I don’t want to be someone who beats themselves up about not knowing niche artists, I just want to hear more of it. They don’t really need to be less known, I just want to see if you guys know some other artists and i’ll check them out.
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Maybe not ‘lesser known’, but I feel like Squarepusher doesn’t get a lot of lip service these days. Definitely worth checking out if you’re not familiar.
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I’ve got a few up my sleeve, but they might be more or less niche than I know:
- Blamstrain
- Kettel
- Lackluster
- Ilkae
- Esem
- Brothomstates
- Eight Frozen Modules
- Gareth Clarke
- Proem
- IBMR
- Blaerg
- Wisp
Some of it kind of brushes against breakcore, but only gently 
Also for a little backstory on my weird taste in IDM, I never dug any electronic music I had ever heard in my life until I stumbled upon Kettel and his Sending Orbs label, and immediately I was smitten. Most of these are Sending Orbs and / or Merck records artists, all of which I fell in love with. Also, shout out to @proton42 (dammit, no beetlejuice powers) for the Gareth Clarke recommendation many moons ago. 8FM was a very recent random happening and his music from 20 years ago sounds modern as fuck to my ears, but that’s enough rambling.
My taste is extremely rigid though. The new shit sucks, I’m old, and get off my lawn
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I am very familiar with him, but thanks for suggesting anyways :). maybe you know some artists similar to him?
Not really? I’m actually not a huge IDM fan on the whole, though I enjoy some elements of it. I’m honestly not even sure what constitutes IDM anymore past the original Warp artists. You can find elements of it in a lot of electronic music now. I don’t generally go searching it out, I just appreciate it when it pops up.
I guess I can mention the artist Dryft is one that combines IDM and breakcore with some ambient and industrial elements that I quite like a lot and think pushed the idea in new directions.
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Yeah, IDM has kind of evolved in such a way where there are so many different versions of it, it’s a pretty broad term nowadays. I think a good descriptor for it would be music that has a more fast-paced and/or complex rhythm pattern. I can’t really describe it as a whole because its so wide-ranging.
I will check them out.
I don’t really mind the niche part, really. I just was wondering about any other artists that aren’t AFX, BOC, Squarepusher or Autechre, because those are really the only artists that are known. Still, I’ll listen to some of these guys, they sound interesting. I think I’ve heard of Wisp before.
I don’t mind if there’s some breakcore elements. I enjoy it, as long as it’s not that anime bullshit lol (no offense if you do like that)
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Check Tympanik Audio. It was THE label for excellent IDM.
https://www.discogs.com/label/101249-Tympanik-Audio
According to what I was bothered entering into my Discogs collection, I have at least 45 CDs from the label. Just look at the artists on there!
If you don’t where to start, all five Emerging Organisms compilations are fantastic.
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lol, that’s where I’m at, too. I don’t understand the overdriven weeb shit, but I guess some people dig it
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Two other classic labels that are way more famous, but here’s in case you aren’t familiar with them:
Hymen
https://www.discogs.com/label/265-Hymen-Records
Ant-Zen
https://www.discogs.com/label/1096-Ant-Zen
Ant-Zen is quite legendary and covers more varied music styles. Big focus on “harsher” electronic music.
Hymen (a sub-label) is more IDM-y.
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Pretty much all people on this forum, tbh.
True, lol
I know about pitchdrop, I got pretty surprised when I saw him here.
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That’s so cool! It’s a small world…
I haven’t seen them around recently, actually… Strange.