What is "IDM"? I will explain: Intelligent Dance Music is neither intelligent nor danceable, nor is it music. Or at least that is the way I prefer it

1. "Concept 1 96​:​01 01​:​00", Richie Hawtin

Under the name "Plastikman", Hawtin achieved fame as a "minimalist composer" who repurposed dance-techno techniques to sculpt stark sound landscapes. This bumping downtempo piece is from a previously very rare, self-published one-track-a-month limited-vinyl series he did while developing the sound of the Plastikman "trilogy"; now it's just on Bandcamp.

Hawtin says he recorded this track on January 1, 1996.

2. "CB03.wav" (27Mhz series mix), Magic Window

This is some acidic, futuristic-sounding drum & bass I found on YouTube (the link goes to the full 3-track "Zerotime" EP, which you can also find on Bandcamp). I don't know anything about this group but they seem to really like Windows 95 and are very good at constructing fussed-over vaporwave timbres. Jamming rhythm on that first track, and lots of enormous sounds with wonderful tastes. I think this is "IDM".

3. "Lofi tech beats PCBcore", Arman Bohn

This is a Selected Ambient Work with bitcrushed beats by the Picocore and semi-random tones by the Nunomo Qun (so with the Teenage Instruments TX-6 on mixing duty, that's two cheap idiosyncratic miniature synths and one very expensive idiosyncratic miniature synth). Slippery and indistinct in a way I find abstrusely compelling, this leads you down a twisty techno labyrinth then strands you at a dead end.

4. "Movement" (Hurdslenk remix), TWR72

This song was released last month, but is that kind of timeless techno that sounds like it could have been recorded anytime since 1985. What genre is this? Berlin? "Schranz"? Is Shranz a real techno genre? That sounds fake. Anyway this an absorbing, driving drum torrent anchored by tribal-style rhythms. There is nothing wrong with making the entire song out of drums. This track is good proof of that.

5. "Iceplanet", Funkstörung

The visionary Skam Records was the original home of some of the 90s' most influential electronic artists, like a feeder team for Warp. They did a hyper-limited series named "MASK" where well-known artists anonymously dumped tracks that were out-of-character, "going too far" or literally illegal, and some of the 90s' best tracks accumulated there. From MASK 200 (1997, 200 copies printed), here's a chill space journey I love

⬇️ Click below for industrial dance techno ⬇️

Do you know "Bandcamp Friday"? On the first friday of the month intermittently (closest thing to a schedule is this website) Bandcamp does an event where their "cut" of music sales goes to 0%. All money goes to the artist (except the cut for the the credit card company) (and except the cut for the label) (except also some labels, like Sargent House, set their cut to 0% on Bandcamp Fridays also?).

Whatever, TLDR buy music on Bandcamp Friday, the artist gets more money. I like this so I spent three years making a thread of Bandcamp music recommendations on a now-dead website, and now I'm moving it here. It is long.