>the Village Voice has just run a huge feature describing 'new sounds
>from the underground - illbient'.....in an article where they
>describe the music as defying language they also make sure to
>use the word illbient a thousand times. And I suppose by adding
>this transmission to the universe I've done my part to spread it
>far and wide. Whatever. I was just wondering if anyone else
>has seen this term in music journalism and what they think.
I don't know if DJ Spooky invented this term, but he is surely
the one to popularize it. Outside of his DJ activities, he's
also a journalist under his real name of Paul Miller, and has
written articles on the "illbient" scene for Artforum, as well
as the Village Voice. My first exposure to the term was in
the August '95 issue of _The Wire_, which featured a cover
story on DJ Spooky. So the term has been in existence for a
while.
What do I think of it? Hmm... I guess it's functional.
There are definitely two different approaches to ambient
music; one is more of a positive, upbeat approach (groups
like Global Communication, Spacetime Continuum, etc.), and
the other is a darker, downbeat approach (Lull, Thomas
Koner, etc.). It's useful to be able to distinguish
between the two.
-- Mark Turner mturner@netcom.com