Is there an equivalent to the Turing test that can be applied to IDM producers?
While artificial intelligence has reached cognitive abilities that allow it to learn from and adapt to its environment, its attempts at mimicking human behavior continually miss the mark one would expect to have been hit by now. Hanson Robotics’ “Sophia” project for example, was unveiled with the uncanny silliness of a Super Deluxe livestream, not quite performing the role of woman as percieved by a computer, instead playing the part of a computer masquerading as a woman as imagined by a hack science fiction writer in the 70s. In simpler terms, it’s (as much as I hate to concur with a Facebook employee) a lame sham.
A good IDM producer either wallows sardonically in this layered fakery or transcends their Digital Audio Workstation, bridging the organic flow of live instrumentation with the diverse range of sounds that electronic composition affords. Karen Felixx’s work succeeds at the latter. It’s fleshy; it’s jarringly real. “dawn drowing”, the second cut off their Sophomore Niphlex Records effort, is the best demonstration of this sanguine sound, paddling through a seamless throb of sampled pop records and cricket-chirp synths with drum breaks that pound like an old prog-rock band’s rhythm section. While the song is the product of close attention to detail, you’d swear sections were improvised on the fly: the composition’s tone and rhythm undergoes a series of gradual shifts that creep up on the listener. One minute, the drumkit tumbles in slow-motion, gathering sludgy chords and ambient sound like a Katamari in motion. The next, Felixx ties a tight knot of glam-funk bass riffage, swinging the balled rope above their head like a lasso,
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