deep sea creatures

Earlier in the year over on the watmm ekt forum, there was a discussion about what thing or object most represented 'IDM' (or Electronica as I prefer to call it). It's a bit of a running joke over there - watmm-ers are fond of saying 'X is IDM'. But what was the most IDM thing? Was it Cats? Beards? Spaceships? Eventually lots of people got behind 'Deep Sea Creatures' as an answer to the question.

Then someone came up with the idea of a Deep Sea Creatures compilation. People were invited to submit tracks on the theme, and some judges picked their favorites and combined them onto a CD.

Deep Sea Creatures seemed like a very fruitful concept to base music on, so I had a go at making a track. I didn't get picked, but I enjoyed the process of trying to invoke an underwater feel:

photophore

When making this track I was imagining fluorescent deep sea jellyfish and deep dark depths. I wasn't entirely happy with the resulting track - I would have liked to spend longer getting it right but I ran out of time. But there are some elements from the track that I might be able to recycle in future.

Meanwhile the finished compilation is out, and I just received mine in the post. Its actually a really good compilation - the tracks are varied but sit well together. Here's the tracklisting:

Deep Sea Creatures by Various Artists

01. Zephyr Nova - We are the Crab People
02. Newmans - Alvin Submersible
03. Adjective - Don Walsh & Jacques Piccard
04. Between Cathedrals - Subsine
05. Asymmetrical Head - Bear Trap in the Ocean Excerpt 5
06. Braintree - Balling Somewhat in Control
07. Lol Alzado - Benthophelagic Waltz
08. Lucid Rhythms - Aquazone 5
09. Beak - Sea Pen Meets Angler Fish
10. Transient - Fear of the Dark Depths
11. Angent Nerve - Anchor in the Dark
12. Beneboi - Hagfish
13. Awkward - Dead Deep Sea Creature Removal Service

Some of these people are quite well established on the internet electronica scene - Zephyr Nova is on the Metric Style record label and Beak and Transient have released music on the big monotonik net label.

The CD itself is a nicely printed CDR with jewel case and great cover art, and you can get it from Futonic Records for 10 USD. If there's any left out of the 100 they printed.