The Downbeat / Electronica Music Thread

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Decided it was probably wisest to start a new thread based on the discussions that came about as a result from the "OS X Installer Thread", which because of its title is sure to die a premature death.



So, whoever is into this kind of music by all means discuss, post your favorite artists, whatever....



Jonathon: I downloaded a few songs from Theivery Corporation and like them quite a bit. Even though they use more vocal samples than I am used to / thought I would like, I've gotten used to the tracks already and fine them a nice change of pace over my other stuff. The Mirror Conspiracy and Transcendence are both really good tracks, among others.



Thanks for the tips, dude.



<img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    that's cuz i the ones i told you to get are about the _only_ vocals they have...
  • Reply 2 of 16
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Then tell me about some that don't have vocal samples! Sheesh do I have to spell it out for ya? Tangerine Dream, Patrick O'Hearn, Sofa Rockers != prime examples of vocal sampling.





  • Reply 3 of 16
    thievery corp - indra or shaolin satellite





    ummm





    i dunno, there's a bunch... thunderball - solar...
  • Reply 4 of 16
    arakageetaarakageeta Posts: 141member
    The first few tracks of Dave Seaman's Renaissance: Desire, Disc1 has the best ~25 minutes of contiguous electronic music I have ever heard:



    1. Humanity (Ashley Beedle Mix)/Struggle For Pleasure - A Guy Called Gerald/Minimalistics

    2. Spiritualized (Francois K. Mix) - Finlay Quaye



    Re rest of the CD is pretty awesome too. Then there is always Underworld. But it's been a long time since I've liked anything new. I'll be glad to hear what people suggest.
  • Reply 5 of 16
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Boards of canada - any and all

    Squarepusher - stuff off of budakahn mindphone, maximum priest, feed me wierd things, music is rotted one note

    Cornelius- Point

    lali puna- tridicorder

    Aphex twin - selected ambient works volumes I & II

    there are many others I could suggest but this is some great stuff
  • Reply 6 of 16
    Wrong Robot, you are the man!



    The following are my personal favs



    Aphex Twin - On (play that on the 11th floor of a building in a corporate secor with wind howling at 12am. Its a magical experience, at least until that irritating bass sound kicks in).



    Aphex Twin - Flim



    Aphex Twin - Analogue Bubble Bath



    Squarepusher - Port Rhombus



    Squarepusher - I wish you could talk



    Squarepusher - Beep Street (my fav SP song)



    Cosmic Baby - Traume (though I dont like the rest of his stuff)



    To tell you the truth, these are about the only people that I listen to in this genre. I have so much trouble finding other stuff that I like. I am actually like Autechre, and Boards of Canada but they dont captivate me like this stuff (especially Aphex Twin, that guy is a musical genious).



    [ 03-04-2002: Message edited by: The Toolboi ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 16
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    [quote]Originally posted by The Toolboi:

    <strong>Wrong Robot, you are the man!



    The following are my personal favs



    Aphex Twin - On (play that on the 11th floor of a building in a corporate secor with wind howling at 12am. Its a magical experience, at least until that irritating bass sound kicks in).



    Aphex Twin - Flim



    Aphex Twin - Analogue Bubble Bath



    Squarepusher - Port Rhombus



    Squarepusher - I wish you could talk



    Squarepusher - Beep Street (my fav SP song)



    Cosmic Baby - Traume (though I dont like the rest of his stuff)



    To tell you the truth, these are about the only people that I listen to in this genre. I have so much trouble finding other stuff that I like. I am actually like Autechre, and Boards of Canada but they dont captivate me like this stuff (especially Aphex Twin, that guy is a musical genious).



    [ 03-04-2002: Message edited by: The Toolboi ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    On is such a ****ing awesome track....have you heard the remixes?



    richard d james is a genius...you should check out

    Cornelius(absolute genius...this guy is the **** )

    Add n to (x)(an army of moog!)

    µ-ziq(the former teammate of Richard D.)





    beep street...such a great track...My favorite squarepusher(hard to say sinec he is my favorite electronic artist at the moment)

    but

    iambic5 poetry is probably my all time fav

    followed closely by

    don't go plastic

    my red hot car

    theme

    beep street

    two bass hit dub

    port rhombus



    its so hard to choose....SP is like who I want to be when I am an adult....I want to make techno music incorporating as much live stuff as possible...I play bass and drums, as does SP....he is an awesome bassist too. I really want to do that stuff....breaking the boundries and producing amazing songs....maybe someday.



    I also want to be a rapper
  • Reply 8 of 16
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    Is anybody here from the AI Forums subscribed to the [email protected] mailing list?
  • Reply 9 of 16
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    My recent faves in this genre include:



    Monolake - Gravity

    Arovane - Atol Scrap

    Monolake - Interstate

    Gislain Poirier - Il n'ya Pas De Sud

    Porter Ricks - Biokinetics

    Plaid - Not For Threes



    Also agree with the already-mentioned Autechre and Boards of Canada.
  • Reply 10 of 16
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    [quote]Originally posted by Jonathan:

    <strong>thievery corp - indra or shaolin satellite



    i dunno, there's a bunch... thunderball - solar...</strong><hr></blockquote>





    I meant the actual tracks, but I did download Shaolin Satellite the other night and it too have vocal samples (actually the most of the four I downloaded - "Get down evryBODy")





    Maybe I'll check out this Aphex Twin and Monolake stuff too. Sooner or later, I WILL figure out which of these artists leans towards the sound I seek (Thivery Corp is good but so far they seem a little more "dance-like" than some of the other stuff I've heard).
  • Reply 11 of 16
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    Moogs, are you really looking for downbeat / electronica / IDM, or are you really looking for something more like ambient?
  • Reply 12 of 16
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Well, that's the rub: I'm not exactly sure how people in general define these genres and differentiate between them. Same as how some people call the genre I like New Age, some people call it Progressive, some people call it Ambient....truthfully I'm not sure.



    All I know is I like that Sofa Rockers track (which is from the Sofa Surfers I think - or maybe Kruder and Dorfmeister originally)...and I DO like some of this Thievery Corp. stuff too...I just was thinking more along the lines of stuff that doesn't have a persistent, heavy base-grove or a lot of vocal samples.



    Thing is, Jonathon seemed to be saying that this is how most of TC's music is - just not the most popular tracks (the ones I downloaded - Shaolin Satellite, Illumnination, The MIrror Conspiracy, Transcedance).



    What are your recommendations, Sizzle?
  • Reply 13 of 16
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    I guess it comes down to how much of a rhythmic element you want, and how much of the rhythm is "drums" and how much of is pulses or sequences. Also, what kind of tempo -- medium or slow or almost non-moving?



    If you want downtempo "chill" club music then I don't really have any good recommendations for you.



    If you want trippy electronica, mid-tempo and slightly rhythmic, then a lot of the recommendations listed above will work for you.



    If you like it slower and more abstract, then you're looking for ambient. There's some debate as to whether music with at least SOME rhythm can even fairly be called ambient at all -- my own feeling is that ambient is mostly abstract & atmospheric.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    On is such a ****ing awesome track....have you heard the remixes?





    Only one, maximum electronica, which was good, but seemed to lack the heart of hte original.

    As I said before, stand on the top of a building in the wee hours of the morning (so that the city has that odd new day smell) and listen to that song. Its frikin... amazing. It would be the perfect soundtrack to a Neuromancer movie.



    hard to say sinec he is my favorite electronic artist at the moment

    Damn it man, you have the exact same tastes as me



    I think that overall Aphex Twin is the best, a true master, but at the moment I am enjoying Squarepusher more (I think Ive overlistened Aphex Twin)



    theme



    Which one? Ernest Borgies (sp?) has to be one of the best Squarepusher Songs ever.



    SP is like who I want to be when I am an adult... I also want to be a rapper

    When your an adult?

    Well I guess that I DID start listening to all this when I was 17...



    A rapper? One thing Im going to tell you right now, the same thing that I told my friend when he started. Make sure that you can write verse (standard romantic era or whatever) REALLY well. The problem with most rappers these days (not just the MTV ones) is that they cant write worth sh!t, and so their metaphores get mixed up, their imaging becomes vague and obtuse, and their meanings get jumbled by cool sounding words.

    If I remember correctly there was one track that my friend played for me talking about stepping into his own third eye as a metaphore for his sorrow (or osmething like that). The image just didnt work, it may have if hed played a little longer on it, but he assumed that it was an obvious metaphore. Also images HAVE to have meanings.



    Wow, im off topic.
  • Reply 15 of 16
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Some more examples for you guys to ponder, since Sizzle brought up the valid point that I may be asking for the wrong genre of music when soliciting suggestions.



    For the purposes of keeping it simple, I'm going to define all of this stuff as instrumental music so we don't get caught up in semantic confusions.



    My favorite instrumental CDs (some of which are not in the same category as the others IMO, and some of which have more percussion / beats than others):



    Tangerine Dream - Optical Race

    Tangerine Dream - Oasis

    Patrick O'Hearn - River's Gonna Rise

    Pat Matheny - Almost all of them, but Secret Story is the best one recently



    One artist I listed to that I DIDNT like, was Steven Roach - The Magnificent Void. That music had absolutely to soul it it. Sounded to me like a random generation of noises produced by a computer simulation or something. While those above have no words to speak of, at least they all have an element of humanity to their sounds.



    Gotta go - Rink opens in an hour. Look forward to any suggestions these artists might bring in terms of this other stuff we're talking about (Theivery Corp, Sofa Surfers, K&D, etc.).
  • Reply 16 of 16
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    *bump*



    Well, after perusing various releases by some of the afore-mentioned artists that Jonathon and Sizzle liked, I decided to go on an Amazon binge - just bought like 6 CD's! *lol* Pitiful.



    Anyway, I ordered



    The Mirror Conspiracy - Theivery Corp.

    Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi - Thievery Corp.



    Gravity - Monolake



    Suzuki - Tosca





    Those are the downbeat types. And the best news of all - Path Matheny Group has joined together once again (this time with a couple new members) to produce a new CD - "Speaking of Now." Psyched about that one as well. Matheny has been doing solo / duet stuff for like four years now....



    I thought maybe I could illegally compile a few CD's, but after burning some 192 kbps and 256 kbps (i.e. what AG claims to be "near CD quality") MP3s to disc, I quickly found out what a load that is. Sizzle had warned me about this earlier in another thread if I recall, and he was right - put an MP3 CD on a good Hi-Fi system and it sounds like crap. Even if it sounds pretty good on a pair of Monsoon computer speakers....
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