Notable Electronica
I wouldn't even think of trying to compete in music writing with Johno, but as a long-time (suffering) fan of electronic music, I thought I might put together a list of notable stuff...you can't really go wrong with any of this.
1. Orbital - "Orbital 2". The "brown" CD. Classic mid-nineties, easily the most polished effort of its time, and therefore somewhat timeless. "there is a twist in space"
2. Tangerine Dream - "Poland". Get the import, 2 CD version. An absolute classic; a landmark political and musical event. One of the finest long-form electronic concerts ever.
3. Underworld - "dubnobasswithmyheadman". Spooky, weird, depressing, and brilliant. Later Underworld is more polished and even better, but this is a key recording and lead-in to what they became.
4. LFO - "Advance". Brilliant early, experimental recording. Ridiculously difficult to find, and proportionally fantastic. Found this when it was attached to the computer game "Hardwar"; it was one of the first games to have "serious" music with it.
5. Junkie XL - "Big Sounds of the Drags". One of the grooviest "dance" CDs ever. It's a bit of a bridge between listening music and dance, though -- tracks are danceable but just plain fantastic listening. Brilliant production.
6. Assemblage 23 - "Defiance". Good late-model melodic industrial...showing you where that genre has gone. Doesn't really stand up with the rest of this list, but is useful as a touchstone for this style.
7. Aphex Twin - "Selected Ambient Works 85-92". Xtal, oh xtal. Singular, beautiful, ethereal...and really the last thing by Richard James I actually liked. A landmark.
8. Alpinestars - "B.A.S.I.C.". The best new "retro" electronic out there...along with its followup "White Noise". Brand new music that has groovy analog shit in it.
9. Sasha - "Airdrawndagger". Hated it the first time I heard it, as I was expecting something different. Picked it up again 6 months later because I couuld still remember some of it, and I've loved it ever since. This is one of my highest recommendations on the list, and the first "DJ" CD I've really respected. Unless you count Tom Holkenberg (Junkie XL) as a DJ.
10. Morel - "Queen of the Highway". Enveloping, dark, groovy, and local. Just what the doctor ordered. Morel worked with Deep Dish, and the searing, unstoppable beat of this CD smooths out the harshness (in meaning, not tone) of the lyrics.
That'll get you started. Every CD on this list is utterly different from the others; they are all good representatives of their sub-genres...so buy, damn you!
on
| § 3
§ 3 Comments
[ You're too late, comments are closed ]
I am really elctronica-ly
I am really elctronica-ly ignorant.
I've dug the little I've heard (Propellorhead, Robert Miles, et al) but...well...
Don't you get bored after a few minutes?
Ross, this is a KILLER LIST.
Ross, this is a KILLER LIST. I don't know them all, but you clearly have much taste.
GL, in regard to your question, the problem with much electronic music is that it's meant for club play, and is therefore structured much differently than typical AABA pop songs. Typically, a club track is divided into sequential parts with breaks in between, the better for mixing over other tracks. That's why a song is 9 minutes long-- you need two minutes of just drums or just one repeated figure, suitable for mixing with another track, a few (long) minutes of thh actual full track, a couple dub-style dropout sections that you could use as 1-minute teasers between other tracks, and a long rideout kind of thing suitable again for mixing or alternately for closing things out huge. This is not a hard-and-fast rule
So, it is really easy to get bored after a few minutes if your ears are not prepared for a different experience than most music provides. This is made worse by the utter crap sameness of most average electronica. The best stuff rises above. Let me second enthusiastically the above recommendations (those I know), and add others. My tastes run toward what used to be called "intelligent dance music" which is probably the worst genre name ever, and world-electronic fusion, with side trips into late-90s house. Hence, here's my list.
-Anything by DJ Shadow
-the Ninja Tune label
-the Shadow label
-the 6Degrees label (top-top-top notch world-electronic stuff. TOP.)
-Anything by Dieselboy, especially "6th Session". The closest to thrash metal that drum-and-bass ever came. GeekLethal, you would LOVE this.
-DJ Food.
-Karsh Kale, the Indian tabla virtuoso and DJ.
-Amon Tobin
-Dzihan & Kamien, especially "freaks & icons." Although maybe a bit close to Sasha and Digweed (see "Sasha" above) for beginners, rendering D&K redundant.
-Moodymann, the king of thoughtful Detroit house.
And that's enough for now. Some of these are highly idiosyncratic choices, but hey... I'm a highly idiosyncratic dude.
Tell me which parts of the
Tell me which parts of the list interest you, and I'll push a few MP3s around. Hopefully I won't go to jail for doing that. ;)