#21

I wonder how much of this is a sort of byproduct of instrument building, too. In the 90s and early 00s, folks built their instruments (or had friends build them) because there wasn’t the sort of industry of small (and large) tools available that there is now.

Certainly there’s no need to be an instrument builder to make good music, but I know personally the process of creating the software I use to make music is deeply entangled with the compositional process, and if nothing else leads me often to think in different ways than I do when I’m approaching a premade instrument from the outside.

Again, absolutely not trying to shame the use of pre-existing tools! I just wonder how much of that vital exploratory energy that was present then was from having to start with a simpler set of basic tools and build more complex behaviors through experimentation and imagination.

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#22

TIGERBEAT :heart: I’ll never forget seeing kid606 in the ottobar in baltimore, ca 2003. Also reminds me of when I saw Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier, William Basinski, and Errorsmith at a small festival on the jhu campus shortly thereafter. My head was reeling from all that stuff, especially since I was in a music school, trying to decide where my loves lie etc…

Anyway, I definitely agree with the idea of reckless experimentation (or ideation) being the vibe at the time. I’m sure someone else has defined the phenomenon in a general way, but once there are widely accepted successes in a new domain, people give weight to them - eventually leading to style or subgenre and the constraints that come along with then. Prior to that, we’re not anchoring ourselves… seems like a better place to be when writing in any case…

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