Electronic Music 101? 930
Otter asks: "iTunes comes with a sampler of MP3s selected to appeal to the Apple demographic. The one that really caught my attention was a track by Sasha and John Digweed, which has inspired me to learn a bit about electronic music. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who likes that stuff and my local Tower Records only has Moby (didn't like it),Paul Oakenfold (not bad) and 11,000 'Best of Ibiza' sets. What are the must-haves I should start with? What are the best online communities and places to learn about new artists? Feel free to define 'electronic' as broadly as seems appropriate." I used to shop at Homebass, but they just went out of business, which is sad, as they had one of the most comprehensive selection of electronica that I have ever seen, and most of their tracks had MP3 previews. If you were going to try and turn a friend on to Electronica, what artists, songs, or even specific mixed sets would you suggest? What online sources of electronica are still around.
Brian Transeau & DJ Rap (Score:2, Insightful)
good albums:
Movement in Still Life
ESCM (Electric Sky Church Music)
Also, R&R (Raresides & Remixes is cool)
DJ Rap:
Learning Curve
Both are unbelievable CD's. Both are somewhat experiemntal/progressive, but well worth the purchase.
Problem #1: Tower records... (Score:3, Insightful)
There are a couple of good ways to find electronic music you like:
1) local, privately-owned music shops. Be they one-off or franchises, these places have a lot more lee-way in what they order, and especially, the market they want to target. If you live in a particularly large city, you can probably find a shop that specializes in electronic music, or at least one that keeps a large stock of it.
2) This is an especially useful technique: go clubbing. Seriously. Go to a club that plays more electronic-type dance music and just listen. Talk to the DJ if it's a small club (but not while he's working). Alternately, flip on your local Top 40/Alternative rock station around midnight on a Saturday, as most of them have live club feeds, and they'll typically announce names of artists being played. It may not be an authoritative list, but it's a good place to get started and to learn what genres of electronic music you like/dislike.
Heh..like asking ppl if they prefer GM to Ford (Score:3, Insightful)
Orbital - Orbital
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works
Underworld - Beaucomp Fish
Mono - Formica Blues
Any thing by Portishead, Massive Attack, Viennia Scientists, Tricky, LTJ Bukem.
Artists of varying subgenres (Score:2, Insightful)
Underworld
Way Out West
Chicane
Hybrid
William Orbit
Orbital
Robert Miles
All are good enough that you can go to your local record store, pick up any regular album, and be happy with it.
Re:no offense but... (Score:4, Insightful)
The only way someone can get into a subject matter is to (surprise surprise) get into the subject matter... I'm going to take a guess and say you were not, in fact, *born* knowing about electronica, what bands are 'cool', where to get their music, and why others shouldn't be allowed to listen to it. At some point you did, in fact, have to *start* listening to it, conceivably without much knowledge about the subject.
If you want to actively ruin someone else's experience with a genre, then go ahead. But don't be a jerk about it.
"no offense" my left foot. You were tyring to politely exlude the questioner, eh?
Trillian
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Stuff you should check out (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of the most important albums - to me at least - include the following:
Big beat/breaks/whatever: The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole, The Crystal Method - Vegas, Fluke - Risotto
Trance: BT - ESCM, Paul Oakenfold - Global Underground New York, Sasha - Global Underground Ibiza (by far the best of the GU series, imho)
DNB: LTJ Bukem - Logical Progression (the first volume is my favorite), Roni Size Reprazent - New Forms
Turntablism: DJ Shadow - Entroducing, UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
Acid House: 808 State - Newbuild
Downtempo: Anything by Fila Brazilia, Coldcut, DJ Food, etc. Also, DJ Cam - Mad Blunted Jazz.
IDM: Aphex Twin -
Newer stuff:
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives is a wonderful experimental hip-hop/glitchy album, if you're into that sort of thing.
Dntel - Life is Full of Possiblities is the most utterly beautiful downtempo/IDM album I have heard in the past several years. It gets my highest recommendation.
Fennesz - Endless Summer if you're into very static-laden, glitchy, abrasive noise with a kinda eerily nice melody to it at times.
Just got into bands like Akufen, an experimental house group fraught with these amazing breakdowns; and Phonecia, a weird IDM-style rhythmic... thing. It's good too.
Matmos is worth checking out if you're into the stuff way out in left field. They did the production for Bjork's most recent album. Squeaky sound effects abound.
I also saw Telefon Tel Aviv, an indie band on the Hefty label, open at a recent show, and they were amazing. Check out their album too.
Finally, The Avalanches - Since I Left You is, in my opinion, the most stunning turntablism album of the past five years or so. 900+ records all sampled, with minimal scratching, into this completely amazing mix that has reaffirmed what you can do with a bunch of seemingly unrelated vinyl.
Most of this stuff isn't specific *dance* music, but IMHO the best of electronica isn't stuff you want to shake your booty to. This might be a little bit scatterbrained, but if you start picking up albums that seem to float your boat genre-wise you shouldn't have any big disappointments. If you want more recommendations that are more specific to what genres you'd like (trust me, I have *lots*), please feel totally free to email me.
Re:no offense but...was written by a poser (Score:3, Insightful)
I doubt that you were born with an intrinsic knowledge of anything (none of us are). Therefore you are advocating barring the door only after you are safely inside. What an intellectually dishonest position!
Like all art forms, there is no "right" or "wrong". It is a matter of personal preference. All the questioner is asking is for opinions on the starting points recommended by others.
We agree on one point however. If your personality (as your post reveals volumes about) is representative of the "community" I would rather we all stay out. Something tells me "the community" is smart enough to know that it is you that is driving down property values.
MODs, S3Ms, XMs, oh my. (Score:5, Insightful)
Back before there were MP3s or computers fast enough to play them, there were MODs -- 4 channel music files that began on the Amiga, and contained their own samples. MODs encouraged experimentation in electronic music on a level never seen before -- you could download a MOD, load it up in your tracker, and start coding a new song using the samples already there.
MODs branched out from their 4 channel beginnings into multiple channels and a variety of new extensions like
Then RealAudio hit. And after that, MP3. Online music aficionados began to follow a different path, and MODs, like BBS culture, slowly died. The MOD culture is still around, eclipsed but not forgotten. I'd suggest starting with The Kosmic Free Music Foundation [kosmic.org], arguably the most prolific and influencial modgroup of that era. You could also check out the Hornet [hornet.org] archive or the Modarchive [modarchive.com]. Either Winamp or XMMS should play them.
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Check your karma. It's changed.
on good music (Score:2, Insightful)
When one talks about good vs. bad music, one isn't speaking in the same manner as they are about good vs. bad software o good vs. bad electronics or so forth. It's a matter of opinion.
Who am I to say that, for example, The Ramones are better than Britney Spears. I'm just one guy who prefers the former to the latter. Now, I could have a hojillion music critics and punk fans support me in my opinion, but it means naught to the next fella, if he prefers upbeat pop lyrics.
Perhaps this person enjoys top 40 electronica. I enjoy it too, sometimes. Just as I sometimes prefer a 90 minute Action movie to a 3 hour long Oscar-winning period drama, I sometimes prefer some Daft Punk to DJ Esoteric So-and-So (note how I omit the name, as you probably think DJ esoteric so-and-so is crap compared to This other DJ So-andso. It's not you personally, it's simply the rules of discussing music online). Even though I might readily admit that the former pales in comparison to the latter, sometimes I'm just not in that mood.
Your points on international shipping, though, are quite valid. Ditto for the song issues, although I have a friend who insists on driving to the huge-ass record store to purchase his imports at ~$30/cd prices because he considers it part of the "experience". To each his own.
Re:Orbital, Leftfield and Moby Are Highly Recommen (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:House Music/DnB Music (Score:2, Insightful)
I sincerely hope not.
To be honest, the variety of dance music (avoid calling it electronic music or electronica if you can) is so huge that you're not really giving us much to go on.
Most of the people on here are recommending the more trendy/alternative style of artist (ie. the ones you don't tend to here in clubs) such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, Plaid etc. which are fine but probably not what you're looking for after mentioning Sasha & John Digweed.
Half of the problem here is that the level of acceptance and understanding of Dance music in the US is pathetic.
To be honest, I'd get away from the idea of buying a single artist/album since this has a lot less relevance in Dance music. There are tons of Dance producers that make one fantastic record and everything else they do sucks. So mixes are the best way to go.
For you, I would recommend any of the Clubbers Guide albums from the Ministry of Sound. Don't know how difficult it is to get hold of them in the US though.
Re:Abstract techno greats (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, I'm amazed no-one's mentioned the godfathers of most electronica - Yello (Nasty site with flash) [yello.com]. They've been around for years, and most of the stuff you hear now is still influenced by them.
Albums of choice are probably Stella, Pocket Universe, Zebra, and One Second - but they're my faves, not necessarily anyone elses.
Also, Oakenfolds OK, try to get the Sasha & Digweed mix album "Communication" - that rocks. Moby varies between good and awful - look for Everything Is Wrong, avoid Animal Rights.
Hope that helps.
The real original... (Score:1, Insightful)
Avoid his take on The Planets until you've gotten to know him... I don't know the original well, but his definitely drips of camp to the American ear. Probably sounded much different to the Japanese audience in the '70s.
Aphex Twin - 'nuff said. Another acquired taste, but one worth acquiring. I Care Because You Do is a low-key way to start, work backwards and forwards from there.
BoC is pretty good, very low-key. Don't forget both Orbital and The Orb (No Relation)...
Don't leave out psytrance (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.isratrance.com
http://goablaze.org/
http://www.hallucinogenic.de/
http://ww
http://www.psynews.org/
Re:House Music/DnB Music (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd definitely endorse this, if only because it's (mostly) how I finally got the hang of dance music. In fact, I'd argue that, withthe amount of remixing applied to the tracks on the good comps, i tend to think of the DJ as the producer nowadays.
OK, there had been individual artists I'd liked (and in the UK at least there's been an electronic side to 'pop' since the early 1980's) but as the explosion took off from about 1987 onwards, there were just too many artists, in too many narrow, blurred subgenres, to work out what to try next.
But remember, with dance music comes DJ culture. Individual records aren't quite so important, the combinations, the synergies, become a big part of the fun. And in DJ culture, you don't look for artists you trust anymore, you look for a DJ you can trust. My DJ history, like a lot of people's, I suspect, shares with the submitter the 'Sasha & Digweed / Oakenfold' start. in my case I got S&D's original 'Renaissance' comp from he library (i was bored, i'd listened to most of what they had already, it was a triple in really flash packaging) and liked it, asked some of my dancy friends for hints, and got played Oakenfold's Goa Mix (Paul Oakenfold had produced The Happy Mondays' "Thrills, Pills and Bellyaches", so I was definitely up for heaing some of his other work, and the Goa Mix is still, to my mind, a total masterpiece, if you can find it).
That's all I neded really. I now knew that I could trust these 3 DJ's, that I'd probably like their other mixes, other stuff by the artists on their mixes, and that I'd also probably like their remixes of other people's stuff. In which case I might like other stuff by the artists they'd worked with.
Believe me, that's plenty of degrees of freedom to work with. On the Kevin Bacon Game Principle, you should now be able to follow your trusted 'guides' to pretty much anywhere. Via stuff you stand a good chance of liking. It'll even get you out as far as Madonna (via William Orbit), Motorhead (via the Orb and the KLF), Pink Floyd (via Blue Pearl) and all points west.
Which also reminds me - since the DJ / Remixer / Producer role is all a bit of a continuum, there's a good chance that some of the 'non-dance' stuff you like is produced by someone who's also a name in the dance / electronica side of things. Oh, and a lot of stuff is on small, specialist labels where you stand a very good chance of liking several labelmates.
So dive into the documentation basically - gorge yourself on production credits, tracklists, remixers, record labels, then dive inand play the Bacon Game.
TomV
oh, a quick p.s. to the direct parent, Disc one of Oakenfold's Global Underground - Oslo mix is pretty DnB if you count LTJ Bukem as DnB, which I do ymmv, although granted in general you think Oakenfold, you think Trance, and Endtroducing DJ Shadow was pretty DnB by the standard of its time.
Re:Stuff you should check out (Score:2, Insightful)
Agree wholeheartedly on the Avalanches point, it is really fantastic music.
I also haven't seen mention of a few newer names who I also find very interesting:
BT - albums ESCM and Movement in Still Life, the vocal tracks in particular on these cds are amazing.
Delerium - Had a few tracks (e.g. Silence) that have been remixed for mainstream airplay. Quite enjoyable to listen to, nothing particularly energetic in there.
Lamb - This is, like The Avalanches work, just incredible music to hear, however I'm not sure how to classify it. Lamb have three albums I'm aware of, one self titled, Fear of Fours, and what sound. I recommend all three, however I still find the first the most involving. You can check one of their tracks from their latest album on their website here [lambstar.net].