Severian's electronic music gastropub
 

Severian's electronic music bistro, or bodega, or bar & grille, or taco cart is something of a dream of mine. I've wanted to start a thread devoted to electronic music for some time, but it's a though thing to pin down, and kind of a faulty label. Sometimes I'll describe an album as "electronic" and half hate myself for doing so because of how simplistic that sounds. The sub-genres' sub-genres have sub-genres at this point, so I know someone will read "electronic" and scoff, and think, "Idiot, it's acid grime-house yankee-tango footwork-foxtrot... DUH." But I want to have a thread devoted to the discussion of music that falls under this massive umbrella, so ... what the fuck else would I call it?

Anyway, I hope to talk about new and classic electronic music with other folks who are interested in and try to follow the genre, splintered and fragmented and expansive as it is.

I've actually wanted to do this ever since louder started his hip-hip café, and I have almost done it several times, but right now, with absolutely nothing happening in hip-hop, it seems as good a time as any.

So, is this worth doing? I know there are some folks here who just loathe hearing bleeps and bloops, but if there are enough who share my interests, I think we could have some nice discussions.

It's early in the year, and not a lot is happening in any genre yet, but there have been a number of strong releases in the past few years. I put together a list of what I feel are some of the best "electronic" albums from 2010 to the present. Guess I'll just throw this out there and see if anyone bites.

SOME of my favorite electronic albums of the 2010s, in no order except for Amygdala (which is #1 period.):

DJ Koze - Amygdala
KidKanevil - My Little Ghost
Vladislav Delay - Visa
Ben Frost - A U R O R A
Todd Terje - It's Album Time (also It's It's Remix Time Time
Aphex Twin - SYRO
Autechre - Elseq, Exai
Actress - Ghettoville
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
patten - Estoile Naiant
Hudson Mohawke - Lantern
Nicolas Jaar - Space is Only Noise, SIRENS
Plaid - Reachy Prints
Darkside - Psychic
Seekae - The Sound of Trees Falling on People
Botany - Lava Diviner (True Story)
Kornél Kovács - The Bells
Untold - Black Light Spiral
Burial - Rival Dealer
Caribou - Our Love
Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth
Arca - Xen

Aaaanyway. Anyone want to do this thing?

EDITED TO ADD:
Tim Hecker - Love Streams and Virgins
Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh, World Eater (forthcoming)
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica, Garden of Delete

Blanck Mass - World Eater

So far this is the most promising electronic-adjacent release on the schedule for this year. Not even out yet, but already pretty much owns my soul based on the songs that are available.



Listen to "Silent Treatment" and "Please".

Don't know about albums but this was probably my fave track from last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ziwQ92H1uk

Don't know about them? As in you don't know if you agree about their quality, or you haven't heard them?

If the latter... really? None of them?

electronic music has always been an afterthought to me. maybe it's my climate and environment. I dig it but it never strikes the right nerve in me to be in the mood to chill and groove to. Autechre and Aphex Twin are old stand by's by now. established and nothing to get wound up about anymore. i've always been half rockist and half something else.

Kraftwerk, Krautrock, Stereolab, and pop dance/ post punk /hip hop is as close as I get to this shit. electronics with guitars and synths get me off more. or electro and real drums. half and half. electronic music is like jazz or old blues. there's a lot to dig through to satisfy. you can spend hours looking for awesome 90's D&B, trance, and IDM, just like you can with old jazz and blues. post-electronic searching is what im into.

I don't really listen to new albums much and in the case of the electronic music I like (which is really more dance-oriented) I've found the best stuff tends to be on EPs or simple 12"s. But I've probably only listened to about 3 or 4 albums released in the 2010s in any genre.

A lot of what I listed is actually kind of "electronic + something else" ... this is why"electronic music" is a problematic title. It's like using "rock and roll" to describe everything from The Beatles to, like, Sebadoh.

Blanck Mass (and "parent group Fuck Buttons) are like ½ electronic, ½ harsh noise. Especially Fuck Buttons. Yeah, there's a solidly electronic element, especially to Blanck Mass, but both acts also encorperate MASSIVE guitar noise blitzkriegs and just really offer as much of a "noise rock" experience as a "electronic music" one.

Here, listen to "The Red Wing" from Fuck Buttons' Slow Focus, which was maybe my #3 or #4 album of 2013... for more of the "half and half" stuff, slide to about 1:15 in.

Fuck Buttons - "The Red Wing" (YouTube)

I gots to sneeze. you gots to hold on for a sec!!! son bitch!!!!.. mutherfucker!!!.. damnitfaggot!!!..

cocksucking ....muthatfuck...
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there's a bug going around.

sorry. ok,

Fuck Buttons. I've heard of those guys.

Also, demonrail666, Ben Frost is categorized as electronic on, like, streaming services and shit, but he is REALLY more of a noise collagist. Again, his music runs adjacent to what I'd call "harsh noise," though if I recall some purists on this board took issue with that a few years back (fuck 'em, says I). I guess if I wanted to get someone who's not into electronic music to check him out, I'd refer to his music as "analogue maximalism." If you can imagine what the whole "digital maximalism" thing sounds like (Rustie's Glass Swords, JUSTICE, Kanye's MBDTF and, even more so,Watch the Throne, Hudson Mohawks, etc.) imagine what that kind of sonic multi-tiered assault might sound like coming from an avant-garde basement tinkerer who values composing over simply "recording," has a thing for building his own chimeric instruments, and comes from a DIY/punk background.

A U R O R A is such a frenzied sensory overload that when it settles into a kind of consistent rhythm, as it does from time to time, it's beauty can be frankly disarming. It's one of the many "electronic" albums of the last few years that almost doesn't even fit within any genre beyond... well, Ben Frost.

Listen to "Venter"from A U R O R A and you'll hear music that has as much in common sonically with SWANS as it does with anything under the "electronic" umbrella.

Oh, oh, and also ...

Nicolas Jaar is likely to be up yr alley, if you like that "half and half" shit. He's probably my favorite non-DJ Koze artist in the world of electronic music right now. His stuff is strange, because it's kind of only "electronic" in the most broad strokes way imaginable.

Like, sure, it's got bleeps and/or bloops, but if I had to compare him to any artist, I'd point directly to Suicide, not Aphex Twin or Squarepusher or Autechre or Boards or any of the other electro-bros who birthed most of the non-EDM side of the genre as it exists today.

He sings... like, a lot. He plays instruments too. Classical training in piano, which he puts to delightfully warped use on his records. There's a distinct post-punk feel to a LOT of what he does, at least under his own name (he is also ½ of Darkside, among other things).

Listen to "Space is Only Noise If You Can See" from the album Space is Only Noise. Without question, in my opinion, one of the single best songs of this decade in any genre. So droning and post-punky that it probably fits in more with Sonic Youth, Suicide, Shellac, Slint than with anything "electronic."

He's all over the place though. In 2016, he dropped his second proper album, SIRENS. Again, it was primarily embraced by "electronic" communities, but to call the album "electronic" is not really fair. To drill down the sub-genres and assign it to one of those is even less fair, however, so I guess electronic it is. But there's a whole lot going on in the relatively short duration of the album.

Listen to"History Lesson" from SIRENS and you'll see that. It's essentially a kind of post-R&B track. Aching white boy soul, almost like something The Rolling Stones might have done when they were still a thing to be taken seriously. No guitars, but still, it's far from an "electro" track. Please listen through the end. I beg you. Top notch climax.

Some interesting stuff there but my tastes are generally much more mainstream than that. House, some Detroit Techno and Jungle. A bit of Trance. That kind of thing. That Porter Ricks track I linked is about as out there as I get.

This is more typical of the kind of stuff I generally like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m32Z-htDAok

demonrail, bro, listen to DJ Koze. His music is really not very challenging. It's chill, but it's weird as hell at the same time. Whimsical, I'd say.

Here listen to "My Plans" from Amygdala.

I think my tastes in electronic music are actually pretty damn mainstream. I got into it through Chemical Brothers ("Setting Sun" was one of the best singles of the late '90s), and Daft Punk, and of course Aphex Twin, but at the time I didn't even realize that Aphex Twin was very far left of those other groups. I saw the videos, heard the NIN collaborations, and considered it relatively "mainstream."

Blah... I wanna talk about electronic music goddammit!

P.s. That Masters at Work track is dope. That's some straight techno shit man. I like it. You'll find that Koze is influenced by that kind of sound. He used to be more aggro, more dancey and redundant before he (apparently) started consuming just obscene quantities of LSD. Lol.

Oh, such a nice gastropub! I will definitely visit this one frequently and with pleasure.

Have you heard "Crisis of Representation" by Gábor Lázar yet? If not, go check it out, it's top shit. Angular electronica in the vein of Mark Fell.

Yeah, I listened to as much of it as I could in a sitting. It started strong, and I was like, "OK!" But as time passed, I went from "OK!" to "Okay...??" Then several tracks later I woke up from a blackout -- the result of being aurally stabbed in the brain about a thousand times.

I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm ... whatever ... enough to actually enjoy this kind of thing (yet?). I can appreciate it, but I have a hard time actually listening to it.

Mark Fell I can handle. Lázar worked with Fell on The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making, of course, and I can hear his fencing/knife-play sound on that album, but it's smoothed and spread out, providing accents to waves of more digestible sound.

Crisis of Representation may just be a bit too much for me. Or to little? I don't know. But it's like getting acupuncture and having an anxiety attack at the same time.

Interesting. I find them sounds quite soothing and relaxing, even. Although I don't usually listen to that album as a whole, only a few tracks and then on to something else.

But, hey, thanks for that Blanck Mass recommendation. Fantastic! Classic Fuck Buttons vibes, but warped and next level.

Yeah, of course! Can't wait for the new album to come out.

Have you listened to 2015's Dumb Flesh?

I like New Order.

"They're not electronic."

Well, no. Not all their stuff.

"None of their stuff. They sometimes do electro-pop. NOT 'electronic' as I understand the term."

I think "The Perfect Kiss" is probably the best electro-dance song ever.

"Great. But wrong thread."

Asshole.

hahahaah!

New Order is a guitar, bass, drums, with a twinge of synth band!

No no! Any good?

Oh shit. I kind of assumed you'd probably already heard it. I was just asking for confirmation. But ... YES. I mean, you seem to like Fuck Buttons, so I'd say absolutely. A lot of people (some on this very board... *suspicious face*) have taken issue with me for praising the F-Butts in the past. "Not REAL noise rock," they say. That was probably Genteel Death, now that I think about it.

Anyway, if you like Fuck Buttons you absolutely must hear everything by Blanck Mass. For me, the Buttons are one of the few bands to emerge in the past 10 years that have just consistently gotten better and better with each release, and I love the shit out of them. So when Dumb Flesh came out, I was all over it.

Now, honestly, I think this new album World Eater is going to be better. What I've heard so far has just been incredible. But still, go listen to that shit right now.

In fact, I'll help. Here's a couple tracks from Dumb Flesh:

"Detritus" (YouTube)
"Atrophies (YouTube)

And here's a track from the first EP, 2012's White Math:

"Polymorph" (YouTube)

Let me know what you think!

Article from the Quietus http://thequietus.com/articles/21791...synth-wrangler

Benge's Favorite synth albums (I have no idea who Benge is, but thought people in this gastropub might be interested.)

On another note, can we talk about Muddy Waters here? He played "electronic" music. His guitar was amplified.

This thread and alcohol is a recipe for pure euro indulgence ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PDmZnG8KsM

When pop mattered

Don't be a wiseass. There is actually a difference in meaning between the words "electric" and "electronic." Muddy as you know played an electric guitar. He did not play an electronic guitar. No such instrument exists.

Now, had Muddy used a program or synth rub through an "electric guitar" filter to make his music, that would qualify. And it would sound awful.

Electric guitar is not an electronic instrument. It is an electronechanical instrument. Electronic instruments are, for example, Synclavier I and Synclavier PSMT, analogue and modular synths, Atari Punk Cosole, Kaossilator, blah blah blah... you get it.

This thread is for discussions of music that puts a considerable emphasis on analogue and mod synths, digital synths, chips, various Roland products, computers, or DIY electronic instruments, and the others above.

This thread welcome any discussion of any music that has a prominent electronic presence, even if it's used in concert with electromechanical, acoustic, or traditional symphonic instrumentation.

In other words, New Order probably DOES qualify for our purposes, if only just. Radiohead post 1998 and pre-2016 qualifies. Nine Inch Nails qualifies. Some Modern disco-punk type stuff qualifies. Bowie qualifies. As long as we're not taking about The Bends or Hunky Dory, and focus instead on Kid a/Ambesiac and Earthling. Get it?

Muddy Waters has to go somewhere else.

But TONS of bands are welcome! Eno! Flaming Lips post 2000! Caribou! LCD Soundsystem! Whatever you want as long as there's a strong and prominent electronic presence.

(I personally wouldn't bring talk to the Lios here, but others are certainly welcome to.)

Oh! This must be one of my favourite songs ever. It personifies my childhood - always when I hear it, so many nice memories of me being a little kid come back to my mind. It's one of these songs which you literally don't want to listen to too often because you could "spoil" this magic.

To explain this further, I had the same thing with Depeche Mode songs (my older brother was a huge fan and he made me listen to their songs every day when I was 7-10 years old). But then I listened to them also being an adult and now the feeling connected to their tunes is a mixture of child/adult memories.

Does it make sense?

But no one is going to take the magic of Voyage Voyage from me.

I'm on it ! Listening to Blanck Mass Boiler Room live set right now. It's fantastic, just that kind of music that I like. This guy knows how to set up a proper ecstatic atmosphere.

I recently discovered the label Nothern Electronics, you're familiar with them? Stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBwRXUiBx8

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daSid6Lh9Vs

Hypnotic.

Superb stuff, although I sometimes wonder if that whole 'intelligent' techno thing has really moved on much since the early 90s. Something like this (in '93) still seems like it covered much of what would follow. But it's a sound that I have a default liking for, however repetitive it gets.

And yeah, Voyage Voyage. There was a time around then when I think some people were really treating pop music as art. Kind of pretentious, but in a good way.This is another one.

Actually I don't believe I am familiar with Northern Electronics specifically, though I have listened to some Varg before and have always enjoyed it.

Never as much as I enjoyed the song you posted though. Holy shit, that was fucking great! I have been scouring streaming services for the late-late 2016 Nordic Flora Series pt.1: HEROINE that the track is from, and finally just bought a digital copy on Bandcamp (vinyl was sold out).

Thank you!!

See, this is why we need this thread. There's SO MUCH of this shit out there, and when I'm specifically looking for some new electronic shit, I usually won't find it (not easily) by checking in the What are you listening to? Or Best new/most anticipated threads.

Damn good stuff.

See, I'd just call this ^^ pop. It's artistic, and it's ambitious and forward thinking for its era, but the main focus is still on the performer, the singing, and the performance.

Not trying to be a dick. I'm just saying I wouldn't really consider this "electronic music" myself. But to each his or her own! And thanks for participating. I hope more people do. This is looking to be a shit ass year for hip-hop, so I hope to be ass deep in new techno-house-acid-footwork-two-step-dance-ambient-whatever-the-fuck, and I'll need your help.

Just for referenc, with the exception of certain artists like Nicolas Jaar or Matthew Dear (who both use vocals and even live instrumentation pretty consistently, but do so in a way that still manages to feel distinctly non-rock/pop, with emphasis on pulses and bleeps & bloops) I feel like this is the gold standard for "bands" or artists that perform in addition to programming:

Caribou - "I Can't Do Without You" from Our Love

^^
In other words, this doesn't take into account purely electronic musicians who employ vocals/vocalists in their songs, like my beloved DJ Koze.

SYNTH BRITANNIA is an interesting BBC doc for anyone who hasn't seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1P93r9xes

I think I started a thread for them before. Totally worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh2y...e=channel_page
http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.co.uk/...etic-1975.html

More at the trancier end of things, but definitely not pop, I've been playing this to death for the past few weeks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ThEJ3gjYkU

Also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Alm1hoYoj8

The kind of music that makes me want to go to that club in Neon Demon

(I was kidding about Muddy Waters)

You did. I remember. ''Twas a good thread and I thank you for your reply here.

More please!

Man shut the fuck up ;)

Yeah, I knew you were kidding. That's why I asked you not to be a wiseass.

As most hip hop music is essentially brickolage , composed solely of synth drumbeats, and digitally sampled audio files would they count as electronic music?

I only listen to Casi Cada Minuto

I like that one Dylan album where one side is acoustic and the other is electronic.

I miss portishead.

I was only thinking about them the other day. Crazy that it's nearly ten years since Third came out. Is there even any news of them doing anything new?