Electronic Music

[fppl]

Just thought if you guys could tell me about some nice new electronic music. I like elec drums and stuff mostly. :D

I'm just asking because I know NOTHING about it.. I'm more of a classic rock kind of guy, but suddenly just got the urge to get some techno.

[tbroderick]

Techno has no soul.

[FuturePilot]

Trance FTW!

[fppl]

For the record, I can't listen to all that loud stuff. I like rythmic stuff, though. Something that doesn't blow your head up, but the exact opposite. Opens it for creative stuff. :D See, I'm a graphic artist. :p And I don't want to replace music with weed :p I'm sure there's some good techno stuff out there!

[crimesaucer]

Techno has no soul.

b.s.

Deep house, Soulful house, Progressive house, are some of the only soulful sounds out there today. Same thing goes for Jungle, DUB, and Illbient.


Obviously you've never heard a quality DJ spinning real records and mixes with true soulful blends.


I do agree that "most" techno that frat dorks listen to, or lame "soulless" clubs play is crap (like the jock techno at sporting events)...and most people wouldn't know the difference between crappy "pop-techno- 'Let's Go Barbie' crap" and a true DJ spinning creative beats, blends, and mixes with old albums most would consider very soulful...(Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic, Prince, Rick James, Frank Zappa, Musiq Soulchild, D'Angelo, Marvin Gaye, Ohio Players, Slum Villa, De La, Burning Spear, Lee Scratch Perry, New Order, etc...)

[fppl]

So where can I get that stuff? :p

[Monona]

Beats and synthesizers can save your soul, I swear. Here's a couple classic albums that might be a good entry point for you:

Underworld - Second Toughest in Infants: Good beats, with vocals working their way in, out and around

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing: Instrumental hip-hop, but if you haven't heard him, you should. Laid back grooves and mixing.

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album: A little faster and a little weirder, but beautiful. Boy/girl Song almost makes me cry.

Also, check out blentwell.com. They've got links to music and mixes from techno to hip-hop, and you should be able to find something good there.

[Visti]

Well, electronic music is a big thing there. You go on to mention techno, but is that what you're really looking for?

Monona dropped some big names, which I totally back up if you're looking for that kinda thing - miles from 'techno', though. In a similar vein is also Roni Size, which has some of Aphex Twin's insanely fast drum/beat-chopping going on as well.

There's also Portishead (recommendation: Dummy, or the Live At NYC Roseland with an entire symphony orchestra) , which I absolutely adore. They're more triphop, which argueably still can be lopped in the electronica genre. Similar in themes and emotions to Massive Attack and such. Epic, soundtrackesque songs with mainly a haunting female vocal on top of breakbeats.

Then there's trance (I don't really know.. uh.. Psychadelic Mushroom?) in the other ballpark and there's Bjørk and all of those things, so narrow it down and you'll probably get a bunch of suggestions.

Keep looking, though! New music is good!

[Raccoonzers]

I tend to listen to a fair bit of electronic music, though I don't at all regard myself as any sort of expert.

That said, my interest began with trance about four years ago. Sure, trance can be very cheesy at times, but those big, anthemic mizes can really lift you up in. I started out with some Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto, and eventually picked up some Paul van Dyke and a few others. My personal favorites are Oakey's Ibiza and Creamfields. Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise series is pretty darned good too. I'm also a fan of DJ GT. He posts his sets on his site, generationtrance.com, so go and download away should the mood strike.

Lately, I've been listening to more downtempo stuff, genres such as chillout, ambient, and idm. As mentioned, Aphex Twin fits solidly in the area. I like ...I Care Because You Do, and Richard D. James album is enjoyable (if, for nothing else, the album cover.) His two Selected Ambient Works releases are good, though you'll prolly find SAM '85-'92 to be the far more accessible of the two.

Another great artist to check out is Boards of Canada. Many people swear by their Geogaddi album, which I think is certainly terrific, but my favorite is their most recent album, The Campfire Headpahse.

Finally, there is an ENORMOUS amount of good electronic music to be found on the internet. Hundreds of net labels exist that offer music released under a creative commons deal, so I'd say go jump in and check it out. Though, keep in mind that quality varies WIDELY, so don't be surprised if you have to wade through some real crap before you find some gems.

archive.org has a very long list of net labels, though some of my personal favorites include Kahvi (www.kahvi.org) and Camomile (http://camomille.genshimedia.com/)

[FuturePilot]

Tiesto is god :p

[crimesaucer]

You should just listen to as many web radio stations that play electronic music, then find the sounds you like (house 'Progressive/Deep/Soulful/Acid/Hard...', Electroclash, Jungle, Drum-n-Bass, DUB, Ambient, Illbient/Trip Hop, Garage/2 Step, Techno 'Detroit', Trance...etc.


You can also use the Stumbleupon extension on Firefox and then stumble the "Music/Movies" category for these selections:

Dance Music
Drum'n' Bass
DJ's/mixing
TripHop/Downtempo
Trance
Techno Electronica/IDM
House Music

...this way you can view a lot of pages people like that have different radio stations, free downloads of mix tapes, DJ sites with info and tour dates...then you can decide what you like and don't like.


But the best thing to do is actually see it live.

[Luffield]

I think you shoud give Orbital a shot.

[janga]

I personally recommend visiting last.fm. You can browse artists and styles and listen to music snippets from nearly all of them.

[kebes]

Jamendo has music of all kinds:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/

There are tags for electronica (http://www.jamendo.com/en/tag/electronica/), techno (http://www.jamendo.com/en/tag/techno), etc. My personal favorite group is tryad (http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/tryad/).

(All the music on Jamendo is licensed under Creative Commons, so you can download full albums for free.)

[crimesaucer]

I personally recommend visiting last.fm. You can browse artists and styles and listen to music snippets from nearly all of them.

Yes, last.fm is better than StumbleUpon.

[angkor]

Check out my last.fm for some electronic stuff:

http://www.last.fm/user/pachipecapulga

Among my favorite (not in any particular order and I'm probably forgetting a bunch):

- Boards of Canada
- Arovane
- Aphex Twin
- Squarepusher
- Mu-ziq
- Xela
- Autechre
- Kettel
- Ulrich Schnauss
- Mum
- ....etc etc etc

As you can see, I listen to a lot of electronic music but I like a lot of other music styles as well. I just like good music :)

[tbroderick]

b.s.

Deep house, Soulful house, Progressive house, are some of the only soulful sounds out there today. Same thing goes for Jungle, DUB, and Illbient.


Obviously you've never heard a quality DJ spinning real records and mixes with true soulful blends.

Obviously, we have different tastes. I've heard plenty of house music, jungle, drum and base, etc. There is very little emotion in techno music compared to soul, funk, blues, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop.

[23meg]

There is very little emotion in techno music compared to soul, funk, blues, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop.

Have you measured it with an emotionometer?

[tbroderick]

Have you measured it with an emotionometer?

Obviously.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Just thought if you guys could tell me about some nice new electronic music. I like elec drums and stuff mostly. :D

I'm just asking because I know NOTHING about it.. I'm more of a classic rock kind of guy, but suddenly just got the urge to get some techno.


Electronic music excites synaesthesia!

Yes, I said SYNAESTHESIA!

http://mixsig.net

[crimesaucer]

Obviously, we have different tastes. I've heard plenty of house music, jungle, drum and base, etc. There is very little emotion in techno music compared to soul, funk, blues, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop.

Which I listen to...from Bootsy's Rubber Band to Sun Ra, Curtis Mayfield to Muddy Waters, Parliament to Band of Gypsies, Israel Vibrations to DJ SPOOKY, EPMD to Aesop Rock, Jamiroquai to Freddy Hubbard...


...and my favorite House DJ's have played almost all of those artists and more, mixed in with their own funky records...that have MUCH soul.


Back in 1999, I used to live in San Francisco and dance at 1015club, and 177 Townsend...as well as all of the local warehouse parties and club events of SF.

And I remember Garth spinning records perfectly blended with the Stevie Wonder song, "As", from the 'Songs in the Key of Life' records, and all sort's of other classic soulful funk and dub reggae.


I was at this rave in Oakland (1999), when Mixmaster Morris from England started playing a Pharaoh Sanders record... I think I was one of the only people at this gigantic rave to know the song.....it was the song, "The Creator Has a Master Plan", and I was so happy to hear that base line that I went up to the DJ's area with this big smile on my face and I yelled, "Pharaoh Sanders" to him, and he broke into this huge smile and reached down to his crates and pulled up the Pharaoh Sanders record and then reached over the turntables to shake my hand, and we both shared that moment like we knew what a good artist/album it was and how most people today really have no clue when it comes to an incredible artist like Pharaoh Sanders...or any of the artists used in various samples and loops of electronic music and hip hop.


In fact, back in my days of clubbing in SF, there was this movie that came out afterwards called "Groove", which even if it was sort of cheesy, the music was slamming and the way people partied was pretty accurate.

...like the part where Polywog starts spinning this funky Garth record with these funky breaks...that was the way it was for me, parties like like, beats like that...soulful and funky as hell.

[stijngysemans]

Techno became really popular in belgium during the ninetees. Artist like luke slater, slam, monika kruse, jeff mills, kevin saunderson performed on a weekly base in belgium clubs like the "fuse". 'I love techno' is also a famous event in our country. People from france, germany, england and the netherlands join the party!

This techno revolution (with the introduction of the rolands 909 drumcomputer and some nice synht's ) continued in belgium until the year 2000. New subgernes arrised like minimal and electro. The minimal guru in europe is Richie Hawtin, a guy from canada. Some new electro bands pop up like Digitalism and boys noize.

I think europe is so different from america...

[Spr0k3t]

There are tons of different genre just in the techno classification. Right now I'm listening to some retro techno which is a school of mix sounding like Depeche Mode from the 80s/90s with modern ambience. Blaqk Audio - Stiff Kittens. I like the emotion you find in downtempo type techno... almost like silk and satin with a heartbeat. A good example of that is Charlotte Gainsbourg - AF607105 or the remix of Melt With You by Nouvelle Vague (samba style almost). Then we have the traditional techno such as DJ Tiesto - Everything (featuring JES). My wife hates traditional techno but really enjoys the subtleties in downtempo.

I find techno mixes tell a story and reveal a little insight into the artist.

Go have a listen to Ugress - Scared Away for some freakish D&B.

[FuturePilot]

Techno is just one genre of EDM (Electronic Dance Music). EDM covers everything. Techno, Trance, Eurodance, House, Hard Dance, etc etc.
If you're looking for some type of EDM you might want to check out DI.fm (http://www.di.fm/)