IDMf067 VA - IDMf Retrospective Volume 1 - OUT NOW!

#1

The IDMf Netlabel is honored to present our 67th release

Various Artists - Idmf Retrospective, Vol. 1 (hearnow.com)

Out - 31st of March, 2024

The IDMf Netlabel contains a rich history of releases dating back to 2009’s IDMf001: In Depth Melodics. Throughout the upcoming year, our aim is to honor our history with a collection of retrospective releases, and to ensure our music resonates within ‘the algorithm’. Although streaming services have previously posed challenges for us, often being relegated to the ‘too hard basket’, we have persisted in our efforts to deliver this remarkable music through your preferred daily platform. Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer and Tidal. Follow us and keep an eye out for more!

Retrospective Volume 1 is our jumping off point. Allow it to wash over and remind you why…

…we are still listening

Track List

  1. Dr. Device - Breaking News
  2. J Wlison - Linear Inflation
  3. city at worlds end - Stratosphere Skyclimber
  4. Terrapin - Blue Algae
  5. Synaecide - The Penny Drops
  6. The Get - Perfect Union
  7. Aaron Goodwyn - Atonement
  8. tuneboxii - What You Make of It
  9. Altered Tensions - Things Change
  10. IG88 - Technicolor Yawn
  11. Jazzyspoon - Supernova Lifestyle (Electro Mass Remix)
  12. Jazzyspoon - In Waves
  13. Jazzyspoon - Tuning In

Without hesitation @Jazzyspoon graciously offered the aptly named track, ‘Tuning In’—his latest auditory adventure. Once more, he invites us into his realm of eclectic sounds, where genre boundaries blur and dissonance dances with melody. With each passing measure, Jazzyspoon deftly weaves a tapestry of sound that challenges the ear, yet soothes the soul.

IDMf067: Retrospective Volume 1
Original Works Composed & Mixed by Various IDMf Netlabel Artists
Cover Art - Nick Manton
Track list Curated By - Nick Manton

Full back catalogue also available at https://idmfnetlabel.bandcamp.com. Showcasing the amazing talent the forum holds within and has to offer.

IDMfNetlabel

The IDMf Netlabel is an IDMforum Community created, ongoing Creative Commons based project
Currently Curated by - RFJ , Manton & Fidelium

#2

Congrats to the Artist, and the label on this upcoming release!

Excuse me for being, well thick, but will this be available on the Spotify’s?

#3

Yes, we’ve sent it off to the distribution overlords.

#4

Truly honored to be in such great company on this release. Great collection of classic IDMf tunes.

#5

Great release can’t wait to listen in.
@Jazzyspoon good to hear you back :+1:

Addum a few resubs from IDMF25 release I see so be interesting to see how those have evolved :slight_smile:

#6

Various Artists - Idmf Retrospective, Vol. 1 (hearnow.com)

A bit delayed on streaming as they don’t allow primary artists to also be a remix artist on the same release (:roll_eyes:) So we had to re-submit with a different track. (Electro Mass remix of Supernova Lifestyle).

Get it now on Bandcamp!

#7

I really don’t think my name should be mentioned in the credits of this at all. I’m grateful but it needs to be said I had literally nothing to do with this from idea to conception to execution. Thank you @Manton and @RFJ for all of your hard work on continuing with this project and I can’t wait to see what more we have to offer in the future.

This all brings back so many memories… each track! This is a time capsule for me. My heart is full. Thank you!

REALLY, really, really looking forward to putting my headphones on right now and listening to some brand new @Jazzyspoon !!!

#8

great :mushroom: come up track

#9

New @Jazzyspoon is fressssshhhh like

image

I love how uniquely Jazzy it is. so many turns and enticing layers, literally everywhere, you can’t catch them all. damn Jazzyspoon whatever good good you been smoking can I have some? “Tuning In” is masterful… a total and mind-jostling journey from start to finish. Totally fuckin’ siiiick.

jaz u da man!

#10

Hope Aaron’s remix can be on the next one. It was really a top notch remix that deserves some attention.

#11

I went to a high school that had a graduating class of two thousand people. I remember I would see new faces everyday every day for the two years I went there and since then whenever I looked through my old yearbook, I see endless faces and names of people I never met due to the size of the school. Going through these older releases feels like I am going through an IDMF yearbook. I recognize some names but never really got to know them, some are great friends I feel like I grew up with here, and some are either total strangers or I unfortunately never associated their artist name with their (different) forum name.

Listening now and lovin this release and I think it was overdue getting these tracks both on streaming services and a fresh release. I look forward to future retrospectives like this. @Manton and @RFJ , thank you again for including me. @Fidelium, buddy, you are they greatest hype man on the planet, thank you for the great feedback (feel like you were definitely in the list of besties I grew up with here).

I was thrilled to be able to throw something original/newer on here. It was a kind of deliberate choice to throw some of my ‘classic’ sounds and vibes in this track so it would fit in more with the release, but I am glad anyone actually finds it appealing.

#12

Most excellent release.

I really, really love how we are resurrecting the back catalog as most of it holds such a great place in my heart. Some of the stuff the Netlabel has put out rivals that of any major label release.

I came to the forum in 2009, in a particularly rough place in my life, and many tracks from the catalog helped me through that period. For that I remain grateful, and am stoked to see some of them see the light of day again.

@Manton gets most of the credit for this one. Big thanks to him for the time and effort he’s been putting in lately. From the track list, to the artwork, to the streaming services he really nailed it. Stoked to have someone else to run the project with who actually gives a shit.

@everyone if you’re not familiar with these tracks, or much of the back catalog you owe it to yourself to check this release out. We are not overhyping things when we say it’s some of the best electronic music you are going to find on line.

And a final thanks to @Fidelium and everyone who came before for blazing the trail and giving us this material to listen to and work with.

Long live The IDMf Netlabel.

#13

That is mental!

The Retrospectives were my first idea when I came on board here. I wanted to make the catalog available on streaming services but knew that it would be too difficult and expensive to put the whole catalog up. Condensing the whole thing to a “best of” series was the only way forward. I was already quite familiar with most of the releases on this label, but I felt inspired to start from the beginning and pull out, song-by-song what I thought was really exceptional. Until I had a playlist of over 80 tracks! One release was not going to cut it.

These Retrospectives were mostly put together during walks, pushing my daughter’s pram up the quiet, semi-suburban/country road that I live on. Driving to and from work in the car. Lying in bed before going to sleep. It took about 4 months to get them collected into specific volumes and track listed in a way that was coherent and really enjoyable to listen to but also showcased variety and talent across all 5 volumes. I would listen over and over again to track ending and beginnings to make sure they had a flow into one another. Then i would listen to the whole hour of music to make sure it had a flow from minute 1 to 60. Rinse/repeat.

The volumes represent no particular order of quality, nor style, nor date released but hold their own in a unique new way that is special to me and I hope others as these become available. They were all created together, each volume considering the other so that they not only have a cohesive flow within the volume, but across volumes as well. I should mention too that if a track wasn’t picked for these releases it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great track, it just means that we have too much great music to compartmentalise. There were quite a lot of tracks that i had to pass on because they were simply too long or didn’t fit the tone and flow of the albums. Nonetheless, I used to love “box sets” when physical media was the norm, and this is a throw back to those times. Volume 4 is my favourite as it turned out more ambient than the rest but they are all really exceptional and inspiring releases in their own right.

Although it was time consuming, putting the tracks together was the fun part. The artwork and streaming distribution was a different story. Tracking down artists legal names and linking the correct existing profiles to their tracks was tedious but necessary. It took several hours/evening to get these 13 tracks properly distributed. I went through and collected all the artwork, cat numbers and original release dates to customise the Bandcamp releases. So when you listen, the correct artwork for the original release displays for each track. A lot of the older artwork was in a lower resolution than is acceptable on Bandcamp today so most of it had to be upscaled. It’s these kinds of tiny details that you don’t even think about when taking on such a project.

Hopefully it becomes a well oiled machine by the time Volume 5 is released in November!

Big thanks to @Jazzyspoon for his contribution. I love ‘Tuning In’, and think it fits really well on this album. I will see if i can fit in Aaron’s remix on a different volume without it disrupting the aforementioned “flow” too much!

#14

Man, AI upscaling would have been a godsend even 4-5 years ago. I am so jelly that it can help you with album art now.

#15

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but seriously impressive you were able to put this together. I remember talking about doing something like this on the label team and pretty quickly dismissing it because of all the work it would involve, but you’ve just gone and done it. That is without a doubt the most impressive part of this release for me.

#16

Sublime release - best Ive personally listen to from the forums.

Some great tracks on there, only properly listened to the first 6 so far and savouring the rest when I have time.

@all on the album release - well done. You’ve produced some quality productions and really got me reflecting on where I am (still after decades :slight_smile: ) and what to strive for.
The intro track is spot on - manufactured for a release.
J Wlison - Linear Inflation
city at worlds end - Stratosphere Skyclimber
Terrapin - Blue Algae

All quality tunes and a great tribute to IDMFs selection process and a reflection on how far many of these artist have come, noting city at worlds end was released on a former IDMF album.

Will listen to the rest when I can get the time to focus and saving the Jazzyspoon tracks for that special listening moment on the weekend when I dont have next day commitments with hazy eyes “wink wink”.

@Manton @RFJ @ FIdelum (modest as always) for bringing this together. Hats of gents, you got it right and as I stated at the start - best yet with hopefully better to come.

@ALL if you haven’t listened to this yet “shame on you” :slight_smile: missing out - don’t miss out…

#17

Nice track selection and great release overall! Still remember some of the tracks from the original releases. Also very cool that the netlabel started putting stuff on streaming platforms. This should be a good start, I’m sure some new listeners will enjoy the talents showcased by this release and the netlabel in general.

Personal favs: Breaking News (great uplifting track with an awesome beat) & Stratosphere Skyclimber (love the super-chilled sounds and smooth glitching), but all tracks on this are great productions and worth listening to!

#18

Had to buy this one - worth every penny (well cent) :slight_smile:

Yes im your one sole customer to date…? :rofl:

BTW Who did the mastering on this one please?

#19

Hey @MFXxx,

All the tracks on this album came from previous releases on the net label, with the exception of the final track, Tuning In by Jazzyspoon.

All the tracks on this album were mastered by the original. A few names come to mind, Nathan Schwartz, Matt Lange, Fidelium, Ben Walthew. Tuning In was mastered by Jazzyspoon himself

Thank you for supporting future releases on the net label

#20

That’s interesting (i noted some were previous appearances) but hadn’t realised all were. As for the overall balance, to my ears, sounds consistent across the tracks - yet to get to Jazzys (as I said love his work, have done for years) so waiting for that special time :slight_smile:

I’m working on about half a dozen or so tracks at the moment - so this release has gotten me thinking sonically about mix balances and definition. I need to tame bass, raise the mids and cut the lows 30hz and top end circa 18/20khz = not something I’ve done by habit previously and I know from James (WhiteNoises) feedback my mids/his are often lacking.
I really want to try and go back to basics. For me, when I stumbled on this forum, what 10 years or more ago (pre the 2018 meltdown) as the Beat Battles really got me into working sounds into tracks. Revisiting a few of them and they really (whilst the core source sounds are not brilliant in many cases) the tracks lend themselves to a more (mfxxx) modern overhaul and I think its working. Just my insert chains are demanding and whilst the CPUs only 5/6 years old - I know newer rigs will slam a track vs bouncing tracks and having to reverse engineer my own projects when an edits required! Bu im slowly getting there with some cohesion between the tracks.

It’s also quite a challenge to learn, so listening and reading points here are key. Cause reading is not my forte (dyslexia - not bad) but I am a talker and people reader, so a lot of the time written word and videos do very little to educate me. A good natter normally sorts me out :slight_smile:
This album in light of what you’ve said re master by the original, is educative in itself!