A recent discussion on tT about Plaid's new Scintilli album suggested that it may be one of the best IDM albums of the year, partly due to a scant number of IDM releases this year. Perhaps fewer artists are releasing IDM albums these days, but I think compounding the issue is that many releases that may have been considered "IDM" 5 or 10 years ago are now considered Dubstep, Downtempo, House, Techno, Experimental, or "Mixed Styles". I know that the term IDM was derived from Warp's Artificial Intelligence compilation, but I've always thought of the genre as slighter broader than those pioneering tracks. When I first started listening to instrumental electronic music, I considered anything that wasn't ambient or intended/suitable for a club (such as house, techno, and drum n bass) to be IDM. Most IDM had both a melody and a beat, but it could have only one, and if it had neither, then it was Experimental. If it had a hip-hop beat, then it was Trip-hop or beat-oriented IDM, and if it was laid back and jazzy, then well, it was jazzy IDM. IDM could also include parts of other genres - so u-Ziq's Lunatic Harness, which certainly has breakbeats on it, is rightly considered IDM.

I hate to give examples, since examples are more easily argued. DFRNT (and other slow bass music) is classified as Dubstep on here, perhaps rightly so, but before there was dubstep, I probably would have considered this IDM. Detritus has been classified as Breakbeat, Mixed Styles, or Downtempo on here, but again, I think it could easily be considered IDM.

Perhaps my perspective is biased, since my first exposure to instrumental electronic music was IDM, and I've delved into other genres since then.

I know genre classification can be fairly arbitrary, but let me know what you think.

there's still IDM sounding music being put out by warp and planet mu but these days IDM tends to be blended with techno, dubstep, juke/footwork, etc in ways that are different from the pure form of IDM released in the 90s and early 2000s. IDM's influence is arguably very prevalent today but it's a different kind of sound than Plaid or Autechre. I think Falty DL's first album "Love is a Liability" was drenched in IDM synths and sounds and released on Planet Mu, but it's also jazzy and garage influenced as well so I don't think it fits into one single category very easily.

For me, IDM is more feel than the collection of "rules" on how the track should be sounding to be called alike. And it's very much the most freestyle genre out there... Various rhythms, sounds, melodies and structures - yet for some tracks you just can't say anything other than IDM. I love influences of IDM to other genres, for example, it makes Dubstep far more listenable as far as I'm concerned. That's my view on IDM... Incompetent people from Discogs would now say: "it's all Techno" , I just can't stand so much releases there are marked as Techno.

I love a lot of new bass music. I wonder if "dubstep" now includes too many styles. If a track has heavy bass, then it's now called Dubstep.



I agree there. I guess as music evolves, old genres are left behind. I suspect if people were to have heard in 2000 something like the new album by Kuedo, there would have been no question that it was IDM.

For example, out of the following list of 2011 releases, only the *ed ones are classified as IDM on tT.
Boxcutter - The Dissolve
DFRNT - Emotional Response
*Kangding Ray - OR
Kuedo - Severant
Machinedrum - Room(s)
Phaeleh - The Cold In You
*Plaid - Scintilli
Salva - Complex Housing
Siriusmo - Mosaik
*Tycho - Dive
Zomby - Dedication
Various - Cut Volume 1
*Various - Wounds of the Earth Compilation III

Genre classification is really of no consequence. I just felt the need to say that IDM isn't dead - it's just reclassified