is?

Fine, the term doesn't work for you. It seems to be fine for everyone else here. :)
posted by Theta States at 12:33 PM on July 8, 2010

I'd like to get back to arguing about entitled musicians, personally.

Speaking of which, how is the new Kattoo album?
posted by Jairus at 12:52 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

He's a really talented musician, but like so many other musicians he feels entitled to making a living just because he wrote some music, and the world doesn't work that way anymore.

Well, we'll see about that.

Once we finish organizing our secret militant national union of professional musicians and songwriters, ruthlessly punishing all scabs until every decent musician in North America is union and afraid to perform or record without our approval, we'll declare a general strike, a complete full-spectrum black out of all musical performance and production, refusing to make any music at all until consumers are again prepared to pay musicians and songwriters a fair wage for a day's work.

Then all you'll have left is your precious Lady Gaga, and I for one hope you choke on it.

/blowing pipe-dream smoke

I wish you self-righteous, preachy anti-music-as-career assholes were this mercilessly intent on seeing that corporate CEOs, lawyers, professional athletes, MBAs, and all the other far more egregious examples of people who "think they're entitled to get paid" just for doing the economically worthless things they do. I've got so many musician friends in their early 30s--intelligent, capable and creatively gifted people, mostly from working class or lower middle class backgrounds--who are struggling now because they never developed employable career skills and employment histories because they devoted their every waking moment to learning the craft of being musicians for so many years of their lives because everyone at the time said you've got to put serious work in now to make a career in this or else--

Never mind. Just fucking never mind. I've got nothing more to say to people like you, and I'm not really interested in your reply either.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:13 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd like to get back to arguing about entitled musicians, personally.

There you go. Get right back to it.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:14 PM on July 8, 2010

I wish you self-righteous, preachy anti-music-as-career assholes were this mercilessly intent on seeing that corporate CEOs, lawyers, professional athletes, MBAs, and all the other far more egregious examples of people who "think they're entitled to get paid" just for doing the economically worthless things they do.

Oh, we are.
posted by Jairus at 1:19 PM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

Theta States: “Fine, the term doesn't work for you. It seems to be fine for everyone else here. :)”

Seems like a good reason to move along and leave this annoying debate (which I brought up) behind. Sorry, everybody. IDM GRAR forgotten. Heh.

Jairus: “Speaking of which, how is the new Kattoo album?”

I don't have any idea yet. But I'll let you know whenever he sends me my copy; I swallowed my reservations about PayPal and paid up, so we'll see.
posted by koeselitz at 1:22 PM on July 8, 2010

Whoa. Never thought I'd see a Beefcake FPP.

Drei is truly an epic album (and you'll take my CD copy from my cold, dead hands). It's one continuous mix, which segues into something new and exciting every 2 minutes or so, and it does this for a full eighty minutes.

And yes, "IDM" is a dumb name, but it's the best we've got. Ditto for "industrial". Oh, ambiguously named musical genres, why must I love you so?
posted by neckro23 at 1:29 PM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

I wish you self-righteous, preachy anti-music-as-career assholes were this mercilessly intent on seeing that corporate CEOs, lawyers, professional athletes, MBAs, and all the other far more egregious examples of people who "think they're entitled to get paid" just for doing the economically worthless things they do.

To be fair, I am not against music as a career. It is just that the available space to eke out a living as a musician has once again shrunk.
As Jairus pointed out, there was a good 40 year bubble (I'd say 50-60) in the music industry.

If a painter doesn't get super popular (and only a small percentage ever do,) should they resent the art world for not offering them a standard of living? Even if they poured 15 years in to a large body of work, they aren't owed a living.
If they were smart, they would have realized that living off one's art is a struggle and/or a rare luxury, and not neglected the rest of their development as an adult.


I'm terribley sorry your musician friends are struggling. Lots of musicians struggle, and many of them are fabulously talented.
Failing "making it big", if you want to make a living as a musician you best be good at working your trade in as many ways as possible. Soundtracks, advertising, bar bands, session musician, producer, etc.

And well, if your primary instrument is a laptop, your options are even limited further.
But still, many people do it. Alternative revenue streams between albums can include selling tracks on Beatport, doing remixes, giving lessons, selling patches, DJing, etc.
posted by Theta States at 1:36 PM on July 8, 2010

And for Ralph Records:

.




The Residents had one of the best long-tail business models in the business. Through Ralph they were constantly releasing limited edition treasures.
Somewhat related: Robert Rich on 1000 True Fans.
posted by Theta States at 1:44 PM on July 8, 2010

Failing "making it big", if you want to make a living as a musician you best be good at working your trade in as many ways as possible.

I think it's perfectly normal to simultaneously accept that you'll never make it big as a musician and also be a little bit angry that some people telling you you'll never make it big are doing so as a way to justify their own collections of torrented music.
posted by kingbenny at 1:46 PM on July 8, 2010

I think it's perfectly normal to simultaneously accept that you'll never make it big as a musician and also be a little bit angry that some people telling you you'll never make it big are doing so as a way to justify their own collections of torrented music.

You need to use some pretty twisted logic to get to the conclusion where that's why they're saying you're never going to make it big. That's like saying "they're just jealous" when someone makes fun of you.
posted by Jairus at 2:00 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

You need to use some pretty twisted logic to get to the conclusion where that's why they're saying you're never going to make it big. That's like saying "they're just jealous" when someone makes fun of you.

I get what you're saying, but is it any more twisted than the logic that somehow the musicians are acting more entitled than all the people who now believe music should be free, by virtue of it being the year 2010?
posted by kingbenny at 2:28 PM on July 8, 2010

also be a little bit angry that some people telling you you'll never make it big are doing so as a way to justify their own collections of torrented music.

15 years ago, before torrents, the same number of people would be telling them they won't be able to make a living at music.
It is not the fault of the fans that this person doesn't know how to make a living off of music. What that entails today is different than what that entailed 20 years ago, 40 years ago, and 100 years ago.
posted by Theta States at 2:51 PM on July 8, 2010

From his web site:
in the year 2004, 2005 and 2006 i have invested every year more than 6 months full time work for production of my albums. after that i was completely out of money and in the following years i have needed all my power and time to recover my financial situation. i must finance my life like every other people, and music can not help me with this ... sorrily it causes more problems as it brings advantages, that is the sad truth. therefore i'm not really back in music making, if the self distribution with donations don't work ... be sure that this album is the last KATTOO release. it is the last attempt and if it fail, the KATTOO project is dead and i don't waste my time anymore with producing music that only few people really support. the people should not see this album as a new beginning, it is more like a farewell present for my few real fans and with a very small possibility of a continuation. all depends from my audience and if they prefer to thank uploading poseurs from pirate websites than they should ask also the pirates when they produce the next release and not me ...


Is this really something specific to music? I hear this narrative in all artforms, it just seems like musicians have any easy scapegoat in piracy.
Living takes a lot of money. If you are spending most of your time making art, you have to find a way to be getting paid while making that art. All mediums have this struggle.

There has been the reality for a while now that just selling albums is generally not enough to support oneself.
It sucks to see someone fail at being a full-time artist, but I'm not accepting the reasons. I really hope he gets a nice job at a bank, mellows out, and produces music on the weekends.
posted by Theta States at 2:59 PM on July 8, 2010

I get what you're saying, but is it any more twisted than the logic that somehow the musicians are acting more entitled than all the people who now believe music should be free, by virtue of it being the year 2010?

I think so, yeah. Especially given that studies regularly show that people who download music buy more music than people who don't. Piracy isn't what's killing the majors, it's the fact that you don't need to buy an album to find out that you don't want to buy it anymore. People are spending more money than ever on entertainment, but the music industry was built on stilts.
posted by Jairus at 3:01 PM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's time for Beefcake Beefcake Revolution!
posted by Theta States at 5:40 PM on July 8, 2010

neckro23: “And yes, "IDM" is a dumb name, but it's the best we've got. Ditto for "industrial". Oh, ambiguously named musical genres, why must I love you so?”

Well, the thing is – sorry to do this, this is my last word on this, I promise, I just want to leave it in the right way – the problem people have with the term IDM isn't that it's a dumb name, or even that it's totally vague. The trouble with the term 'IDM' is that calling a genre of music "intelligent dance music" seems condescending and rude. The strong implication is that dance music that isn't IDM isn't intelligent, and I think it's pretty easy to imagine where the term originated: among young people coming of age in the 90s in America, where dance music hadn't caught on the way it did in Europe and England, and where rock music was still the most accepted form of music. Rock music saw dance music as mindless, lame, pansy, and dull. IDM as a term came, I think, from people who were insisting: 'oh no! I'm not into that stupid, boring, pointless dance music! I'm not one of those mindless people you hate! Here, check out this disc by The Orb – it's intelligent dance music!' At least that's the implication. It's a term that begs the question: so what about the other music? Is it not intelligent? Is Jeff Mills a maker of stupid dance music just because he's clearly in the genre of house, even though frankly he's a flat-out genius? This was an objection a lot of people had to the term all through the 90s, but it really came to a head, I think, about seven years ago, when there were a lot of crusades to purge the word completely. At that point, I think, many fans of this kind of music just dropped the term IDM and called it "electronica," which is almost as short and probably more descriptive anyway.

That's why I expressed shock to hear IDM again; I haven't heard people use that term to describe music in a while. But I have to say that I accept that I'm certainly not the most in-the-loop guy in the whole world, and of course the awesome thing about electronic music is that there is no mainstream; people love what they love, and they create around that. There are a million communities, and we never have to stick to just one thing.

And I also think it's clear that when 99% of people use the term IDM, and even when they used it back in the day, they aren't being rude or condescending themselves, or at least they don't intend to be; they're just using a word that they've always used for it, one that they find useful. Particularly in this thread, where people certainly are just using it as shorthand to describe something. I still object to stevenstevo's characterization of Kattoo as "Aphex Twin meets Enya" - I think that's supremely misinformed, for a start - but I know nobody else was being a jerk about it. I just believe that IDM is the wrong term; but I'm not going to force that down anyone's throat, and I don't mind if other people use it.

As far as Volker Kahl's theories on music go – I think he's being a bit silly and archaic about it, yes. As Jairus says, people spend more on entertainment than ever, but more than just that electronic music has really boomed in the last five years. There are vital, active scenes everywhere, there are great online mags like Little White Earbuds and Resident Advisor that allow fans all over the world to connect to interesting and diverse artists, and there are small labels all over the place that get fabulously huge sales just because of single releases. Seriously, I don't think there's ever been a more open market for music than in electronic music right now; even while other genres, like rock and pop, are mired in the same major-label bullshit and corporate silliness as ever, electronic music thrives on tiny labels, and nobody is on a major. The opportunity to make a fortune is totally gone; but the opportunity to make some money, and even a living, is there as never before.

It helps to be willing to DJ, because that can be a real source of income for a lot of electronic musicians. However, you can get by without it; you just have to accept, I think, that music might not pay all of your bills. One of my favorite dudes, Axel WIllner, the brilliant guy behind this album (which is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world) said when he broke big that he was surprised, because "since it is a bit different than most techno, I thought that people wouldn't like it." That strikes me as the very best attitude for a musician to have right now: a drive to make things and put them out there for people, but no expectation that you're going to find that it's even remotely popular, and a willingness to accept what comes.

Also, Volker Kahl could do a bit better job putting himself out there. I'm not saying you have to pimp yourself out, but come on – an internet-only release because you say you're wary of record labels? So send your stuff to a few dozen other labels; if it's good, I guarantee somebody's going to be a bit interested. Or better yet, form your own label and release your stuff; people do this all the time nowadays. And physical media is really the only way to get yourself out there in a serious way. Daft Punk's first record (Homework) was just a self-funded pressing of 500 vinyl copies (which I'm sure set them back no more than a few thousand dollars – which ain't that much, honestly, for something you love) because they loved vinyl and because they wanted to get it out there; it got in the hands of reviewers, of DJs, and most of all of listeners, who loved the crap out of it and demanded more. That might not happen to everybody, but I guarantee that lots of people recoup their investment on it and actually make money in music. Look at Tin Man, a guy in California who self-produces some really brilliant, stark soundscapes on his own label and puts them out on vinyl only; yeah, it's probably not a full paycheck, I'm sure, but he gets good press, and I'll bet he's actually making some good money out of it. He just went in knowing what to expect, and made smart decisions along the way.

Seriously, though: Kahl should get some copies printed up and send them around to a few places. It's not that hard nowadays if you're persistent. Yes, the days when being a musician was solely about going into a studio and recording music are over; you'll probably have to have a day job in the off-season. But the flip-side of that is that anybody can jump into this scene and even go far; you don't have to have a major-label contract, you don't have to have connections, you don't have to have much but your home studio and some drive.
posted by koeselitz at 10:03 PM on July 8, 2010

[I mean, seriously – we live in a world where people pay full ticket prices to watch people do stuff like this. This isn't exactly a situation where a thoughtful electronic musician who loves what they're doing and believes in it is stuck in their basement trying to get people to PayPal them for a few mp3s.]
posted by koeselitz at 10:08 PM on July 8, 2010

Free music catalouge of the day.
I'm not sure how the market is supposed to compete with brilliant musicians just giving away their music.
(check out the track Voluntad de oro. So good.)
posted by Theta States at 7:03 AM on July 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow, Theta States – that song is really quite good. Thanks.
posted by koeselitz at 8:52 AM on July 9, 2010

koeselitz:

In regards to the expanded form of IDM, I have to admit it rarely occurs to me to remember the precise term, and I suspect I'm not the only one. It's still a useful identifier of a certain style of electronic music, hence the choice of terms. Like you, I'm pretty out-of-the-loop as to the current thinking about genre names, so I may have misquoted. Mind you, I resent the obsessive fracturing and partitioning of genre names, driven (as far as I can tell) by fans (and artists, in some cases) who resent the idea that their tastes could be summed up by anything as gauche as a genre classification because they're special snowflakes, every one!.

Kahl is, as you commented, not doing a lot to get himself out there. He does not, as Jairus pointed out, consider himself entitled to make a living, his issue seems to be with the rampant theft (piracy, copyright infringement, whatever -- let's not start that debate) of his music, since it's not like he makes it hard to acquire legitimately. Maybe he could promote himself more, but I think regardless of that he has a right to be miffed when people give away his work without compensating him.
posted by ChrisR at 9:02 AM on July 9, 2010

I hate the term "IDM," and try not to ever use it, especially if I'm writing music reviews.

And I don't purchase music unless I can get it on CD; I'm probably as much a "CD collector" as I am a "music fan," so I don't really have a dog in this fight. That said, I enjoy Jairus' Ad-ver-sary stuff, and Kattoo's Megrim was a great album, but if I were going to pick a side in the current argument, I'd probably have to go with Jairus. Even before downloading, most people who recorded music with niche appeal (and you can't get more niche than the ambient/glitch/industrial/instrumental stuff that Kahl's former label, Hymen Records, puts out) had to support themselves with day jobs. I can't imagine why Kahl thinks that given the current market, not to mention a global recession, things would actually be better for musicians then they were 10 or 15 years ago.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:31 AM on July 9, 2010

I remember when Hymen Records first started coming out, they would arrive sporadically in the record shops of my city. Stock was always bare-bones, and good luck finding specific ones you wanted.

Now I am exposed to far more artists on a weekly basis than I would have been exposed to in 3 months back then. I can listen to artists from all over the worlds, from all sorts of backgrounds. I can buy their music readily from major online stores (Boomkat is my favourite), or some people are just giving it away.

Times have changed. Things are far better for all music fans. And things are far better for most musicians.

The cost of building a home studio has plummetted. People have home appliances with enough processing power to emulate workhorse synths.
The channels of distribution are less and less controlled by monoliths.
One no longer has to save for months and months to produce a run of CDs that will most likely sit underneath your bed because you lack reasonable distribution.

And sure, it also means that everyone and their dog is making music... but that also means that everyone and their dog is making music!! How awesome is that? Interesting times!
posted by Theta States at 11:09 AM on July 9, 2010 [2 favorites]