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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.
IMO the best of electronica (not cliched, not trendy, everyone will ask you whot hat great band is)
Plaid
Tortoise
Stereolab
Squarepusher
Photos.
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"
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...
Boy, I hope you've got Tivo, or you're going to hate him after another couple commercial breaks.
-- q
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
Implying that not knowing electronica means you can't listen to electronica is the same reason dumbfuck Linux elitists have kept Linux from being as popular as it might be.
The only way someone can get into a subject matter is to (surprise surprise) get into the subject matter... I'm going to take a guess and say you were not, in fact, *born* knowing about electronica, what bands are 'cool', where to get their music, and why others shouldn't be allowed to listen to it. At some point you did, in fact, have to *start* listening to it, conceivably without much knowledge about the subject.
If you want to actively ruin someone else's experience with a genre, then go ahead. But don't be a jerk about it.
"no offense" my left foot. You were tyring to politely exlude the questioner, eh?
Trillian
_______
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.
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/
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.
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
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)
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
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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... --
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.
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?
It was the Warehouse in Chicago.... a Glaring mistake in an otherwise excellent post
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
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
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
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/
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.
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.
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