electronica

[victim]

I'm having this growing interest in electronic music and such. No, not those shitty dance remixes you hear on corporate radio stations and eminating from the Lake Tippy Whorehouse down the street from me, but some of the really cool, innovative stuff.

The only medians I have at getting a listen at some of this stuff is PlanetX on x102... which only comes on for an hour at midnights on Saturdays, and internet radio, which is huge pain in the ass. What's out there? Can anybody make some recommendations for me? Is there anybody here who can define some of the subgenres and stuff (techno, trance, whateverthehelltheybecallinitthesedaysawhoseawhats its)? Titan, I'm looking in your direction.

[Titan]

Gotchya covered my fine feathered friend.

I'm glad you're intelligent enough (not that there was any doubt) to know that there is a difference between good electronic shit and bad club remix fuckassbitchniggercockshit like paul oakenfold and dj skribble-my-ass-with-a-fecal-stick. Though, when referring to "Electronica", drop the "a". British people like to make fun of us for inventing the term "Electronica" because most retarded American hillbillies don't understand what electronic music is.

Techno - Originated from Germany I believe... the general Europe area anyway... lots of different kinds... Acid, Detroit, Gabba/Gabber... mostly fairly fast, weird frantic beats and lots of fuctup noises and soundscapes. Better to listen to if you're on drugs... hence the name "Acid Techno". Much to many non-enthusiasts' dismay, "Techno" is a subgenre of "Electronic" music, not the whole itself. Us Americans don't know anything.

Trance - Shit. This is the pulsing fuckthrob of the electronic music category. This is what you hear: *bass hit* *hi hat* *bass hit* *hi hat* *bass hit* *hi hat* *bass hit* *hi hat* *bass hit* *hi hat* *bass hit* *hi hat*. Annoying, isn't it? Occasionally you'll have a few good melodies, they'll be repeated over and over and over by a female singer. Paul Oakenfold got famous for spinning shit like this. Most of his is called "progressive"... yeah, too bad the beat isn't. Remember the song "Sandstorm" by DaRude? Yeah you do, you'll recognize it. It's probably the only trance track I like. There are other offshoots like "Goa" whom a famous artist for is BT, but it's basically a faster, more evolving version, a little more bearable (to me).

House - Basically kind of like Trance. Lots of female vocalists, not much time spent making the music. Occasionally you'll hear some raps and all that, or anthemy type choruses. Who gives a rat's ass. Anything made for a club sucks, because when you're in the club, you don't care about what the music sounds like, just that it sounds period. Oddly enough I was just thinking about club music earlier this evening.

Ambient - No beats. Just soothing or weird soundscapes. Okay so sometimes there are beats, but not with real ambient artists, the one who do only ambient stuff. Woob and 312 are good ambient bands for you to check out, they do some creeped up shit. Some bands like Autechre are liken to be described as "Ambient", but they're really something called

Intelligent - Bad name, I know. You can also call it "Experimental" I suppose. This stuff is generally what people would be scared of if they heard. They say, quite literally, "What is this noise?" Lots of off-beat stuff that doesn't make any sense and weird technical noises and junk. It's called "Intelligent" mainly because you have to be that in order to figure out how to come up with the sounds they use... that and it's fuctup. Autechre and Squarepusher lead this field. Autechre is one of the most amazing bands ever. Go ahead and download any song off of "Tri-Repetae".

Drum'n'Bass - This stuff is a personal favourite of mine. It can get old and obnoxious to most, but I greatly appreciate it's ferocity. Drum'n'Bass, which gets categorized much with it's much less dark counterpart "Jungle" and sometimes "Hardcore", involves heavy driving basslines, superfast tempos and mean crunching bass & snare hits. Fun fast rhythms. Deisel Boy is my favourite Drum'n'bass DJ, just cuz he spins mad shit. Pioneers of Drum'n'Bass include Photek and... more. Check out Photek's "Titan"... one of many correlations my name has to my interests.

Breakbeat - This really is the category of stand-outs. The most notable musicians in this category got their start on breakbeat and then evolved into genres that cannot be described. They make music through electronic means that is good, because it's good and because they like good music. Not to fit into a certain club style or atmosphere or whatever. Of course I'm talking about the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. These are by far my favourite electronic musicians. Another great, great electronic band is one Orbital. Some of their stuff is very breakbeatish, but 90% is amazing and very progressive and just... musically superb. Victim, I recommend you first get Prodigy's "Music for the Jilted Generation" and Orbital's "The Altogether". And of course by "get" I mean you borrow and burn them from me. You're also going to get the chance to hear the latest stuff from Freak of the Forest. Oh yes, the man himself. I have secret new stuff from him, and I'm not talking about Ecstasy.

Here's what you're going to do, you're going to tell me and Combat when you have free time, and we're going to go ahead and give you all the good electronic music you need to get you started. G'deal.

[ August 14, 2003, 10:41 PM: Message edited by: Titan ]

[victim]

Wow, more of a response than I could have ever hoped for. Thanks a lot! I'll make sure we do that here sometime soon, my time should be relatively free for such a thing.

[Titan]

Next week I'm free like the opposite of Mumia Abu Jamal.