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Electronic Music 101?
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.
...i rule yourmonkey hairy monkey ballzhairy hairy very hairy very monkey bnalls.!
:)
FIRST POST!!
Period.
IMO the best of electronica (not cliched, not trendy, everyone will ask you whot hat great band is)
Plaid
Tortoise
Stereolab
Squarepusher
Photos.
Oakenfolds Tranceport is a masterwork, hands down. His other stuff is OK but simply does not measure up. Darky is awesome, but recordings of him are tough to impossible to find. Christopher Lawrence, Frankie Bones, Eiffel 65.. Apoctygma Berzerk and VNV nation for the darker electronic music... I could list more, but these are a good start.
can you imagine a beowulf cluster of those?
Awesome!!!
this is gonna pull out so many newbie/wanna-be/poser posts.
too many people out their think they know about 'electronic' music after listening to their keeeeewl hip SWORDFISH soundtrack featuring mr. mtv-superstar-sellout Paul Oakenfold...
personally... i would rather keep you out of the 'community'
if your not in the know, dont play it out... go listen to your coool wave your hands up in the air like an idiot trance/techno/electronica or whatever mtv slang they use now.
and for the people who do know anything, dont say anything... you sellout!
The original.... Kraftwerk, and the best electronica band out there right now, Boards of Canada
THIS IS NOT A TROLL
check out goatsemon
goatsemon electronic music
www.soulseek.org for the best mp3 search tool i've ever used hands down, and one that happens to be catered to electronic music. Check it out, it's awesome.
AKA BT:
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.
That really sucks for the 'Homebass' company, they could have made a fortune if their site was still up from the /.
Time to go back to midi's and my casio keyboard on electronica preset
William orbit - His stereo odyssey and strange cargo albums are amazing ;D
Hybrid
The Grid - some good old school stuff
Air
Sonic Animation - A gateway electronic act
Ferry Corsten & Tiesto - Great trance
sreb.
The annoying thing with compilations is the signal to noise ratio. A lot of them contain junk with one or two big electronica hits (like one year every damn compilation had the DJ Tiesto remix of Silence by Delerium). Gatecrasher's usually very good at having fresh tracks on them. Digital's one of the best to date. I lended that to a girl at work, she took like two weeks to get it back -- she was addicted to disc 3 (the chillout disc).
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Aphex Twin
While I think his best work is in his music videos, anything on selected ambient works or Come to Daddy is incredible.
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
Paul Van Dyke & Paul Oakenfold
Can't forget Orbital who's been on the frontier forever.
mmmmm Traci Lords makes some tasty electronica
*DrugCheese rants*
I suggest visiting Groovetech. They have a huge selection with RealAudio samples. Most of the records they sell are vinyl (do you have a turntable?), but you can get an idea for the different genres and or artists. They also broadcast streaming audio/video preformances and most of the dj's will tell you what tracks they spun. Have fun!
Most popular music has a keyboard part that was generated on some kind of device with a CPU inside. And then there's all the post-processing. Really, electronic music is music. Once in a while you find an "unplugged" album, but it's probably been postprocessed through a digital mixing console.
Or any chain-type music store. Electronic music, outside of big names like Moby, Daft Punk, and so forth, are not going to be commonly found in those stores. It'd be the same as if you were searching for local, small-time rock or rap artists. It's simply not the market they're targetting. Or, to put it in /. terms, it'd be like walking into Circuit City and asking to see a selection of motherboards and cases; it just isn't their market.
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.
autechre - broken beats and strange melodies - otherworldly. my second favorite "techno" act.
aphex twin - the granddaddy of abstract techno, you can hear him on mtv these days but he's still got style.
kraftwerk - okay, really the true fathers of techno. anything they've touched is good, but start with man machine or radioactivity
squarepusher - drum-n-bass, dub, electronic freakout. budokhan mindphone is an easy favorite for its chilled out dub stylings.
panasonic - cold analog minimal thumps and pops, great for any mood. will destroy your head, so be careful. these guys are what i reach for when i want my thump to thump.
pole - nu-dub, reggae thumps and echo produced by this madmans laptop
kit clayton - see pole, except put it in a blender with some magic mushrooms. kit clayton's style is crazy, dubbed out techno with familiar sounds used in new ways. a true great.
If this is Heaven I'm bailin out! I cant tolerate this ol tin-tub, so fulla trash and rats...
Hey. I think the Genre of music you would like would either be of a House music nature or more of a drum and bass nature. For house music start with some awesome albums specifically Dance Factory by Louie Devito (He did all of the NYC Underground Volumes) also check out DJ Irene. If you liked metal music and just got into this electronic genre try some DJ Venom.
I write for the online magazine Kludge Sound so check that out as I review a lot of albums in this genre for them.
As for the drum and bass/trance genres are concerned. Bad Boy Bill (Bangin the Box Vol.5) is house music and some scratching, but hardcore is an artist called DJ Shadow *highly recommended* and like you mentioned earlier Paul Oakenfold is always good.
Other than that just check out your favorite dance music on cdnow they should have a good list! Aj
-------
artlu.net
Paul van Dyke
Boy, I hope you've got Tivo, or you're going to hate him after another couple commercial breaks.
-- q
I've been into electronica for quite a while now. I make it now and have found that the All Music Guide to Electronica is truly a "definive guide" to this kind of music. Not only does it review hundreds of the major artists, it shows how all the weird sub-genres link together (always confusing to me) ISBN: 0-87930-628-9 good luck
As much as I hate to admit it, if I were trying to turn a friend onto electronic music, I would make them listen to Boards of Canada's 'Geogaddi' or 'Music Has the Right to Children' first and foremost. I can definitely see these two breaking into the pop charts in the future; they definitely hold some universal appeal in their music.
2 cents:
Orbital - Orbital
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works
Underworld - Beaucomp Fish
Mono - Formica Blues
Any thing by Portishead, Massive Attack, Viennia Scientists, Tricky, LTJ Bukem.
De Oppresso Liber
listen to some of the stuff at http://www.di.fm/ / http://www.digitallyimported.com/
If you hear something you like, note the artist and look into them. It is what I do to find some cool stuff...
Check out the Global Underworld Series.
/me looks at his CD shelf...
/me points at the RIAA "LISTEN"
I'm currently listening to GU22 all the time, with Dave Seaman.
Check out John Diggweed's Latest, MMII.
Paul Van Dyk is good.
his latest "Politics of dancing" is really good.
hit your nearest P2P software, and see whats on teh internet.
Also
ALSO
I HIGHLY SUGGEST getting on http://www.shoutcast.org and looking up some streaming feeds of the artists above, and others.
ALL of the electronica I own (close to 40 CD's) I heard of the artist from INTERNET STREAMING AUDIO, and from friends who hear it on STREAMING FEEDS.
good luck, enjoy!
Like:
Crystal Method
Prodigy
Chemical Brothers
Is what i'd suggest..
Want to know about electronic music? Read the Electronica Primer. http://phobos.plato.nl/e-primer/
check out the likes of Nick Warren, his group Way Out West, Deep Dish and get anything from the Global Underground range.
Also should check out Timo Maas and Anthony Pappa.
As an electronic musician in the trade, I strongly urge you to purchase music instead of downloadin them for free as we dont make nearly as much money as Britney or N'Sync.
What's more our gadgets cost an arm and a leg...
BT (The man, period. I'm not kidding :)
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.
Kraftwerk. Their discography here and their official homepage here. A good cd to get you started would be "the mix", which has track representing many of their cds. Kind of like a greatest hits. I personally like electric cafe and Trans Europe Express.
1) Orbital. Pretty much anything of theirs is worthwile, but I'd start with "In Sides", and then go either "Orbital 2" (which is more "techno") or "Middle of Nowhere" which is kind of more trippy ambient.
2) Aphex Twin, aka AFX, aka Richard D. James. "Druqs", his latest, is a cool mix of moody piano tracks and wild, sometimes disturbing techno stuff. Very drum-machine happy, but he can do some neat things with it.
Start with the Orbital.
rules all! Awesome lyrics, awesome sound. I don't even really like electronica, but VNV makes my soul smile.
Yes, to reiterate, Squarepusher is excellent, especially his Big Loada EP. Boards of Canada (from the same label, Warp Records), also does some good stuff. Their best is their first album "Music has a Right to Children" I believe.
If you're into cliched electronica, here are some famous tracks: Born Slippy - by Underworld, Sandstorm - by Darude, Around the world - Daft Punk, Kung Fu - by 187 Lockdown, Halcyon on & on by Orbital... thats all I can think of for now. Anyone else got any overly cliched electronica tracks?
Electronic music is unbelievaly vast. Drum and bass, techno, trance, house, trip-hop, ambient, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
You will probably fine trance to your liking, most people do. I'd HIGHLY reccommend di.fm, it's a European streaming site with 5 different streams at all sorts of rates, Trance, Eurodance, House, Hard House and Hard Trance. See what you like and what you don't, and buy from there. My personal favorites include:
Tall Paul (Clubbers Guide to Ibiza)
Paul Oakenfold
Paul Van Dyk (Live at Knebworth and Live at Home London are great)
Matt Harwick (Gatecrasher)
DJ Fuzion (Countdown to Wintergalactic)
For Sasha and Digweed, the San Fransisco Global Underground CDs are absolutely essential.
Check out tranceaddict for some listings as well.
I hafta recommend www.soulseek.org as a great spot to find a lot of this music, and their recommendation list is really tops too. makes it easy to find what you like and find what others who like what you like also like.
marklar marklar, marklar.
If this is Heaven I'm bailin out! I cant tolerate this ol tin-tub, so fulla trash and rats...
I thought this story was going to be about how to MAKE electronica. I'm sure it's not easy but at least it doesn't require manual dexterity, right?
Argh... Clicked wrong button.
What I meant to continue on was the fact that you have to have a starting point. It's like asking where to find info about rock. Do you want radio-play alternative, less-mainstream alternative, punk, classic, hair-metal, or what?
Find artists that you like. Try to pin down their dance genre. Trance = circular, repeating beats, usually without a lot of lyrics. Diva = Trance+Vocoder+Soprano singer, etc. Check out Amazon, and see what "people who liked X also liked". Read reviews or webpages about certain artists, and see what names and so forth that people mention. But really, don't discount actually going out and looking.
I can't belive I left out Paul van Dyk. 10 CDs and I skip over him... it's too late at night.
+5, Inciteful!
Digitally Imported, I think, is a good place to start learning about electronica in general. It's internet radio, so it does kind of require a broadband connection, however it lets you listen to various artists without spending time randomly downloading/pirating MP3s, and it gives you (what I consider to be) a relatively wide spectrum. Also, electronica stations are in abundance on Shoutcast, check them out for links and info.
Another personal favorite is Massinova, which is a pretty small webcast station. Try them out, I'm almost always listening if I'm in front of my PCs.
www.di.fm
The greatest for streaming.
If you're looking for a good collection...a lot of the good ones have already been mentioned.
Aphex Twin, Crystal Method, etc. Also there have been some pretty good soundtracks in the recent past (Matrix & Fight Club come to mind).
If you don't mind stretching your definition of electronic, you could try some good industrial (older KMFDM or Stabbing Westward, for example).
-kwishot
album: "I care because you do."
"Electronica" has about as much unity as "guitar music", but this is as close as it gets to an overarching classic, methinks.
Astral Projection and Juno Reactor. I suggest listening to samples from Amazon.com or some other online cd store. A decent LEGAL online source of electronica is emusic.com. At least you'll get a free 14 trial.
in the greater LA area, there is kcrw, which has a great music program. Also available online at http://kcrwmusic.com/. In my opinion the best show for what you're asking about is metropolis. The dj, Jason Bentley, was recently written up pretty favorably in an LA Times puff piece on the local electronic music and dance scene.
If you want to stream some great electronica, try www.digitallyimported.com or www.djcentral.com.
The show the artists that are being streamed. Great music.
Also, Jon the Dentist from the UK is great. Paul Oakenfold is still good. The double CD's of Euphoria are great as well.
try anything by Ed Rush (esp. The Creeps) or tune into bassdrive.com
I'm still a fan of MP3.com, even as it has been sold out to a big record company.
You can find literally hundreds of files there of all different types of genres of electronic music, and I'm sure one type or another will work for most everyone. Some pretty good ones that come to mind are Bluetonicworld, Master Zap, and Synthetic Dream Foundation. I'm sure if you search around there something will appeal to you.
Want Slashdot headlines on your site? Try SlashHead
larry lynx, dj venom, dj irene, omar santana
I'd start out with these:
DJ Tiesto - "Summerbreeze"
BT - "Movement in Still Life" or "Ima"
Oakenfold's "Tranceport" is a classic
George Acosta - "Next Level" or "Awake"
Also, if you don't have Sasha's Xpander EP, it is IMO his best work (and I really like his stuff), Northern Exposure (which he did with Digweed) is also at the very top of their music as well.
Some others worth considering:
Dave Ralph
Dave Seaman
Chemical Brothers
The Prodigy
Boards of Canada
Ray Munns
Orbital
The Crystal Method
Underworld
A lot of people are recommending these:
Aphex Twin
Square Pusher
Q-Burns Abstract Message
Autchere
While all of these are very good bands, I don't think that they are particularly accessable to someone who is new to Electronica.
Forget all the techno/electronica/house/doof-doof/etc. stuff they call "electronic music" nowadays. Look into electroacoustic music, the kind of electronic music that university music professors and electrical engineers have been doing since the mid 1950's (racks of punch cards fed into mainframes). Good starting links are SEAMUS and CSounds.
There's a difference between seminal/influential/whatever and *really good* recent stuff. So I'll differentiate between the two, and hopefully you can sort stuff out.
...i care because you do, Orb - Ultraworld, Orbital - The Middle of Nowhere -or- In Sides, Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children, Autechre - Tri Repetae++,
:)
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.
-- BlueCalx | http://nickd.org/
... check out the albums released under the Bedrock label (I think it's the label, anway). Also take a listen at Timo Maas and Jeff Mills.
If you feel like investigating some other styles of electronic music, try Squarepusher, Plastikman, Aphex Twin and DJ Krush. I'd definitely try to listen to these artists before you plunk down any cash. Some people love Aphex Twin, and the rest tend to run away with blood dribbling from their ears.
In no particular order:
:D
:).
Nash The Slash - get some of his music linked from nashtheslash.com
Kraftwerk - some good stuff
Komputer - British version of Kraftwerk... similar style
Vangelis - Some GREAT stuff... Chariots of Fire, Direct, Theme from BladeRunner, Theme from 1492 (I think)... highly recommended!
Mike Oldfield - more great stuff... Tubular Bells!!
Skaven - from the mod scene... find some of his music on mp3.com or modarchive.com
Purple Motion - same as above... available on modarchive.com
Necros - same as above... modarchive.com
Enya - made some good stuff
Jean Michelle Jarre - some great classics here
Pink Floyd - not exactly electronic, but still great
Tangerine Dream - more great classics
There are more in my collection, but I can't recall them all at the moment. Let me know if you want me to check
A good site with a lot of reviews of "underground" type music, including some electronic type stuff, would be The Wrapped in Wire Music Exile. I've found quite a few artists I like by reading these reviews and downloading mp3's.
Where are you located? I live in the NW, and is NWTekno is a raver community of sorts. Could be a good place to look for info even if you aren't in the NW
Without music, life would be a mistake. --- Nietzsche
Dave Seaman (Any of his stuff rocks!!)
* Global Underground 012
* Renaissance Desire
Digweed
* Global Underground 019
* Global Underground 014
Sasha
* Global Underground 013
Paul van Dyk
* Politics Of Dancing
Nick Warren & Danny Howells
* Renaissance: Revelation
Deep Dish
* Global Underground 021
* Renaissance Ibiza
* Yoshiesque One & Two
BT
* Rare & Remixed
Chicane
Delerium
* Odyssey - The Remixes
Any Gatecrasher release, but mostly Wet, experience_, Global Sound System
Hybrid
* Wider Angle
Kosheen
* Resist (Kick ass cover art)
Try some Chill from Hed Kandi. I'd suggest any and all of the Winter Chill releases with 3 being my favorite.
Oh, and get your ass to Area2 this summer!
-Michael
Really there are many different types of electronic music within the genere, much like rock music might have soft rock, hard rock, classic rock etc.
You need to find what you like, I prefer trance to anything else, so I really enjoy Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk and a few others. If you said you wern't as into Oakenfold maybe you should try a different style. I also like house which is more techno with real instruments kinda thing. So it's real drums maybe a few instruments. I've got a bunch of random stuff like ATB and a few others that fit that. Or maybe you're looking for just techno, things like Alice Deejay (better off alone) kinda the popular songs that you'd hear at a run of the mill dance club in the US.
ahh, the egg in the basket..
Exactly how does your miserable self worth go up by keeping your knowledge or appreciation of art form to yourself? Sharing knowledge or opinions now makes one a "sellout"?
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.
***General Consultant to the Human Race*** My opinions are free. You get what you pay for.
I'm sure a couple of slashdotters are going to hate me for this, but http://www.mp3.com/ is a great place to start.
You'll find a huge number of different artists at varying skill levels, and no cost. It'll give you a chance to look at a wide range of styles (something that even a well stocked music store may not be able to do.) Additionally, you'll find many bits of information available regarding what a particular artist used for a song, what inspired him or her...
Turn your ear on... Search through the archives... My personal favorites?
- Minister
- Kahr
- Bassic
Outside of free MP3s, there are a large number of great artists. Consider looking for CDs from The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Micronaut, Lords of Acid, The Hive, and BT (I love BT : )Also, don't forget inspiration from gaming. System Shock 2 had some killer music, as did Need For Speed 3 and Decent 1 & 2 (CD editions. Yes, I even have a copy of the D1 Mac CD because I loved the music.)
Some great gaming inspired music can be found at (he's going to hate me...) Putzi's site, and places like remix.overclocked.org.
Best of luck.
There are many great Electonic bands that span many genres, electronic is not just dance.
Bands to check out:
A Guy Called Gerald
Aphrodite
The older Daft Punk albums are great
Groove Armada
The Classics:
Lo-Fidelity Allstars
The group that brought electronic to the masses The Crystal Method
MC 900 Ft Jesus (sorry couldn't find a better link)
The Prodigy
For a more layed back sound check out:
Massive Attack
without a doubt check out:
Faithless
Hybrid and absuolutley amazing group
Timo Maas OMG! An amazing artist!
but really just listen to a lot and decide what you like. one great thing about this type of music is there is a lot of collaboration between artists, so you can get some really neat crossovers and sounds.
-OctaneZ
DISCLAIMER: My kind of electronica is more "traditional" late 80's/early 90's, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. All of Orbital's albums, save Middle of Nowhere, have received incredible reviews. If you want to get an idea of what they sound like, one of their later albums, "Work", is a collection of singles and songs from nearly all their albums. Leftfield is a mixed bag, but the double-cd "Leftism" contains an incredible assortment of nice songs, from tribal works to more "traditional" electronica fare. Sorry to hear that you don't like Moby, but his styles are different depending on what CD you listen to. "Play" and "18", his latest two, are somewhat gospel-y, but his earlier releases are, again, more mainstream techno. If you're looking for early-mid 90's techno, the soundtrack for "Hackers" is a must. Leftfield, Orbital, Underworld, and Carl Cox are among the legends on the CD. The Chemical Brothers started out with some great elecronica, but lately ("Come With Us") they're showing some mainstream influence. Underworld is also a great band to check out; their CD "Everything Everything" is the best live album I've ever heard, and has a great compilation of tracks throughout their career. Finally, early Prodigy (The Prodigy and Music for the Jilted Generation), believe it or not, is an excellent choice for techno. Funky hits like "Charlie" and "Wind it Up" are the epitome of what techno is.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Bah. Clubbing is a waste of time if you are looking for good electronica musik. All you hear is the same anthems remixed and remixed (think pop top 40 of electronica).
If you really plan to go out and listen to some good musik, highly suggest finding a good cafe or bar. Since the idea behind these to establishments is usually to get you to relax and chill with friends (and get your $$$), the music is usually good background noise. Since music isn't the focus of these joints, they usually can afford to play some orginal and more non-mainstream music. Clubs on the other hand are way to into trying to draw a crowd and keep them moving and coming back (and get even more of your $$$). Needless to say, you almost never will hear anything new or down tempo.
Another good way is good old shoutcast (http://wwww.shoutcast.com). Get yourself on some european streams now that CARP has killed america, listen for anythinn you like, write down the titles you enjoy.
If you are looking for an excellent place to purchase electronica music from for relatively cheap (and don't mind shipping charges), highly suggest World of Music (http://www.wom.de/).
Used to shop there locally all the time and now that I live in the states, mail order with them (they ship international for reasonable rates). And before somebody pipes in you can get most releases in the US, let me shoot you down.
1. It is cheaper to pay international shipping than purchase "imports" from a US store.
2. US releases OFTEN cost more than the same european release WHILE ALSO normally sharting you out of a song or two (or even a bonus CD)
Disclaimer: Yes I know some clubs have orginal DJ, yes I have heard some AMAZING sets at clubs. But honestly, 99% are electronica top 40. This goes world wide.
De Oppresso Liber
orbital
aphex twin
KLF (no two albums are alike!)
fluke
orb
(ok, so the first two are redundant with other posts - maybe that will tell you something)
Maybe you'd want listening to online mp3 broadcasts... Almost all online radio stations have forums to discuss what's on air and such; pick up a station you like and you'll see what's playing, and what other listeners like. I suggest:
DigitallyImported (probably the most popular; trance, hard trance, house)
Massinova (eurodance / trance site in which users decide what will play next, with a moderation system for the tracks...)
SomaFM (oops, killed by CARP -- had good Drum'n'Bass)
Tag's Trance Trip (trance -- wait, off the air due to CARP)
XTC Radio (trance and prog house)
Philosomatika (goa and psytrance)
Bassdrive (drum'n'bass)
Xanu (Chillout and lounge)
Ok, I've been into electronica/techno for a while now, especially some of the darker VNV-Nation EBM and stuff, but I've had one nagging question. Can anyone give a nice consice description of all the types of genres that exist, and what's the difference between them? Some that come to mine include techno, trance, drumb & base, progressive, house, IDM, freestyle, electronica, EBM, etc. Thanks, I'm sure I'm not the only one that is slightly confused on this.
Infected Mushroom is my favorite goa trance group. Their tracks are available on mp3.com.
Paul Van Dyk: a lot of his stuff is solid. Pick up a
copy of Perspective...
Sasha: Pick up the Wip3out soundtrack, (or just the
PS1 game, as all the tracks are on it as redbook
cd audio tracks anyway. Anything before and up to
Xpander is good, after that, he just sort of
devolves into a sort of electronic parody of bad 70s
disco.
Digweed: Pretty much the same as Sasha, get his
earlier stuff, as his later stuff blows. Anything
up to Heaven Scent is pretty good.
Ken Ishii: Jellytones is a damn master work.
Those guys are at the top of my list, but there's
lots of others. MKL, Future Sound of London,
Propellerheads, Apollo 440, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox,
Junior Vasquez, BT, Laurent Garnier... Those are
just a few you should sample.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
I'd mod it up, but alas the ModerationGods(tm) have not appointed me in what seems to be eons.
Shoutcast is an excellent way to come accross new electronic bands. There's sooo much crap out there, and electronica is very rarely pimped by the media. I like to find a good station, listen to it for a bit and then research the songs I like. If I find a couple tunes by a specific group that are good, I'll throw fifteen or twenty bucks their way for the CD.
I can't be the only one doing this..
The RIAA is making a really bad decision in it's recent actions regarding streaming audio. People that steal music will steal it regardless of how much of a pain in the ass it is. But you piss off your paying customers, you're screwed.
For some real undergroundish breakbeat business
i .p ls
http://www.forwardbreaks.com/nubreaks/webcast/h
or www.nubreaks.com in the webcast section. Only on the weekends, starts around 4PM GMT on saturday and 10AM on sunday.
For a CD, check out Plump DJs - A Plump Night Out, which usually goes down well with people who are not already in to breaks.
This guy breaks up beats, and adds really really lougy jazzy fusiony hooks to them.
.. for the cut'n'paste to drill'n'bass sounds.
Awesome stuff. Also, Aphex Twin, Ninja Tunes stuff, Squarepusher, Plastik Man, etc
"Old man yells at systemd"
[on by] A modest proposal--------- A Known Troll at posting AC:0
:2 default that I have. This will waste many slashdotters' time in weeding out Good AC posts from troll floods (that have to use ac to post). I ask a sincere question that you consider.
Jest of article posted...
1: All the trolls will simply post AC as I am doing now. Proxies can be used to get around any ipid bans that result from AC trolls.
2: They want us to troll and crapflood at 0 rather than -1? Fine!
Since email sent to the Editors will probably be deleted, I am seconding "On By"'s proposal by posting at
I know that this article will be modded down as offtopic fairly quickly, but hopefully, it will reach the right people.
If you are into a bit harder/techno rythms you should check out DJs like Umek, Chis Liebing, Valentino Kanzyani, Sven Vaeth, Jeff Mills, Takkyu Ishino, Simon Digby, Ben Sims... There were a lot of their sets available on Audiogalaxy, but that's not much help now, I guess.
and in no particular order...
Nick Sentience
Timo Maas
Jan Driver
Mauro Picotto
Son Kite
Ed Rush & Optical
RAM Trilogy
Juno Reactor
Sourmash
Laurent Garnier
Nick Warren
Bassbin Twins
Dieselboy
Paul Oakenfold
Fatboy Slim
Armand Van Helden
Josh Wink
CJ Bolland
Prodigy
Daft Punk
Chemical Brothers
Back in the days of Napster I'd search for live sets of Paul Oakenfold, Seb Fontaine, Pete Tong, and Paul Van Dyke. You could find huge mp3 files that go on for 2-3 hours no problem. Best of all it was all live concerts which hold no copyright (IIRC).
I suggest find one of the last working p2p programs and searching for such name artists, and include "live" to the search. The live stuff is the best. It just has a more energetic feel to it than studio recorded music.
----------
Check out my blackbox styles
Savvas Ysatis is great. Especially check out his and Taylor Deupree's contribution to the Architettura series, Tower of Winds.
Although not strictly electronic, I would also suggest Bill Laswell. Try Invisible Design.
I would recommend Forced Exposure to anyone looking for good music.
there are many types of electronica
1st you have to decide what you like
weather trance, drumb and bass, big beat, progressive, dance, etc..
then look.
AMG is a good place to start. you pick something you like it says other stuff you may like. maybe try amazon.
Nicodemus
I'd suggest you point iTunes to the stream at Tag's Trance, but the CARP legislation got in the way :(
The true granddaddys of electronic music.
amon tobin, aphex twin, arovane, autechre, biosphere, björk, boards of canada, bogdan raczynski, bola, brian eno, brothomstates, cex, dj shadow, dntel, e-vax, fennesz, fizzarum, freescha, four tet, kid 606, lfo, marumari, matmos, microstoria, mouse on mars, múm, nightmares on wax, nobukazu takemura, orbital, oval, ovuca, phonem, plaid, radiohead, sterolab, the album leaf, tortoise; this is all i can think of right now, but it does go on and on and on.
and how about some of the classic experimentalists? see "ohm: the early gurus of electronic music".
and hip-hop/idm innovators: anti-pop consortium, prefuse 73. and trip-hop.. and countless rock bands fusing electronic influences into their sound.
how to find good music: http://www.soulseek.org
check out http://www.deceptakahn.com for mp3s and the like.
deceptakahn
AudioGalaxy used to be great for electronica. A lot of the stuff that got released on AG never quite made it to store shelves, since a lot of electronica only made to vinyl or went straight to clubs. You could subscribe to groups for certain genres, clubs, or DJ's and get music automatically. I really can't overemphasize the importance that that one program had to the electronica scene (which also revolves around getting the newest tracks each week.) Unfortunately that's no longer the case and a good replacement hasn't really been decided on. For now it seems that most of us are trying SoulSeek, which is an eletronica-only p2p network. There's actually a really great selection there, and it's still a rather tightly-knit community. Find a genre you like and join its respective chat room. I recommend starting in the "House music lovers" room and browsing users' files there.
http://www.ishkur.com/
:)
click on
Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music
--updated 05/28/2K2
it's a flash applet thing with samples, genre, and some of his personal opinions.
also check out his rave culture guide, you may be one of those he hates, but more often than not, he's on the money.
everything i loved about techno/electronica has become commercial tripe.....
then there are those bands like plaid, autechre, aphex twin...etc that you know will never become mainstream
anything from daft punk or the crydamoure label, aphex twin and plaid are good too
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
VNV Nation: particularly "Standing", "Savior (Vox)" and "Rubicon" - very club/dance but with an edge
Covenant: examples include "Figurehead", "Dead Stars", and "Go Film" - generally a little darker than VNV, but still will an up beat.
Cyber Tec or C-Tec: a Front 242 spinoff, good tunes include "She Left", "The Lost" (a personal fav)
Claire Voyant: "Majesty", "Love the Giver" (which has a GREAT remix by Eskil Simonsson's)
----The rest are just group names, I can add song titles if anyone wants...
Beborn Benton
Evil Toys (aka TOY)
Wolfsheim
SPOCK (well Back on Mars anyway)
Elegant Machinery
And One
Apoptygma Bezerk (older stuff preferably)
Project Pitchform (industrial sound) X Marks the Pedwalk
Cobolt 60
Delerium
Funker Vogt (not one of my favs, but they have some good tunes.)
Haujobb
Mentallo & the Fixer
Nitzer Ebb
ReWork
Velvet Acid Christ (good!!)
Wumpscut
None of these are in any particular order, but are a good overview of groups that I like. As always YMMV. If anyone wants some song titles lemme know...
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Just to give props to the forefathers I will mention that what we consider "electronic music" which should really be called electronic *dance* music is in large part due to the efforts of two major figures in mid 20th century. There was a sort of competition (but not really) between France and Germany. The research in both countries was funded by the national radio broadcastin corporations of each contry.
Franc's Pierre Schaeffer believed in mixing (called sampling today) sounds and making new sounds by tweaking existing sound/music via tape splicing/cutting/reverse taping and so forth which became known as musice concret (or concrete music). 1948 RTF (Radiodiffusion-television Francaise) broadcasted Pierre Schaeffer's Etude aux Chemin de Fer whiched marked the beginning of studio realizations and musique concrete.
Germany's Stockhausen worked largely with pure electronic devices that generated noise/music. The german school believed in pure electronic devices and sounds generated by analog devices. This effort was lead by Karlheinz Stockhausen and one of his seminal works is Microphonie I and II. His effort began in 1951 with the establishment of a Studio in Cologne -- NWDR (Nordwest Deutsche Rundfunk).
Later on these electronic music researchers collaborated with many others including each other. There was some work done prior to this in the 30's by for instance John Cage but it was largely tweaking around with a newly invented device called the tape recorder and prior to that many others had invented/devised novel 'electronic instruments' but no one had made it a life long effort to create a genre of music the way these two men and others who came after them did.
For info on earlier electronic instruments check out www.obsolete.com and for the bleeding edghe research on current electronic music research (using sound as particles as opposed to waves!!)
please see the the create Project's 'Pulsar Generator' at UCSB:
http://www.create.ucsb.edu/htmls/code.html
cheers.
T
Here's teh lowdown. Oakenfold is fucking glowstick waving stadium trance. Micro cancelled a gig in Tulsa last week because "there weren't enough people there." Terry Mullan has a 40 percent cancel rate.
The presence of MDMA and K at massives attract stupid frat boys and sorority girls who get mashed up and raise their hands to people who shouldn't be making 300 bucks a night, let alone 15,000 like Oaky.
Here are a few links for background information on drum and bass, arguably a deeper, more exciting genre than Eurotrance, and definitely the most diverse genre out there.
Ishkur
Dogs On Acid
Drum and Bass Arena
And here's a pretty good atmospheric drum and bass mix by yours truly.
Hey Taco! Looks like you're using the "infinite monkeys and typewriters" scheme to generate Ask Slashdots again...
Anything by the Ministry of Sound, particularly in the "Clubbers guide to" or the "Ibiza" series. It's from england, so you can find it mostly in the import section.
Believe me... it's worth it. "Clubber's Guide to Trance" is incredible.
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
You gotta check this substyle. Absolutely awesome!!! 8-) Highly energic, contagious. I've attended a party where Tilzs (a master in the genre) was spinning. Simply incredible. Check at http://www.sonicfury.net. There's a $hitload of MP3s to d/l. In particular, look for Prophecy and Chaos Theory (studio sets by Tilzs), and for both the Montreal live sets: Solar Storm, which was recorded last week, and K-Haus, which was recorded last april, both by Tilzs again. If you have any chance to hear this guy live, GO! You won't regret it.
Seriously, Sphongle is the best electronic music i've heard in a long time. They aren't very well known but you can check out some of their stuff at http://www.shpongle.com/
start with behind closed eyelids or divine moments of truth
for terence mckenna fans they use some samples of him talking and also have a song that alludes to a song off of piper at the gates of dawn (the gnomes have found a new way to say hooray!!)
"It's the year 2000, where are the flying cars?"
Instead of sipping from the cup of lukewarm techno that is most modern electronica, I'd suggest diving into the 16-bit wonderland that was and is the MODscene.
.S3M, .XM, *.ULT, *.IT., and the more powerful the tracking software became, the more people were drawn to the scene. It was the online equivalent of jazz clubs in the '30s. I think it's one of the great secret stories of the web.
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, arguably the most prolific and influencial modgroup of that era. You could also check out the Hornet archive or the Modarchive. Either Winamp or XMMS should play them.
_________________________
Check your karma. It's changed.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
Also of honorable mention:
Harry Diamond
BK (Ben Keen)
Lisa Lashes
Anything else off the Nukleuz Label
Bad Boy Bill
Richard Humpty Vission
BT
UFO
Anabolic Frolic
DJ Irene (the new Photosynthesis CD is incredible)
George Acosta
DJ Venom
DJ Sonik
Lil Sue
DJ Entropy
DJ Necromancer (awsome up-and-commer)
DJ DB
Felix Da Housecat
Danny the Wildchild
And if you enjoy live performing artists, DO NOT MISS:
Obis Cygma
Skylab 2000
Cyrrus
SPACEGIRL (absolutely incredible)
There are a million others I should mention...
Also check out Bangin' Tunes for all your latest UK hard style needs... I buy most of my vinyl from them (I spin mostly those genres). Good stuff to be had.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Start with The Middle of Nowhere, then get The Altogether and The Brown Album. Good start for me a few years ago, and it can be for you too. (Also on my iPod at the moment: Kruder & Dorfmeister, The K&D Sessions.)
sulli
RTFJ.
It's not exactly the most undeground site in the world, but the quality of the music and info is first class - the BBC Radio 1 website covers the UK's #1 modern music station. During the day it plays very mainstream material, but at nights a load of specialist shows come on including a lot of dance music.
.ogg of a CD mix I did on www.djsnm.com - but the last time I put a direct link from slashdot I almost exceeded my Bandwidth limits.
Pete Tong's friday night show is considered something of a trendsetter, while shows like Gile's Petersons Worldwide, Mary Anne Hobbes Breezeblock and the Unstoppable Annie Nightingale explore other parts of the music. This week they're also spending the weekend at the love Parade in berlin - so expect lots of tough teutonic tech trance.
But! Best of all - Radio 1 is the home of the Essential Mix - every week they give over 2 hours of airtime to a featured DJ who gets to play what they like, without any Ads or jingles to get in the way. These shows are legendary, search on your favourite p2p network and you'll find them. The BBC even somewhat encourages taping of the shows - they used to get tape inlays published in major Dance music Magazines like Mixmag and Musik. If you can't find those then tracklistings.org have a fairly complete archive of who played what and when.
But... if you want to stay legit then Radio 1 has started storing the shows for a week so you can go in any time and listen to what you missed - it's all in real audio.... but don't balk just yet - Radio 1 was one of teh BBC stations participating in the OGG test earlier this year - so maybe if you e-mail the right people often enough then you'll get it back.
Other online dance music places I'd recommend are Groovetech which for me is mainly a place to buy vinyl, but they feature a lot of radio shows, extended samples and interviews. LiveDJs.com used to be good, but has kinda died out - I even played a few gigs there. Epitonic has a neat feature for newbies - they have little streams which basically introduce particular genres of music - they also have quite a lot of free tracks to try.
On the Musical recommendations side - I'm big into breakbeat right now - look for artists like Hybrid, BT, Plump DJ's or compilations like Y4K. I'd love to point people at a
I've been a DJ for years, I plyed old school raves in the UK, evaded police and escaped with my record collection.... and I still play the latest stuff now I'm in San Francisco. Come out to An Sibin (1176 Sutter at Polk) on Monday nights and catch my weekly gig.
Other recomendations would be Orbital, Etnica, Aphex Twin (aka Richard D. James)
Also listen to various shoutcast streams, and pay attention to who plays. This has worked great for me!
Enig? Det alt for hot det smor!
The Laziest Men on Mars? :P
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Brian Eno is one of the best 'electronic' musicians, period. He started doing very cool electronic stuff with Roxy Music, then started to venture out on his own. He also worked with David Bowie during his "berlin years", which included some very cool electronic tracks on the second sides of the Albums Heroes and Low. Since then he has release numerous solo albums, has produced big bands such as U2, and was the musician that did the Windows 95 Startup Music.
If you just want to sample his stuff, definately check out the first Roxy Music album, the Bowie albums listed above, any of his strategies albums, and his albums Before and After Science and The Shutov Assembly.
The last time I checked there are tons of his songs that people are sharing on the Gnutella Network.
I've been listening to electornic music for a little more than a year, and I have a list of favorite artists:
Airscape
ATB
Cosmic Gate
Blank & Jones
Cosmic Gate
Das Licht
DJ Sonix (might be hard to find)
DJ Tiesto
Ferry Corsten
Cosmic Gate
Gouryella
Kamaya Painters (Mainly Endless Wave Albion Mix and Far From Over)
Paul Oakenfold (Look for his Essential Mix in China)
Pfaffendorf
Cosmic Gate
System F
You should also listen to the Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1.
They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
takes a while to dig stuff from there but you can find really good stuff.. (and really bad too ;)
Software should be free as in speech, but if we also get some free beer, all the better.
Tastes in electronica range as widely as tastes in any kind of music. There's mostly house, trance, and a bunch of other stuff like breakbeat. In my experience, first-time listeners like trance more than anything else, since the high frequency synths and such probably remind them of pop. Personally, it gets old after a while, and you'll start getting into house, which is made, instead, with drum machines and the like.
Trance is mostly trance and hard trance. Some great hard trance producers include Cosmic Gate, Svenson and Gielen (Gielen also being known as Airscape), and Tiesto. DJ's include Ferry Corsten and again Tiesto. If you like ambient, soothing trance you want to look into Delerium and, maybe if you are looking for a little sophistication, Dave Seaman.
For house, there is straight house (Different Gear), deep house (John Creamer & Stephane K), tech house (Mauro Picotto), and hard house (all of the above except Different Gear.) DJ's include Danny Tenaglia and Deep Dish.
Eventually, it's interesting to expand your tastes to breakbeat (check out System F and BT) and other subgenres. Also believe it or not, Paul Oakenfold's new album Bunkka is practically all breakbeat, so pick that up if you can.
Good luck finding what you like.
I would highly recommend any CD's from The Prodigy (Music for a Jilted Generation is my personal favorite), Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Underworld, Orbital, and Moby (have you listened to more than one of his CD's?).
You might want to look at more specific areas of techno types of electronica music such as house, Drum n Bass, Jungle, trance, hardcore. Use shoutcast or do a search on google to find music sites that you can stream music over the net and listen to. I would highly recommend looking at the music section on BBC's Radio1 channel. Fabio & Grooverider are two big DJ's in the DnB/Jungle scene that have weekly shows you can listen to that start about 7 or 8 pm Friday nights US time(2am Sat morning in the UK). But thats just my opinion....
...it's not that hard if you really want to.
While programs out there like Acid, Rebirth (ugh), Fruityloops etc. aren't that bad, they are usually too "make 31337 music really easily even if you have no musical talent whatsoever". Even worse, they don't give you as much control over your music.
So, if you want to make music on your computer without spending any money on big commercial software packages or sound hardware, I suggest you look into tracking. Tracking is basically a way to arrange sound samples (wav, raw, etc) into channels which are played simulataneously. These arrangements form patterns, which you can sequence together to make songs (of course, it can get more complex than this if you want it to). If you've ever listened to a MOD, S3M, XM, or IT file, you've listened to the work of a tracker.
I've been tracking for about three years now on and off and it's really quite enjoyable. Definately a nice (creative) break whenever I need one. There are quite a few free trackers out there, though unfortunately some of the best ones are for DOS -- Impulse tracker, Fast Tracker, etc. The Windows ones are alright but for people like me who are used to Impulse Tracker it's a pain in the ass to get used to. If you really need a windows tracker, I suggest checking out Modplug Tracker. For those of you in Linux, there's a great new tracker under development called SoundTracker. Besides being free, programs like these give you quite a bit of flexibility as far as the style of your music goes. You can make techno, trance, ambient, rock, whatever -- you're only limited by the samples you download (which you can find anywhere on the internet).
http://tigerbeat6.com/
Kid606 and his inkling are well worth a look. Laptop electro that isnt your usual dance crap
and check out wire magazine.
I'm going to Energy in RI to see venom in a few weeks. I've already seen him liek 20938475203984765203948567 times but it never gets old.
"IIIIIIIIIII want aaaaaction to-night! Saaaaaaaaatis-faaaction to-night!"
hard style. it 0wnz.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
I'm new to the whole genre myself, but I've quickly grown to like Sunscreem's newest CD, Ten Mile Bank. The song "Please Save Me" is incredible.
Also, I've heard a lot of good reviews for the Euphoria Ibiza CD (or Ibiza Euphoria), though its a 2 CD import that's kinda expensive.
I haven't actually gone CLUBBING yet, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt. The above 2, at least what I've heard of them, make me want to dance in my chair.
Orbital's In Sides
:)
Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Things on the Ninja Tune label (try DJ Food's "Kaleidescope" and Herbaliser's "Very Mercenary")
LTJ Bukem's Logical Progression (Volume 1, which isn't labeled Volume 1, but Volume 2 isn't it, obviously
Aphex Twin (Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and Richard D. James album)
I mostly listen to more experimental/IDM stuff now, but those are some more accessible classics that have really stood the test of time for me.
Of course, I can't stand trance (i.e. Sasha and Digweed/Oakenfold) so my opinions may not be worth much to you. But if you like Sasha+Digweed and Oakenfold a lot, just keep your eye out for things marked "trance". That's the specific sub-genre of electronic music that you're listening to.
This is the place where i shop for basically all my electronic music, they used to be called mind records in the past but changed their name a while ago, http://www.stereofonica.com . reelly good crap.
I highly recommend checking out the group The Starseeds. They're a foreign group so you might have to hit import racks but it's excellent electronic/ambient music.
"This message is composed of 100% recycled electrons."
Here, you can watch them online... (QT format, sorry Taco, I think they ARE worth it tho')
The video for Windowlicker, a commentary on rap videos that times in at 11 minutes
The video for Come to Daddy, perhaps the finest music video ever. It has a deep meaning to it too, about the media
Boy, that site is gonna go down quickly. They're worth it tho'. (and legal, I believe)
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
I LOVE all these albums.
House:
Armand Van Helden- 2future4U or Killing Puritans
Fatboy Slim- You've come a Long Way Baby or Halfway Between the gutter and the Stars (don't ignore the master)
As far as DJs go, Danny Tenaglia- Global Underground 010 is great. I don't listen to a lot of DJ mixes though. They get kind of repetetive for me. Good to dance to, but not to put on in the living room. Fatboy Slim's Big Beat Boutique CD is an exception to this though. Man I'd love to see him live.
If you can find it, get Archigram's single Carnival. Just got it, love it. I first heard it on Pete Tong's radio show, which airs friday night 6-9 in England. But I listen to it over the web at bbc.co.uk/radio1. I'm pretty sure they archive the show each week so you can listen to it anytime.
Drum & Bass:
Everything But the Girl vs. Drum & Bass. EBTG's album "Walkiung Wounded" is really good too. That's where the singles that are remixed on the former come from.
Photek does some of that remixing. Great, but i can't recommend a specific album.
Experimental:
Boards of Canada- In a Beautiful place out in the country
Land of the Loops- Bundle of Joy. Kind of a cross between electronica and indie rock.
Funkstorung- their remix of Bjork's Allis full of love is unbelievable.
While you're at it, don't forget Bjork. Homogenic and Vespertine are pure genius.
Downtempo:
Theivery Corporation- Sounds from the theivery hi-fi
Nightmares on Wax- Carboot Soul
Kruder & Dorfmeister- The K&D Sessions
Peace Orchestra- Peace Orchestra
Joshua Csehak- A Day for Nyla (yeah, that's me, link in my sig. Hey, I can't help it if I think it kicks ass)
Massive Attack- Mezzanine. But the track "Better Things" off of Protection is maybe their best track ever.
Air- Virgin Suicides. Also, Moon Safari. Their other two are really good too though.
Hip hop:
I just can't leave out Missy Elliott's "Supa Dupa Fly." If you're thinking about delving into hip-hop, get it without hesitation.
Simply mindblowing:
William Orbit- Pieces in a modern style
That should get you started. Just pick a genre you feel like listening to and buy. Or download, as the case may be.
c-hack.com |
Click here for more info! Do it for your family!
As far as artists, top on the list is Aphex Twin aka Polygon Window aka Richard D James... His bulk work travels from ambient and soundscapes (Selected Ambient Works v2) to the hyper beats of the more recent WindowLicker and Come To Daddy. He is an excellent place to start...
Underworld is also one of my favs (up until recently w/ DJ Darren Emerson). The beats are heavy, full of groove and the lead singer is a human sampler - pretty amazing stuff.
Other artists to lend a listen too:
1)Saafi Brothers
2)Young American Primitive
3)The Orb
4)Brian Eno
5)Orbital
6)Felix da Housecat
These are things I like, old and new, a small sampling, and very narrow in the truly broad scope of electronica. They tend toward the the darker, deeper and slower side of ambient, trance and house...
A great site on the web for quite some time was Hyperreal.org. Haven't checked it in some time so it may be that it's drifted... I should look again now that I'm thinking about it.
I highly recommend this genre of music. there's plenty of bad in electronica but a lot of good, ingenuitive stuff... Definately an exciting area of music in my mind. Enjoy!
Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen. -Hawking
n/t blah blah
I disagree, almost every 'band' listed on this post so far I have seen or purchased from Virgin records at the Arizona Mills mall. They have a pretty extensive electronica collection. So unless you're in the middle of bumb-fuck no where head out to Virgin. BTW Boards of Canada kick ass. Could be the subliminal 70s education video music, yup, I think that's it, seems to always take me back to my childhood.
I usually don't try to get into arguments over "good" vs. "Bad" music, but I'd simply like to voice my opinion on the subject. As the old adage goes, opinions are like assholes, blah blah
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.
Bassic - Swedish guy...moved to the US and uses a Mac driven studio... I prefer to buy from the artist (or his immediate rep), whenever possible.
Bassic is a bit like Vangelis at times.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned Vangelis yet?
There is a python based linux client available at:
http://www.sensi.org/~ak/pyslsk/
I have not used this service, only puttin git out there for you to try and decide for yourself.
Thank you for your reply. This is truely a stupid idea by the slashchoad maintainers - if all the trolls crapflood at 0/AC you can expect Anonymous posting to be revoked next! Hang on to your seat! --on by
is mp3.com. It allows you to get a feel for a tone of bands. Some of them are really good, some are ok, some of them suck. But it's try before you buy, just like music should be. Plus, with the connection I've got at work (isp ;), I get to listen to a new band every day =) Also, pick and choose what kind of techno you really like. Most bands do several kinds, and you may find that you like some types much better than others. I found I like trance much better, but that's just me.
Groovetech has thousands of audio/video broadcasts archived from the sets of many big and small name DJs. They also keep a healthy selection of vinyl that you can sample and purchase.
Tweekin Records is my favorite place to shop for vinyl. They're based out of San Francisco, update their site w/new records weekly, and have MP3 audio samples of all their records.
Satellite Records, based out of NYC, is another good place to preview and order records. All their samples are in real audio.
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dance
A good place for those types of music.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Electronic music is the term used in the US. Dance is the common catch-all used in the UK.
.find out where ppl hang out, on newsgroups, hang out in chat rooms, talk to ppl and you will be surprised what you will find.
First some background..as Electronica covers a lot of genres.
Trance used to big but its kinda dead now as its got too repetitive unless your a teenager. Paul Oakenfold was a pioneer in this genre in the early to mid 90s in the UK, it came over to the US a few yrs later and exploded.
Progressive House is what DJs like Sasha & Digweed play, again pioneers in this genre since the early to mid-90s.
House is good old staple of the US, chicago sound. probably the hardiest of the lot that will endure as its easier, looser than the previous 2 genres.
Drum n Bass, offshoot of Jungle, LTJ Bukem is probably the best know in this genre for his style of atmospheric DnB.
Electronica to me is groups like Air that mix stuff up with synths and other stuff, they are the electronic version of the usual bands we grew up to. but there are a lot of other groups out there.
where do you find this kind of music ? Thats a hard one, its easier to tune into radio stations for this sort of thing over the internet.
The Essential Mix on the BBC is a show that airs 2 hr long sets of many interesting DJs every saturday 0200 GMT
Kiss FM in London hosts John Digweed's show every Fri midnight GMT
they both have real audio feeds so you can tune in, which is a real godsend as you are not going to get shows like that in the US. Why ? no radio station can play this sort of thing as there is no way to put any ads in it as most of the radio in the US is comercial driven.
if you are looking for something a bit more on the cutting edge i could recommend protonradio.com, they host a lot of shows of a lot of up and coming talent.
How do you get stuff ?
Second, many of the artists mentioned also release DJ mixes of other people's music. Indeed several of these artists only release DJ mixes and write just the occasional track. Read the tracklistings closely and also note who may have remixed the tracks you like. Some of these artists may be hard to find (DJs like to pick that great rare track only they have), so try online auction sites. Many of these artists would love to sell their own releases rather than just rely on the royalties from others' DJ mixes they're featured on!
Third, figure out which subgenres you like. Maybe you love Techno (yes this is a subgenre, not an all-encompassing term) but hate Speed Garage. Maybe Hard House is great but Acid House isn't. Look for the words that keep popping up on your favorite mixes. There are tons of electronic music history sites on the internet that can help you understand what sets these very different styles apart.
Finally, buy something random that you're not sure if you will like that is in the cheapo used section of the store. I've found some duds for sure, but I've also found wonderful albums for 3 bucks that either didn't do that great in the States or just never found its audience. Online radio sites are great too, especially since they show artist and track information. Go to Shoutcast and listen to many different electronic stations.
I design user interfaces for a free network management application,
Real electronica isn't pop music.
www.mp3.com/rollingbeetles
There are several types of Techno, each one is different For anyone that likes Techno, I recommend this. 1. Check out Pete Tong on BBC Radio One, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/petetong/ he is a Killer DJ himself and always has good Artists on the Decks 2. Moonshine Records Happy2BHardcore which is a Happy Hardcore Compilation by Anabolic Frolic which is actually Several DJ's on the Decks 3. Any of the Earlier Oakenfold Stuff before the most Recent one, the new Oakenfold is weird and it will take some time to get use to it, But He is a Leader (Named Most Sucsessful DJ in the World) and Get any of his Global Underground CD's 4. IN Itunes check out some of the Electronica in the INternet Radio section there is some good techno, in there, right now I am listening to DJ Trance from Digitally Imported which seems to bee the most stable Anyways if you have any questions or would like to talk some more email me @ shon.harris@fiberpipe.net -DJ ManicPanic-
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I think anything on the Global Underground Collections will satisfy you, specifically the Oakenfold, Deep Dish, and Sasha & Digweed sets.
Juno Reactor - Bible Of Dreams (BlueRoom (UK)/ TVT (USA)) By far one of the most original and well thought out full albums by an artist in the electronic genre. Actually fits in to the GOA/Psy catagory. This is a very dark trance trip, and in my years listening to his stuff and collecting over 400 Electronica CD's and piles and piles of 12" Vinyl for spinning and mixing on my 1200's... this is by far one of the best CD's one can add to their collection.
If you live in houston, ktru (fm 91.7) is pretty decent. If you don't, KTRU has a radio stream.
the Digital Droo... do a google search.. he's the one that made the money developers song.
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
Yes...they are 3 doods from somewhere in europe that KICK MAJOR FUCKING ASS! Go umm.get on some filesharing network and find some live mixes of HYBRID (not 'the hybrid'), and check out some other artists' mixes while you listen to Hybrids.
Hell yeah....this stuff's cool!
I'm still in the process of downloading, but I have ro-ark so far and it's totally kickass.
Good job, dude! If only I lived in Texas....
I don't know if you'll like this kind of electronic music, but most of the digital hardcore artists are great, IMHO. Also try kid606, and maybe some older Prodigy.
http://www.digitalhardcore.com/
KMFDM is awesome! They have a kinda hybrid techno / industrial sound and is a great starting point into electronic music because unlike many of the other suggested artists they have plenty of vocals.
I'm certainly not knocking any of the other suggestions, because I listen to many of them, I'm just suggesting KMFDM from personal experience. They are the band that started the ball rolling down the Electronic music hill for yours truely.
I would recommend to first buy some of the newer albums. One of the best to give you an idea about KMFDM is the album that has a bunch of symbols for the title, a skull, a bomb, and some others. I will just call it "The Symbols" album. You'll know it when you see it.
Give it a listen and if you like it dive into some of their other albums. Glory, Light, What do you know Deutchland, Angst, Nihil, XTORT, Agogo, Adios, Attak are all wonderful albums. I own just about everything KMFDM has ever produced and I can honestly say I love every song.
If you dig them, they are an excellent bridge into some of the more experimental stuff like Aphex Twin.
Hope this helps. If you want to talk further please email me at my slashdot username @ the listed URL above.
- Project Pitchfork
- VNV Nation
- Covenant
- Decoded Feedback
And you might want to check out these tracks specifically:- Project Pitchfork "I Live Your Dream"
- Decoded Feedback "Bio Vital"
- VNV Nation "Darkangel"
- Covenant "Like Tears In Rain"
- Apoptygma Berzerk "Love Never Dies (Part One)"
- Front Line Assembly "Mindphaser"
And when it comes to getting CDs from those artists I haven't found any better source than Infrarot. It can take a while to get the CDs if you live in the U.S. (four to six weeks), but their selection is very comprehensive and their service is great.For finding new artists, I have found the various radio streams on Shoutcast to be great. For the more popular varieties of electronic music check out Digitally Imported, which is almost always on the top of the front page. There are a variety of streams for every variety of electronic music, including of course industrial.
Go to some local clubs (if there are any), especially on themed nights (deep house night, etc) and see if you like that particular style.
Then you can guide your search along those lines.
That will probably limit your exposure, however, to the less-than-danceable stuff. For that, use the suggestions already provided...
eat
it helps.
1st of all, dont listen to any of the American Trance bullshit, except Sasha, hes one of the famoust DJ's on earth, hands down. Paul Oakenfold is the Godfather, he brought Electronica to Europe from Spain-Ibiza. He has a lot of tracks, A LOT, so some may suck, but some are just awesome, like Transa or "this is trance" . Anyway, here are some of the most famous and good DJ's on earth right now.
Sasha
Paul Oakenfold
Dj Tiesto (god of trance)
Carl Cox
Paul van dyk
John digweed
DJ Icey(USA, very good)
Those are the main ones, and here are some more that you should check out.
Westbam
Da Hool
And here are some links.
Famoust Dj's
Ministry of Sound
I don't post much because I'll just get laughed at, but this is one topic I know a thing or three about.
These artists represent some of the best in electronic music including Acid Jazz, Ambient, Trip Hop, Drum 'n' Bass, and House.
Air, Amon Tobin, Bill Laswell, Björk, Bobby Hughes Experience, Brian Eno, Boozoo Bajou, Cibo Matto, Coldcut, DJ Mark Farina, DJ Spooky, Dusted, dZihan & Kamien, Femi Kuti, Fila Brazillia, Howie B, Kid Loco, Kruder & Dorfmeister, L.S.G, LTJ Bukem, Massive Attack, Nightmares on Wax, Prefuse 73, Roni Size, Smith & Mighty, Syrup, Talvin Singh, Terra Nova Thievery Corporation, Underworld
On the web check out betalounge, groovetech, epitonic, and thedownbeat
Anthony Pappa
Cevin Fisher
Peace Division
Eddie Amador
Peshay
Mr Scruff
DJ Dan
Stretch N Vern
Leftfield
X-Cabs
If you want to ease yourself in, I'd suggest using a p2p client and downloading some Essential Mixes (The link goes to the BBC's Radio One dance music page). Recommendations, tracklistings and flamewars from plenty of users at the Essential Mix discussion site. Personal favourites I would recommend:
I would also suggest looking at related artists. Dance music encompasses a lot of styles, and cross-pollination goes on all the time. Massive Attack are another excellent act; all of their albums are great. One non-dance music act I love has to be Spiritualized. Though they don't really do dance music per se, they have an ethos and sensibility that matches well. Perfect morning-after music.
I've been lucky enough to see nearly all the acts listed above, and yes, they are all better live. Best of luck!
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
In no particular order may I humbly suggest:
Plastikman - Minimalism at it's best, dark and futuristic. "Consumed" is quite good.
Derrick Carter - I heard Derrick Carter's Cosmic Disco mix CD and absolutley fell in love. I have never heard a more seamless and soulful mixed cd than this one.
Faithless - Faithless are amazing. Look for "Sunday 8 P.M."
Prodigy - But not that new rock and roll crap. Try "Jilted Generation"
Just my suggestions...
While it has been said numerous times in comments thus far, I cannot recommend Aphex Twin highly enough. Aphex Twin is actually the work of one man (Richard D. James) and runs the gamut from soft and beautiful (Xtal off Selected Ambient Works 85-92) to acid metal styling (Come To Daddy off Come To Daddy) to abstract noise (almost anything off Selected Ambient Works Volume II). aphextwin.nu is the website for all things Richard D. James, but be sure to pick up the Richard D. James album (contains Girl/Boy song, most likely his most popular song ever), Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Come To Daddy (if only for Flim), and I Care Because You Do (once you ease yourself into his more abstracted music you will likely enjoy Ventolin, Start As You Mean To Go On, and more).
You also could consider picking up some of his singles such as On, or even look for some of the work he has done under other names (Powerpill was a group name he made up when he did a Pacman remix that many people have heard).
Obviously I cannot recommend Aphex Twin highly enough, so don't take my word for it, check out his work! Full albums are difficult if not impossible to find on the net so sample individual tracks when you can find them prior to buying.
Cydonia
There is a difference between Dance music and other electronica. All of the "Ibiza" stuff as well as Digweed would be considered Dance which is seems more separated from the other forms of electronica. Just compare Dance to Industrial to IDM. Anyway, depending on your tastes you would like these: Metal: Industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails, Front Line Assembly, and ohGR Dance (Like Sasha and John Digweed): DJ Tiesto The Cynic Project Anything called "Psytrance", "Trance", "Goa", "Happy Hardcore", "Techno", or "Electro" Jazz: Squarepusher St. Germain Thievery Corporation
'Electronic music' is as broad a genre as 'rock'; there are many subgenres, different types of electronic music. I haven't heard Digweed, so I don't know what it sounds like. You might want to look at different subgenres if you're completely new.
:)
I'm not great at grouping music into categories or describing it, so I went to the All Music Guide for the categories and descriptive words in this list. I highly recommend the Guide.
Here's a list of some of my favorites; none of this is the kind of music you'll find at a rave, that's usually called 'dance' or 'rave' I believe, rather than 'techno' or 'ambient.'
Orbital - 'The Middle Of Nowhere,' or 'In Sides.'
Ambient Techno. Smooth, Lush, Ethereal, Reflective, Confident, Trippy, Laid-Back/Mellow, Hypnotic, Clinical, Stylish, Elegant, Soothing.
TMON takes getting used to, it would affect my mood when I listened to it until I'd become familiar with the album.
Propellerheads - 'Decksanddrumsandrockandroll'
Drum n' Bass. Energetic, Boisterous, Rousing, Stylish, Party/Celebratory.
I actually find this album very laid-back.
DJ Shadow - 'Endtroducing...'
Ambient Breakbeat. Ethereal, Somber, Reflective, Reserved, Ominous, Street-Smart, Gloomy, Wintry, Trippy, Earthy, Hypnotic, Detached, Intimate, Cerebral, Nocturnal, Druggy, Eerie, Brooding.
Much of this album is tracks of percussion and classical instruments mixed together. Trippy.
The Dust Brothers - 'Fight Club' score
These two guys spent most of their career producing albums for a wide variety of artists, the All Music Guide goes into more detail. Seeing the movie would give you a better idea of what this music feels like than what I could say.
(various) - 'Run Lola Run' score
"Appropriately, the music from Run Lola Run is frenetic, fast-paced techno - which serves as the driving force behind the film's adrenalized action sequences. About half the pieces were composed by the director himself (Tom Tykwer), and for the most part, the other contributors are little-known artists. But this is one of the most cohesive soundtrack albums in recent memory, and the music is excellent."
Wagon Christ - 'Musipal' or 'Tally Ho!'
Jungle Drum n' Bass. Fun, Freewheeling, Playful, Witty, Trippy, Detached, Stylish.
Fluke - 'Risotto'
Techno. Ethereal, Sensual, Trippy, Detached, Clinical, Stylish, Cerebral, Nocturnal.
You can really lose yourself in this album; Fluke has pretty much mastered the build-and-release of techno.
The Crystal Method - 'Vegas', or 'Tweekend'
Techno. Energetic, Rousing, Trippy, Hypnotic, Detached, Visceral, Party/Celebratory.
An early Gap commerical had a song from 'Vegas', which is how I found out about TCM and bought the album, the first album I'd ever bought on my own. 'Tweekend' is more energetic, though it took me more than one listening to adjust to the beats.
Prodigy - 'Fat Of The Land' or 'Music For The Jilted Generation'
Techno. Irreverent, Energetic, Raucous, Intense, Menacing, Brash, Rowdy, Rebellious, Cathartic, Volatile, Angry, Hostile.
'MFTJG' makes me think of William Gibson's settings, for some reason. It also contains the only device used in classical music I've ever seen in electronic music; the last three tracks are a suite.
Last but not least, if you're looking for electronic music online in MP3 form, use SoulSeek, which is specifically for electronica.
Have fun!
First I'd like to apologise, although I read your post the music I am going to suggest is a bit darker then the selections you have mentioned. That said, this music is some of the best of its kind, it's electronic and tends to be "isolationist" or "paraniod". Who know's, maybe you'll like it?
Terminal Sound System
Twine (ambient, glitchy, experimental)
horchata (dub, glitch, experimental)
S.E.T.I. (glitch, experimental)
Rapoon (ambient, experimental)
Mick Harris (aka Scorn, founder Illbent, dub, experimental)
Sara Ayers (ambient, experimental)
Dead Voices On Air (ambient, experimental)
Muslimgauze (ethnic, found sound, dub, experimental)
A good place to look would be emusic.com if you've got the bandwidth (and $9.99;) you could download I lot of music and probably find a good deal of if suits you. They even have some Sasha And John Digweed.
I also like finding artists I like on mp3.com (suprise) and checking the links they provide to artist they like! Great way to accidentally pull an all nighter.
Now I know this is getting alittle long, so I'll make this my last comment: if you do like ambient (perfect, cerebral, moody ambient) and literature try Paul Bowles spoken word album Baptism Of Solitude , the only thing more amazing then his stories is his voice.
Hope this is helpful to someone.
Quack, quack.
Nobody has mentioned DJ Tiesto. Great stuff. I didn't see Sandra Collin's Tranceport album. That, or Oakenfold's Transport are the two best mixes I've heard.
While not *the* best, I've always liked the Ministry of Sound mixes. There's one by Roger Sanchez in particular that's a very well done blast from the past of 70's and 80's tunes. Being an old Police and Specials fan newly into trance music I have a soft spot for this one.
Davo -- Free speech, free software, AND free beer.
that's all i have to say.
anything of theirs from 1998 on is absolutely amazing. check out the mp3 gantz graf, it's a song from their cd due out in august. the only electronic music worth listening to.
dj's and dance music are offensively stupid.
sig.
Antiloop is a great duo from Sweden. Check out their site at www.antiloop.se.
They also feature the "Rebel's Room", and independant label from Sweden featuring techno, electronic and dance.
Dig it!
Underworld's "everything, everything" DVD is the absolute best thing available...
Marques Johansson
Personally, I have been listening to breaks (no one says breakbeat anymore) for around 3 years now. There is some great music out there, but there is also alot of crap to get past. Here's a few of my favorite artists and albums.
The Freestylers - FSUK (Future Sounds of the United Kingdom) I and II, as well as Rough Techniques volume 1.
Jon Carter/Monkey Mafia - Live at the Social Volume 2
Krafty Kuts
Plump DJ's - Plump Night Out
Stereo MC's - DJ Kicks
Those should start you off. I would also recommend any of the "Back to Mine" albums, especially Danny Tenaglia's. They are pretty chilled out, and great for da ladies.
depends what style you want:
Original first ambient/electronica:
Vangelis
Jean Michelle Jarre
Tangerine Dream
To listen to fathers of Goa/Psychadelic (or what created trance) checkout:
Astral Projection (all their mp3s at mp3.com, over 600megs)
Green Nuns of Revolution
Members of Mayday
To checkout fathers of rave (which has now went to way side, or other way side):
Dune
RMB (the euro rave group)
Blumchen (her english songs are under less known name 'Blossom')
Scooter
To checkout fathers of new fronteers you should give a peek to:
Daft Punk
Orb
Orbital
BT (Brian Transcau)
Propeller Heads
D.A.A.U. (belgian group mixing symphonic instruments)
Aphex Twin (for truly wierd and new)
As I have never went much into jungle, the only thing I liked from what I listed was anything mixed by Aphrodite.
Prodigy used to be in fronteer of new music, giving way for Rave wierd dance/techno combos and with latest stuff the angst techno (where you can see groups like RobZombie have been influenced by prodigy), however they lately perfected their style, but have not done anything innovative.
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there is way more of this, try using DirectConnect (Euro mp3 p2p network of choice) to get more good music.
Also, some artists sometimes will try something out of techno but wont try more, checkout:
kfmdm - megalomanic
David Bowie - Afraid of Americans
anything pre-"confield" by autechre (I would recommend "Amber" or "Tri-repetae++" or "Incunabula",)
anything post-1990 by Coil, --check out their best-of collections "Golden Hair: A Guide for Beginners" and "Silver Voice: A Guide for Finishers"
everything by Squarepusher (check out "Budokhan Mindphone") and plaid (try the peel sessions EP).
nobukazu takemura "sign" EP. A 2-CD EP, with the 2nd CD containing the awesome animated video for the song "Sign".
Anything by Matmos (like the new live album or "A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure"...made entirely from samples of plastic surgery.)
Almost anything by The Orb (UFOrb, Cydonia, Orbus Terrarum, Toxygene are all excellent) and Orbital's "the box" EP or "Snivilisation" albums are best (although everything except their new one is top-notch). If you EVER get a chance, catch Orbital live; it is an experience not to be missed. They headlined Lollapalooza for a reason (same year as Tool, too.)
"Stay Down" or "Virus With Shoes" by 2 Lone Swordsmen
"Fear of Fours" by Lamb
check some of the online resources like lomechanik.net and consider downloading some tracks from soulseek or a similar service.
As far as a lot of the Warp artists go, their Peel Sessions stuff is GREAT! (aphex, autechre plaid all come to mind). Warp used to be fantastic but has recently been putting out SHIT (Gallo's album comes to mind).
Avoid Josh Wink like the goddamn plague (ditto Moby). Also, check out Autoplate Records a free web-only record label. Some good stuff for free. :)
FreeBSD for the impatient.
Blatantly stolen from Anandtech . . .
The Best of Trance [JUN 7 UPDATE - 203 TRACKS - 22 HRS]
Enjoy.
Aphex Twin's "Richard D. James" album is probably my favorite electronic album ever. It is simply the most beautiful music I have ever heard in any genre.
Other favorites are:
Autechre, especially "Chiastic Slide" if you can get your hands on it.
Squarepusher, "Feed Me Weird Things" is must-own.
Christian Klein- check out his stuff, more serious than Daft Punk, but still lots of fun.
Plaid - utterly fantastic. I saw them a couple of months ago when they came to Austin, just great.
Four Tet- check out his "Pause" - it's pretty new, but really good stuff.
Damn, I could go on forever, but that should get you started. Enjoy.
Defining a 'best' in electronic music is like defining a 'best' in rock....Electronic music has the most sub-genres of any music type I know of. Nevertheless, there are the major categories, but keep in mind that often the most talented artists do not confine their music to one type alone.
The most well known word for electronic music is probably techno, however techno != electronic, rather it is a type of electronic popular earlier in the 90s, while electronic music was growing more mainstream. You'll most often hear (for subgenres):
Techno | Trance | Drum n' Bass | Breakbeat | House | Jungle | Industrial | Ambient | Chill
often used with the modifiers 'hard', 'acid', or 'progressive' as in hard house, or progressive trance. In a lot of ways, these are self-explanatory...hard means that the music is rougher, and is usually faster paced; drum n bass consists of drum beats and heavy basslines.
Everyone here will try to tell you the best artist to listen to....but I can tell you for sure that I know no two people with the same taste in electronic music. You really have to discover for yourself the kind that interests you most. I suggest listening to some generic online radio if you want to know the mainstream electronica, most of which is a carryover from europe's tech-pop eurotrash trance. That's where you'll find the names most people will refer to you.
However, the best way to discover electronic music is to support your local scene. I would list true local websites, but being low-budget community supported as they are, I wouldn't subject them to the bandwidth of the slightest slashdotting. You can, however, find your nearest real record store (good electronic comes out on analog lps for real djs) and they will be happy to direct you to flyers and websites informing you of local happenings. Go out and hear some of your best local djs, and truly experience the music for yourself (many djs of different styles will play in the same night) - that will be the fastest path to knowing your interests. Also, once you find a dj you like, find out his/her influences, and that will point you to some excellent (lesser-known?) artists.
Some of the best cuts are the hardest to find, but there's a ton of great music out there. I wish you (all) luck, and PLUR!!
If I had a sig, this is where it would be.
Many will argue over what the "best" electronica albums are but almost anyone who knows anything about the subject will invariably have these albums in their collection (most of it spans "techno" since this is the most main-stream type of electronica).
Must Haves:
Chemical Brothers - Dig your own hole (This album basically popularized techno!)
The Crystal Method - Vegas
Daft Punk - Homework
Paul Oakenfold - most of his work is overrated but he's mixed some good stuff.
Aside from those must haves, some artists I would definitely recommend checking out are:
The Prodigy
Underworld
Aphex Twin
Propellerheads
Portishead (more trip-hop but pretty good beats)
Massive Attack (see above)
Trance Control
DJ Dan
Alot of people will tell you to get this DJ or that DJ, but really you can pick whatever you want, to taste. Most people think Oakenfold is the best DJ ever...but then again...most people I've heard say this have also said, "Oh my gawd! Dave Matthews is like, totally hot, and stuff" in the same sentance. After the above, you've got a pretty well rounded collection that will take you a bit further into whatever it is you like. Remember, each of the genres (Trance/Techno/Jungle/House/Break Beat/etc) have their own set of "must have" albums and artists, so take what most people tell you with a grain of salt.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
What baffles me is how clueless everyone seems to be today... your #1 sources of electronic music should be Brian Eno, who invented ambient music (richard d james (aphex twin)constantly drops his name) and the Silver Apples. If you read about the origin of Silver Apples and electronic music, it will make your ears bleed and convince you to start making instruments about of juice cans. I mean Simeon (lead.song writing) writes about his manually made synthesizer "nine audio oscillators and eighty-six manual manual controls...The lead and rhythm oscillators are played with the hands, elbows and knees and the bass oscillators are played with the feet." "
Anyway, all this aside. Essential electronic albums:
Brian Eno: Music for Airports (the first true ambient CD)
David Bowie: Heroes. Nuff Said
Silver Apples: Silver Apples (see above)
The Who - Who's Next.. this was the first commercially successful and brilliant electronically 'synthesized' album
Kraftwerk: The real brains behind the operation. Really.
Anyway. If anyone takes heed of these suggestions, they'll be much more rich because of it...
Absolutely one of my favorite cd's ever, it has alot of feel for a electronic release, and she is very hot herself.
Also theres a handfull of global underground releases
#19 John Digweed - Los Angeles
Sasha and Digweed - Communicate (probaby where the itunes track came from)
Global underground #21 Deepdish.
Aphex Twin
Meat Beat Manifesto
Sandra Collins - Cream
John Digweed MMII
Paul Oakenfold - Another World.
Easy, assuming you have a machine that can play streaming music decently (hook your soundcard into a decent stereo if possible, anything other than those crappy little $5 made-in-china speakers most computers come with).
Just head over to Shoutcast.com and start listening. They've got eight sub-categories of electronica. Keep a notepad handy and write down any songs you like (picking a station that streams the song titles is handy ;-)). You may also want to dip over into the Industrial section, as a lot of Industrial music is synthetic. Then, go to your local CD shop and buy what you liked. Telling the store manager that the reason you're buying the CDs is becuase you heard the music on the net might not hurt either...
Really, this is what streaming radio is all about to me, fostering communities of listeners for genres that don't get much or any radio play. I've probably learned of fifty new bands I like in the past six months alone just by browseing through Shoutcast a lot..
Somebody already posted a good list of traditional electronica, and I'm not totally familiar with drum and bass enough to give you band names (that's my second favorite electronica genre after a first place tie between trance and ambient), so here's a short list of good electronic Industrial bands:
Good luck, and happy listening! There's a whole undiscovered world of electronic music that most people have never heard, so you've got months or years of discovery ahead of you.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
Orbital - "In Sides". Try to find the earlier release with the 28-minute long version of "The Box". It's awesome.
Juno Reactor - "Bible of Dreams". Absolutely amazing IDM.
Propellerheads - decksanddrumsandrockandroll. Great DNB. Also, try to find the track "Props Got Mo' Skills" from their "Bang On!" CDS. It was recorded live with a turntable, a sampler, and a microphone. Great.
VNV Nation - "Standing/Burning Empires". This was a limited edition, and is hard to come by, but their best release. Their most recent, "Futureperfect", is good, but S/BE is the best. Great live show, too.
The Moog Cookbook - any release. These guys are great, they cover songs with classic synths. Pretty eclectic stuff.
Keoki - "Ego-Trip". Great DJ-mix stuff.
Most of the other recommendations I've seen have been quite good, so listen to them. Personally, I've gotten bored with the crap Electronica/Techno these days, and have turned to Industrial/EBM music. Some notable artists/albums you might enjoy:
Front Line Assewmbly - "Tactical Neural Implant". Widely regarded as their best album. I prefer the earlier (& harder to find) "Gashed Senses & Crossfire" or "Caustic Grip". Their more recent "Implode" is also very good.
Delerium - "Poem". Mellow, ambient side-project of Front Line Assembly. Very very good.
Contagion - "Contaminent PCB". Good EBM.
Front 242 - "Front By Front". Classic EBM.
Einsturzende Neubauten - "Silence is Sexy". Ye Olde Industrial. Older relases had lots of noise (aka Avant Garde or Experimental) elements & were mostly in German. More recent releases like SiS & "Ende Neu" are less harsh and feature some tracks in English. A seminal Industrial act.
Chemlab - "Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar". One of my all-time favorite albums. Has lots of distorted guitar power-chords, stay away if you dislike that sort of thing. The earlier "10 Ton Pressure" was more electronic, and can be found on the "Magnetic Fields Remixes" release, since it's been out of print for a decade.
Mentallo & The Fixer - "Burnt Beyond Recognition". Fabulous release. Their other releases can't even approach the awesome power of this album.
Suicide Commando - "Mindstrip". A recent release, very aggressive EBM.
Well, that's probably enough, since I'm drifting wildly off-topic. Oh, and make sure you go to Metropolis Records, they release huge amounts of Industrial/Electronic music.
Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Non, Monte Cazazza, Johanna Went, Sordide Sentimental, R&N, Z'ev, Whitehouse, The Haters, Lustmord, Nurse with Wound, Coil and Kraftwerk. Oh yeah, Moby sucks ass.
BT was my first electronic artist, and I still find his music very enjoyable. I own all of his non-Import CDs, and listen to them regularly.
I can personally say I've seen deceptakahn @ the Asylum (thanks, man) and he puts on a great show. To hell with those super-djs who are too prissy to come to their own gigs...I want to hear real live pa and live sets from real people (Like I was talking about in my earlier post)!!
p.s. I had no idea you read slashdot, deceptakahn
oh, and PLUR TO TEXAS!!
If I had a sig, this is where it would be.
F.S.O.L.(Future Sound of London) - Accelerator
Spicelab - A day on our planet
The Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust
The Crystal Method - Vegas
Leftfield - Leftism (Probably the greatest Electronica/Ambient/Dance Album ever created)
I'd also check out older Moby, Faithless, Prodigy, and anything by the Hardkiss brothers.
Also, anything on Astralwerks, Moonshine, or Harthouse labels(though they might not exist anymore).
These selections are the beginning of modern electronic music. A must if you plan to delve into it seriously.
Why is it that whenever someone decides to come off like a dumbass on here, at least 2-5 people must follow suit? Besides, the question was what sources could one use (perferably Online), to wet someone's tastebuds to a genre they might not have really ever listened to.
I guess unfortunately, I am a fan of Oakenfold's, Moby's, Aphex Twin, Orbital, And the like. Mostly mainstream due to the fact that they were easily accessable to hear (concerts, commericals, etc.). And I have always found it disturbing, if not just flat out childish, when people come off with dumbass ideas of who and how you should listen to music. And while I'm on that, the term 'Sellout' is used by cronie lil' dorks that have nothing better to do than to waste their energy meddling in someone else's drama. Is it Jealousy? (shrug) I just don't get why people feel that when a band get's noticed and famous why they have the urges to start labeling a band they supposedly once loved, 'Sellouts'. Cause they appear on MTV? Hell, that's an accomplishment anymore, to have your video/music played inbetween one of their TV Shows.
Anyways, this is all stuff for a different topic or even a different forum. But to share a couple of links in support of the real topic at hand, I stumbled upon a primer over at http://phobos.plato.nl/e-primer/ which attempts to explain the different sub-genres of the catagorie. And if your friend(s) aren't one(s) to read, you can always send them over to WinAmp radio, here. And if that doesn't do it for you, go google.
======
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides
I was introduced to BT about a year ago. I've listened to his albums nearly non stop since. It can only really be experienced on an incredible sound system. His music actually feels like it is tuned to your brainwaves. Sure, he has a few "poppy" songs, especially recently as he has produced the only 'NSync song I'd ever be caught dead listening to, but songs like (forgive the title ) Mad Skillz and Movement in Still Life are purely original, mind bending, perceptions changing songs. I cannot say enough good things about BT.
I count myself fortunate to live on this earth at the same time as such an incredible artist. That is a statement I don't make lightly.
"Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson
http://www.mp3.com/scottyp
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
moby fucking sucks it
chemical brothers fucking suck it even more.
aphex twin. meat beat manifesto. k & d. thats where you wanna be.
These may not fit exactly under the category of electronica, but they are still really good:
Vangelis
Portishead
Everyone will suggest Aphex Twin, etc. While these are the obvious ones, may I suggest a few other recordings/artists that might be harder to find, but are worth it?
More Accessible Stuff:
Banco de Gaia - Big Men Cry
Plone - Self Titled
Gentle People - Simply Faboo
Coil - Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1 and 2 (highly recommended, along with the rest of their catalogue)
Crashkid - the art of falling down
Savath & Savalath - Folk Songs for Trains, Trees, and Honey (highly recommended)
Anything from the Ninja Tune label.. get one of their compilation CDs.
Up Bustle & Out - One Colour Just Reflects Another
Less accessible stuff:
Muslimgauze - anything by this guy.
Cylob - anything
Terre Thaemlitz - anything
Bola - anything
Yunx - anything
Tied & Tickled Trio - anything
Faultline - closer colder
novel 23 - anything
Bogdan Raczynski - ANYTHING (this guy is the next aphex twin, he is so great)
Lexaunculpt - anything you can get your grubbly lil mitts on will be interesting.
ANYTHING BY CHRISTIAN KLEINE or HERRMANN & KLEINE.
Mouse on Mars is nice and accessible in many ways. And, while I'm on the topic of music, let me plug one of my fav. ORGANIC bands (read: non-electronic) ever... Godspeed You Black Emperor! This group is mind-bogglingly cool. Go get one of their albums.
If anyone has compatible musical tastes to me and would like to maybe exchange some recordings... my address is yurtle at bellatlantic dot net, drop me a note.
If you want to start with early historical electronic music, the very first (even before Kraftwerk) was Walter Carlos's "Switched On Bach" series of albums. One of the others in the series was called "The Well-Tempered Synthesiser" and another was called "4 Seasons" or "Sonic Seasonings" (something like that, it's been 20 years since I have seen them).
These albums were masterworks of Symphonic music done with very early Moog synthesiser technology. The synths of the day were totally separate modules in little boxes conntected by jungles of patchcords. The Moog Carlos used was not even capable of playing chords (monophonic), so by using multi-track tape recording technology, each instrument's part was added to the total mix. An interesting side-note, Walter underwent a Sex change operation and is now known as Wendy Carlos. She (now) did the soundtrack for the movie "Tron" by Disney.
Also in the '70's was Mike Oldfield. He is also a virtuoso and can (and does) play about every instrument in the orchestra, and makes heavy use of synthesizer and procesing technology. He's best known for the Soundtrack from "The Exorcist", "Tubular Bells". He's not that well known in the U.S., but he's released about 24 albums thru the present.
Another electronic virtuoso is Vangelis. He, like Mike Oldfield is a one-man show. He writes, performs and engineers everthing himself. His music was some of the early work that started the "New Age" type music. He's also done a few very good albums in collaboration with Jon Anderson from Yes.
Newer stuff of interest would be some of the Demo albums from Telarc, "Time Warp" by Erich Kunzel and "Bachbusters" by Don Dorsey, a fitting tribute to the earlier "Switched-On Bach" forbearance, with 20 years newer and better technology. These albums in fact are COMPLETELY synthetic, the sounds were digitally generated in a wave table synthesizer, digitally mixed and mastered to CD, and digitally recovered and played back in your system, it only becomes analog at your D/A converter for the first time!
Finally, my other fave would have to be Alan Parsons. He's brilliant. I'm sure you've heard of him. His original claim to fame for having done the Mixing and Engineering of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album. He also engineered Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat". His work with "The Alan Parsons Project" was an interesting mix of modern electronic technology, smooth rock, and symphonic style. He was one of the first people to use a Vocoder (early speech synthesiser) and all of the recordings he did were in fact full digital recordings, mastered on a Sony PCM-1610 digital tape machine. "Heart" and Peter Gabriel also used this for their masters, BTW, that's why they sound so good!
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Aphex Twin
Autechre
Squarepusher
Mouse on Mars
Simply put, these are some of the most innovative and unique electronic artists. Check out some stuff by Karl Stockhausen, for a glimpse at some neat electronic music from long long ago (early 60's and 50's)
If you're looking to get an education in electronic music, try picking up a 'Techno Rebels' by Dan Sicko. Amazon should have it. This book will really get your head around where electronic music came from and even features an index with record recommendations. After that, head on over and check out hyperreal.org. Lotsa info and well worth your time, especially some of the mailing lists.
Finally, if you're looking for some good records check out the following:
Carl Craig - More Songs About Food & Revolutionary Art (Planet E)
Akufen - My Way (Force Inc)
Recloose - Cardiology (Planet E)
Derrick May - Innovator (Transmat)
Laurent Garnier - Man With The Red Face (F Comm)
and anything on labels like Perlon and Plus 8
get jeskola buzz. It's the best free music program for pc's, and you can even write your own effects and synthsizers for it if you wish.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
http://www.ishkur.com/features/music/guide.htm
best guide to the various genres of electronic music, hands down. even people familiar with electronic music will benefit.
check out some detroit stuff, like derrick may and juan atkins if you get a chance, or the retro electro sound of adult.
There are so many sub-categories of "electronica" it makes it difficult to determine which ones you'll like. You did mention Digweed, Sasha, and Oakenfold. Download a few of these tracks and see if you like the feel. Here are a few of my picks:
... if so, start looking into Progressive Trance, Trip Hop, House (more dance beats), etc.
-=(Female Vocals (I love this category):
Sarah McLachlan Remixed (excellent electronica mixes)
Gus Gus
Frontline Assembly (feat Kristy) - Justify My Love
-=(More Mainstream
Chemical Brothers
Crystal Method
Faithless - Insomnia/God is a DJ
Orbital
Paul Van Dyke
-=(Everything Else
Gatecrasher - Plasma CD or Future CD. (I personally feel that Future is the best electronica compilation of all time. FYI Gatecrasher is a club in the UK. They have many albums out featuring a bunch of DJ's, who of course have tracks by different DJ's. It's a good idea to get these and you'll get a wide range of sounds.)
Meat Beat Manifesto
Fluke
DJ Keoki (more offbeat)
Lunatic Calm
Sneaker Pimps Remixed Album
Todd Terry
ATB
Mario Piu & Maruio Picotto - Arabian Pleasure (Club Mix) (if you like Digweed, you'll love this heavier track!)
BT
Markus Schultz - You Won't See Me Cry (Farewell Mix)
Bedrock
Saints and Sinners - Pushing Too Hard
Trisco - Musak (Wonderland Avenue Mix)
Ashtrax - Helsinki (Sander Kleinenberg Mix) (Listen towards the last 4 minutes and see if you like the melody... it gets me going.)
Darude vs Klubbenheads - Sanstorm (Dance Mania Remix)
-=(Mellow Beat
Gatecrasher - Chillout Album
Kruder & Dorfmeister - Sofa Rockers (R.Dorfmeister Remix) (this is a softer beat)
Lamb
Mono (they had a track on the Great Expectations Soundtrack)
Ok, so there are a lot of options there... go try out those tracks and see if it fits in with what you like
And remember you need to listen to these tracks with a subwoofer. No question.
Good luck.
-SB
For starters, you are unfortunatly a little late when it comes to the internet radio stations that so often have good electronic music. The RIAA is in the middle of killing the free internet radio stations. Some of my favorite internet streams used to be over at SomaFM where among other music I was introduced to music from Tranquility Bass, Future Sounds of London, Aphex Twins and Orbital. I would prolly not have CD's by all these bands if it wasn't for da internet stream.
Not all streams have disappeared, Digitally Imported Radio is one of the finest that is still there. Offering Trance, hard-trance, Eurodance and hard-house. For more streams check out shoutcast a collection of online music streams.
To be introduced to Electronic music you should try to find which genres within electronic you like best. Some genres are (from mellow to really fast):
- Ambient
- Trance
- Down Tempo
- Trip Hop
- Acid Jazz
- Eurodance
- House
- Garage
Several of these genres are not per-se electronic but will contain lots of modern sound influences.
For the real electronic junkies there is also what is known as scene music. This will not appeal to most people out there, but please try it and check out the rest of the scene.
Astral Projection is good, but only if you like 8 mins of the same thing, no build-up, no great beats.... VNV Nation is great for a little electronic mixed with some darker tones.... Sarah McLachlan Remixed.... the best CD out there. I think that it is only available in Canada but take a look....Tiesto, Dusted, BT all have mixes on this CD.... Sometimes it is hard to find good electronic music in stores simply because they don't have an "Electronic" section.... I have seen the rare store with an "Underground" section... but it is never what you think. Sometimes it is best to find some DJ names and search Dance/Rap sections for their name.... And for looking some up on the net Digitally Imported
3 if you count the storming live album.
I forgot to mention, the Avalanches latest release blows my mind. Everyone should go pick it up (actually buy it), now. Go!!
If I had a sig, this is where it would be.
DJ Shadow: Why he isn't getting mentioned more here I dunno, it probably has to do with the huge bias towards more traditional electronic being shown here.
Talvin Singh: Hello people? This guy is fricken amazing, please do yourself a favour and listen to some of his stuff. His layering and production values rival Orbital but he comes at things from a different angle all together.
Cornelius: He wrongly gets accused of being almost JPOP just because of where he is from, Fantasma and Point are both fine pieces of work.
In addition his stuff is so light (while being complex)... it's almost the opposite of Aphex Twin subject matter at times.
If you are looking for something a bit more mellow any of the United States of Ambience compilations are wonderful. And for those that have trouble letting go of the desire to hear lyrics and guitars try something like Amon Duul... guitars/lyrics and some eletronics similiar to Eno in places.
--- I do not moderate.
For starters, try Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre; I'd recommend "Tangram" and "Oxygene" respectively, though they've each ranged far from those examples. If you like the really abstract, sonorous stuff (I'd call it "ambient" but that term is now effectively meaningless due to overuse), try Steve Roach's "Magnificent Void". One modern genre I've very much enjoyed is "Goa Trance", which tends to be much more melodic than most techno music; I've had a lot of good luck finding music starting from the Spirit Zone samplers, "Global Psychedelic Trance" volumes 1-8. Also, check out Musical Starstreams, which is a weekly radio show that's been running since 1981; each week, they convert the most recent show to MP3 and add it to the archive. (Every six weeks, I burn a batch of shows to CD and throw them in my car MP3 player-- it's like having 12 hours of radio that I actually wanted to listen to.) Some good discoveries I've had from there were Global Communications' "76:14" and the two albums by Zero One.
"Before enlightenment: sharpen claws, catch mice. After enlightenment: sharpen claws, catch mice."
DJED off of Millions Now Living is an exercise in live band and sampler. While it's not 'traditional' electronica, the ethic is pretty much the same.
The second remix album is definately a classic.
I hate myself for leaving out Future Sounds of London.
I suck and bow down to the wonder that is Dead Cities.
--- I do not moderate.
http://www.ishkur.com/features/music/guide.htm
Great guide to the various genres and how the relate to each other.
A great electronica dance group, PPK. They're two young Russian men, very creative. Do check out their video to "Resurrection", it reminds me a lot of Tron.
Or, failing that, try Live365.com. The link should bring up a slew of net.radio stations that play electronica. Browse them, and see what you like. They list the artist and title in another window, and have links to buy the music you're hearing - the links don't always find it, though - they run through Amazon.com, last time I checked.
Live365 also has a lot of channels playing anime music, much of which can be electronica, so check that as well.
Lemon curry?
for streaming mp3 audio check out factory188.com which is where I found out about most of the good electronica,trance, and techno that I like and now purchase (did you hear that, you ficking RIAA?)
And Boards of Canada which are my personal favorite. All that Autchre stuff sounds the same...BoC are totally original. Their latest, "geogaddi", and also "Music has the right to children" are the best albums. this post will probably be swallowed up in the rest of them, but I hope you read this and check them out, truly my favorites.
"What thou shalt not, I shalt did!" -Bart Simpson
The Cynic Project
Taucher
Schiller
Sunbeam
There are a bunch more, even among my favorites, but that's a place to start.
It may not be just, but it is fair, and that is more important.
Just my 2 cents.
today is spelling optional day.
Go to www.klause-schulze.com
orbital, the orb, underworld, bt, chicane, ian pooly, llorca, jazzanova, leftfield..
some djs - paul oakenfold, paul van dyk, dave ralph, danny tanaglia, sasha and digweed...
look at BBC Radio 1 or something for some top DJ charts, they are all pretty good.
for some of the artists mentioned above, and others, you can try to find some mtvs on http://www.sputnik7.com
it is me
Sounds like you like the trance sound. Others already mentioned these, but check out Paul Oakenfold, BT and Paul Van Dyk.
If you want to branch out, check out DJ Shadow (Entroducing), Plastikman, and Autechre. All different styles, but all great.
Josh
Check out everything by DJ Morgan.
And get "Blast the Speakers", by the Warp Brothers.
... paint chips? Oh, you mean wall candy!
Dragonfly - Order Odonata. It converted me from a die-hard rocker to a die-hard rocker with an identity crisis. Please don't tell any of my friends...
Seriously - Dragonfly do compilations of very good trance/techno - very intricate, very moody at times, very energetic at others, and overall very musical. Lots of real talent in there. Enjoy.
Chuck Norris: Socialism == a thousand years of darkness.
Electronica from Scotland.
First, as far as good web sites to check out that will help you learn about electronic music, I recommend reading the message boards at the Global Underground Website as well as the message board at homeofmusic.com.
Most of the Global Underground albums are top notch, notably the ones from Sasha, Digweed, and Dave Seaman but the others are also very good. A lot of the Renaissance albums are also very good, especially Renaissance: Awakening. Finally, Sasha and Digweed's Northern Exposure series are all must haves.
Beyond that, it depends exactly what types of electronic music you like (experiment to find out), but other CD's / Artists I'd recommend: the Nude Dimensions series (deep house), Leftfield, Underworld, LTJ Bukem, BT (Brian Transeau).
Hope this is of some help!
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5
Portishead, Massive Attack, Mr Oizo, Luke Vibert, Wagon Christ, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Plug, my stuff, etc, etc, etc. email me, let's talk.
Heres a few things you could try if you want to find out more about electronic music.
Find a specialist dance music store (make sure that the shop sells vinyl) and have a chat with the staff there. Ask them for recommendations and have a listen to what they suggest. Buy stuff that you like.
While you're at the shop, look for some flyers for raves/events in your area. You'll probably want to go to an event that has different genres on the one night so you can be exposed to different sounds.
Have a look at Iskkur's guide to Electronic Music and have a listen to the different genres. This will give you an idea as to what the different genres sound like.
Don't let anyone tell you that their genre of music is better than what you like. Electronic music is very broad. I have friends that are into Drum 'n' Bass, Progressive House, Techno, Psytrance etc.. (I spin breaks, but I'm also like the lighter/ambient/intelligent drum 'n' bass and I like techno too).
Watch out though! If you really start liking electronic music, you might end up buying a pair of turntables like me, and end up spending all your money on vinyl!
Enough said.
It's got great reviews of a lot of cutting edge electronic music, plus lots of other stuff. Really good.
Check out their website: http://www.thewire.co.uk/.
I first heard all the genres and subgenres at Ishkur's Guide To Electronic Music. The samples might take a little while to load:
c /
http://ww.ishkur.com
Also mp3.com breaks it down into many subgenres:
http://genres.mp3.com/music/electroni
here are some online setsmostly hard techno,
and sets on tape, for trade or sale by a friend of mine.
i recomend joey beltram, dylan drazen or mark verbose if you are looking for some good hard techno, mumble(sp?)or delta-9 for some good hardcore. or or terry mullen if u like house.
just some more good names to look out for
jeff mills, chris liberator, and t - 1000
I feel sorry for you for moby, but the others are fine. I seem to agree that is the problem with all "Break-out Bands" If they seem to go anywhere, they are sell outs and alienate their fans... can you say retarted... I say, as long as you like'em suppot'em. It is not that hard, if they are Over played (as most bands will be) just wait. The only other rule I have is if my brother is listening to them, then I can't, but that is because he is one of those figgin' TOP 40 losers who play the same song 10 times in the morning for 10 weeks, and then wonders 'Why are these bands over played, they suck?' I always can see my IQ dropping faster then my hand to the back of his head for my responce. GO FIG
Or at least used to be (their newest album has a bit of electronica, or at least dance, influence in it). EBM is a dumb genre name that stands for "electronic body music," and was originally something akin to "industrial dance" -- think Front 242. Nowadays the genre loosely can describe anything from industrial with a beat (Front 242 still, Funker Vogt, :Wumpscut:, etc.) to synthpop with a harsher edge (VNV Nation, Covenant, Apoptygma Berzerk, etc.).
And yes, VNV is great. But if you like their style of music, I'd suggest looking for other EBM (some of the bands I mentioned above are a good place to start), rather than the repetative vocal-less nonsense that is "electronica".
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I highly reccomend you check out alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dance. Very good place to sample some difficult to find music. Its always worth a look!
...a band called UI. 2 bass one drummer...they've just added a fourth band member and have a new album out. My favorite is still their 'Sidelong' album.
Band site
Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.
When you need to find what you want, here is a guide:
MAIN GENRES
These are the main styles of electronic music. They're almost like "root genres". You'll see what i mean in a minute.
I'm sure I've forgotten a few, if anyone would care to add/correct me feel free, we're here to learn about it (no flames plz!). Now, on to GENRE PREFIXES!
GENRE PREFIXES
This will help you find out exactly what the hell deep chill 2-step acid electro garage trancecore is supposed to be
I'll admit and A) I dont' know everything and B) I'm tired and making mistakes now. If anyone would liek to fill in some blanks I was wondering about myself:
most of these terms are used loosely and most music can be defined a number of ways by a number of standards. I do hope, however, this helps a bit.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
trance is like baby food, when you are first born you can't get enough of it. But when you grow up, you look back and wonder how the hell you put that shit in your mouth.
If you want to see how it all came together for these second tier musicians, you need to be tripped out by the best...
"You've been orbed if you're sitting in a room and you get up to look out the window and you suddenly realize that it was coming from the record." -- Dr. Alex Paterson.
trancEaddict.com is a great site with live set and single track downloads available.
Another strategy is to pick out certain songs in mixes that you like, and then find other mixes containing those song. Since mixes blend "compatible" songs together, you'll tend to find stuff that is to your taste, and get introduced to music that's just a step away.
Personally, I'm fond of Chicane. And any of the "Euphoria" albums (available on Amazon, at the least) are great.
-Scott Hutton
DJ Shadow, Automator, and Cannibal Ox are among the many artists that are sort of bridging the gap between hip-hop and techno.
Learning to appreciate the broken rhythms and melodies of Aphex and Autechre is only a few steps away from seeing the artistry in creative breakbeats and turntablism.
You'll quickly develop a critical ear when it comes to sampling listening to Electronica, and if you make the transition to hip-hop you might end up a "sample snob".
Pick up some good hip hop insturmental tracks after you have a few months of listening to abstract electronica, you won't regret it.
I'm really, really, really looking hard for some decent Canadian electronica (partly because I'm a nice patriotic guy, and partly to fill my CRTC/SOCAN obligations, if you must ask).
Anyone here have any reccomendations? Preferrably online, but hey, anything's good.
Thanks!
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
i come from more of an idm / drum and bass background, so my picks might be a little more biased :) ....
i like music from these labels:
warp: my personal favorite. quite possibly the largest electronic label out there. artists include autechre, boards of canada, aphex twin, squarepusher, prefuse 73
ninjatine: amon tobin (breakbeat jazz), blackalicious (non bling-bling hip hop), and many others.
stud!o k7: large variety here. they've got everything from idm to breakbeat to jungle to...you name it. great stuff
I'm not even into electronic music and I can't get enough of these guys. Check out their latest, "Come With Us" for great dancing beats, or "Dig Your Own Hole" for much deeper, well-written journeys. It's all electronic, but it's not just simple, droning beats; there are a lot of carefully-crafted sounds. It's mostly intrumental with a couple vocal tracks on each album. They also put on the best live performance I've ever seen (out of about 40 shows). I really think listening to them will add a lot to your knowledge of the genre and maybe help you persue your own music.
switched on bach
"a clockwork orange" complete score
Thanks to a conversation that went something like this:
;))
"I need some new music."
"What kind?"
"I dunno, surprise me."
I've been getting into music like this. I'm liking it. While most of my favorites so far have been mentioned by others (Aphex Twin's Richard D. James, Boards of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children, etc.), I haven't seen my top favorite mentioned. Boulderdash's We Never Went to Koxut Island is an absolutely awesome album, IMO. The songs "Headless in a Topless Bar" and "Dregs of Tar" are just... Wow.
(Be sure to try the Iris plugin for xmms, with the Background color Random on beat option set, and the output plugin set to the OSS driver. Fullscreen, obviously.
SIGFEH
Also, although they refer to themselves as Trance, they really play a bit more than just that genre.
I AM, therefore I THINK!
all I've got to say on this is listen to djdoboy and you'll never go wrong. (http://www.djdoboy.com)
another great source is digitally imported, they are one if not the largest techno internet radio station around broadcasted via shoutcast. surf on over to http://www.di.fm
All his mixes are available here: http://tranceattic.wiggerz.net/file.php
If you like Oakenfold, You'll like DJ Substance. He has an interesting mix of bands in there too. He samples TOOL and many others.
-mwhahaha
Rabbit in the Moon
Mouse on Mars
Jae & Christian
Joeski and DJ Onionz
Boomish
Bassment Jaxx
Roni Size
DJ Spooky
and a movie called "Better Living Through Circuitry"
IMHO a very good dj compilation series. Look at k7, they have full length RealAudio streams for most of their stuff. Another cool label is compostrecords (future sound of jazz stuff)
Some of my favorites: (Downbeat/Lounge)
Kid Loco (Jesus Life for Children under 12 inches) , Kruder & Dorfmeister (DJ Kicks), Tosca (Suzuki), Thievery Corporation (Mirror Conspiracy, DJ Kicks), Sofa Surfers (Encounters)
--
If you don't have anything nice to say, shut up you stupid prick.
Has been mentioned, here's a couple that haven't been:
Arling and Cameron.
TRS-80
And a bonus one: Adult (have fun finding it!).
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
doboy kick's serious but. first time I heard him was on di.fm, ofcourse at the time he didn't really have a website where you could download the mixes or whatever.. but I've found that if you just do a search in kazaa or whatever you can usually get good results.
http://http://www.dublab.com/
... uh ... beat.
Talvin Singh - tabla driven drum and bass
M'Du - South African House - very funky
Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock
One mans beat is another mans
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Here's something you can get gratis, don't know if it's electric enough for you though. Machinae Supremacy. Take the Oggs.
For those wondering, it's a mix of electric/rock and C64 SID-nostalgia :-). Veeely najs.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Ferry Corsten
Cosmic Gate
Blank and Jones
DJ Tiesto
Paul Oakenfold
DJ Jean
DJ Taucher
Paul Van Dyk
Yves DeRuyter
Timo Maas
Alex Morph
Johan Gielen
Kai Tracid
These are all trance.
And of course, the 'electronica favorites'
fatboy slim
the chemical brothers
the crystal method
the dust brothers
etc.
have fun!
Plaid - http://www.warprecords.com/ography/WARP54/tracks.h tml
The "Double Figure" album is good.
Boards of Canada - www.boardsofcanada.com
I like them because they have enough of a beat and melody to inspire and yet they're still random enough to avoid getting old.
The best way to savor something is to draw it out with moderation.
A lot of live shows (broadcast in SF) are available here from all the usual trance/techno/electronica DJs, available as real audio. They are categorized and archived and the playlists are usually posted. Awesome site!
try going to a virgin megastore and just listen to whats on display. if not, try asking around the music guys there. im sure hell know what you like if you tell him a few names/songs.
i always liked the selection the essential mixes (from radio1, uk) offered tho, but there are so many, itd probably take you years to listen to em all. sasha, digweed, oakey, have a like a dozen shows each on there. gl
Can't go wrong with the following:
Amon Tobin
Black Star Liner
Muslimgauze
Talvin Singh
Cheb-i-Sabbah
Photek
SIG ALERT
http://www.shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.p ls?rn=2591&file=filename.pls
In case you get confused, Panasonic changed his name to Pansonic several years ago (for the obvious reason).
My Bloody Valentine
Technically not classified as 'Electronica' I guess, but the way they layered the sound through manipulating the recording equipment is something that Electronica tries to do digitally. And it truly rocks harder than any other band mentioned here. rah!
1. Jean-michel Jarre (but stick to his old stuff; go for Magnetic Fields, Oxygene, Rendez-Vous, Revolutions, etc.)
2. Vangelis (ALL his stuff. ALL of it. Especially ALbedo 0.39)
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
It's a couple of years old now, which probably translates to about a decade of cultural time, but Simon Reynolds' book Generation Ecstasy is an excellent look not only at the techno and rave culture, but at the origins of the music that spawned it. Reynolds' takes on the various scenes are somewhat hit-and-miss, but when he gets it right, he goes a long way towards bridging the gap between reading about an experience and actually having one. Perhaps more importantly for this discussion, he does an excellent job of tracing the origins of electronic music from Kraftwerk and other early experimentalists right up to the sprawling range of sub-genres now called electronic music. Understanding the origins of various styles and knowing the names of the originators and innovators helped me a great deal when I was first beginning to explore the world of techno.
Most people seem to be concentrating on UK and European acts, but you should be aware that there is a strong American undergound that deserves exploration and props. In particular, the stuff from Detroit has influenced many of the more mainstream artists mentioned elsewhere (and yes, in this context, Warp is considered mainstream).
In rough historical order: Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Red Planet, Anthony Shakir, Rolando, Alan Oldham, Eddie Flashin Fowlkes, Scan 7, Drexciya, Sean Deason, Octave One, Keith Tucker, Aux 88, Jay Denham, Claude Young, MoodyMan, DJ Bone, Recloose, Teknotika, Adult., DJ Assault, DJ Godfather.
Honourable mentions have to go to Richie Hawtin, Basic Channel, Orlando Voorn, and numerous others I've missed.
check the DEMF archives at groovetech
read Dan Sicko's book, Techno Rebels
browse http://music.hyperreal.org/lists/313/index.html
Free your mind, and your ass will follow!
"Live" is a bit odd with a lot of electronic music, but I didn't really "get" a lot of the music until I'd spent a good amount of time at clubs and raves. Now, the tricky part is that there are plenty of shitty clubs that aren't about the music, and plenty of raves that suck.
If you're local to anywhere that has a lot of this sort of stuff, try to see if you can find what's really good there. For example, in San Francisco I like Spesh, and any of the looq crew that spin at 111 Minna, and sometimes at the DNA Lounge. BTW, Jondi and Spesh have a CD out that I highly recommend; "We Are Connected" is a good album and that particular single found its way into a Digweed mix. They're great to go to in person because the audience is more interested in the music, and less into going someplace to "be seen".
If you're not anywhere you can see stuff live, you can try to track down some decent webcasts of the stuff if they're still around after the RIAA and CARP fucked them over. It's a great way to experience the myriad genres and hear a lot of music for free. Stanford's radio station webcasts at a not entirely acceptable bitrate, but has good shows and a schedule up to boot. They have DJs in studio fairly often, and on Summer and Winter solstices have 24 hour marathons.
Well, I'm excited for anyone getting into this sort of music, because for me it was a really amazing time when I was discovering it. There's so much good stuff out there (although some of it's stagnating now, but that's another rant).
Not that these all sound like pop music, but instead that these all are the sort of electronica people who listen to "non-electronica" might find easier to relate to:
The Chemical Brothers (Dig Your Own Hole and Brothers Gonna Work It Out)
Moby (really only Play and 18)
Garbage (Version 2.0 is amazing!)
Aphex Twin (Windowlicker)
Bran Van 3000 (Discosis)
Delerium (Karma and Poem)
Death in Vegas (Dead Elvis)
Rather than this being an exhaustive list, these are a few that are amazng albums. If you then look at compilations in the store, you can buy ones that have these artists on them and get a gradually broadening idea of the genre.
Well, since that's what I'm listening to right now (Ultra Low Track Glue CD whatever the fuck it's called), might I suggest some Venetian Snares. Listening to vsnares is like being violently raped by a 300-lb cyborg for half an hour and then left bleeding and crying in a gutter like a little whore.
Now, that might not sound like your thing, but really, you develop a craving for it after a while. :-O
Check out some vsnares today! It'll make your teeth whiter!
Try looking into Industrial. I particularly have taken a liking to bands who combine electronic music with guitar riffs, after being into modern rock/metal for many years.
These artists/albums remain my favorites:
Nine Inch Nails (Downward Spiral, Pretty Hate Machine, The Fragile)
KMFDM (XTORT, Nihil, Symbols)
Ministry (Psalm 69, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste)
Front Line Assembly (Implode, Epitaph)
Rammstein (Herzeleid, Sehnsucht, Mutter)
Hope that helps!
There are several main genres in electronic music. They are:
Advocates of specific sub-genres may feel that their tastes may not fit into one of the above categories, and for that I am sorry. I break the genres down the way I do bacause you can generally classify music into one of the above categories based on the descriptions that I go through below. I'll also list some good discs or artists to listen to for each genre. We'll start with house.
House
House is typically what you think of when you hear the term 'Electronic Music'. It has been around forever and has a very regular 4/4 up-down-up-down beat. Derrick Carter, and Charles Feelgood are probably artists to check out if you find yourself interested in house.
Jungle
Most Jungle has a very fast snare line on top of a much slower very deep, broken bass line. This is the stuff I really like. Some artists to listen to are LTJ Bukem, DB, Dieselboy, and Andy C.
Breaks
Breaks derived their name from the generic term 'BreakBeats', meaning that even though most tracks are structure on top of a 4/4 framework, not every beat is emphasized. Although I really like breaks, I find them very difficult to dance to. Some artists to consider would be Simply Jeff, (old) DJ Dan, and Icey.
Trance
Trance in recent years has been becoming much more popular at clubs and in more pop-culture oriented venues. Like house, it is typically a standard 4/4 2-up, 2-down beat, but with a lot of cheesy rise and fall crecendos of sound that play on your emotions. Check out Sandra Collins if you like this stuff.
Down-Tempo/Experimental
This is the stuff that really doesn't fit into any of the above categories... This stuff varies greatly from artist to artist. It's typically people trying to do interesting things by infusing other types of music into the four genres mentioned above. Some of this stuff is really interesting. Anything on the Ninja Tune record label would probably be a good place to start listening.
Hip Hop
While not typically thrown into the 'Electronic Music' category, I feel that it is worth mentioning that there are DJ's out there that mix sets of Hip Hop tracks. If you don't know what Hip Hop is, or who to listen to, go back to the 70's.
If you get the opportunity, check out the documentary film 'Modulations'.
It was the Warehouse in Chicago.... a Glaring mistake in an otherwise excellent post
I personally like the online store provided by Dragonfly Records. Dragonfly has a lot of REALLY good material in their store.
;)
Also good is PsyShop.com, an online store where you can buy all sorts of stuff associated with Psychadelic types of electronic music. CDs, Shirts, 12-inchers, you name it.
I personally recommend to everybody that they check out the artists Prana, Shakta, and Transwave, but that's just because of my natural leanings towards psy and goa trance. Also worthwhile is DJ Tiesto, who was once regarded as the greatest Trance DJ of the year; although I forget which year that was.
And, as somebody has suggested, DigitallyImported is one of the best Electronic Music streams available. They actually broadcast a variety of streams, including Trance (128k, 56k, 40k, 24k), Hard Trance (128k, 56k, 40k, 24k), Hard House (128k, 56k, 24k), and Eurodance (128k, 56k, 40k, 24k); they even stream classical music--which bothers me for some reason.
Anyhow, hope you find that information useful.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
http://www.cottonwool.com/
If you want to some true geniuses at compiling music, give Kruder and Dorfmeister. The K&D Sessions are a nice blend of down-tempo, while Conversions is really great drum-and-bass. It's hard to pick a favourite, but the DJ Kicks - Kruder and Dorfmeister is probably the most diverse album. I've listened to them all thousands of times.
Oh, and each have their own albums to. Richard Dorfmeister's work can be found under the name Tosca. Some really great albums for an event different feel. Peter Kruder operates under the name Peace Orchestra. His stuff is much more mellow, but still great.
My personal favorites would have to be:
Moby
Fatboy Slim
Crystal Method
Basement Jaxx
Darude (very good)
Orbital
and most of all: Daft Punk. (probably one of my favorite bands)
One suggestion: use either IRC or a filesharing system (or your friends!) and find a song you like. Then go see what else that person/user/server has and download some random stuff that looks interesting. IRC is especially good for this, in my opinion [and I'd suggesting using DALnet in one of the #mp3* or #*techno* channels].
And having a friend let you sit at their comp and listen to any music you want is a really great way. Just have them load you a directory listing & then open up their player and start playing stuff; as soon as you find something you like either write it down so you can go buy it (!!), copy it to directory to send to you later, or send it to yourself right then.
SuperCalendar.com - Web calendar with RSS, AIM/SMS notific
Another stream....
http://www.live365.com/play/272180
SIG ALERT
KOMPRESSORMUSIC crushes inferior forms of music! Nothing can withstand attack of fear synthesizer!
http://www.kompressormusic.com
If you're not into the whole "electronica" scene, there's still plenty of good electronic music out there. I concentrate here on music with vocals, as that's mostly what I listen to.
:Wumpscut: - Industrial/EBM with a very bleak worldview. Good songs: Totmacher, Deliverance, Embryodead, Sag Es Jetzt, Concrete Rage.
...Scars Remain..., Lovesong, Künstliche Welten, Once in a Lifetime, Youth and Greed, The Sparrows and the Nightingales.
Synthpop is basically synthesizer pop. For mainstream examples, think New Order and a host of other 80s pop. Less mainstream synthpop ranges from "darker" music with goth-influenced lyrics to the happy sort of stuff you're used to from the 80s.
Industrial is heavy, distorted electronic music. It may have real instruments (most often guitars), but there will generally be much electronic treatment of both the instruments and often the vocals ("treatment" usually consists of various sorts of distortion).
EBM stands for "Electronic Body Music" (dumb genre name, I know), and is sometimes called "industrial dance". It's essentially a mixture of Synthpop and Industrial. There's incessant arguments over what is and isn't EBM, but pretty much anything from industrial with a vague beat to synthpop with a bit of a harsher edge can fall into the category, depending on who you ask. But the classification isn't really that important anyway.
Some good bands (almost all of these are European, as there's very little of a "scene" in North America) include:
[I'm concentrating on EBM here, as straight industrial tends to be less electronically-oriented]
VNV Nation - Their earlier albums are industrial-leaning EBM, while their newer stuff is very bombastic uplifting synthpop. One of the best out there. Some good songs: Standing, Further, Darkangel, Epicentre, Joy, Kingdom.
Apoptygma Berzerk - Their earlier albums are goth/industrial/ebm hybrids, while their newest one is barely synthpopish trance (a common trend; I guess industrial/ebm is getting less popular these days). Some good songs: Non-Stop Violence, Starsign, Deep Red, Eclipse, Unicorn.
Kraftwerk - Okay, so they're not really synthpop, EBM, or industrial, but they heavily influenced those genres, especially with their industrial (in the original literal sense of the term) instrumentation. And if you're interested in electronic music at all, you at least have to give them a listen. Some good songs: Radioactivity, Pocket Calculator, Boing Boom Tschak, The Robots, The Model.
Beborn Beton - Synthpop, with a darker yet optimistic tone. Some good songs: Deeper Than the Usual Feeling, Hemoglobin, Winter, Another World, Phoenix.
Einstürzende Neubauten - One of the original industrial bands, with the home-made industrial implements to prove it. Their earlier stuff is rather legendary, though a bit inaccesible and very noisy. Their more recent stuff alternates between melodic ballads and noisy clanging pieces, though the instrumentation is still all things from sheet metal to large mechanically-operated flutes. Some good songs include: Was Ist Ist, Zebulon, Sabrina, Salamandrina, Newton's Gravitätlichkeit.
Front 242 - The original EBM band. It's sparse industrial with a beat. Some good songs: Headhunter, Quite Unusual, Body to Body, Im Rhythmus Bleiben, Circling Overland, Welcome to Paradise.
Deine Lakaien - Very melodic synthpop, with the occasional noisy EBM song thrown in. Some good songs: Kiss the Future, Mindmachine, Down Down Down, Return.
Funker Vogt - Aggressive industrial-oriented EBM, with distorted vocals on every single song. The choruses are very catchy and easy to dance to though. Good songs: Killing Fields, Gunman, Nuclear Winter, Funker Vogt, Black Hole, Subspace.
L'âme Immortelle - Industrial/EBM that alternates between distorted male vocals and beautifully clean female vocals. Very good. Some good songs: Tears in the Rain, Epitaph, Gefallen, Judgement, Forgive Me.
Assemblage 23 - Probably the best American EBM/synthpop band. Somewhat similar in style to VNV Nation, but a bit darker. Some good songs: House on Fire, Disappoint, Bi-Polar, Naked, Purgatory, Awake.
Blank - Italian EBM with heavily layered industrial-influenced but catchy music. And even better, you can download 192kbps full mp3s of both their albums from their official site (add a few legal mp3s to your collection!). I'm not going to bother listing good songs, because you can just go get them all and decide for yourself.
Cat Rapes Dog - Amusing (but possibly offensive) lyrics in an EBM/industrial format. You'll probably need to find some lyrics sheets to understand them all, but they're worth it. Some good songs: Don't Wanna Work, Things I Hate, Trojan Whores, The World Is Good and Nothing Bad Ever Happens, Dead Boys Don't Say No, Capitalist Punishment, Eating People is Fun.
Wolfsheim - Very, very good darkwave/synthpop. Some good songs: Heroin She Said,
There's of course lots more, but that's about all I have the inclination to type up at the moment, so that should serve as a good start if you're unfamiliar with the genre.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The place to be is micromusic.net.
Anyone who wants to experience electronic must give IDM a try. IDM (nauseatingly) stands for Intelligent Dance Music and at various times can be all or none of these words.
From a geek POV, artists like Autechre, Aphex Twin (aka AFX, Polygon Window), Brothomstates, Arovane, Phonem, Takeshi Muto, Markant and Aoki Takamasa should appeal. These artists primarily use their computers to music. Some, like Autechre, go to the lengths of writings their own software.
You can hear some of these and others at Warp Records.
In a more geekie manner; there is Kraftwerk. Difficult to grasp, very cold at first but if you dig a little bit into it, you will find it pretty warm. Personnaly, I find the album Computer World a excellent start, and if you code, you will find the lyrics pretty funny like : It's more fun to compute or I program my home computer, Beam my self into the future. It's kind of cool to listen to that and making a modification in a Makefile ... Very powerful album. I find it kind of cool of acting like a robot and listening to kraftwerk. Everything at it's right place.
If you are more in a texture mode, check out Board of Canada. You can think of a weird 8mm film of the '70 put into music. Great for Cobol and Mainframe programming.
If your are on Visual Basic and you are frustrated, you can put Neu !/Neu ! 2. It's rock from the '70, but the beat is sooo techno... still ahead of it's time... It has influence so many artists.
In something more funky, check Mouse On Mars. It's very noisy, but still have the genius to put the melody into it. The music to listen with Python or Perl.
As for the documentation, Fennesz [Endless Summer] is great ambiant music. Acoustic guitar put into small repeated samples. So beautiful that you will forget that you are making documentation. This is the next logical step to Eno.
To learn more about electronic music, the The Wire is a excellent source...
...you're an elitist retard who's only in it to feel superior.
If you had any real passion, you'd share the love.
It's a one-man group (if such a thing is possible) founded by Andrew Sega, a.k.a. Necros.
There are some pretty good electronic tracks there for download. And even though he has a couple of "real" albums out there, he put his entire first album Cipher up for download off the site as well.
and chemical brothers on the radio? the US does? fuck, i want to move there.
(CB/prodigy make an impact on the charts there? neat)
- What are the must-haves I should start with?
You should first define what you mean by electronic music. Most modern "electronic music" is nothing more poor quality pop/hip hop done by DJs who push the start button on electronic instruments because they can't play real ones (and because from a producer point of view three synths, a sequencer, a guy and a cute dancing girl are much cheaper than three musicians).
Great examples of electronic music, even if some may sound old today, are still made by real musicians who were researching new sounds while playing good music.
Get some Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jean Michel Jarre, Ozric Tentacles, Porcupine Tree, etc.
"The Dark side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd is also a good example of sound research, but you'll find interesting ideas also on some late Beatles albums.
A final bit.
Learn how to do music; the instrument is irrelevant. Also learn how to deal with sound, how to apply effects (and most important, how NOT to apply them), how to put microphones and do some recordings.
To know music you must first know the pieces it is made of.
First, if your store doesn't carry anything other than the typical "Ibiza Super Dance Party Mix 2002 feat. Oakenfold + Sasha REMIX (Digweed)!" then I'd be moving on. Here in Vancouver, some of the big chains have huge downtown stores that carry a pretty good selection of electronic and electroacoustic-type stuff. However, most of the chains in the 'burbs frankly suck some major goat ass. Don't buy "gourmet foods" from Walmart - don't buy slightly-less-mass-market music at PopWorld.
Secondly, if I was looking for informed opinions about virtually any of the arts, you wouldn't find me trotting off to ask your average Slashdot goober. Why not find an arts forum, or ask some musicians? Most musicians have a frighteningly encyclopedic knowledge about a huge array of music that you and I would never have heard of - music is their livelihood/passion, and they have invested a large chunk of their life thinking about it, listening to it, looking it up. Odds are, your average slashdotter spent this time updating their kernel and forgetting to shower.
When you come down to it, it's just a matter of finding the most informed people - if I had a problem with Linux, or needed an ignorant rant, or wanted to know about case mods, I would ask Slashdot. If I had a car problem or a gardening question, I would ask a mechanic or a gardener, because I'd rather not sift through 200 replies of the form "have you watered it?" or "check the oil." Similarly, I suspect you don't want to sift through 800 pages of "Paul Oakenfold/PaulVanDye/ArmandVanHelden!" (blarg) or "Aphex Twin/Boards of Canada/Stereolab!" (yay!).
In all the three pages, it was only mentioned once. Yes, it's old, yes it's dated, but Tangerine Dream was building their own instruments when I was still playing with blocks. They were going strong when people were still trying to figure out what to call their music. Whenever I hear about "electronica" (or the older "ambient" category), I first think of TD.
Sure, this post is buried on page three without the advantage of a naked woman, but at least listen to something from TD. Even if you then scoff and go on to some more modern choices, it's an education to see how this music style evolved.
Well, and I love 'em. Who can beat that!
This now concludes our broadcast day.
... must haves in my collection are:
Underworld - My faviorite "electronic" band. They do a littlebit of everything, slow and hypnotic to DropTrance. DropTrance is realy ment to be listened to on drugs, the music builds you up from slow to a frantic mad "I'm going to loose my mind." Then at the peak of the music it drops you (by stoping the music and having something like a heartbeat throb), lets you fall for a bit then catches you and brings you down. Best example I can think of is Moaner, but I can't remember what CD it's on.
other bands you should have in any collecton, IMHO:
The Orb (anything from them is good)
Future Sounds of London - Dead Citys
Massive Attack - newest CD.
SNOG (if you can find it, Lies Inc.)
Meatbeat Manifesto - everything but 99%
Math is like sex. People who get it are popular in class, people who don't are not.
My favorite electronic artist is Bedrock (Nick Muir and John Digweed.) Their track "Heaven Scent" is an absolute masterpiece. They will be releasing 21 original tracks for the soundtrack to a movie called "Stark Raving Mad."
Sasha's debut artist album, Airdrawndagger, will be released in the U.K. next month, and in the U.S. the following month. I've heard it and it's excellent. His 4 track EP, Xpander, is also very good.
Hybrid and Quivver (John Graham) are other great electronic artists. Both are known for their amazing remixes.
Oh yeah, to be fair, the track included with iTunes the author spoke of is not produced by Sasha + John Digweed. It's "Tyrantanic" by Breeder (remixed by Slacker.) Sasha + Diggers just used it on their "Communicate" Mix CD.
1) Epitonic good selection of well known artists and lots of information about each artist so you can read up before you decide to download.
2) ArtistDirect a small selection of electronic artists
3) Amazon has a number of MP3s to download.
4) IUMA has many lesser known acts
5) MP3.COM for the really adventurous with lots of time and patience you might find some gems mixed among the numerous less-inspired artists...
HTTP header ad space for rent! Advertise to thousands of server log readers - only $50 a week per header! 1-800-SURFALOT
Perhaps I'm a heretic, but:
Massive Attack - Who could possibly dislike them? yes, they've been used in movies, but so what? so has dust bros, etc.
Dieselboy- Midwest favorite. great d&b/trance stuff.
Mouse on Mars... excellent.
Thievery Corperation... I mean cmon. they've been remixed so many times.
And of course, aphex twin, dj shadow ( tho his new one is so-so..). tho there are some other goodies in here also... but at least check out Massive Attack.
One of my favourites is hibernate. Definitely worth checking out, expect an album soon.
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality." -- Dalai Lama
Ugh! 64Kb, 22KHz.
AM Radio all over again.
Nice toons though.
Wait though, none of the bands on the list above are actually industrial. You have listed EBM and Future Pop. Stop tainting the name of Throbbing Gristle, folks...
Tales of the Inexpressible - by Shpongle
www.shpongle.com
Genre Busting Sonic Wizardy in Motion.
Noone I know who has heard it doesnt like it
If you can, get your mitts on a Velfarre CD. This is a selection of music from the DJ's of Velfarre, Tokyo's hottest nightclub (often considered to be the best club in the world). The music is mixed techno, eurodance, R&B, jungle, etc. Real dancy stuff, high-energy, sounds like the kind of music that comes pumping out of a DDR machine. But REAL fun to listen to.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Slamming any non-drum and bass music again? So sad, so sad
There's a million options. Rather than suggest the shit everyone else likes, here's what I like. You might hate it. You might love it. Search on google.
Ed Rush, Optical, Trace, Kemal, Stakka & Skynet, Bogdan Raczynski, Dillinja, Dom & Roland
The Shizit, who you can find at mp3.com or www.shizit.net, if you like it hard. Or Robert Rich, who is on the little known Hearts of Space and Fathom labels if you like dark, drifting ambient music (he's not hard though by any means). Aphex Twin is the great god of Electronica. AFX puts out wierd shit it will take you a long time to get used to. Watch out though, he's starting to play with DRM even though he owns his own label and doesn't have to do what the big 5 say. If you like sugary soundtrack stuff check out any of Yoko Kanno's anime soundtracks. Not all of her stuff is electronic, but plenty of it is and she is incredibly, incredibly talented.
IIRC Paul Oakenfield has been associated with older ambient new age stuff in the past, so you might want to check out the "new age" section of the music store. There's a lot of crap in that section but a few rare gems. Hearts of Space had/has a great radio program you can probably here on public radio. They also had/have a webcast stream but you have to sign up for it now (blah).
Okay, while I understand your latest trendy-attitude "Oh, I'm so hardcore because I know so much about techno/house/electronic music/german country twang... but whatever... Why use this post as flamebait for music elitists instead of actually taking the chance to EDUCATE someone... tell them to download the oldschool KLF or Orb or Messiah or Jam & Spoon circa 1992 Age of Love remixes and whatnot, instead of telling someone who's showing a general interest in it to shut up and just be another part of the masses.
To the original poster, I'm sorry I missed out early in this discussion because it's an important one. Paul Oakenfold and countless other "superstar" DJs (Keoki exempt) are what many tend to think of as sellouts and big on crowd-pleaser music, and as such are heavily looked down upon by most "oldschool" trance enthusiasts.
If you like Sasha/Digweed, I highly recommend checking out some of there solo work. A big anthem around 1998 was Bedrock's Heavent Scent (Bedrock = John Digweed, btw) and might be along the lines of what you're looking for. While you're at it though, I suggest you check around the web for Electronica music guides and primers, where they'll tell you a lot of the history behind it.... basically, there's a few major genres of electronic music:
1) Techno. The most easily confusable one since everybody tends to refer to all Electronic music as "techno" rather erroneously. It's mechanical and synthetic music. Definately NOT for the masses, on the basis that it's a very subtle art that bends on this razor thin line between "Nothing to it" and "Bloody Brilliant". It originated in Detroit in the mid-80's and developed into a very driving-moving genre. I recommend Underworld, Jeff Mills, and Richie Hawtin.
2) Trance. Typically what most people listen to in the mainstream these days. Comes from Europe's readaptation of softer techno tracks. Very floaty, emotional music. Originally a subspawn of Techno that's designed to put you in a "trance" (hence the namesake). I recommend Orbital's Halcyon & On & On and Age of Love - Age of Love (Watch out for Stella Club Mix) as quintessential Trance tunes.
3) House: Probably the oldest of all electronic music next to Electro. Came out of The Warehouse club in Chicago (Originally "Warehouse Music" and then got abbreviated) is a lot more organic-sounding and disco-based than its detroit counterpart. Similar styles arose out of the Paradise Garage in New York, a gay disco club (which created "Garage" music, a close cousin to house which has since become bastardized into "Speed Garage" and the, IMHO, godawful UK "Garij"). Frankie Knuckles is the best to look up for this. His Whistle Song is probably one of the more definitive Chicago House tracks. I also recommend Marshall Jefferson and Eddie Amador.
4) Breaks: The most famous of the genres, even though you wouldn't think it. A breakbeat adding a more downtempo feel to it. From the oldschool electro breaks (Herbie Hancock, Harold Faltermayer and many other Jazz-Musicians-turned-to-synthesizers) to the newer Hip-Hop (duh), Big Beat (Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim), Chemical Breaks (Crystal Method), Miami Bass (Who Let the Dogs Out), and of course, Booty Breaks (aka Ghetto Tech... DJ Assault is the MAN), show a lot of variety within the genre itself.
Anyways, those cover a lot of electronic music and they don't even touch on some of the more popular subculture-driven genres (Jungle, Hardcore, Minimal Tech, and not to mention the unending plethora of UK Anthems). So I hope this helps start you off. Again, look up this stuff... it's tough sometimes to find some really quality music these days what with the inundation of crowd-pleaser music that has been kicking around electronica within the last few years. Good Luck!
Karma: Non-Heinous
AWESOME techno artists:
...
Dave Clarke
Jeff Mills
Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman)
Carl Cox
Sven Vath
Trish
Laurent Garnier
Another important item (posted to NWR on Mon, 13 Sep 1998 18:33:08 -0700 (PDT) ) was a list of Top 100 DJs In The World, adjusted for hype and cobbled together in response to the ever inane, almost exclusively talent-free and over-inflated annual Mixmag Top 100 DJs list, which exalts people like Oakenfold, Sasha, Digweed, etc. IMHO, such charlatans no longer do anything to further turntable art and culture (if they ever did at all, that is), other than to dilute its hard-earned significance. Admittedly, this list contains a slight north-western North America slant. Nonetheless, it also contains all the necessary world-renowned acts of any actual worth.
After this, I strongly recommend EPITONIC.COM, where you will spend days, if not months edumacatin' yo-self. SHOUTCAST.COM will also provide you with more music than you can shake a stick at in terms of streams. To download, nothing beats SOULSEEK.ORG in terms of the users' geekily-high encoding rates and unbelievably pedantic album/track-naming schemes.
While it's all downloading, check out the grand-daddy of them all: HYPERREAL.ORG.
One word of warning, however: electronic music is virtually boundless and can take most of your lifetime to discover. I started listening some 13 years ago, and to this day I simply cannot keep up with all of it. Good luck!
Vidi, Vici, Veni: I saw, I conquered, I came
Isao Tomita was probably the first of the Switched-On Bach crowd to actually *interpret* the classical pieces, rather than being the human equivalent of a MIDI player. Try his take on Mussourgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and Stravinsky's Firebird... suite? symphony? Classical isn't my forte, but his versions can move me.
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)...
was Devo. Duty now for the future was a great album back in '76 - '77, along with the original "Sprockets" guys Kraftwerk, nice geek music there but hardly Rave worthy.
3 good older compilations I own(They were my starter kits)
-Rave 'til Dawn(Praga Khan,2 Unlimited, the movement, more)
-Amp - Chem.Bros,aphex twin,orbital,crystal method,photek,prodigy, future sound of london, more)
-Amp2 - Fatboy Slim,Jungle brothers, goldie, pigeon-head/Lo-Fi allstars, Propellerheads, Roni-size, Air...more)
I h8 MTV but their show Amp wasn't bad at all.
Boards of Canada is probably the most recent disk I've heard and liked.
I like Moby but someone really needs to let him know he can't sing, but hell it's his music he can do whatever he wants.
To me Aphex Twin is the Jackson Pollock of electronica. Splash a bunch of sounds together and maybe it's art or maybe it's a random sound generator. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder. I don't think it's either intelligent or genius. People used to say the exact same things about the band Rush or Personally I find Boards of Canada have a simlar style as Aphex Twin but they aren't afraid to have a display of rythym once in a while.
I enjoyed Digweed's latest.
Orbital - Orbital is a great album.
Dj Shadow's - Endtroducing was cool
Crystal Method's Vegas
I think everyone's favorite Electronica music depends heavily on exactly which drug and how much of it they were on at the time...=)
For those in the S.F. Bay Area, Arron Axelson's Sub-Sonic show on 105.3 is awesome. Gotta wait 'til late to hear it but it's a great show.
Just click the sig, download the music, follow links to buy the CD. Probably 50% of what they have is electronica. I'm not affiliated in any way, I just like the site.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Yeah!
Fucking Janitors. First they take our precious negative karma, replacing it with some Orwelian concept of what they consider "Good" or "Bad", now they censor the disenting voices! Censorship...Slashdot....I bet that fucking faggot Jamie was behind this!
We will fight them on the beaches...we will fight them...yada yada, so on and so forth.
I have to go take a shit now.
DojoMojoLojo (P.S: I am wanking as I write this)
I agree with this post!
DojoMojoLojo (P.S: I am wanking as I write this)
Jamie "Censoring Fuck" McCarthy is a queer-ass faggot Communist.
The excellent Mum, childish and frozen sound from iceland(Yesterday was dramatic,today is ok;and the brand new Finally we are no one), what else the two first albums of the Chemical Brothers(Dig your own hole;Exit planet dust)!! The excellent Air (Moon Safari and the Virgin suicide soundtrack) and at least the new Télépopmusik:Genetic World. It should be a good start
My favorite place to shop is Groovetech. They cater more to DJs and consequently carry mostly vinyl, but they do have quite a few CDs. Probably the best thing about them is that they have lots of audio samples for pretty much everything they've ever carried, in stock or not (RealAudio, but nobody's perfect). You could probably spend the rest of your life listening to tracks on their site.
If you find yourself appreciating DnB in any of its numerous flavors, a good DnB-oriented US retailer is Breakbeat Science. Their website isn't as groovy, but they get in lots of stuff that Groovetech doesn't.
If you find yourself doing more than casual buying and you're in the US, another option to consider is to buy stuff directly from Europe (which really is the epicenter of the electronic music scene). After VAT deductions, and with no import duties, the cost is usually competitive with buying in-country; the upside being that you have a huge selection (basically everything that's released), the downside being the time it takes for your purchases to wing their way across the pond (unless you choose to splurge on speedier shipment). I've ordered from Juno Records in the UK several times and have never had a problem.
If you get into DJ-style trainspotting for releases in your favorite genre, you'll quickly come to realize that despite being huge in Europe, the dance music industry still is mostly driven by a large number of small labels, mostly created and run by the artists themselves. It's similar to the US Indie Rock scene. Consequently, distribution is not nearly as universal as one might hope for. You can spend a lot of time checking many different sources for releases. Fortunately, most labels and many of their distributors sell directly through their websites.
Lastly, don't be afraid of vinyl! Eventually, you will discover tracks in mixes or DJ sets that you want that won't ever be available in any other format. A Technics SL-1200/1210 MkII or M3D turntable, still the preference of the vast majority of working DJs, will set you back $500-$600 with a good cartridge, will probably last longer than you will. With 78 dB s/n, it's a perfectly adequate source for making MP3s (not CD quality, but is your sound card even that clean?), and then you can store your vinyl away and not have to worry about wear. There are similarly priced offerings from Vestax which are more popular with scratch and other technique-oriented DJs, as well as lower-priced DJ- and consumer-oriented offerings from such companies as American DJ, Denon, Gemini, Numark, Sony, Stanton, and Technics. There are also innumerable pricey "audiophile" turntables, but unless you're in the tube-amp camp I'd steer clear. A more recent class of turntables such as the Stanton STR8-100 and Denon DP-DJ150 have internal A/D and a SPDIF output. A 24/96 card such as one of the M-Audio (formerly Midiman) Delta cards is probably a more flexible way to do the same thing; use quality audio cables to minimize noise pickup between the turntable and sound card.
My background--I used to do college radio, but now I'm just a semi-obsessive music lover. I've never been a working DJ. My favorite dance genre is dark/tech DnB, but my other music love is death metal ;-)
...and this was the reply:
"If the guy is interested in "electronic music" and Sasha/Digweed, why the fuck doesn't he just go and buy a copy of Northern Exposure or something? It's got both of them doing DJ stuff, and it's an hour long."
So, there. I assume this 'Northern Exposure' CD is on Amazon or something somewhere.
Personally, I'd listen to some trip-hop from Portishead or Supreme Beings of Leisure if I wanted to hear something eletronicish, but that's just me...
Try Karleheinz Stockhausen his Kontakte, or you can check out some Pierre Boulez lots of great stuff there. Krzysztof Penderecki writes mostly orchestral music but he makes it sound like elsectronics by the use of clusters Threnody to the Victims of Heroshima is a great piece there.
That's where you should be looking
You should check out the Thunderdome series... ;-)
"But, Rob Gee... isn't that kinda fast?"
"Kind of fast... IT'S FUCKING FAST!!!!!"
It's about Sex, Drugs and Gabberhouse.
"Start the War, Cuz we are on the Floor.
It's never seen before, Army of Hardcore...
HARDCORE!"
"I need no thanks for killing scum!"
And of course, my world would not be complete without the Horrorist....
"What did you just give me?"
Oh, and Atari Teenage Riot and Disciples of Annihilation rock my world.
HAWDCOH MUTHAFUKKA!
Karma: Non-Heinous
i am not sure whether these artist are what you're looking for, nevertheless i can recommend:
:-)
- Jean Michel Jarre. most things are just great, some things seem a bit boring to me. try to get a concert video too - they're quite impressive.
- Pink Floyd of course. they've quite heavy electronics too
- Delerium. my "bad mood music".
- Mars Lasar. easy listening, relaxing. a bit new-age-like.
- some Vangelis things are nice too.
- Bjorn Lynne. norwegian instrumental rock, made on the computer. (well, not just "normal" computer)
have fun listening!
And for those interested in a history lesson: Wendy Carlos Tangerine Dream Kraftwerk Larry Fast/Synergy
This took a little while, and a lot of wasted bandwidth but hey, it worked for me... Pretty much what I stared doing was taking the techno/random noise I liked listening to at the time (chemical bro's, prodigy, crystal method) and started digging through the p2p nets... Alot of those guys collaborated with alot of other artists, and from the collaboration tracks you just expand your searches out until you find the kinds of things your looking for. Everyone's got different taste, and it's kind of weak to just go and start asking other people what they think you think would be cool...Once I had it narrowed into a few specific groups/dj's/artists I started buying those cd's...
Age of Love - Age of Love (Watch out for Stella Mix)
LA Style - James Brown Is Dead
KLF - Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the lost Continent)
KLF - 3am Eternal
KLF - What Time Is Love
KLF yeah you get the idea
Messiah - Thunderdome
Prodigy - Out of Space
Orbital - Halcyon & On & On
Misjah & Tim - Access (Original Vocal Mix)
Phuture - Acid Traxx
Frankie Knuckles - The Whistle Song
Jeff Mills - The Bells
Herbie Hancock - Rockit
Hardfloor - Acperience (sp?)
Timelords - Dr Who
Apotheosis - Oh Fortuna
Project One - Roughneck
Atari Teenage Riot - Speed
Tokyo Ghetto Pussy - Into Another Galaxy
The Shamen - Destination Eschaton (Hardfloor Vocal Mix)
Cybernaut - Hydrophonix
Opus iii - It's A Fine Day
Sunscream - Love U More
And of course, the synthpop craze delivered some awesome electronic tracks:
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence
Erasure - Ship of Fools (The Orb's remix)
New Order - Touched By The Hand of God (Biff & Memphis Mix)
And for UBER-classic mode, check out Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre, together undisputedly form the parents of Electronic Music.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Caveat: it's Flash. The first link I gave is for the low-bandwidth (~3 meg) version. If your pipes are fat, or you don't mind the wait, there's also the ~17 meg high-quality stereo version.
I imagne someone has said it already, but the Warp Records site (www.warprecords.com) has alot of streaming media available, as well as some of the fantastic videos that accompany some of their artists.
if you've never seen any of Chris Cunningham's work, the Warp site has his best videos.
I guess Warp is regarded as one of the more "avant gard" labels, in that their electronic music is typically rather odd - I just happen to love it.
For what it's worth, may fave artists are:
Aphex Twin - he's impossible t categorise really - he's hopped every single electronica genre, and has invented a few of his own
Squarepusher - another frankly bizarre Warp artist
Orbital - widely ranging electronica
Future Sound Of London - specialising in soundscapes (Dead Cities - their magnum opus I feel) and dreamy ambient stuff
www.ninjatune.com is the website for the hightly renowned Ninja Tune label, who make some of the best highly chilled and funky beats known to creation. The compilation "Xen Cuts - 10 years of nija tunes" is a great intro to the kind of suff they do.
Argh there's so much stuff to write that I don't have time for...
: goes to buy suit :
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
Sure its a record company but it's good stuff. Old and new school too.
Metropolis Records
... there is nothing that has not already been thought
Two of the most seminal albums of the last 10 years that people seem to have missed:
Orbital - Orbital 2 (The Brown Album)
Amazon UK
and
Leftfield - Leftism
Amazon UK
They are probably a little bit slower than the stuff you heard from Sasha and Digweed (average bpm for electronic music has been rising slowly over time) but they are both absolutely incredible albums.
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
Psytrance is essentially trance on acid -- it ranges from ambient to trance with totally wacked-out effects in it. What's more, psytrance "DJs" don't usually spin records -- it's all digital mixing. I prefer psytrance (also called goa) over trance, because it's usually faster and eschews a lot of the house-y aspects of trance -- there aren't really many "anthems" to speak of, it's a bit faster and it can get downright goofy sometimes.
p l.shtmlw .microdots.org/
http://www.isratrance.com
http://goablaze.org/
http://www.hallucinogenic.de/
http://ww
http://www.psynews.org/
Thank you for your reply. This is truely a stupid idea by the slashchoad maintainers - if all the trolls crapflood at 0/AC you can expect Anonymous posting to be revoked next! Hang on to your seat! --on by
It's probably better that way. I'd sure post less troll posts if I had to use a real account. Priming this karma shit takes work. I spent 5 years keeping my karma high and now they go and do this shit and it's just "excellent". Sucks ass. Remove the karma cap and go back to numbers!!! There's no fun in slashdot if you can't karma whore. I might as well just go to K5 if you take that away.. at least their articles are better and the editors aren't douche bags. Plus the users vote on what stories get posted.
Having said that, I'd also like to say that I hate the term "electronica", as it really only describes the range of electronic music that MTV and MuchMusic dare to tell you about, and doesn't even hope to cover a wider range of electronic music that doesn't necessarily include techno.
Here are some electronic artists with a bit more diversity:
Genesis P. Orridge (Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV)
Kraftwerk
Brian Eno
Laibach
Nash The Slash
Coil
David Thrussel (Black Lung/Snog/Soma)
Pieter Bourke
Boards Of Canada
David Kristian
cEvin key (Skinny Puppy/Download/The Tear Garden/and more...)
Brian Eno
Merzbow
CPI/DXM
Tribes Of Neurot
Lab Report
Thighpaulsandra
Atari Teenage Riot
Now that you've got a real place to start, find out who the artists you listen to collaberate with, and who they are influenced by, and listen to their music too. You'll discover a whole new world of electronic music that mainstream music outlets will probably never even hope to tell you about.
Excellent post, but you forgot all the side that fits onto Darkwave music (yeah, Darkwave is not only electronic but there's a lot of electronic styles there). :Wumpscut:, Esplendor Geométrico, etc... :). Hope it helps
Main ones are:
ElectroPop: Electronic style coming from the 80's, main exponents of this style are Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, AHA, New Order, Soft Cell, etc...
EBM: Electronic style with lots of influences from other styles, I've heard here influences from house, progressive and other styles. Maximum exponents are Front 242, Wolfsheim, And One, etc...
Industrial: Electronic style based on harder rhytms, here fits some Drum and Bass (like Aphex Twin) and Noise. Main artists here are Aphex Twin,
FuturePop: New style coming out lately for defining the music of some groups that stands between lots of electronic influences (from EBM, to progressive and Industrial itself). Main artists on this cathegory are Apoptygma Berzerk, VNV Nation, Covenant, etc...
Just my U$0,02
May the source be with you!
The great thing about dance music is that (here in the UK at least) at the grass roots it's about little people, little labels and little shops. That said there seem to be a few good communities online. www.breakbeat.co.uk www.drumandbasszone.co.uk www.junglist.com etc. etc. have some good stuff. www.tunes.co.uk is a really good specialist dance music vendor (and on an offtopic note, Dj Markys "lk" is a masterpiece - that tune needs to be broken in america, it's sad that a guy from Brazil gets heard in the UK before the US). :)
The real way to do it though is to get into the community, get some decks and go down to your local record shop. If you start raving or something you'll find a community just as you have one here. Could I give you open source 101? Possibly, but it'd be more effective to meet the geeks! Get out there, get raving, get mixing - and it goes from there
--
Jack and Jill
If you're looking to break into listening to electronic music, start from the source and sample the masters (creators). Their stuff is pure, unfiltered genius.
Anything else would be uncivilized.
Jeff Mills
Juan Atkinson
Derrick May
Claude Young
Robert Armani
Felix The Housecat
(and so on..)
ICEPHREAK
Aura - The Source of Trance
DJ Fairlane
TbO & Vega
303 Inifity
Cynic Project
Holymen
Trance Culture
These can all be found over at www.mp3.com
Will work for bandwidth
everybody's mentioned aphex twin but imho he's gone over the top in recent years, he just sells records on his ego these days as the music isn't good anymore really. his old works however select ambient works 85-92 and saw2 (the sequel) were really good, if you liked sasha i think you'd like saw1. as usual when it comes to electronic music i have to put in a word for brothomStates who's released one album and one ep there, but if you look around on the net and in various stores you can find older, some just released electronically and some on other labels, and most of those are atleast as good stuff he did before warp. when we are at warp i can agree with alot of people that boards of canada are good, their classic album(and the best by most peoples choice) is "music has a right to children" , really a superb ambient album. boards of canada were on skam earlier, and releasing music there is bola, his best album is "soup" , he is quite unknown but soup is ranked over everything else by people that know him :)
warp/skam has most of the hardcore electronica covered, but if you wanna go wider and go around techno music(and i think you really meant that earlier :) i'd say the obvious names are astral projection(trance legends),future sound of london(actually going back more to the ambient area, but very good), lfo(a real oldie, his lfo tune is something) , paul van dyk, armand van helden, daft punk , artists playing at ibiza(mtve.com oughta give you a hint on those).
there's alot more out there but as i know some active artists i guess i'll gotta do a shoutout to all friends in the techno/electro-scene.
sense (adam raisbeck) http://sense.unif.com
md (jaakko manninen)
frank bolero (fredrik åslund) http://frankandbill.scene.org
bStates (lassi nikko) http://www.brothomstates.com
lackluster (esa ruoho)
ilkae (krystian&aaron)
m3rck (a publisher of all of the above's works) http://www.m3rck.net
everyone in tpolm!
soundfiction(swedish dj friends) http://www.soundfiction.nu
/ jonas lund
Amen! I was curious to see if anyone would mention this particular sub-sub-sub-genre (in all its click-etty, scratch-etty, soft-synth-washedy goodness). Arovane and Phonem get top marks in the Autechre/Aphex territory of electronica.
I would also like to remind the gentle reader that a sizeable majority of electronically assisted _dance_ music (house, trance, happy hardcore >, etc) is extremely difficult to appreciate in any state of mind even close to sobriety.
I play psy from vinyl and CD. The DAT dj's are dinosaurs now - most of the DAT dj's have moved over to CD. Some psy DJ's play out from MD or MP3, but they generally aren't beat-mixing, just selecting and cross-fading. The best online stores for Psy Trance are Chaos Unlimited and Psyshop Both have sample to listen to before buying. But the best way to experience this music is at 4am on a moonlit beach somewhere warm, with the smell of chai and nag champas rolling through the dancefloor and big scary baselines that make you believe monsters still roam the earth...
Ayla
Paul Oakenfold
Sandra Collins
Will work for bandwidth
I've been DJing for nine years, and have covered the progression of house music during that span. (Hope y'all have RealPlayer) Everything from early Chicago House to Disco House to DEEP House to Booty/Ghetto House to Hard Techno House. Oh yeah, and some Tech-Step Jungle.
Check them out. I'd hate for someone to fall into the mass-produced superstar (Bad Boy Bill, DJ Skribble, etc.) DJ mixes, when there's good small-name talent floating around.
P.S. - My newest house mix CD in mp3.[68 megs]
Edmund White
http://flickr.com/ewwhite
Go is actually a classic and so is moby. So yeah. Go figure.
His homepage is http://www.atom-heart.com/
He mainly produces grooving hyperactive sample tracks with rhythmic sub-basses; so intense it makes you grin with joy and you can't stop... ;) But his work is very diverse nevertheless, and there are some real pieces of pop among them. He mainly works with sampling and has a great sense of humour. DOS Tracks is an older album that is pretty cool. Atom Heart is one of his most used aliases. The alias "Geeez 'n' Gosh" was recently used for two albums. Musically, all three are variations of this music style.
The one that most people like is "Senor Coconut", mainly for his (second?) album "El baile aleman" (the german dance). This is Uwe Schmidt producing cover versions of Kraftwerk tracks with a hot south american samba/bossa/rumba style, but everything done with samples. And if this sounds like a cheesy idea to you (it sure did to me), be reassured that the music is great and smooth and relaxed and funny. And on the tour (I saw him in Berlin/Germany) he used a real band, with bongos and an accoustic bass and whatnot, and had a young south american singer with a seducing smile making all the ladies hold their breath, and he was standing bheind his two MPCs... cool live experience. Very professional and entertaining and fun pop music.
Other artists you might want to check out are Boards of Canada (relaxed, warm and sometimes a bit melancholic), SND (abstract/sometimes hyperactive sound bits, more techno/house than electronica), Urban Soul Research (hard to get, but worth it, especially the newer tracks), ... And Vladislav Delay (dub techno) who 2 years ago became big and pop, and excited the electronic music scene and made it on magazine covers for the music he releases under the name "Luomo". Very modern and groovy athmospheric house music.
Maybe you should buy yorself some music magazines. Dunno 'bout the american market, they had something called "XLR8R" which was into electronica I think (pretty stupid name by the way). And don't forget to take everything they tell you with a grain of salt, not everything they praise is really worth it.
Ah, and the number one rule in electronic music: Americans Don't Get It. They started to imitate us europeans some years ago but everything they do (esp. their parties) is boring rip-off ;)
come on now, their '93-'97 material is pretty damn good. Incunabula is still amazing, imho. in fact, i'd recommend starting with the first few releases for someone who is just getting into electronic music... do you really expect anyone to fall in love with confield right off the bat?
---"Thank you for your reply. This is truely a stupid idea by the slashchoad maintainers - if all the trolls crapflood at 0/AC you can expect Anonymous posting to be revoked next! Hang on to your seat! --on by"
Actually, that would fit into slashdot's plan. Everybody looks at MS's business strategy by listings... Let's do the same as slashdot.
1: Open up a site to all, for free, and have a moderation system in place. Anony-postings are available. Not a business yet.
2: A business buys you up during the dot.com bomb, however, bandwidth costs are tremendous.
3: An AD system is put in place. You either view ads or you pay some piddling fee.
4: The system of moderation is tightened (karma is now 'fuzzy'. trolls cant even post using their nicks, and other foolish stuff) better places
Praise the lord, yes.
Go to a good store right now and get Supermodified by Amon Tobin. It's solid.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
If you want music that helps 'ease' you into electronic styles, the best choices are usually the fusions between new music and old. If you're not totally against jazz, try the Cinematic Orchestra or St. Germain and you'll get a warm sound that still takes advantage of the electronic medium.
Of course, if you're like me and you want full energy in your music, a couple of key trance artists are Max Graham, everyone's favourite Canadian DJ, and the legendary Paul van Dyk from Germany. Speaking of which, if you happen to be in Germany right now, I believe the Love Parade is on - you can probably check out van Dyk there, if it isn't already too late!
Hope this helps.
The Global Underground Series is the best collection of electronic music mixed by the worlds best DJ's.
There are also many internet radio stations that play electronic music. Proton Radio is one of the best places to listen to progressive house 24/7.
If you want to know the best place to listen to electronic music, its at a club. Go find a club near you, bring some friends, and enjoy. Good people good fun.
The worst part about electronicv music (techno, trance, breaks, progressive) is that its almost all produced on Vinyl so DJ's can spin the records during their sets. And sometimes even the best records are never fully distributed, they stay 'Promo' which means nepetism is the only way to get a copy.
Download DJ sets off the internet. The Essential Mix sets produced by Radio One (UK)(and world class DJ's) are the most freely available. As well as John Digweed's Kiss 100 radio show. They always provide tracklistings to their sets, so you can pick up the tunes you like later.
I specifically reccomend you find any Paul Oakenfold sets from 1999 - 2000. Everyone usually starts off there.
Harder.. Better.. Faster.. Stronger
if you really want to be prissy about the term "electronic music" you may as well venture into the deep end of the classical/academic eletronic music camp... after all, without the influence of the academic camp, kraftwerk (your so-called 'brains') would have been just a german pop band...
as some posters have already suggested- one could head into their university's music library and check out some vintage john cage, stockhausen, varese, xenakis, boulez, luc ferrari, pauline olivieros, even wendy carlos, etc etc... but then again, you'd be hard pressed to find the semblane of a 4/4 beat anywhere in there...
Ian Van Dahl - A.C.E.
Darude - Before the Storm
Paul Oakenfold - Bunnka
Global Underground - Departures
Louie Devito's NYC Underground cd's I think they have 3 of them
Try this website to listen to a wide selection of artists. Some Artists you can stream the entire album others you can stream a few songs.
http://www.epitonic.com/
OK, here's a list of records that I fancy;
:)
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy
Air - 10,000 Hz Legend
Lackluster - Container (www.lackluster.info)
Paul Oakenfold - Tranceport
Infected Mushroom - B.P. Empire(www.infected.co.il)
Armin van Buuren - Boundaries of Imagination
Lab-4 - Neurocide (www.lab4.com)
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity (www.kraftwerk.de)
Squarepusher - Go Plastic
Future Sound of London - Accelerator
Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Old ones, but still great
If you live in the States and want to try some "fresh beats", try http://www.satelliterecords.com.
Also, worth mentioning, is TraceAddict.com, which hosts lots of _live_ sets.
For a DJ's perspective on electronic dance music you should try Trust the DJ - Official Home of the world's leading DJs. Carl Cox, Boy George, Chris Liberator, Gilles Peterson
You can also listen to TrusttheDJ radio (Windows media only I'm afraid) and to samples of tracks from the DJ mix CDs. Good for an introduction to the numerous various genres: techno, house, drum and bass etc.
Hope you like it. Disclaimer: I work there. And a lot of fun it is too!
Umm, everyone seems to have forgotten the DHR material/back catalogue; Atari Teenage Riot/Alec Empire and the like.
/. Where the truth
Some hints to get you started: First start to read "The Wire", which is not "Wired" (go to The Wire). It's a magazine that knows what happens from month to month. Subscribe, get the subscribers-only CDs they send you, find out what you like, and explore. Don't listen to people who tell you that Trance is the big one these days, or that their old heroes have defined your listening future.
Buy samplers with different artists on it. One that fits the topic is Electronic 01. Try also the Click'n'Cuts compilation series.
Go to festivals like Sonar, Ars Electronica and Mutek, or at least find out what's hot there.
If you want to get into specifics, start with the labels. Places like Mego, Tigerbeat6, Kitty-Yo, Chicks on Speed, Mille Plateaux, Touch, Ninja Tune, Orthlong Musork, Staalplat, Domino, Emperor Norton, our heroes Rune Grammofon etc.Follow as many leads as you can, be open-minded.
Check out special interest web shops and sites like Brainwashed, .
What you will find is probably that European, especially German, and Japanese artists are pretty much top of the line these days, but that this keeps changing. My most used line at Sonar this year was "We can see that, at least they're German".
Oh yeah, and the recent "Wired" article about electronic music was about five years out of date.
Noise, all.
-- Wake up and XML the Java
(Blatant plug mode)
You could try out Real Synthetic Audio, a radio "station" specialising in various electronic genres from Synthpop to EBM/Industrial with forays into the both noisier and more minimalist styles.
Hey, it's a free stream in several formats and speeds, what do you have to lose?
Real Synthetic Audio (synthetic.org)
(/Blatant plug mode)
Crystal Method - Vegas
Crystal Method - Tweekend
Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
Prodigy - Fat of the Land
Hybrid - Wide Angle
Junkie XL - Saturday Teenage Kick
Lunatic Calm - Metropol
Honestly, I'm pretty sick of all the catagorization of electronic music. By my personal definition, electronic music is music that sounds electronic. That's it, and there's no subgenres to argue over. This list will probably not introduce you to much of the club scene music, with the exception of Hybrid, but it's some good stuff to listen to. Grab a p2p client (recommended: WinMX) and download some tracks. If you like it, buy the CD. This stuff is slightly older (c. 1998) and will give you a taste of the "techno invasion" the news was talking about at the time.
~A'Ëq'i4d)^'$ÊSÈòB
Since you said You like Sasha and John Digweed. I would recommend pursuing other Trance music. Check www.mp3.com or www.spinner.com to get some ideas.
:)
Also, if you're looking for other forms of electronic music.
-Detroit Techno (House/Techno, my personal favorite)
John Acquiviva
Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman)
Derrick May
Carl Craig
Kevin Saunderson
(and to a lesser extent Juan Atkins)
-New York House
Adam X
Frankie Bones
Heather Heart
-Ambient
Orb
Aphix Twin
-Trance
Sasha and John Digweed
Paul Oakenfold (the most famous, but not necessarily the best.)
Also take a look at some drum and bass music as well as jungle. I don't know of any that come to mind but I'm sure someone else could come up with some.
Wow! Good posts all around. I must add more to the knowledge of House music and where to find some great definative house music.
Artists/Producers/Labels: Idjut boys, Paul Johnson(Real Chicago House), Anything from Naked Music or Panhandle. And that's the short list.
The real problem I have with Electronic Music is that to really get into it and find what you really like it costs a lot of money. If you only buy mix-tapes and complete CDs by DJ/Artists/Producers then you miss out on a great deal of their work. You have to buy records (yes vinyl) at a pace of a few every week to keep up with what you like and to stay on the look out for new and exciting stuff. Most people think that only DJs need to do this, but really if you get into the music enough it seems that this is really required. Oh well, off to the record store.
I'd suggest Kreidler (www.ikreidler.de), a bit drugged minmal electronic, their self-titled Album shall be a good start. Mum from Iceland, (unofficial homepage: www.noisedfisk.com/mumweb/) sonds a little like the first Björk albums but its much more minimalistic. And of course Tangerine Dream, the electric Pink Floyd.(tangerine-dream.de/)
While I agree that confield is not the best starting point to get into Autechre's music, I can't understand why so many Autechre fans don't like it. The first few times I listened to it, I didn't like it that much either, but once you get to know the tracks a bit better, it becomes a really great album. Easily my favourite Autechre (I haven't heard Amber and Incunabula).
Another of my favourite electronic music groups I haven't seen mentioned is the german duo Mouse On Mars. While their music is quite complex as well, it has a very organic, natural feel to it. Everything I've heard from them is great, my favourite being "Niun niggung".
Should you ever get the chance to see them live, by all means do so. I've seen them last year and it was on of the greatest concerts I've ever seen. They play with a real drummer (and singer on a few songs) and one of the two regular guys plays the bass, while the other is responsible for all the electronic equipment.
And I thought i was the only Electronica fan left.
:
While the purest may say Electronica does not equal guitars & drums, Electronica is not an instrument it's a genre.
I'd just like to 2nd a few artists already mentions,
Digweed and Sasha - great,
Oakenfold Rules,
Also check out
AK1200
DJ Ellis Dee
Acid Dog Adrenalin Drum - A Higher State of Trance
and USURA
plur,
Comprehensive electronic music reference:6
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=C447
But what I've noticed is that everybody focuses on albums. Since I'm a DJ/producer also, I learned many years ago that you can pick up something based on the record label. That said, here is a list of labels I always tend to pick up. For the record, I am a downtempo/organic (as in...not digweed and crew - think thievary corporation) head.
Further more, there are several places you can listen to this stuff online. Go to dublab.com and they have mixes from lots of people like Dr. Alex Patterson (Orb), Pole, Ursula 1000, and more. There was one I used to go to a while back, but I forget what it was called. All kinds of mixes ranging from progressive to turntabilism.
Other classics that I recommend to all people who get into the genre: Underworld - Dubnobassinmyhead man, Orb - UF Orb, Any of the Journey by DJ's series, any Ken Iishi mix you can find, any Luke Vibert mix you can find.
It's ALL disco music. The synths, the beat, etc. are barely distinguishable from the stuff that was playing in discos in the 70's. And raves? They're discos with people on E.
Disco has returned, only this time it's called techno. 'Course it never really went away -- it's always been called 'dance music' -- but it took 20 years for people to forget why they stopped listening to it in the first place.
-z129
If you like Sasha/John Digweed, then you may want to try and get hold of some recorded live sets (mp3/tape/cd etc). Also, the "Southern Exposure" and "Northern Exposure" albums are real chilled normal Sasha/Digweed stuff.
:)
I would define Moby as House/(Commercial?) Dance. Whereas Sasha/John Digweed/Paul Oakenfold are almost certainly Trance and/or Atmospheric Trance.
I'd also suggest a few trance djs not unlike the mentioned: DJ Tiesto, Underworld, Leftfield...
Its probably best that you check out the online streaming audio and get hold of the songs that you like, because there really is too many to mention
Looking at the comments, /. readers are worse then the NME - everybody crowns his own King of Electronica [sic].</p>
<p>Let me suggest this: don't listen to them. Instead, go downtown, and try to find some specalized record stores. Hopefuly, with a nice and informative staff, that will let you listen to some samples, and help you find out what you'd like.</p>
<p>I (almost) never buy music online - I prefer to visit the local <a href="http://www.balancecd.com/">shop</a> , chat with the staff, and learn about albums I wouldn't find any other way.</p>
<p><i>Obligatory plug</i>: For some amazing soundscape and ambient works, you should try Tapet's (released by <a href="http://www.factrecords.co.il">Fact Records</a>) latest album, TapetSounds. An amazing album.</p>
I don't care too much for alot of house-y electronica, but there are a couple of bands I love from other corners of electronic music.
* Add N to X - Fun, crazy inventive funny campy. Moogs and singing computers and a drum kit.
* Coil - Half of Throbbing Gristle, after Throbbing Gristle
* NON (Boyd Rice) - When watching "The Never Ending Story", this guy roots for "the nothing".
* Scorn - heavy.
My very favourite group for electronic music.. Hybrid produce some amazing work. Right now they have two albums out, and are working on their third.
Look out for the albums titled "Remix And Additional Production" (here) and "Wider Angle" (here) - as I say, both are absolutely great albums and I cannot reccomend them enough!
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
I'm a basement producer and like many of the other basement producers out there, I suck. I do it cause it's fun and I like it.
The thing about a lot of electronic music is that it's stuffed into some genre or another. I mean I have a perl script that writes trance anthems based on an algorithm my friend Dave and I came up with.
8 bar fluff
8 bar bassline/beat
8 bar anthem riff
8 bar beat
8 bar beat/bassline/bassline 2
8 bar bassline
4 bar bassline/buildup
8 bar climax/bassline/anthem/bassline 2
4 bar beat
4 bar kickdrum
8 bar fluff (same as first)
The same came be said (to a lesser extent) for jungle.
Tempo 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . .
Kick a a a
Snare b b
Close HH c c c c c c c c c c
This isn't to say that I dislike eletronica, I just feel that lately, it's been too catagorized. Try to listen to stuff that isn't just on RIAA labels. There is a lot of good (and sometimes very funny) stuff out there if you decide to look for it.
Some of my favorite bigger names:
Richie Hawtin
Dieselboy
Marshall Jefferson
Aphrodite
And a great place to look for lesser known stuff:
http://www.benow.ca
--
Mike Nugent
-- Mike wildcard@illuminatus.org
Gatecrasher is probably tme most widely known House Trance Techno clubs in the UK. There are a few under the same name in different locations. They have the biggest DJ's mixing for them, among them Paul Okenfold, Paul VanDyk, Sasha, etc., and they utilize house/trance beats by all the big European powers and even some American powers. I'm an American, and I'd say Europe is lightyears ahead of us when it comes to the maturity of it's techno. Good Gatecrasher CD's are, in some order from best to slightly less than best: Red, Digital, DiscoTech, Global Soundsystem, Wet, National Anthems. These are all two or three disc sets, PACKED with tracks, the full 74:59 or 80:00. Oh, and before you go to amazon and start searching, remember to get the (usually slightly more expensive) import versions, not the poor watered down US versions.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
most deffinitely laswell. good electronic albums are oscillations, the oscillations remixes, and emerald aether (celtic music remixes)....and if you want a little "dub" his remixes of bob marley (dreams of freedom) and "bill laswell meets style scott in a dub meltdown" are most excellent. dub meltdown reminds me a lot of a more stripped down massive attack "no protection"
- Art of Trance
- System 7 (aka 777)
- Apollo 440
- BBE
C U!Mario Valente
* Industrial: Rhythmic, but no beat.
Bands like Winterkaelte, Axiome, M$ Gentur, Folkstorm, Rasmussen, Haus Aragna, Genocide Organ, Asche, Morgenstern.
* Noise: no rhythm, no beat. Just pure noise. :)
Bands: Masonna, Government Alpha, Einleitungszeit, Merzbow.
* Drum'n'Noise: very beat-oriented, but lots of distortion.
Bands: S.I.N.A, Mono No Aware
... as evidence of that, I offer the Csound Book's list of recommended listening. Yes, Stockhausen and Subotnick are there, along with Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, The Future Sound of London, Kraftwerk and DJ Shadow. The people involved in the electroacoustic scene, if that's what you want to call it, are not snobs and don't seperate themselves from electronica as a whole. Maybe you don't listen to it, but they do.
Lunatic Calm. Method fans will likely enjoy 'em. Metropol is a great album, and this year they released their second, "Breaking Point," which I haven't had a chance to pick up quite yet.. Check 'em out.
www.cluboxed.co.ukd
or go straight to the board here
http://pub129.ezboard.com/bglobalundergroun
This is the home of the GU series along with the rest of Cluboxed series of records. In addition to having all the information about each album it supports a thriving communitity of enthusists who are at the bleeding edge of the scene. Goto the messageboard and you will see what I mean. An extremely diverse communitity dedicated to reviewing the newest and best in the world.
HT
When exploring this music you've got two levels to consider; the Producer and the DJ. The first creates the tracks, the second puts them in to the proper context. Context is very important when it comes to electronic music, often more so than any other genre. Part of the appeal of going out to enjoy this music is checking out a dynamic and crowd-pleasing DJ - unlike your typical act that sticks to playlists - a proper DJ will guage the crowd and be able to compensate and control accordingly, some DJs are world famous for the level of synchronization with their audience that they demonstrate. Others just keep their head down and try to get through their set.
So if you're new and rooting around for this music, definitely check out some mixed sets on top of individually produced tracks. There's just too much that can be said about context, sometimes a DJ will completely change your perception of a track by putting it in the middle or on top of other cuts, other times the DJ's set is a direct result of the venue and audience contained therein.
For a broad sampling of this concept try out twelveinch.com which features live shows and mixed sets by up and coming DJs. Since anyone can buy the music don't be afraid to look locally for someone that can serve as your gateway in to the myriad of productions that are out there - in fact, more often than not producers can't mix, so catching your favourite artist doing a mixed performance might not be as good as leaving it in the hands of a vinyl junkie that knows exactly what to do with the tracks in a crowd-pleasing setting. The genres represented on the site will give you plenty to play with especially after reading some of the excellent genre descriptions already outlined here on this thread. The DJs are very approachable and are always more than happy to answer any questions and perhaps help further (and broaden/narrow, as the case may be) your interest in the music. At last count there are more than seventy artists on the roster and about thirty or so distinctive genres which will please you for hours.
Such as Meat Katie, Elite Force, ILS, BLIM, etc.
check out www.chillproductions.com for some really cool and interesting electronic music. it's all free and by independant artists... it's worth a look for sure.
read through at least 70% of everyone's recommendations and a lot of what i'd recommend is in there....here's some that i didnt' see listed: Orb - Auntie Aubrey's, Orblivion, and Adventures Beyond Kinder Atom -super nice hippy pants Ekova - Heaven's Dust Autechre - Amber, Incubala (sp?) Banco De Gaia - Magical Sounds and Igizeh Death in Vegas - Dead Elvis Future Sounds of London - Lifeforms, ISDN, Dead Cities Mocean Worker - Mixed Emotions, Home Movies Darren Prince - Flightpath Ruby - Short-staffed, Saltpeter Spring Heel Jack - 68 Million, Busy Curious Paul Van Dyk - Vorsprung dyk technik DJ Spooky - Riddim Warefare, Quick and the Dead Lamb - Lamb, Fear of Fours Girl Eats boy - Thrilled by Velocity.. that's without really diggin into my compilation section.
Yeah, sure, they're labled as "industrial," but isn't half of industrial electronica? KMFDM (and its temporary stint as MDFMK in 2000) are one of the best heavy industrial acts out there. And you won't hear them on MTV like that pud Moby, so this isn't your family friendly kind of music. Check them out at KMFDM.net and then get on your favorite P2P and get a sample of a song called "Stray Bullet." If you want electronica, that's the song to get ^-^
And if that isn't enough for you, check out Spire, Lucia, Schwein, Pig, Gravity Kills, and stuff like that ^-^
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
Agreed. Plus I get through boring days at work by browsing at -1. Lowering troll counts would make things worse.
Lustmord: Metavoid, Purifying Fire, Where The Black Stars Hang, Heresy, Paradise Disowned, twenty minute songs of sounds fading in and out, like being submersed in some odd form of liquid, very trippy.
Black Lung: Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, The Depopulation Bomb, The Psychocivilized Society, Unconfortamble Questions for Comfortable People, also nice ambient sounds
Also, just to list a few other bands with experimental sounds not mentioned yet:
Necrophorus: Gathering Composed Thoughts, Underneath the Spirits of Tranquility
Brothomstates: Kobn-Tich-Ey
Panacea: Low-Profile Darkness, Twisted Designz, Phoenix Metabolism
Needle Sharing: My Kind Came First, Mono Brutal
Tarmvred: Subfusc, Onomatopoeic
Venetian Snares: Doll Doll Doll, Printf, Making Orange Things
Micropoint: Anesthesie International, europhonie
Imminent Starvation: Human Dislocation, Nord, North LP, Ethyl LP
Converter: Blast Furnace, Coma
Mlada Fronta: Fe2 O3, High Tension
Hypnoskull: Fast Forward / Burnout, Electronic Music Means War To Us
Mike Patton
The downside to The KLF is getting any of their older albums - sure, you can get The White Room, Chill Out, or their Best of, but that's it.
Anybody got a good location for getting the other KLF albums?
www.eFax.com are spammers
For the best electronica, you're going to have to look to Europe. Hands down we have the best, and quite frankly, most electronica that comes out of the USA is shit at best.
If you want a good place to start looking, www.ministryofsound.com is quite a big player in all things bassy.
If you would like to hear some top streaming media, get yourself X11AMP or XMMS (which ever you like to call it) and tune in to Digitally Imported (www.digitallyimported.com). They play some top tunes and if you look on their site they link to most of the tracks they play.
The unfortunate thing about DI is that most of what they link to or sell is on vinyl. I'm sure they should be available on CD or what not however.
Personally, I just listen to DI. They play a good selection, have a couple of regular digital DJ's (such as Doboy) that are pretty good.
hth
check out cyberage.cx it's got plenty of underground new stuff info.
So very true that the idea of 'techno' is so... so.. confused.
..hm.. I could not quite believe that she was referring to two LIVE artists with NO synthesizers around.. as a "techno" thing..
The other day I was in the "Montreaux JAZZ Festival" and we were listening to a duo that consisted of a drummer and an electric-cello player, with a lot of FX-pedals.. a girl from the States commented to me that "well... techno is not so popular in the states"
weird... I wouldn't call it even Electronic, it just had lots of FX-pedals.. hm.. maybe in that case we could call Pink Floyd "techno" (though they did some tracks that you could call techno.. ahem.. boing)
I miss my rubber keyboard.(Homepage)
I went from knowing NOTHING about electronica to knowing quite a bit, by
1) downloading the first 2-3 songs from everything that was posted to alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.dance
2) listening
3) deleting everything I didnt like, and buying the stuff I did like
4) repeat 1-3 until you are 1337
IMO its useless to take shots in the dark and buy albums at random. There are way to many subgenres, and bands you will never find unless you listen to them first and order online.
Shameless plug for my fav bands: my current favorite genres are retro Electro and techno. Check out Adult, Ladytron, Miss Kitten and Air for some very cool retro sounds!
you've already received many great (and some not so great) recommendations, so i won't repeat them, but i would like to add AMON TOBIN to the list. in particular, his first album BRICOLAGE.
also, another great album that i don't think anyone's mentioned yet is the TIJUANA SESSIONS VOL. 1 by the NORTEC COLLECTIVE.
oh, and one more: ANOKHA: SOUNDZ OF THE ASIAN UNDERGROUND compiled by TALVIN SINGH.
strange, these suggestions have taken on an international feel (amon tobin is from brazil, nortec from mexico, and talvin singh india/london). that wasn't my intentional but so it is.
they're all great albums.
Underworld are the best act in electronica, ever, period. They meld together all the different styles of electronic music into one heart-squeezingly beautiful whole, and the lyrics...well. Just buy any of their albums, listen to it for a month, you won't be disappointed.
You look beautiful! Incidentally, my favourite artist is Picasso.
http://www.trance.org// f rankbolero.scene.org/p ://www.rohformat.de/k /
http://www.thinnerism.com
http://www.frankandbill.scene.org/
http://www.
http://www.m3rck.net/
htt
http://www.warprecords.co.u
ChaosExistence (http://www.chaosexistence.net/) has news and a decent selection of albums you can listen to and buy broken down by electronic genre. There are also quite a few Live improv bands with an electronic edge which tour frequently in North America (and to a lesser extent Japan and Europe). Some of my favorites include:
The Disco Biscuits (http://www.discobiscuits.com)
Brothers Past (http://www.brotherspast.com)
Sound Tribe Sector 9 (http://www.sts9.com)
and for our Canadian friends...
The New Deal (http://www.thenewdeal.ca/)
As an added bonus, most of these bands encourage trading of their live music. Check out the furthurnet music sharing application (http://www.furthurnet.com/)
J
I can't believe nobody mentioned them, they are one of the greatests bands !!!
Daniel
Check out the self titled album by Daniel Ash (pychobaby records) of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame. It's great electronic music that happens to have some great guitar riffs.
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
Hi, a friend alerted me to this thread and I had no knowledge of slahdot to, HI! I'm a newbie. I am an electronic producer and live looping artist in northern california where I use the moniker, Rick Walker's Loop.pooL. I work in the 'Abstract' genre which is some cross between trip hop, techno and breakbeat where the rhythmic grooves are usually electronically created (as opposed to samples taken from 70's soul records like much of hip hop. This is a mock up of my webpage which features my first CD, Loop.pooL. Fans of other abstract artists such as Autechre, Aphex Twin, Mouse On Mars and Boards of Canada have liked this CD which has gotten really good reviews (much to my relief and amazement....LOL). I am my own record company, distributor, lawyer and manufacturing plant (re: I burn 'em one at a time) so this is no huge commercial advert. My friend, Mike Crawford just thought that you all might be interested in what I do. Here's the ridiculously long angelfire url: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/garyseven/itsi t.html
and an url with my bio/live looping show descriptions if anyone is interested:
http://www.watershed-arts.com/walker.html
Today, we are starting the largest gathering of
live looping artists in history:
Y2K2 LOOPFEST with 48 loopers from all over
coming to perform. There are lectures on Looping History, panels on the future of Looping, hardware looping demonstrations for newbies and a hell of a lot of live performances in 22 hours
during two days. Heres' the website for anyone interested in this brand new, emerging, live musical artform:
http://www.zerocrossing.net/y2k2loopfest/y2k2loopf est.html
well that's enough for me.........thanks for listening.
yours, rick walker (aka, loop.poolO
Also, if you want to explore some of the roots, you might check out Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", which is fascinating stuff even if it's a fair way from contemporary electronica.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
If you want to get exposed to all kinds of great music you have never heard before, you should listen to WFMU. If you don't live in NY or NJ, they also streamcast over the web.
Try: Meat Beat Manifesto, Front 242, Underworld, Coil, Aphex Twin, Clock DVA, Doubting Tomas and Download.
This is the only post that mentioned Lords of Acid, which probably belongs in a pr0n sub-genre.
I thought I ought to mention While's album Even. Here's a track listing:
While - Even
1. Gate 2
2. Bin
3. Chase
4. Shape
5. Else
6. Temp
7. Hive
8. Level
9. Fault
10. Lost
11. Moth
Alot of the stuff people have mentioned here is great, but here's a few that need mentioning. Prolly some repeats here, but I'm not reading through 500+ comments to make sure I'm not duping... This probably won't get read either because there's already so many comments, but what the hell...
...And The Beat Goes On - I really don't know how this album compares to their others, but it's pretty good. Tracks of note: Fire, Move Your Ass
:) but their somewhat classic too... Tracks: Battersea, Eden, 2Wicky.
Hybrid - Wide(r) Angle - I never ever ever get tired of this CD. The only recent work that I've completely and utterly fell in love with. You may know their song Finished Symphony from the Untracked level of SSX. Please please please, check it out. Their album has seen a couple releases, first Wide Angle, then a 2CD set called Wider Angle. I dunno which is more available, but Wide Angle is just a subset of Wider Angle. Either is fine, as most of Wider Angle is just some live stuff, though there are a couple extra studio tracks.
Plaid - P-Brane EP, Double Figure, Rest Proof Clockwork - Awesome IDM that I've just recently come to love. It's not as hardcore and much more pallatable that most IDM, so it's a great starting point for the genre. Especially check out the P-Brane EP; it's small, cheap, and 4 of their best songs.
Necros, aka Andrew Sega, aka The Alpha Conspiracy - Started out ages ago in the tracker scene. Amazing stuff, most notable Point of Departure and Mechanism 8 (which is actually in Unreal Tournament, I've recently discovered). He now goes by The Alpha Conspiracy and has a proper CD and all which you can sample at mp3.com. Amazing artist who worked from the ground up, and definitely deserved to be checked out for that reason alone.
Air - Moon Safari - A fantastic mellow sound... this is by far their best album, but check out their other stuff for good measure. Tracks of note: Sexy Boy, All I Need, Talisman.
Chicane - Behind The Sun and Far From The Maddening Crowds - Behind The Sun is the newer and better of the two, but both are great. Looks like FFTMC might be going out of print? Doesn't show up on CDNow and has limited availability on Amazon. Get it while you can. Again, a more mellow, laid back sound, but even better than Air. Tracks of note: Saltwater, Leaving Town, Red Skies.
Ayumi Hamasaki - Ayu Trance - She's a well known pop artist in Japan, and some of her original tracks are good (Whatever, Evolution) but more appropriate to electronics are the plethora of remixes of her music, most notably the Ayu Trance collection. M (Above and Beyond Remix) is friggin awesome.
Dune - Expedicion - Again, by far their best album, but I don't see it on CDNow OR Amazon, but it's prolly the best happy hardcore I've heard, though Scooter's really good too, which leads me to... (Tracks of note: Million Miles From Home, Electric Heaven, Hardcore Vibes.)
Scooter -
Faithless - Reverence, Sunday 8pm, Outrospective - Mixed bag of stuff, but the good stuff is really good. Tracks of note: Insomnia, God Is A DJ, Evergreen.
Future Sound of London - anything... FSOL is somewhat of a classic... they've been around a while, so they have plenty to check out. Papua New Guinea, Landmass, Expander (remix).
Hooverphonic - Blue Wonder Power Milk - Not sure how to describe them, and I'm getting tired of describing groups
Lamb - Lamb and Fear Of Fours - Kinda a mix of electronic and alternative, with a very unique sound. The vocalist has a very unusual sound which you will either like or hate, but give them a shot. Tracks: Softly, Lusty, Gorecki, B-Line.
Utah Saints - Utah Saints and Two - A rough, sample-based sound, but worth checking out. Most known for their remix of the Mortal Kombat Theme, but that is far from their best work. Tracks: Ohio, Something Good, Techknowledgy.
Sneaker Pimps, Gus Gus, Freefall, Beam and Yanou, Mr. Oizo, Technique, Etienne De Crecy.
Stuff that's been mentioned but is worth mentioning again:
DJ Shadow/UNKLE - I have a love/hate relationship with DJ Shadow... either his stuff is incredibly good or incredibly boring, but it's more than worth it for the good stuff. He actually uses drums for more than just background, constantly mixing the beats up, making any DJ Shadow piece noticable. Midnight In A Perfect World hooked me to him instantly and Fixed Income and You Can't Go Home Again from his new album The Private Press hooked my gf. Notable tracks from UNKLE (his other project with... someone whose name I can't remember right now) are Lonely Soul, Rabbit In Your Headlights.
Orbital - plenty of stuff to check out besides their well-known Halcyon + On + On. Midnight from Orbital, Lush3 and Monday from Orbital 2, The Box (check out part 2 of the 28 minute version from the single!), The Girl With The Sun In Hear Head, hell the whole album from In Sides, Know Where To Run and Style from The Middle Of Nowhere, and Funny Break and Doctor from their new The Altogether.
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker, Come To Daddy, all the ones people have mentioned.
Paul Van Dyk, BT, Crystal Method (Vegas is much better than their new album), Adam F, Carl Cox.
For mixes, go with DJ Tiesto, Paul Oakenfold, and Armin Van Buuren.
That was soooo much more than I intended to write, and doesn't even scratch the surface of what's out there, but this should be a great starting point.
Hi
I am not in any way associated with this guy, but Epidose's music is absolutely the best electronic music I have ever heard.
Try "Fire Forest", "Motion Break", "White Wind" and "Indignation" for starters, but almost every track there is a classic.
Listen to it, agree with me and then please mod this post up: Epidose is pure class.
www.mp3.com/epidose
I can't believe we dont need to pay for this music.
If you want to listen to real classics from outside pop music, try Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Gesang der Junglinge," Edgar Varese's "Poeme electronique" or Jonathan Harvey's "Vivos Voco, Mortuos Plango." All very cool.
BTW, Varese was Frank Zappa's favorite composer.
If you're into the happier club/rave stuff, this won't do much for you, but there's a great site listing both mainstream and more obscure harder stuff. Industrial and darkwave aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they're definitely electronic. Industrial/Gothic music index. The site can also help track down the connections between bands/artists since musicians in the industrial scene seem to change their tag depending on who they're working with and the current flavor of their work. Enjoy.
I buy a lot of music, much of which is hard to find in my area. So where do I go to find rare music? Amazon.com of course! I think they have, or have had, every cd, cassette or vinyl recording in existence. And they have it categorized for you in the "Dance & DJ" section. Not a very descriptive title, but what else would you call the most diverse genre in existence. My Recommendations: Since it sounds like you like trance, here are some trance recordings: BT: R&R Paul Van Dyk: Out There and Back ATB: Movin' Melodies BPM's That Trance Mix I am not a huge fan of trance though, so here are some suggestions for other genres: Big Beat (like the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim): The Crystal Method: Vegas, Keep Hope Alive EP/single, Tweekend, Community Service (you might like these guys, they have a trance-y sound.) Propellorheads: Drumsanddecksandrockandroll (made Spybreak! from the Matrix soundtrack and History Repeating.) The Prodigy: Experience: Expanded; Music for the Jilted Generation (old, but still good in my book) House (influenced by early soul and funk, like Blue Six): Ananda Project: Release Blue Six: Beautiful Tomorrow Basement Jaxx: Remedy, Rooty Daft Punk: Homework, Discovery Jazz Electronica (jazz made made with electronic instruments): Thunderball: Scorpio Rising Zero7: Simple Things Greyboy: Mastered the Art
While arguably the most popular form of electronic music, I find that trance is generally very simple and predictable.
For some people/groups that'll challenge your eats a little more, check out:
- Prefuse 73 / Vocal Studies & Uprock Narratives.: easily the best album of last year, IMHO. Great hip-hop meets electro meets turntablism. New album just out on Warp, sounds great so far.
- Plaid / all their LPs: beautiful beeps
- Console: pop-electro fantastic
- Brothomstates: there's a track called Mdrmx that is best listened to late at night, lights off, on your living room floor
- Sandor Caron / Harmonia and Cross: more melody, less straight-up beeps, good stuff all 'round.
- Mice Parade: twings, twangs, sampled goodness.
- Autechre: actually, he's just another example why the Warp Records label is the best place to start for electro.
- Cinematic Orchestra or Koop: if you're into more of a jazz feel
Your ears will thank you.
First of it's "Electronic Music" not some made up word by the record industry "Electronica". For carious listening.. YELLO (Music's Greatest Hidden Secret) William Orbit Autechre (only first 3 albums) Jazzanova Front 242 Kruder and Dorfmeister (other various projects) KOOP Kid Loco Filia Brazillia Fluke Tor Lundvall Pet Shop Boys (i know its fruittie but you gotta love them) Air Art Of Noise Beloved Bjork Cosmic Baby Dead Can Dance Euphoria Jean Michel Jarre (Older albums) Kevin Yost LFO ORB Ozric Tentacles Richard H Kirk Shantel St Germain Ultramarine Underworld Also a good way to find music is the label that they are on. These are my favorite labels that I suggest buying every single thing. Compost Guidance Paper Recordings six degrees there are a ton other labels. Best thing to do is to visit their site and listen to the samples. Julz
If you can still find it, you might want to get the original tranceglobalnation. Oakenfold uses the ENTIRE album and just adds and takes away things from on top of it.
I don't know if you can still find it in stores, but I bet you could get a copy off ebay!
I am a big fan of the Plastiq Musiq stuff, produced by Joy Electric front-man Ronnie Martin. It is a different kind of sound... YOu either like it or you hate it.
Joy Electric is at www.joyelectric.com
Soviet ia at http://www.sovietmusic.net/
PQMQ label is at www.plastiqmusiq.com/
Most of the stuff is more synth-popish that what you might be looking for though.
The Orb: atmospheric, psychedelic, incredible live shows
- they are putting out their own records right now independent of major labels. different artists put out a record every month (including orb). records are pressed according to how many people order, then the masters are destroyed. check out
<a href="http://www.badorb.com">badorb.com</a&g t;
Aphex twin - experimental, dark
Third Eye Foundation - Same vain as Aphex
Boards of Canada - tranquil
Mouse on Mars - experimental quirky
OK I should stop now.......but there are so many.
man, if you haven't heard Terry Riley's "A rainbow in curved air" or "in C" , you haven't heard the roots of electronic music! :)
those are truly amazing pieces.
-David
'nuff said
-J
Check out some of the grand-daddies of electronica - Yello, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Shulze, then move on down the time-line to see their effects on the genre - LFO, FSOL, Leftfield, various DJ whoevers....
A lot of this music comes from Europe. The Germans were some of the early pioneers.
For ambient "chill" music, check out chillambience, which is actually based in the US.
I've stated this many times, but I'll state it again because noone seems to understand.
Electronic Music is not a genre. It is a method of recording music. All your favorite hip-hop, country, jazz, and calypso songs are probably recorded using electronics. This is because very few artists use 100% accoustic instruments and record directly to a steam operated wax press anymore.
An Electronic Musician is a person who creates music with the aid of electricity. This would include; Dolly Parton, Nelly, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Britney Spears, Jerry Reed, MC Hammer, Frank Sinatra, Mettalica, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Weird Al Yankovic, Fats Domino, Marky Mark (and the Funky Bunch), The Beach Boys, and Primus. This is because each one of these artists (or groups of) undoubtedly used electronic microphones, electronic guitars, and electronic recording equipment.
I dispise the act of grouping artists and music into genres. It encourages seperatism and stereotyping. Group A likes country, and Group B likes rock & roll, so they sit on oppisite sides of the cafeteria, regardless of the fact that the fundamental elements of the music they enjoy are the same. They seperate because one genre has a twang when they sing and the other uses a distortion effect on their guitars.
Very rarely can an artist labelled as one genre be accepted into another genre, if at all. No examples come to mind. Of course there are artists that don't neccesarily fit into any genre, but of course Music Critics will quickly invent a genre just for that artist if he/she is succesful enough.
you people like IDM...
I spin IDM
come to Spokane you watch me play
nuff said
You are so two years ago!
Ask Slashdot: Where bad ideas meet poor googling skills.
I don't listen to music, I listen to "MP3s selected to appeal to the Apple demographic".
Tech Itch
Ed Rush
Optical
John B
Duskrider
Total Science
This is just a small sampling, but... for god's sake, stay AWAY from trance!
Here are some of my favs. before that. It hink the great thing about electronic music is that there are soo many different styles. So the music almost is almost customized to your taste. Well here's my recs Paul Van Dyk (Alive, Out there and Back, Namistai, Columbia, Epic Monolith, Starchildren) Paul Oakenfold (too much to list) Tall Paul (Tall Paul Mixed Live CD, his essential mix from 05/09/99 *european dating*) BT - just check him out Armin Van Burren - Bounderies of Imagination *CD* just a few more greats to list Sasha, Digweed, Sander Klienenberg, Dave Seaman, Danny Tenaglia, Keoki, Christopher Lawrence It may seem like a jungle out there but you'll soon know your way around.
See Sig! See Sig Zig! Zig Sig Zig!!!!!
When I needed to do this - learn about electronic music, I went to the local Record (vinyl) store, and purchased some compilation CD's. Alot of the stuff I didn't like.
But I came to love Trance, and some of the more famous DJ's.
Rabbit in the Moon
Paul Oakenfold (Bunkka is actually kind of cool)
Sasha
John Digweed - My favorite DJ right now
Sander Kleinenberg - My second fave.
But I also found some great stuff like Hooverphonic from Belgium. I saw them live here in St. Louis. They are a studio band - they did not perform well live...
What about Ambient Dub - Thievery Corporation?
Anyway, I'd go and get your self some compilations from the Electrnoica section of a record store that also sells used CD's - believe it or not, here in St. Louis, Vintage Vinyl is the best music store around - best selection!
If I were you thats what I'd do.
My $0.02...
First of all, always listen before you buy. Electronic artists are constantly fighting against sounding exactly what they've released before, so how much you like one album won't be indicative of how much you like the artist.
;-)
But you should start with...
1) Oribtal. Specifically, the "Insides" album with bonus CD.
2) Juno Reactor. "Beyond the Infinite" is more techno-Japanese; "Shango" is more techno-African; "Bible of Dreams" is really good. And "Pistolero" [track 1, Shango] is a must-hear, regardless of whether you like the album of not.
3) Earlier Delerium albums such as "Semantic Spaces" might interest you. Go back too far and you'll wind up listening to Front Line Assembly, get their latest ("Poem") and you'll be listening to normal songs.
4) The Enigma "LSD Remixes" collection is surprisingly good. Make sure it's the remixes, not the original.
5) Information Society, "Don't Be Afriad". Like NiN, but with talent and a knife-sharpener.
6) New Order, "The Rest of New Order" remixes, only has one bad track on it.
7) And even though you said you didn't like Moby, you should listen to his "Songs [1992-1998]" album to make sure. He's changed and not entirely for the better.
For Electronic Music there is just one place to go:
http://www.hyperreal.org
Culture, music, ravers and all kinds of love.
Dan
they have all this stuff, plus nice people who answer the phone
http://www.ab-cd.com
If you like Sasha and Digweed, then of course you ought to listen to more of their works (both together and separate -- "Sasha and Digweed", or "Sasha" and "John Digweed"), and they have a fair number of albums. Sasha's Ibiza and John Digweed's Hong Kong or LA mixes are HIGHLY recommended (Global Underground label). Also see other "progressive trance" artists such as (often prefaced with "DJ"):
Nick Warren
Dave Seaman
Sandra Collins
D:fuse
Deep Dish
John Fleming
Danny Howells
Timo Mass
Seb Fontane
By no way is it complete, but it's a great place to start, and an invaluable guide for those who don't know electronica inside-out upside-down and backwards.
DJ Manticore is the great unknown talent of electronica and hip-hop today. I am always blown away by his inventive tracks. I shit you not.
Plaid are demi-gods. You might know of DJ Shadow. Boards of Canada is great ambient music.
Peace,
High-C/Jason Gortician
aphix twin
- prodigy
(music for a jilted generation, fat of the land was a bit too poppy)
- Underworld
(!!! my fav. beaucoup fish was liked by many, but the older mid 90's was probebly their best stuff, "cowgirl"...love it!)
- Josh Wink
Electronic music is like tofu, everyone has preferences when it comes to seasonsings.
I've been a big fan of Loud And Found. They do a review of all sorts of music, new artists, old ones. It's usually recommending great music that I'm either thinking, "Oh, that sounds great", or it's music that I've already got :-)
Framework also here is a good Compilation Techno CD that helps a good cause. Afrika Aware
If your looking for the biggest source of Electronic Music on the net check out http://www.moonshine.com they have the biggest selection in the U.S. of electronica. They also have mp3 samples of most of the cds they sell.
just saw him perform last week. andrew's a good guy, and he performs LIVE with buzz, which is like rolling the dice but he always pulls it off :)
Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, Plaid, FSOL, Underworld, Orbital. You might as well start as you mean to go on.
That was classic intercourse!
From my box there's:
:)
The Plastic Compilation series put out by Nettwerk Records.
And the Transport series (formerly Tranceport) put out by Kinetic Records. (http://www.kineticrecords.com)
Guess it would take too long to mention all of the other great sound mix CD series, Global Underground, Naked Music Volumes, Bedrock, etc.
Few of my personal favorites:
Mix CDs:
Tranceport 1 - Mixed by Paul Oakenfold
Tranceport 3 - Mixed by Sandra Collins
Transport 4 - Mixed by Max Graham
Bedrock - Mixed by John Digweed
Trance Global Nation 2 - Mixed by Jerry Bonham
Northern Exposure (Expeditions) - Mixed by Sasha & John Digweed
Progressive Development 01 - Mixed by Nigel Dawson
Compilations:
Plastic Compilations 1 - 5
Chillout Series 1 & 2
Both out on the Nettwerk label.
Secret Life of Trance 1 & 2 out on Majectic Records for classic tracks that no trance fan should be without. This particular compilation (2 Discs) comes with the full lengths as well as a mix CD.
I've listened to quite a bit of Robert Miles' (warning: "flashy" site) music and really like it. I don't know why it's so hard to find. I think you can buy it at The Wall, but I can't find a website for the store.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -- George Orwell
There is a website that features samples of many electronic dance music genres. I know it may be a bit out of date, but it's very useful to get a general idea:
http://www.ishkur.com/features/music/guide.htm
Also, from my personal experience, here are the tracks that categorize what house/trance genres are like:
1. What I consider to be good trance: DJ Tiesto - Flight 643, DJ Tiesto - Lethal Industry
2. Good house: Way Out West - Mindcircus (Phunk Investigation Remix), Coco Da Silva - At Night
3. Progressive house: Sasha - Xpander, Redanka - Out Of The Dark, Lexicon Avenue - Why Are U Here?
4. More chill progressive house: Bjork - All is full of love (Brancaccio and Aisher remix), Shmuel Flash - Chilling Moments, Decepticons - Eastern Promise
Check them out if you're interested in hearing more of those genres.
Specifically, Vangelis did the soundtrack for Blade Runner as well as Chariots of Fire (whose theme became quite famous back in the 80s).
He's done a lot of other soundtrack work as well, but those are two you may have heard already without knowing who it was.
didn't Madonna release some sort of electronica music album recently? Actually, if I remember from interviews or something, didn't she claim to invent it?
But in all seriousness, there is a pretty decent article on rollingstone.com about top DJ's and the rave scene and so forth.
everyone always lists and discusses mindless and well in my opinion crappy electronic music and that's what they always consider that the whole electronic genre. however paul oakenfold and the like aren't the only nor the best form of electronic music out there. so here's some good AND NON-riaa labels, well mostly.
:wumpscut:- harsh sample oriented dance music influenced by skinny puppy.
vnv nation - one of the hotest ebm bands out there right now, good beats HIGHLY intellegent lyrics with a lot of meaning and feeling. piro from megatokyo loves them.
covenant- sweedish based band with big bouncy beats and great lyrics.
icon of coil- trancier band on their new album really hard hitting on their original one but still a very high energy band.
apoptygma berzerk- trancy type sythpop from norway, pretty good and rather dancy.
haujobb- drum and bass influnced music that is very catchy and relaxing. side projects are cleen/cleener and a couple others
funkervogt- harsher beat and sampled music that deals a lot with war and uses distorted vocals
fictional- a better version of funkervogt
ravenous- same as fictional
cevin key- from the legendary band skinnny puppy with many side projects including plateau, hilt, download and a couple others.
and one- the kings of synthpop, really catchy and fun lyrics, songs are both good and funny.
phil western- formly part of download, but a great minimalist techno artist who's website is colourspeaks
wolfshiem- great synthpop band that's depeche mode influenced.
das ich- great german electronic band that sings entirely in german
decoded feedback- very good and dancy sample based band with great lyrics and no they aren't using distortion, tho it sounds like it.
most of these bands can be found at metropolis rrecords
i have however left a couple bands for the last cause they practically started the whole genre and they are also on some riaa labels due to popularity and such
skinny puppy- one of the most influencial bands in the electronic field today and their canadian to boot
front 242- the band that started the whole ebm, electronic body music, about 20 years ago now and still going strong, with music that is even revolutionary now.
frontline assembly and delerium yes these guys are the SAME people, well person now since it's just bill leeb. frontline is a beat, synth and sample oriented music where delerium is more ambient in earlier incarnations and more dancy and female based lyrics in their later releases
as for buying these bands there are several good websites
metropolis-records mail order
isolation tank
storming the base of the alien foe a friend's record mail order service
i hope this helps you out
... for a few reasons. First, he is widely considered one of the founding fathers of modern electronica. Second, his music runs a wide gamut, from soft to not-so-hard to very hard and experimental. Last, because most of his music is quite good.
The videos are rather odd though; he has this motif of sticking his own face (in a somewhat disturbing leer) on other bodies -- children, teddy bears, women) and it's can be really strange and not a little unsettling (take a look at the cover of Windowlicker for an example). But they're certainly inventive and interesting.
A great place to hear or compose cutting-edge electronic music is the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in Oakland, California.
...for electronica, or EBM (electronic body music) are from Germany mostly. I'm an avid fan of this type of music and some of my favorite bands for the sound are:
VNV Nation
Apoptygma Berzerk
Funker Vogt
Wumpscut (one guy but extremely talented)
L'Ame Immortelle
Pzycho Bitch
Pandique (local german band, extremely hard to find)
Neurotic Fish
Beborn Beton
Front 242 (old but also extremely talented)
Icon of Coil
State Of The Union
I'm unsure if all of these bands fall into what you're looking for but I am sure they all use electronic means to produce their music. My favorite of the bunch, VNV Nation, used (mostly) nothing but a PC to produce their entire recent CD entitled Futureperfect. They even provided a list of software/hardware they had at their disposal.
If you're looking for a place you can order the music online, I suggest Darkland Music, or the record label Metropolis Records. Also, under Metropolis's website, they have a list of bands that are signed under them, all of which are electronica/EBM. I hope this helps you out.
Try actually thinking for yourself. It's quite refreshing.
Also, try 'Ceefax' by Fridge. This has a similar textural feel. You'll start to hear the music in *all* ambient noise :-)
My favorites:
Hardfloor
check their classic TB Resuscitation, as well as the rest of their phenomenal 303-driven works (Respect, Funalogue, Homerun, etc...)
Vapourspace
Themes from Vapourspace remains my all-time favorite album ever, period. The whole thing rocks. Some good tracks on Sweep, too.
Plastikman (Richie Hawtin)
The king of minimalism. I would be remiss if I didn't recommend Spastik, a fantastic track. Check out all of his stuff.
Surgeon
It sounds like you're underwater, but it's bang-up good shit.
Steve Stoll
Hyperrealism is an excellent track
Josh Wink
Find the Tweakin' remix of Higher State of Conciousness-- fantastic breakbeatish house.
Joey Beltram
Classic.
Dieselboy
Drum and bass fun.
DJ Zinc's Super Sharp Shooter is a classic D&B track.
There's a million more, but that's what strikes me as favorites off the top of my head from my dusty record bin. Happy hunting, and thanks for posting this article-- I'm sure I'll find some sweet stuff I've never heard digging through everybody else's recommendations.
Mesh - I have no idea how this band is not more well known (can you spell RIAA?), simply fantastic music across each of their albums. Lots of influence from Depeche Mode. The latest album "Who Watches Over Me" is sure to please just about anyone.
Evil's Toy (now called just T.O.Y.) - they started out as strictly Industrial, but have transformed their music into dancy/EBM in their latest albums.
Covenant - they've been around for a long time now, and are considered to be one of the founders of the EBM genre. Their last album "United States of Mind" is a definite must have.
Icon Of Coil - A style similar to the of VNV Nation but with a much more energetic and dancy feel. This a popular band that gets played a lot in Industrial clubs.
Echo Image - very very upbeat, pop/dancy, and enjoyable. They're brand new and hit the scene pretty hard with their album "Compuphonic".
Some other's to check out:
Cut.Rate.Box
Neuroticfish
The Nine
The Echoing Green
Iris
Colony 5
DeVision
Fictional
Where the heck do you find this type of music? Metropolis Records (http://www.metropolis-records.com) is the label most of these bands are on. They are independent label, with no affiliation with the RIAA as far as I know. You can get lots of info, and check out short clips from the bands. A Different Drum (http://www.adifferentdrum.com/) signed most of the others I listed.
Metropolis runs the BEST CD mail-order service (http://www.industrial-music.com), and carry music from lots of other labels as well.
What I cannot believe in all this discussion is the pure lack of academic insight. Having spent quite some time studying the roots -- and I mean ROOTS -- of electronic music, i'm sad to see so many associate electronic music with just variants of dance/beats, or something loud. Yes, these are genres, but what you list are not "main" genres.
Why has nobody mentioned the core composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varese, Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer, or even Max Mathews? What about concepts such as "music concrete", used by well known musicians as The Beatles, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd (maybe even The Who)? These are the real pioneers of electronic music, the real influencers of today's electronic musicians.
Do yourself a favor and search some of those names in Google. You'll be glad you did.
-Q
bangingtunes.com
- really good online vynyl resource.
hardnrg.com
- Great forum if you want to find out info - and talk with people about music - mostly hardnrg.. but the guy who runs the site, Morgan, will answer almost any question you have about the music. He has a lot of knowledge on the subject. He is an accomplished DJ, spins all over, owns/runs lotekrecords.com and makes a lot of music. so if youre interested in learning about how electronica is made, what software and hardware are used - how much it costs to make etc... this is the guy to talk to.
I was kicking myself when I was posting those links, since I had once upon a time had the Chaos URL, but forgot both the name and address of it. Thank you _so_ for posting it again........... :)
Aphex Twin, in my opinion, is the best electronic artist I've heard, infact Aphex Twin is my favourite artist of all time, in every genre.
... I Care Because you do is an excellent start.
Everything he does is amazing, and he constanly changes the sound of music.
I've been listening to his excellent "... I Care Because you do" all day again for the millionth time.
If your new to electronic music or havent listened much to Aphex Twin you owe it to yourself to listen to the master.
bbc radio 1 has had the essential mix every week since '93 or '94, all the djs mentioned so far have probably been on there. It's in real format but that doesn't stop you putting it on a cd if you know what to do. Last couple of weeks have been live sets which is a bit crappy but a lot of them are studio, the stream itself is at:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio1/essmix.ra
listings of past sets can be found at:
http://www.tracklistings.org/
It's a good starting point to get a feel for the different sub-genres etc., the only downside is that you only get 2 hours of music a week.
Once a week BBC's Radio One hosts the lengendary Essential Mix -- a two hour set by a world class DJ. No fresher sound can be heard anywhere else.
s html?es smix
They just recently stated streaming the last week's Essential Mix. It can be heard here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio1_aod.
Past and current essential mixes are widely avaliable on P2P networks. A comprehensive list can be attained here. There is also a message board where you can rate each mix after you listen to it.
http://www.tracklistings.org
Listening to these mixes and contributing to the board is a great way of getting involved and learning about the genre and essentially the DJs you like.
Actually, I wonder if there is an issue with needing to 'work up to' some music. Would someone who has never heard house before really get what's going on in a Derrick Carter set? Do you need to 'learn the language' before you can understand with some depth?
which is why we all love him. it's crap, but good crap.
It seems to me that house became something about merging the mind/soul and the machine in such a way that the mind/soul was elevated, or reached a transcendent place. In comparison mainstream techno (although certainly not Derrick May, et al) is really about surpressing the mind/soul to the machine - to seek oblivion.
I have seen lots of comments about House music, but not a lot of information about the VARIETY of house music available. I'm a house DJ myself (still spin vinyl, as most old-skool DJs do) and House Music is all about VARIETY.
House can be very moody and soulful, and I would categorize most of what I play as either dance-oriented or soulful electronic. Disco-style house, very dancy, is still very popular and a lot of people, myself included, will tell you that Disco never died, it just became House. The disco-style house that exists today is actually very sophisticated and the girls on the dance floor LOVE IT, so I play a good bit of it. Happy club girls = happy club owners = more gigs and money for me!
The particular sub-genre of house that I do most is called "Deep House", which brings in vocals, interesting samples, tribal beats w/ congas... All kinds of variety!
For the ultimate in deep soulful house, there's no one better than Dubtribe Sound System, from San Francisco, who have been doing live House and electronica for about 10 years. Their album Bryant Street, which came out I think in 1999, is still one of my very favorite house CDs and it rarely leaves the changer in my car. It's soulful and beautiful, moving and primal, and it's something that you can't hear on the radio hardly at all.
Deep house is still a very underground type of thing, and here in Atlanta, GA, where I live and play, the underground House movement is very very popular. We in the ATL are trying very hard to bring it more mainstream, as deep house is WAAAAY more accessible to your average music listener. It's more song-oriented and somewhat less repetitive than hard house, trance, d&b...
Give it a try!
Dubtribe Sound System -- Bryant Street
deephouse.com
My latest demo [RealAudio]
ok, just about any Orbital CD (esp. in-sides, snivelization, and diversions)...
underworld: Dubnobasswithmyhead
and I don't know if you would consider him electronic, but you should check out DJ Shadow: Endtroducing or UNKLE (a DJ shadow collaboration album).
Really great book about the history of the music: Modulations.
There's a movie that goes with it too, I believe. Sorry I don't have any pointers to that, got lazy. Don't know if anyone will read my posts anyways. ;)
BT is a god... 808 state is older than god... and DJ Icey is just cool. (forget the fact BT produced that boy band) BT makes some of fullest, most well rounded music out there and he is insane in concert. He is actually a very talented musician as well... not just a sampler-jockey.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
First you should probably get a feel for everything to see what you like. The styles of electronic music (please don't call it 'electronica'..bleh) are about as varied and diverse as any other genre. I rather amusing but informative site is Iskhur's Guide to Electronic Music. The descriptions are a bit cheeky, but there's tons of samples to pull from.
There's no real "jumping in" point for listening to electronic music...you just more or less keep listening to everything, until something just grabs you.
oK, it's in quotes, so don't freak out.
Since the early 90's, electronic music in conjunction with smallish underground gatherings and hallucinogenic/euphoric drugs has spawned a shock of creative music and new attitudes.
There is a lot of "skillful" electronic music out there, but then there is music that is taken to the next level. The amazingly intricate sounds these artists make indicates to me that the complicated machinery between the mind and the media has become transparent to them:
Hallucinogen - Twisted
Orb - Orbus Terrerum
Towa Tei - Future Listening
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Fantastic Plastic Machine
Saafi Brothers - Mystic Cigarettes
Cortex Burn - Dark Ritual [a song, not an album]
Goa Gil - Kosmokrator [DJ Mix]
Tromesa - Psuedomental
Shpongle - Are You Sphongled?
Nortec Collective - The Tijuana Sessions vol. 1
Koxbox - Dragon Tales
Rip Van Hippy - Waking Up Is Hard To Do
X-Dream - Radio
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Pat
Some of my faves:
Infected Mushroom
Paul Oakenfold
Yahel
Dj Irene
Dj Tiesto
Space Cat
Felix Da Housecat
GMS
Master of Rave
and lots more i'm forgetting...
Oh, get these songs too (just do it dammit):
Dj Red - Enter the Dragon
Dj Irene - Blood is Pumpin'
Playboi - Whistle While You Squirt
Yeah. Hope you have lots of bass, cuz it all sort of sucks without =\
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
This discussion has rekindled my interest in producing my own electronic music. I was waiting until I had some cash to pick up an MPC2000 and some other equipment but I have noticed that several artists produce their music strictly on computers.
What tools are used to do this?
This German bands kicks some serious but. THey started off as heavy metal guys, but got turned onto trance. Every album is worth getting. Also, just pick up compilations with as many different artists. I also highly recommend DJ DB, it's great jungle trance
I'd like to reccomend MP3.com. They have a great library of music and at this stage in your musical development...it's just best to find out what your into. While much of the IDM (Aphex Twin, Autechre) and big beat (Crystal Method, Chemcial Brothers) is good music, you musn't limit yourself. My guess is that you would be into progressive house (it's similar to house, usually darker, and often contain bongos and congas), or progressive trance. So download some music by some of the MP3.com artists, some of it is actually pretty good. Then once you find your style, check out the major labels. Yoshitoshi and Bedrock are great progressive house labels. But you still shouldn't limit yourself to any specific genres. Tower Records has a pretty good selection of music (more than any other major chain). And I think this is the best example of how P2P's can be good...boot up Kazaa Lite or a Gnutella client and go nuts.
Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive.
A quick glance at the (hundreds) of posts in this thread didn't give up this name, so:
Amon Tobin.
Seriously. The guy can wrap a breakbeat around your head that will leave you wondering if your skull is still in one piece. And they're melodically interesting, too - if your tastes run to jazz, I recommend checking out his album Bricolage: otherwise, start with the more conventionally techno (but still excellent) Supermodified.
Anecdote: I once described the second track on Supermodified, "Four Ton Mantis," as the soundtrack to my nightmares. (if you're interested, the web site for a club called The Spy Bar used to use that song as the background music to a flash movie... anyway.)
Amazingly enough, DeliPlayer (originally for the Amiga) has been ported to Windows. Almost completely free, you only pay (ie. "support the authors") for the save-to-disk feature.
Not that this wasn't entirely predictable.
Problem is, I've lost it. Anyone know what I'm talking about and where it is?
Bleh!
My absolute favorite place to learn about electronic music is http://www.hos.com/. They have a show on NPR on the local radio station that I really like to listen to. On the net for streams, you can go to shoutcast and pick a genre electronica, but CARP removed some of the good stations like sonoma FM.
I'm just going to piggyback on this highly-modded post. Since the original poster said Oakenfold was -good-, and Moby -bad-, I'm going to point in the trance/techno direction. Note that the music snobs on slashdot will probably disagree.
So, some DJ's not mentioned in the list given: Tiesto, Marco V, Timo Maas, DJ Panic, DJ Astrid, Spider Willem, John Digweed, Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, Armin Van Buuren.
Some artists/tracks you might like:
Major League (DJ Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren together), System F, Plastic Boy, Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Basement Jaxx, yadda yadda yadda... you'd probably do well to just use a couple of these in a Google sets search, or to just check some of the tracklists of the DJ's you like. Most trance albums are hit-or-miss, even by the better producers. Albums I've really liked include:
All of DJ Tiesto's albums, especially Magik 6 (awesome)
All Chemical Bros. albums
Well, actually, I don't like many full albums much. To tell the truth, I mostly like single tracks on albums. Just download some live mixes, is my best advice. Or go to some shows and get the tracklistings of the ones you like.
Get Unknown Pleasures. Get Closer. Feel where they were coming from. Discover how and why they had to become New Order. Get way into New Order and learn where most of this "electronica" crap came from in the first place. Discover they ripped off most of what they knew from Kraftwerk. Buy yourself a copy of Breakin' and laugh because you recognize the song he's dancing with the broom to. Stumble across the early history of the Musique Concrete movement. Realize that people were doing much more interesting stuff way before modern computers even existed.
Grow into a holier-than-thou "I was listening to techno before techno was cool" curmudgeon.
Thanks for the list, its nice to find some streams that fit my moods that aren't subject to CARP.
Bleh!
totally i was going to say something similar. just to add some stuff;
;) also check out "seabound"m and be weary with apop, because they are generally a mix of ebm and futurepop.
some ppl call electropop 'synthpop' (including myself), i dont beleive there is a difference between the two terms.synthpop is very much alive today, with great artists such as "echo image".
ebm: basically, its more bleepier than industrial, but more harsher than futurepop (i'd consider synthpop as coming between futurepop and basic pop)
industrial: ooo, industrial is a veery hard genre to catagorise; you have to really have heard some stuff to know it. industrial also has "industrial metal" (ministry), "metal industrial" (kmfdm) "industrial rock" (the majority of nice inch nails tracks), and the harsher power electronics group of genres, including "industrial noise" (p.a.l), "powernoise" (check the ant-zen record label), and full on "noise" (think of listening to white noise).
futurepop: you could say that future pop is like "harsher than normal progressive trance with vocals", but that relies on one knowing what progressive trance
----
milk
I'm more into the trance variety but #1 must listen to in my book is ATB. This is what initially got me into the whole trance thing anyway.
bah
s/nice inch nails/nine inch nails
=p
----
milk
And if you want to start making some of your own, you'll want to get a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a razor blade and some scotch tape. You might lookup the plans on-line for a Therimen. Oh, and lookup a guy named "Moog" while you're at it.
If you know the history of "IDM" and Ambient-Techno. You will love this:l
http://www.spaz.com/teg/102301/chatlog.htm
www.insound.com has everything you could possibly need plus some killer vinyl in their "annex"... many mp3s as well.
Joe
Ok.. Homebass was a great place for music.. Especially the techno section.. errr at least a couple of years ago when I took care of it :)
I could give you a history of homebass later if you want..
So you know more about electronica well. Well, there are more genres and sbub-genres then any other music on other. The snobbery between fans of certain genres can be quite brutal.
For example. Let's say you like Progressive Trance/House (the Digweed/Sasha sound) and you go to a rave to see masters Sasha and digweed. There will probably be another dj at the rave like, Jeff Mills. now Jeff Mills is a pioneer of what is called Detroit techno. Some people might call it minimal techno because SOME people think that minimal is anything from detroit but this just is not true. Minimal itself has it's own set of sub-genres (techno, house, dub... d&b sometimes called ambiant d&b).
Anyway you're at this rave, Digweed/Sasha come on for their set.. now, you'll see a unch of kids in phat bants that look like overgrown babies.. along with a bunch of college geeky looking kids with glasses who are so high their pristine white faces look like tomatoes. They get into the Digweed/Sasha stuff. Then, when their set is done, you have jeff mills come up, and form the corners, the techno geeks move up closer to the dance floor by a few feet. They sort of surround the area, and stand with a pondering look on their face towrds the dj booth, loosely commenting to their friends about this mix and that cut. All the while the raver kids and college geeks dance idly, but slowly fading to other rooms cuz the music they are no hearing has no cheesy vocal loops for them to empathize with.
Meanwhile, in the second room, which used to be known as the junlge/chill out room, but is now the hip hop room, you might hear the sounds of some drum and bass and or hip hop. In this room you will find some raver kids, usually the ones who aren't doing any hard drugs. Along with your mass of white kids decked out in hip hop gear, bobbing their heards and smoking blunts. In a jungle room you won't get the attitude you'd get from a hip hop room, unless they are playing Hard-Step jungle, which is Hip-Hop infused drum and Bass. Their is Also Ragga/Jump Up D&b/Jungle, this is my personal favourite of the D&B styles. It's the oldest and also the funnest. It's d&b with reggae samples/original cuts, and usually gets a room jumping. notable dj's in the d&b scene include (from the UK) Dj Hype, Mickey Finn, Ed Rush, Roni Size, Grooverider, Aphrodite and dozens more.
Back to techno...
Most people think that anything with an elctronic beat that you can dance to is techno. Which is partially true. Trance and techno are very similar in a lot of ways, however, the main difference is with vocals. Techno (some people also might call tech-house, or hard trance even hard house, but that is so wrong) of today comes in around 137 to 140 BPM's (beats per minute) Notable artists include, Adam Beyer, Mills, Richie Hawtin (although you never know what he might spin) Gaetano Parisio (aka Gaetek) and Marco Carola. There are hundreds more but those 5 are some of the best. They all spin what I consider to be techno.
Next you have trance. Trance uses a lot of acid sounds, breaks, breakdowns, and vocal loops like "i am a spaceman, spaceman, I like cheese, I like cheese" over and over and over. It's BPM clock is around 145 to 150. Personally, I hate Trance. It's too happy and perky for my tastes. Good Trance dj's will take you on a trip. Guys like Digweed and Sasha do it very well, Sasha especially. Dj Tiesto is getting major play right now right about everywhere, so you might want to check out his stuff too. You might also like Mr. C his earlier stuff was more on the house/techno side of things, but he seems to be moving more towards a progressive trance sound.
Trance also has it's own set of sub genres. Hard Trance, which is basically techno with a more industrial sonud, Progressive Trance, which gets the most play and sounds like toys being wound up, and Acid Trance which is about 70% acid riffs with beats.
Next there's hardcore. Hardcore is music with a very fast beat. Usually over 200 BPM's. There's a genre called Happy Hardcore, which in the early 90's had a very Jungle/d&b feel to it. In fact hardcore originated from Junlge breakbeats.. but that's another story. Happy hardcore has what a lot of people consider to be cheesy vocal samples, and i tend to agree, although back in the day it wasn't cheesy cuz it was all ripped off. There is also Industrial hardcore which usually clocks in at 250 to 300 bpm's. You used to hear it a lot at new york raves but it has sort of died in the last few years. then you have Gabber, which is mainly a Dutch thing. You'll hear it a lot at rotterdam and amsterdam raves. It's kind of like a mix of cheesy happy hardcore and a lot of cussing samples.
Next up is the most popular genre, House music. House also has its set of sub-genres. There's Hard House, Garage, Chill House, and Disco House. Hard House, is a lot like techno, only a little bit slower (around 132 to 135 BPM's). Some think that hard house is like disco house and will say that artists like Deep Dish belong there, but this just is not so.
Garage is very vocal house, you'll hear it a lot in Gay clubs.
Chill is a very west coast sounding style of house. It's little slower, has more a vinyl sound to it. it's the kind of house you'll hear in trendy restaurants.
Disco house can also be considered hard house by some. It uses a lot of disco samples to create new sounds and beats.
Oh I forgot, there also ghetto house/ghetto tech. which is basically house with a lot of vocal refrences to sex and shaking that ass.
Some good house Dj's to look for are Mark Farina, Terry Lee Brown Jr., David Morales, Jahsper Dahlbeck, Bad Boy Bill, Danny Teneglia, Dj Funk and John Selway.
Other styles of Elctronica are IDM (intelligent Dance Music) Usually IDM tends to be exprimental/amibiant sounding. Pioneers of the genre include The Orb, Orbial, The Future Sound of London and The Aphex Twin.
There's downtempo/trip-hop.. and ambiant too.
Oh I also forgot breakbeat. WHich has its own set of sub-genres/ Ranging from Phat Breaks to electro. Phat breaks can still be heard in raves, you used to always hear it at raves but it has been slowly fading away, being replaced by Florida/Orlando breaks, which has more of a trancy sound to it (there's also a style of Trance called Orlando/Florida Trance .. guys like Kimball COllins and Rabbit In the Moon are worth checking out).
If you're just looking for stuff that sounds like digweed and sasha, then you should pick up the Global Underground discs i think they are at volume 22 now. Avoid the ministry of sound compilations cuz they tend to be rather cheesy.
That's it for now, if you have any questions don't be shy.
mike
Most people DON'T know the difference between Techno, House and all the other genres of dance music that have popped up in an attempt to pigeonhole and define artists and music. This is both good and bad. It allows the consumer to easily find artists similar to ones they already like. On the other hand, the rank and filing of artists into one genre will often limit who hears them. Take your pick which you prefer.
Also, I have no idea if anyone else posted something like this, I'm far too lazy to go through all 500 some odd posts to see.
House - What traditional dance has basically become. Similar to Disco - generally medium- to fast-paced music that often will not incoprorate a heavy bass.
Techno - Characterized by heavier Bass, quicker beats, less vocals.
Trance - Slower beats, little bass, usually similar to new age materials. Relaxed, melodic music.
Electronic - Similar to Trance in a general lack of bass, but can be fast-paced - almost no vocals.
Two-Step - British mixture of Techno and House - very quick pace designed to elicit complex dance maneuvers. Think of Dance Dance Revolution at a high level for what 2-step dancing looks like. Craig David is a fairly good mainstream example of this, too.
Drum & Bass - Just what it sounds like - lots of beats - sometimes tribal, sometimes more Electronic sounding - easy to dance to as it has clearly defined beats.
If you need suggestions, listen to several of the top internet radio stations that play electronic music. Groove Radio, Cablemusic.com, or my personal favorite, Radio Free Virgin. These radio stations all have branded players that will display the song, sometimes even giving you a way to purchase the music right away. It's an awesome way to start finding new artists that appeal to your electronic music tastes. RFV even has a couple of electronic stations that allow you to hear different styles.
I'm sure this has been suggested, but also try finding local record shops (not the mainstream ones) that carry music meant for DJs. Usually you'll find club DJs hanging out there, and you can ask them what's new and what's good.
Instead of going out and downloading a bunch of pirated music (not that you would ever do that, I'm sure) or buying a bunch of music at outrageous prices before you have heard anything off of the CD, try looking at EMusic's electronic section. They have hundreds of electronica artists, and they do a pretty good job of providing recommendations if you like an artist. They do a trial of 50 free MP3s and then it's something like $15 a month, download all you want. You'll definitely want a high-speed connection to take advantage of this site, though - it's pretty addictive.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
I said I wasn't going to mention the "straight industrial" bands. If I were going to, I'd probably mention Skinny Puppy, Download, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Ministry, The Tear Garden, Foetus, and Coil, among others.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Hmm, I must have less a tolerance for noise, because I'd consider Asche, Morgenstern, Haus Arafna, etc. to be "rhythmic noise", whereas Merzbow et al are "arrythmic noise". "Industrial" is what I'd call more structured (and usually less noisy) things like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Foetus, and possibly Coil.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
http://www.breakbeatscience.com for all of your DNB needs.
Epitonic.com has an excellent runthrough (playable in Winamp or any MP3 player) for each of the major genres in electronic music.
Electronic music is basically not played on the regular radio. However, there are lots of Internet radio stations that play electronic music in its various forms.
SOMAFM used to specialize in this, but it was killed by the DMCA. DrumLogic.net specializes in Drum and Bass. ECKOradio has some good downloads.
And don't forget the energy overseas. For example, Tornado Productions in the UK does regular live webcasts of electronic music DJ's.
Hunt around on the Internet, find some music you like, and listen to it. I do not know any better advice than that!
Leftfield's "Leftism" is a defining work in the canon of modern dance music.
Atmospheric Drum and Bass is where its at imho, check out anything and everything LTJ Bukem has put out. His label (Good Looking Records) just got an online store back up, they have about 90 items, various vinyls and cds. Check it out. I highly recommend the Progression Sessions for the mixed drum-and-bass, and the Earth series for a more organic approach.
"Calling EMACS an editor is like calling the Earth a hunk of dirt" - Chris DiBona
Seems a major electronic genre is being left out - synthpop. You know, like the old 80's stuff... Depeche Mode, Electronic, Pet Shop Boys, several around and still kicking. And there are a lot of new bands too that are great - Echoing Green, Cosmicity, etc. A good site for this is A Different Drum. You can find a lot of good stuff there - links, info, etc.
Also, tons of the electronic bands (synthpop and otherwise) seem to have a lot of good stuff on mp3.com. Check out Bassic, 303 Infitity, Cosmicity, Red Flag there as well.
If you are looking for the more trance type like Paul Oakenfield you mentioned, look at the names of the groups on his albums because he is a classic dj and remixes songs from a lot of other great electronic bands (paul van dyk, etc.)
not mushrooms
www.massinova.com for great streaming trance
my favorite site for this kinda thing is...
www.dancemusicchat.com
people regularly submit their favorite 5 tunes. good place to find out what other people are listening to
Roni Size Reprazent - New Forms
Photek - Modus Operandi, Form & Function
Goldie - Timeless
Jungle Jazz - IRMA records (---label)
The Crystal Method - Vegas, Tweekend
Squarepusher - Music is Rotted One Note
Fire up your favorite p2p client and search for 'essential mix'. Two hour sets from BBC Radio 1. Some of my favorites are by Basement Jaxx, Steve Lawler, James Holden and Juri Hulkonnen.
Kind of on the house tip, but let's not quibble. It's electronic and you can dance to it.
I can't believe there isn't more awareness of swedish minimal and techno on slashdot. The top men of the swedish scene are, in sort of an order:
h ttp://www.discogs.com/label/Code_Red because no url exists for this label
:)
Adam Bayer
Cari Lekebusch / Mr. James Barth
Thomas Krome
Alexi Delano
Joell Mull
Marco Carola
Jahsper Dahlback
LENK
These guys have a sublime ability to take thrashing beats and pull them apart into a cohesive pattern, then shift that pattern into something different, and shift it back to maintain a symmetry and dancibility. Some of these guys have been known to use FOUR turntables at once (this is uncommon though), though two and three are about equally common. Cari Lekebush is also the supreme master of original compositions though most of them are good and highly original to a degree.
Check out the labels:
http://www.drumcode.se/
http://www.svek.com/
You won't be sorry I promise! This stuff is infectious and the swedish scene is truly the flag bearer for innovations in minimal and techno.
I have a huge collection of this stuff in MP3, as that's the only way for the average person to get it... Most releases are on vinyl only. Well worth the trouble though and you may be able to find some on the P2P scene. I used to run a server with pretty much all the stuff from drumcode/code red and some other stuff, to get it out there. Unfortunately Verizon didn't like the fact that I was starting to push almost 20 gigs a day of combined up and down traffic, and decided to terminate my contract and send me a rather hefty bill
Good luck with your search,
MachineGestalt
Beanfield (out of Germany IIRC) is a electro-jazz favorite.. Heard their track 'Enchanting Signs' on somafm, and could only find the record ('Human Patterns') on CDNOW..
:) ..
Also, there's good ol' Kraftwerk, KMFDM, Orb, 808 State, PWEI, Orbital, Art of Noise, SIDekick (if you have OS X
Astral projection is great, try Faithless as well.. Search Google for electronic music, Drum and Bass, Trance, Techno(even though no body listens to techno-SlimShady, but you should be able to find good artists that reporters labeled as such cause they don't have a clue), Rave...After finding artists name, search for tracks by them, there's a whole lot out there to choose from and not everyone will agree on everything...PEACE
there is a local web site with tons of Djs posting there mixes and original songs
they have stuff from almost every different style of electronic music and its free
http://www.mnvibe.com
Hi,
If you like Sasha and Digweed, and Oakenfold, you must like trance. I have several friends who DJ both trance and house, and they tell me the label Moonshine is the very best.
peace
we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively - bill hicks
http://www.ishkur.com/features/music/guide.htm -- Is a nice guide to different styles of electronic/dance music.
There's a lot more good music out there than has been mentioned, but I'd rather not be flamed for name dropping. Go check out some new styles, and start looking. Join some sort of live set trading community, and start seeing what's out there!
paul oakenfold
paul van dik
dave clarke
george acosta
kai tracid
mauro picotto
mistress barbara
jack de marseille
ooohhh yeah!
on a side note, anyone else into liquid? (lightsticks swinging)
First off, let me say that Aphex Twin, Autechre, etc etc etc are all very talented, but I wouldn't recommend them to an electronic music "virgin." Personally, i find that i have to be in a very specific mood to listen to that sub-genre (i don't know what you would call it, hardcore industrial whatever). But for someone who enjoys Sasha & Digweed i would say start with this:
Paul Van Dyk
Tiesto
George Acosta
Christopher Lawrence
Armin Van Buuren
Nick Warren
Judge Jules
Seb Fontaine
Mauro Picotto
If you like these, you might also like:
BT
Deepsky
Steve Baltes
Dave Ralph
Steve Lawler
Richie Hawtin
Deep Dish
Dave Seaman
Bad Boy Bill
Tall Paul
Sander Kleinenberg
Ferry Corsten
Micro
Donald Glaude
Warp Brothers
(and some sf bay area locals)
Thomas Trouble
Mars
Mystre
Dyloot
Denise a.k.a. DJ D
And if you're feeling really adventurous, try out some Drum & Bass:
LTJ Bukem
AK1200
DJ Hype
Aphrodite
You can check out www.thedjlist.com for some more options. And if you have to go with compilations, stick with Global Underground, Prototype, NuBreed, and the like.
There's so much good electronic music from the 70's and 80's, like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle. Check them out! (Especially Nag! Nag! Nag! by Cabaret Voltaire)
Coil is a long time favorite. A good introduction would be the Unnatural History compilations and Time Machine. (Time Machine is _very_ ambient, and brilliantly simple.)
For the harder stuff, I'd listen to Skinny Puppy(Worlock and Tin Omen are classics), Frontline Assembly and Klinik.
And of course, one of the greatest bands ever, DAF (Deustsche Amerikanische Freundschaft.) Look for Der Mussolini, Verschwinde deine Jugend and Sex unter wasser on your favorite p2p network.
Meat Beat Manifesto is another brilliant band, once found on the brainwashed site. (A big "thank you" to the people who maintain that site.)
Also consider the following:
Massive Attack, Portishead, Lamb, propellerheads, Grooverider, Hooverphonic, Ministry of Sound, Clannad, Clan of Xymox, Bjork or Rx
Others have already mentioned Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and Crystal Method.
If you like the industrial edge try Skinny Puppy (the original industrial band), Front Line Assembly, Meat Beat Manifesto.
Buy anything old from Kraftwerk.
Period.
Soulseek is going to get /.'ed and it'll be down again! All because of you!
1 - Yahoogroups, topica, etc and look for rave mailing lists. Especially for ones in your area. They can help. Plus, they can inform you about the local artists/DJ's in your area, who are often as good as or better than the big names. 2 - www.ishkur.com has a neat app to show the myriad genres of electronic music. 3 - hardcore. Drum & bass, jungle, ragga. These are the sounds you want. Soundmurderer, John B, Acen, Squarepusher, Cylob, Altern 8, Aphrodite (esp. "All Over Me" with Barrington Levy!), Boards of Canada, Congo Natty, Dillinja, DJ Die, Luna-C, LTJ Bukem, SL2, Krome & Time. I could go on for days. You won't find the best music in Tower records. They only sell watered-down commercial stuff.
Hi all.
:)
I help out with the <html> at a website I think relevant to this topic - global-grooves.com , this is the website for Global Grooves, an independant record shop in the UK - specialising in of electronic music. Sasha & Digweed are "big names" here in the UK dance culture - we stock vinyls that these guys play out (if we can get 'em) nd many more artists maybe unknown in the US and elsewhere. Our database is fully searchable - for example:
All tunes whose description contains Digweed - (Currently 118 Found)
The site is working with Mozilla and IE, and makes plenty use of javascript, so until I get round to coding the lynx-style version, javascript needs to be switched on. Sorry for the blatant advert, the point is that we have some 1000+ recent tunes in the database, often with a 3 - 4 minute streaming sample of the A or B side. My guess is that anyone who likes Sasha, Digweed, Oakenfold etc. will surely find tunes to listen to in our site - If anybody likes the tunes enough we do of course sell them through our secure site, and will deliver to many places around the globe
Reminds me of some clueless newbie bragging in irc on how much clue he actually has and demonstrated his excellent musical taste by using his mirc script to display the tracks he was listening to. One of them was something like "Paul_van_Dyke_-_Another_Way(CDF).mp3". I think he was even using DJsomething nick on a channel filled with real djs.
Actually, bands like Tangerine Dream and artists like Schulze predated Kraftwerk and Jarre. W. Carlos helped develop the Moog as a classical instrument, and Morton Subotnick definitely pushed the envelope of electronic composition. While these artists can't be considered "electronica" by today's standards (any more than Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep are "heavy metal") they established the groundwork for electronic music.
any album by Amon Tobin is great jazzy drum & bass electronica! I've seen his latest, Supermodified, in Tower. At least check him out on the web - www.amontobin.com
Another surprising relative-unknown is Lamb. Great vocals set to some busted up jazz beats.
Can I get a Tod Dockstader?
Also check out the compilation "OHM: Early Gurus of Electronic Music" on the Ellipsis Arts label, if you want to hear what electronic music sounded like before the tools to make it were mass produced.
If you want to hear more some of the first "popular" electronic music, besides Kraftwerk, you can check out early solo releases by Brian Eno or Ryuichi Sakamoto. Eno is sometimes credited with "founding" ambient electronica-- while I'd dispute that claim, his work is certainly seminal. Sakamoto was part of the Japanese electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra, and has since gone on to produce everything from piano solo albums to pop collaboration with Towa Tei (not much better known as Jungle DJ Towa Towa of Deee-Lite). He is best known for winning an Oscar for his (non-electronic) score to the film "The Last Emperor".
As for contemporary artists, I'm of the opinion that Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin, AFX, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, plus many more) has both the widest musical breadth and the most intense depth of anyone with some modicum of popularity. If you're interested, you might want to start with his more accessible albums like Selected Ambient Works 85-92, i care because you do or Surfing on Sine Waves, or, if you prefer hardcore, Caustic Window Compilation or Come To Daddy. On the more eclectic side, his latest release "2 Remixes by AFX" contains a track called "Bonus High Frequencies" that sounds like a modem gone haywire. What more could you want?
John Cage has done some great electronic work, but it isn't what you think. It was more experimentation, but he did do an interesting thing with ballet and electronic music. He attatched transmitters to the danced and they danced around an antenna, then the antenna transmitted backstage and John chose the sounds from there and played the music created from the ballet.
And each piece is different every time you play it.
And of course, everyone holds Debussy to be father of elecronic music (well, I do. But he got the ball rolling with his eastern theme incorporations).
Or the Dadaists and their music concrete movement (post-WWI) that inspired that crazy big loudspeaker machine (I can't remember the name).
It's kinda sad, but there really hasn't been anything unique since Kraftwerk.
It's kinda hard to find anything with a definate point-of-departure from the norm. But Bedrock, Cass & Slide, Breeder (who only writes for Sasha and Digweed), Jamie Myerson, Goldie, and Albion (who has his signature chords, you'll know when they hit) are a little more thought out from everything else. I prefer some Artemis (I'm a sucker for Artcore), but some aren't too keen on it.
As for your mixes, anything Global Underground. The Boxed Boys have produced the best elecronic mixes I've heard. In fact, I'd recommend 013: Ibiza (Sasha) if you can get it. If not, Oakenfold in New York (I think it's 002). My personal favorites.
Craig Myerson has done some great elecronic scores for movies like Romeo & Juliet. And the Fight Club score is great too (The Dust Brothers).
Radio One's website is great for your club tastes. NPR has a great show "Echoes" that is your new age stuff.
That's all I can pull out of my head.
I Support Fair Use
A long time ago, I found a cassette at a library in Calgary (where I was living at the time) which contained classical scores in synth format. Several tracks were named after planets/Greek gods, and many were famous from movies. I can't remember anything else beyond that, being 13 at the time and relying on the fact that I knew where it was in the rack of cassettes in the library at the time :)
If anyone can point my towards this music, I'd be very happy.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
one of the best places i knew of for electronic music was this small local place in my town. they had all the shit you wouldnt normally find in big stores. but as far as online goes, i think cdnow.com isnt too bad. i've found a few good bands through there by looking at related artists to bands i already liked. audiogalaxy was good for that stuff too, years ago before going to shit.
tranceaddict.com is great
- Converter: blast furnace
- Haus Arafna: Children of God
- Imminent Starvation: Nord
- Feind Flug: Im Viser
- Numb: Blood Meridian
Good luck!Was the first electronica band. If you do not beleive me, you are a fool and a tard.
Dune: Expedition and Astral Projection (don't remember album names) have both been mentioned before, but they deserve better than to be missed, so I will repeat it here :-|.
:-)..
RMB: This World Is Yours is apparently quite hard to come by, but for some reason I like it quite a bit. I think it falls into the same Happy Hardcore category as Dune does. Astral Projection belongs to the now nearly forgotten Goa style.
HTH & Happy Listening
- Thomas, France
Zero Tolerance by No Nonsense, a Melbourne Australia outfit - very dark hard ambient techo with strong ironic undertones and a full well-rounded finish on the palate. *grin*
---
For extra security this message has been encrypted with dual rounds of ROT-13.
I owe the person who runs that plenty of money. the HOURS AND HOURS of pleasure that streaming broadcast has brought me.
:-P
:-)
A typical start to my Saturday nights would consist of this:
Heading off to my friend's place. A bunch of us meet there almost every Saturday night to figure out what we're doing. When we first get there, he has Philosomatika playing, with the WinAmp 'MilkDrop' plugin running into his 42" TV. Not all the time, it's either Philosomatika, or REZ...
We'd get there, roll up a few dubes, smoke that with Philo going. And begin to discuss our plans for the night.
I find you can appreciate psy/goa trance without the use of any illegal substances, but it's a completely new experience with it's use.
If certain chemicals turn you off, you might want to find an organic solution.
Yes - I am well aware these substances are illegal. If you wanna know why, go research it yourself.
Try www.surgeryrecords.com.au a small independant electronic label from Australia. They have world class local and international electronic artists represented and some interesting shockwave "jukebox" thingies for previewing grabs of most of their catalogue. They are freindly and will sell direct if you ask nicely via email.. :)
Surgery is a great example of cool electronic music thats accessible and non-commercial at the same time.... take the time....
Build your electronica listening to:
Astral Projection, old personnal favorite
Infected Mushroom, personnal favorite
Hallucinogen, second best favorite
Paul Oakenfold (Tranceport album and live mixes), initiated me along with AP
Björk
Growling Mad Scientists (GMS for short)
Goa Gil compilations (packed with the best stuff)
For the hardcore fans, Alec Empire is one of the bests,
along with Atari Teenage Riot, a group he's in.
The list goes on...
Sorta eclectic and old school, but I'm very fond of Pierre Henry's Veil of Orpheus.
Now you can all go check it out and learn what all the sub-sub-genres of electronica.
Bleh!
The Freight Elevator Quartet are a very interesting lesser known NYC electronic/experimental group with a cellist, percussionist/digeridoo player, one person to operate drum loops, samples and mixing, and another with various analog and digital synthesizers (ie. start with a sine wave, plug it through a flange, etc). Their web site is at www.fe4.com and should have links to a few sample songs on mp3.com. Check them out!
One artist I've really been into lately is Murcof. Absolutely stunning; minimal beats over smooth, beautiful orchestral samples. His full-length is out on Leaf, and you can check out some samples from his EP on Context.
Christopher Lawrence
Sandra Collins
Nicholas Bennsion
Adam Wiggins (shameless plug)
Go to the clubs and when you hear a song you like talk to the DJ! They are usually pretty friendly and like to display their music knowledge (kind of like comp. geeks talking comps. of course).
I take it that this pertains mainly to pop music, but one might also want to look into these fellas. I once heard some electronic music composed during the early '60s (iirc) that was obviously the source of Stereolab's sound. I regret that I can't remember who composed it. So, check out the info below on Milton Babbitt and Edgard Varese.
i tion/Composers/B/Babbitt,_Milton/?tc=1
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Compos
http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/varese.html
Good on you for mentioning the Boards of Canada. Here's a discography, just in case anybody ever gets down this far on the tree.
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume I
Aphex Twin - The Richard D. James Album
Autechre - Incunabula
Autechre - Tri Repetae
Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Bochum Welt - Desktop Robotics EP
Bochum Welt - Module 2
Cylob - Cylobian Sunset
DMX Krew - Nu Romantix
Drexciya - The Quest
Dr. Octagon - Octocologyst
DJ Food - A Recipie For Disaster
DJ Shadow - Entroducing...
Jedi Knights - New School Science
Kraftwerk - Computerworld
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Le Car - Automatic
Mouse On Mars - Audioditaker
Mouse On Mars - Iora Tahiti
Squarepusher - Feed Me Wierd Things
Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy
Stereolab - Dots And Loops
u-Ziq - In Pine Effect
u-Ziq - Lunatic Harness
Wagon Christ - Throbbing Pouch
Good Compilations:
Headz series - Mo Wax
Flexistentialism - Ninja Tune
Xen Cuts - Ninja Tune
Warp 100 - Warp Records
Blech II: Blechsdottir - Warp Records w/ DJ Food
I'd suggest a better one, but I like the fact that my favorite stream isn't slashdotted.
I almost can say that with a straight face.
VNV define themselves as a Futurepop band. Whatever the hell that means.
I define them, and bands like them (Icon of Coil, Apoptygma Berzerk) with a term coined by the keyboardist for the band Epsilon Minus - "Oontzpop." Try saying it a few times; oontz oontz oontz oontz...
----
"I used to listen to Null Device before they sold out."
As for the best way to experience the music, I have some suggestions.
I definitely agree with every one of the names listed I've seen that I recognise. I'd like to say Fatboy Slim again (only saw it once), and emphasis his Better Living Through Chemistry album. The others are good, but that is a great album.
Also, I tend to buy random CDs that are produced by Ninja Tune. If you flip the CD over and see the Ninja Tune label, it's likely to be something special. My favorite band through them is 9 Lazy 9, which is acid jazzy electronica. Chill out room music. But really, don't just focus on one band by them. They have an ear for this kind of music.
-no broken link
Labels
Afterhours
Cajual
Glasgow Underground
Guidance
Nervous
Crydamore
Artists
A:xus
Armand Van Helden
Cajmere/Green Velvet
Glen Underground
Fiat Lux
Frankie Knuckles
Lego
Little Louie Vega
Danny Tenaglia
Moodyman
I also recommend the following electronic artists:
(!!!)
Carl Craig/Innerzone Orchestra
Caural
Chemical Brothers
Daft Punk
DJ Shadow
Herbalizer
Kraftwerk
Luke Vibert/Wagon Christ
Mr. Scruff
Orbital
Orb
Tortise
That should get ya started...
yummy, http://www.mp3.com/surfacex
try and describe it, almost like techno with leads!
so much good.
:P tiny
you might try checking out Dabrye
(pronounced somewhat like debris,
aka Tadd Mullinix)
http://www.ghostly.com
http://www.easterndevelopments.com
also... Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73,
Savath & Savalas, and Delarosa and Asora)
Another couple of fuck-wads who apparently can't write a web page without using Flash.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
It's -extremely- difficult to define certain genre's of electronica.. it's also hard to define them without some sort of working example to go off of. The roots of most electronic music start from the days of disco and 80s retro.. mix the two together, and you've got yourself some elecronica. Hell, even Disco House is nothing more than some good old fashioned disco with an over-exagerated use of high-hats..
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the last resource you'll ever need for a foundation of electronic genre definitions.
Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music
On a side note, straight from the author: iIf you don't like my definitions, don't bitch at me, go create your own f*cking version.'
on the sixth day God created man.
on the seventh day, man returned the favor.
There's so much already posted here .. so I will just post my top 6 deadly drum&bass and top 6 heavenly ambient tracks that I've encountered thus far. (Your forgiveness is appreciated for misapprehended genres)
If anyone has suggestions for more items along the lines of these two narrow categories, PLEASE reply and tell me! I love this shit and am always on the lookout for more of comparable quality. It can be a real chore to dig up good new stuffs in the wide wide world of electronica.
Without further ado --
Top 6 Deadly Drum & Bass Tracks:
- Exile: Bad Diet
- Exile: Fatal Exception
- Dr. Mario: Beg4Life (via mp3.com)
- Aphrodite: Ready or Not (remix of Fugees track)
- Todd Terry: Blackout
- Makai: Beneath the Mask
Top 6 Heavenly Ambient Tracks:
- Plastiq Phantom: 492 cups to china (plastiqphantom.com)
- Aphex Twin: Stone in Focus
- Ben Neill: After the Gold Rush
- Brian Eno: An Ending (Ascent)
- Brian Eno: Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960
- Terre Thaemliz: Hovering Glows
Mix these tracks alternately on a CD for a cool experience.
Again, if anyone has suggestions along these lines, do notify me immediately! My tastes tend to run to these two extremes -- crushing hard d&b vs. utterly peaceful ambience. Your response will be most appreciated, I assure you.
joel
Check out
www.pirate-radio.co.uk
Nice radio station play all kinds house, DnB & Jungle old skool, Tekno etc etc. Have look at the schedule for Djs and music styles.
Job0
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned this excellent compilation called OHM.
check it here
This one covers all the pioneers of electronic music including Cage, Stockhausen, Theremin, Henry, etc and stops at Brian Eno. This could be a good introduction before getting into more contemporary stuff...
The included booklet is also quite informative...
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Solid Steel yet! I hear they have all of 'em at Groovetech, but I haven't found 'em yet. Contact me if you're interested in them, I wouldn't mind trading some shows ... especially since I don't have them all yet.
http://www.trippingandfalling.org
RIAA free.
My favorite electronic artist for the past 10 years is a rather obscure chap, who's real name is Mike Paradinas. He records under the following names:
(mu)-ziq, (that's the greek letter mu)
Jake Slazenger,
Gary Mocheles,
I'm probably leaving some out. Some of his best work was done with Aphex Twin on their album aptly titled "Mike and Rich".
worth a listen if you are into esoteric stuff.
This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
"Electronic Music Means WAR To Us" - Hypnoskull.
Do NOIZE bands count as electronic? If you like a bit of fucked up distortion and a barely contained violent energy, check out things like Hypnoskull, Noisex, MS Gentur, P.A.L., Mono No Aware, Proyecto Mirage, Kiew, Feindflug, Converter, Celluloid Mata, Winterkalte, and Zymosiz. This and three cups of coffee and maybe some ephedrine are great for hacking.
With 7 pages of comments, mine will probably not be read... but oh well. A very good place to start would be BCC Radio1's web site. Check out the Dance section and the Urban section (Garage and Drum-n-Bass).
There are so many other web sites out there, but Radio1 is probably a good starting place, and you can listen to them Live over the internet.
Arguably the best trance album ever made.
Followed by anything on the Platipus label.
The Reactivate compilations are good sources too.
For DJ mixes, Sasha and Digweed rule, followed by Dave Seaman.
I love that iTunes comes with so much cool music for people to play around with. I was actually really surprised to see that song by Filter, Green Light. Way to go apple *in the voice of the guy in 'hunt for red october saying 'way to go dallas'*
-dewhite
i like "art rock" myself,
r cedexposure.com/
and that occasionally overlaps with the electronic scene.
not just the biggies like kraftwerk, john cage, stockhausen, and whatnot,
but sometimes there are some really brilliant people making stuff in electronic music.
one of my favorites is thomas brinkmann, his album 'klick' is one of the few new music albums i have heard that imho is sheer genious. it consists of cutting slits into the last track of vinyl records and then mixes a couple of them together. as a bonus the design is fantastic, and the track titles are just the numbers of the tracks in binary.
two good resources for the more intelligent of electronic music:
http://www.othermusic.com/
http://www.fo
[ kealve the kunst ]
"The direction controls are the same in Nethack as they are in vi." "Yeah, I hardly ever die in vi anymore."
What? This thread has been alive for nearly 48 hours and no one has mentioned Brian Eno?
;-) Then of course there's Stockhausen, Reich, and a bunch of more art-music types, but that's another thread...
If you're *really* asking about *electronic* music, and not simply some recent dance-sub-sub-genre, then check out Eno's electronic music beginning with tape delays in the early 70s -- it's beautiful, innovative, and hugely influential. He's arguably the first sampler in popular music. "Ambient Music 1," "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," and "Apollo" are good starting points.
I love Digweed and all the rest, but you can't talk about popular electronic music without appreciating Eno. It'd be like those poor folks who think Bill Gates invented the internet in 1995.
Happy listening, Otter!
I think the word electronica is only used in the USA. Nobody in the old continent uses that word for describing electronic dance music.
Personally I'm sick of the fragmentation of genres nowadays. Seems that there is new genre invented every week just to satisfy the people who wanna be on the cutting edge on the dance music scene. Nu'nrg, abstract breaks, dark electro etc etc you get the point.
Ps. If you want to check out my mixes (mostly house), please check my homepage
jari / dj ken-guru
If you're into the darker side of the force.
--- @ OS/2 Netlabs OpenSource Software for OS/2 http:://www.netlabs.org
It fully depends what your into, or what you think your into
Personally I would recommend nearly any Global Underground CD. I don't know if the're available in the states, but the're definitly the place to go to for progressive trance and house.
For the more open side of trance, do check out Ferry Corsten, Paul van Dyk, Blank and Jones, Dj Tiesto.
For house check out Armin van Helden, Joey Negro, Funk Investigation.
For Drum and Bass and Breaks; Grooverider, Ils, Adam Freeland, Freq Nasty, Ed Rush and Optical
And of course Timo Maas, who is just a legend, and BT of course.
Interesting to hear that, and I can only assume that you weren't able to listen to Sasha and Oakenfold ten, twelve years ago, when they were ahead of their time. Oakenfold may have succombed to taking America, and Sasha perhaps become too atentive to detail, but I certainly would contest the italisized statement above: Sasha @ Shelleys in 92, Oakenfold in fields surrounding London, and Digweed in Twilo in 97, all of them forged a sound that still makes the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.
I think that the list is very incomplete. How can DJ Shadow and Coldcut be missed from the list of Tunrtablists? For trance, people like Steve Lawler or Yousef? For house, probably the best person to have played on the terrace, excepting Danny T, Eric Morillo? Drum & Bass!: Hype, Roni Size, Aphrodite. Live acts: Daft Punk, Kraftwerk etc.
I think you get the point: with Mixmag, the poll is skewed by twelve year olds sending in their entries of the DJs who have put together Cream Anthems or whatever, and I can agree with you about it for that reason, but I wouldn't say that link gives anything like the Top 100 DJs in the world. There are too many Asian and Antipodean DJs missing for that to be the case.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may find the All Music Guide's, Music Styles - Electronica section or the Electronica Music Map useful. You can also get to the music map from the entries for artists and it gives related/similar artists under their entry.
In my opinion the best site to find out about electronic music (at a beginners level) is ishkur.com, the site is really a rave-related site, but ishkur has a guide to electronic music which, while it is done in a satirical sense and is quite opinionated in his genre description it is generally accurate and provides samples which (in my opinion again) perfectly demostraight the sound of each sub-genre in the electric scene. He also lists some of the best artists in each subgenre.
If you like the above, try Paul Van Dyk Danny Tenaglia Search for any essential mixes on Kazaa Pete Tong Seb Fontaine Sandra Collins Carl Cox Junior Vasquez Judge Jules
General/Electronic:
underworld - dubnobasswithmyheadman
orbital - green album, brown album
leftfield - leftism
the orb - adventures beyond the ultraworld
prodigy - experience
bt - escm
moby - moby
messiah - 21st century jesus
808 state - ex:el
the klf - the white room
primal scream - screamadelica
lfo - frequencies
also:
chemical brothers, lords of acid, crystal method,
fluke, propellerheads, laurent garnier, plastikman
Pop:
bjork, saint etienne, everything but the girl, new order,
depeche mode, pet shop boys
Originators:
brian eno, can, kraftwerk, joy division, new order, david
bowie, jean michel jarre, giorgio moroder, cabaret
voltaire, pink floyd
Ethno/World:
philip glass, delerium, banco de gaia
Ambient/IDM:
autechre - incunabula
future sounds of london - accelerator
squarepusher - feed me weird things
aphex twin - selected ambient works 85-92
boards of canada - music has the right to children
House:
daft punk - homework
basement jaxx - remedy
others:
armand van helden, sven vath, carl cox, chicane,
deep dish, cassius, dave seaman, danny tenaglia, frankie
kunckles, timo maas, faithless, hybrid, erick morillo, dj
dan, scott henry
Drum and Bass:
roni size - reprazent
goldie - timeless
ltj bukem - logical progression
aphrodite - aphrodite
metalheadz presents platinum breakz
also:
ed rush and optical, dillinja, photek, ak 1200,
dieselboy, bad company, high contrast, shy fx
Progressive House/Trance:
sasha - xpander
paul oakenfold - tranceport
paul van dyk - out there and back
armin van buuren - boundaries of imagination
robert miles - dreamland
also:
way out west, tilt, john digweed, bedrock, dj tiesto,
george acosta, ferry corsten, gouryella, armin van buuren
Goa and Hard Trance:
astral prjection, juno reactor, hallucinogen
Downtempo:
massive attack - blue lines
tricky - maxinquaye
dj shadow - endtroducing...
thievery corporation - sounds from the thievery hi-fi
portishead - dummy
hooverphonic - a new stereophonic sound spectacular
morcheeba - big calm
death in vegas - dead elvis
dj krush - krush
Industrial:
front 242 - official version
front line assembly - tactical neural implant
my life with the thrill kill kult - confessions of a knife
kmfdm - naive
skinny puppy - too dark park
ministry - twitch
nin - fixed
meat beat manifesto - 99%
pop will eat itself - this is the day...
vnv nation - empires
also:
throbbing gristle, coil, non-aggression pact
http://www.liquidtodd.com/
It's a radio show that is on WXRK in New York from 12AM-4AM Saturday, and a few other stations (K-Rock is the flagship, though). Yes, that's the same station Howard Stern comes from.
Todd plays a very big variety from many genres. Some of it is more "mainstrem electronic" (Like that recent Elvis cover), some of it is definately more "out there"
It's too bad there aren't many good places to learn about the genre - The most accessible ones may introduce you to the genre's equivalent of Britney Spears w/o you knowing it. (This is to satisfy the trolls that say, "you know nothing" - I do know little about the genre. So I'll say this:)
The stuff on Solid State (And DI too) is FAR better than anything played on mainstream US radio, even if it may be mass-market sellout material by the genre's standards. That said, I want to find the lesser-known artists that are regarded by those "in the know" as good.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Here's a list of some producers/DJs that I dig... mostly trance and house, on the faster/harder side. good stuff to punch into MP3 search engines.
DJ Tiesto
Paul Van Dyke
Lisa Lashes
Nick Sentience
Marco V
Andy Farley
BK
Blank and Jones
Warp Brothers
Cosmic Gate
Hennes and Cold
DJ Wag
Dumonde
George Acosta
Kimball Collins
Spacegirl
Rabbit In The Moon
Christopher Lawrence
DJ Micro
Oakenfold is more along the trance side of electronic music. If you like that you may want to check out:
www.digitallyimported.com (Streaming radio of all sorts, Trnace/Dance/House/Hard Trance)
groups/dj's like:
Blank and Jones (Awesome Trance from Germany)
Antiloop (Sweden I think)
Paul Van Dyke
Armin
Dj Tiesto
Schiller
Don`t just search for domestic music. I`ve heard alot of good Russian electronica. Check out DJ Virus. There are many many more Russian artists worth hearing.
MMMMMM delicious.....but what kind of electronic music???? Seems that you got your head into the more techno side of it all but check out other beatz and grooves like "Boards of Canada", "Plaid", and more. I list a lot of cool links for finding music like this at http://www.unclemikis.com/music.htm enjoy!!
It's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator. - Derrick May
I'm probably not the best qualified, but since nobody else is contributing this:
According to the legend, Detroit Techno started when eclectic radio genius The Electrifying Mojo started playing Kraftwerk in the early 80's. I used to listen to Mojo; he was late night on an urban station, and would play anything from James Brown to Prince to AC/DC, interview the B-52s, and give trippy inspirational sermons to the city's youth.
The story goes, the Belleville Three (Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson (better known as part of Inner City)) heard Mojo and started making their own music, including Clear by Cybertron (Atkins), the 'first' techno record.
By the mid-80's my friends in northwest Detroit were playing house and techno on turntables in their basement. In the late-80's the Music Institute was the epicenter (just ask my cool friends). Since then there's been an explosion of techno and electronica talent in Detroit, most prominently Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) and the more experimental Carl Craig.
Unfortunately, if you had asked most Detroiters in the mid-90's -- apart from the small but loyal group who listened-- they wouldn't know what you were talking about. You couldn't find techno on the radio (Mojo was gone). The DJs were international stars, but they had plenty of privacy at home. In the late 90's, Carl Craig and a promoter put together the Detroit Electronic Music Fest (DEMF). Much to the surprise of many native Detroiters, over a million people came from all over the world to hear it. The vibe (and I don't use that word often) was incredible. It included a truly touching moment when Derrick May stepped on stage and finally got his due from his hometown; he started his set with "The Payback" by James Brown.
Now, most Detroiters are aware, and local popularity has exploded. The city is rich in very interesting music , and the very open-minded scene hasn't been overwhelmed with trendiness.
History
Techno Rebels, an excellent history (I've heard) in book form, by Dan Sicko.
Someone's thesis that is a history of Techno.
Meta Soul, an interesting site (in design and content) about electronic music, including a Detroit Techno section.
Today
The 313 list, an active list with high signal-to-noise, full of techno geeks.
Record Time, the best place to find the latest from Detroit
The Metro Times, probably the best place for current news on Detroit music (click music at the top left).
You also may not realize how much music originates, even if it's not popularized, in Detroit: Motown, punk (Iggy Pop in the 60's), funk (George Clinton and Bootsy X), and techno.
Unfortunately, he had to pull the album from his site due to excessive downloads. There's still a good sampling of songs on mp3.com.
Alternatively, you can buy both his albums from CDBaby or Amazon.
Simple, you need to get to the roots back in the days of tracking.
scene.org
modplug.com
modarchive.com
aminet
Look for artists like Skaven and Purple Motion of the Future Crew.
Dr. Awesome (the original one, not the more recent name alike)
Necros
Jogeir Liljedahl
Maelcum and everyone who was/is in KFMF (Kosmic free Music Foundation)
A lot of european guys whose names I wont even try to spell.
There is a lot out there, and some is crap, but the large amount of good stuff makes weeding through it so worth while.
Tomita Isao
Vangelis
There is also pornosonic
Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins...these guys are the godfathers of techno. Where are all the Detroit Techno fans?
Check out Strings of Life and Nude Photo by Derrick May, No UFOs or Sound of Stereo by Juan Atkins. I'm not a big fan of Kevin Saunderson, but I'm just really suprised no one has mentioned him yet.
Derrick May I just recently found out has an mp3.com page at http://mp3.com/derrickmay. If you end up enjoying Detroit Techno check out other people who were part of the Transmat Timespace Tour.
If you get really into it, come to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. You'll have a blast.
A list of important electronic and industrial music.