What happened to Electronic Music post 2000 ?

[tapioca]

I'm seeing many Zoners wondering about the status of actual Electronic Music, so I decided to start this topic. I hope we're heading for a great debate.

I'm making short for now, but what i feel as the major problem in electronic music actually, is that everyone wants to be a clone of Aphex Twin and Autechre (it's a bit simplified, but to understand, have an ear to Metamatica or the first Fünkstörung albums). I recognize Warp Records made much for electronic music, but as far as electronic is concerned, they seem to be in lack of inspiration for a few moment (hopefully it's comin' back soon…), even signing trendy rock bands like Maximo Park… Still many great moments with the last releases of Boards of Canada, Autechre, some Plaid or LFO, not to mention all the good old ones, but I wouldn't say this is really new as these were signed a few years ago. For fresh sounds I'd say Prefuse 73, Gravenhurst, AntiPop Consortium, Broadcast, but this is not only dealing with electronic…

I have the feeling that the same Copy and Paste fashion is going to happen -if not already started- to what i'd call Alternative Hip-Hop : Anticon, Lex records, Definitive Jux… Great stuff.

About electronic musicians, if had had to name a few I would think of Matmos first. Experimental and within the reach of many at the same time, they are really astounding. Still dealing with fresh ideas on every album : using medieval instruments on "Civil War", or sounds recorded from laboratories, dentists (etc…) on "a chance to cut is a chance to cure".
There's also Oval, strange beautiful atmospheres, with many layers made of fragments of guitars on "Ovalcommers".
Speaking of guitars, i'd recommend Fennesz's "Endless Summer", where folk and electric guitars are treated the same way one would make with a synth.
Next i would say Daddy long legs "Horse", side project of Howie-B, in which i really enjoy the very "rockish" use of larsens. From then you can try Add N to (X), psychedelic-robotic music with distorded sounds and a strange sense of humor.

Complete playlist to come but i'm stopping here for now.
I'll try to upload a few samples of those bands soon, just to feed the hungry ears quickly, but don’t expect me to give full tracks on demand.

[Dimension]

So in what context are we talking here? Electronic music is a wide, wiiide thing, so where to begin?

The house, prog etc. spectrum has recently dived head first into tech and acid sounds for the most part, it's being said that acid house is coming back and swiftly! :)

Since 2000, as everyone (probably/hopefully) knows, Trance has become bigger, cheesier and more pop minded than ever.

Breaks, i'll not say much on breaks, that's Shem's forté, though Nu Skool is something of a recent development, making big time use of stutter edits, edgier (than prog breaks) synths and vocal samples.

Hard House still sucks balls.

Ambient... Ambient versions of other releases have become quite popular as B-Sides recently, though it stays, as always, in the after hours clubs for the most part.

On the subject of past big acts and what they're up to (i have seen this spoken of in the forum):

Fluke released a compilation of past hits and such (2 compilations in fact) and then an artist album.

Underworld did the same, summary compilation and an artist album.

Orbital also did that, of course giving up the ghost after the blue album was released.

FSOL released an album a couple of years back just to let us know they're still alive.

Anyone I missed? Oh, the Chems have released a compilation album recently too I believe.

Well, there we go, my own (very) brief summary of the scene at the moment, things have been thrown into turmoil since the fall from grace that began after the turn of the century, it culminated in a massive slump in 2003 that saw club nights, record labels, magazines and many other services go belly up in droves, the scene is much smaller now than it was in 98-99. In fact, it could be said that we've come full circle, back to the early nineties... but nah, we've got the lesson of trance (what not to do with underground music 101) behind us now! :)

[Shem]

The last album i enyojed was Leftfield's - Leftism, and this was the breaking point. (to me of course).
There were some DNB DJ sets down the road (Dieselboy, that in my opinion completely lost contact with the concept of DNB, it was just a mindless 180 BPM slaugher on drums and bass, instead of interesting and heavy in its original concept. I don;t blame him as he didn't release much of his own tracks [and once he released they did suck balls seriously], but the music he promoted with his sets and used as a conclusion of what's going on in DNB field [at least in US] was just utter crap.)
The thing that helped out was some Trip Hop albums like Sneaker Pimps - Splinter, latest UNKLE album. Both were filled with electronica, and some live sounds that made it interesting and to which i turned to.
For those who are interested in Prodigy-like sound there was somehing for them too. I think that everyone had heard Overseer - Stompbox. This track was exploited in many movies (including Animatrix and Snatch), and games. I got fed up with it, but it just showed that that kind of music still has its power and there's someone to listen to it. There's always Boom Boom Satellites that still combine riffs with electronica, but that's that, they're not well known, but they deserve props.
The Prodigy - new album sucks.
The Chemical Brothers - new album sucks.

[Dimension]

Your breaking point? How do you mean pshemywemy? (sorry, I forgot your name again lol, I do apologise)

I'm kind of giving up on albums, i'm finding that more and more artists are resorting to album cuts with pop vocals in a futile attempt to clear their name to narrow minded "no vocal=no talent" listeners, it's really getting to me TBH. Even worse is that it seems to be ever so slowly bleeding into the general club stream which is kind of distressing. Yeah, that's another little summary on mostly the status of albums, lots of crazy stuff happening at the moment :)

[Shem]

I mean, that after that, the golden age of electronica had become history, and I realised that there's nothing to do but wait until it comes back from the dead. Leftism was the last album i enjoyed, the album from the elite of electronic music heads of 90's. Either you agree or not, the artists who were present at 2097 O.S.T. have made electronic music popular, and as soon as things started to get worse, their music slowly faded away, and Leftism was the point at which all things turned to worse. At least for me. Of course there's always another point of view, that considers other genres of music, but since we're talking about music that had some media feedback, and was quite popular in its upopular convention, then I must say that these times are slowly, but progressively being put behind. Heh, the thing that you described Dim, is happening right now, ( If you've heard 'Galvanize' by The Chems you'll notice what's going on, i'm sure that you've noticed already, they're just not the same.) that's just a natural way of things, as true electronica will go undeground for another 10 years, and probably will come back, unless all that POP **** contiues to take all the place in the industry. I just hope that ppl will get really bored with it, and some valuable music will come back again.

PS. Oh, and it's Pshemyswav. (Przemysław>Przemysł>translation>Industrial!)

[FoxZero]

heres some of what are in my opinion just generally good electronic albums post 2000 that i would recommend to anybody before i crush this subject like a bug.

plaid - spokes 2003
a superbly solid album, playful and super melodic, their best since 'double figure'.

funkstörung - vice versa 2001
this is an awesome release full of remixes and widely available. lyrics work too! comes neatly packaged in bubble wrap.

kettel - volleyed iron 2004
this is epic, tapped straight from the vein of something like fsol's lifeforms. beautiful enviromental soundscapes.

ellen allien - berlinette 2003
super poppy, this should be on a top 10 billboard chart somewhere. 'trash scapes', 'open', 'sehnsucht' should be new electronic music anthems.

moving shadow 01.1 2001
sooo slick. as heard on msx fm in gran theft auto 3. i lost all faith in drum n bass until i heard this album. expertly mixed and a wicked set of tracks. sadly most of the other albums in this collection i didnt like as much. sorry its sorta hard to find again.

squarepusher - venus no. 17 2004
ultravisitors songs were mostly dissapointing to me so this is a welcome release. its the usual squarepusher beat-wise, whats interesting is what he is doing with melodies, especially on tundra 4, that huge cathedral sound like on ultravisitor. its on warp, you cant miss it.

machine drum - half the battle 2002
wonderfully fresh breakbeats and generally funky tunes. protect your neck all the way through, head nodding if you know what i mean.. may not be widely available, limited to 2000 copies.

arovane - lilies 2004
lush idm structures and blissful melodies, like a combination of his previous works atol scrap and tides. also im a sucker for the romantic. city centre offices label, might want to mail order it if you local shop sucks.

brothomstates - qtio 2001
this has remained one of my top 3 favorite albums ever since its release. 'brothomstates vs bill yard' makes me religious.

dextro - animism 2004
short 4 track ep with more pleasant breaks. vinyl only, but if you can find it catch a listen to 'the less we know'.

theres tons of others like richard devine asect_dsect and mas confusion compilation from music aus strom i could go on all day really.

ok so about this innovative crap. i think the reason why a lot of artists today sound like each other is because there are a lot of new musicians. when you start as a musician you always sound like someone else because a) you emulate your idols and b) no one is truly 'original'. only as you start to evolve as a musician does more of your individuality begin to show in your songs and thus set you apart from other people, giving rise to this so-called innovation.

also i think that many of these musicians arent classically trained and that their music is being shaped by their understanding of their software or hardware tools and not by more conventional means. so the similarity between the hardware and software is causing this specific type of sound to emerge, which is defined by things such as the endless cutting up and rearranging of patterns that was never as available to people before as it is now. everyone has a pc, and thats all you need to experiment with that kind of thing.

the third reason is perspective. as soon as you get close enough to an artist you will always find 5 or 10 more artists who are very similar. not only that, but when you look at any small period in time, for example _now_, there will always seem to be less innovation than if you look at the past 10 or 20 or 50 years when in reality progress - if something completely nonquantitative and immesurable can be called that - is always continuing around you in a very gradual rate.

and the final reason innovation is irrelovent is because you are a changing person. right now im not that impressed with any autechre but 5 or 10 years ago it blew my mind. you get desensitized, you grow up with something and it becomes part of you. im sure people are always discovering electronic music and still finding all these things innovative sounds even though it may not sound brand new to you.

so anyway. completely subjective topic you have here. just my 2 cents.

[yuusen]

I've developed a renewed taste for breakbeat recently, after spending a lot of time in the more cerebral realms of artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre. "Time for a bit of fire!" I thought and found BreaksFM (http://breaks.fm) very soon after that. They broadcast a mixture consisting mainly of nu skool breaks and progressive breaks. The station has a lively vibe to it which suggests to me that genres such as nu skool are gaining a lot of strength on the breaks scene.

Personally, I enjoy nu skool for the fact that it switches its style from a full on drum & bass beat (nu skool has its roots in drum & bass) to something more electro. Bboyin' and poppin' fodder in one package baby!

Edit: A little note to FoxZero: if that style of music has grown on you so much, why not start creating some of your own, perhaps it could renew your perspective of the style—if that's what you feel you need.

¥

[Lance]

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woah! longtimenosee. welcome back, yuusen. :)
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[yuusen]

HAHA! Thanks, Lance! It's great to be back! I'm really happy to see the forums still thriving. :D

[Sausehuhn]

Sad to say, that Orbital's history had finished in 2004. The blue album was ok, I like tracks like "You Lot" a lot, but all in all the last album wasn't that good.
I hope we will hear something new by Paul Hartnoll soon, the WOP Intro is just fantastic!

FSOL... hm... haven't heard about them since Fusion. The tracks made for the older WipEouts were quite good and other tracks I've listened to were good as well. It's a shame that we don't get any new tracks.

Amethyst. I'm sure the most of you don't know Amethyst. He/they made a track for Fusion named "Blue Funk". Bought the album "Golden Fish Fever" and it was great!! Wow!! But here's the same as always. Since 2001 there was nothing new released. And Jackpot Records Amethyst worked for has no website. (So I didn't find one).

Don't know much about Aphex Twin - but if his music is as good as it is in WipEout Pure than I don't want to know his stuff :dizzy

So give me some advices which new electronic/house music is available - I want to buy a new album :D

PS: It's Funkstörung, not Fünkstörung. Just because the germans have the ü, ö and ä not every letter that looks nearly similar to them really is such a letter ;)

[Lion]

I miss the good old days of happy hardcore, I'm still listening to Dune, Blümchen and UltraSonic :P

[tapioca]

@ Sausehuhn :
Concerning Aphex Twin, please don't make your mind on an only track, the one in Pure isn't quite interesting and doesn't even fit the game atmosphere. I wonder why they chose this one, but anything can happen with the Twin http://www.warprecords.com/media/img/afx_fans_holding_ears.jpg

My own selection if you want to discover the guy's music (go to http://www.bleep.com and search for aphex twin to preview this):
Richard D. James : maybe the good album to begin with. The more versatile one IMO. From "4" to Fingerbib to Logon Rock Witch (one of my faves, nothing to do with wipEout though)
Windowlicker : for some great decadent dancefloor (i recommend watching the music video too : http://sorta.stamen.com/mov/cunningham be patient as the first minute is chat only… consider this is a short movie)
For some more extreme Industrial Beats : Ventolin (Crowsmegegus mix and Cylob Mix beeing fantastic). Depending on what you're used to listen, this can be a bit… surprising.
Come to Daddy : listen to Prodigy's Firestarter and then the first title track of this EP. You should find a link. Watch the video here : http://131.174.112.28/fluimtv/Aphex_Twin-Come_To_Daddy.mpg. The other tracks are very different, more in his famous kiddy nostalgia mood (IZ-US…). Bucephalus Bouncing Ball is great.
I care because You do : Alberto Balsalm and Wet Tip Hen Ax (already talked about Ventolin)
If you're looking for some Techno-Ambient, try Selected Ambient Works II.
Drukqz is a bit hazardous in terms of inspiration, some great tracks though.

I hope this helps.
I almost forgot i started this topic. I'm coming back soon to add information on who and why. Not to behave like a jerk this time.
And remember, electronic music alone is bad for your health, try something else from times to times… :wink:

[Lance]

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such as Andrea Bocelli singing ''e lucevan le stelle''
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[tapioca]

Errr…yeah… something like this. There isn't any remix of it, right ?

[Lance]

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right. pure acoustic original with no added loops. no breakbeats. no sudden synthdrum accelerations. i think the farthest they go is a touch of reverb, and that might be from a concert hall instead of an electronic device. ;)
just adjusting the levels on the original recording. master and print to CD. hardly any time in the studio at all except rehearsing before the recording. a whole different world from what we've become used to. or for most of you, born into. simpler, but probably not really any easier. the perfecting just has to take place in a different area of the process.
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[tapioca]

Many people here were even born in a home studio. You Lance might have been the witness of real electronics birth. I'm almost feeling jealous… Subotnick, Reich, Stockhausen, the Forbidden Planet, the french GRM, and then psychedelic/electronic music… Silver Apples, White Noise, Can, Faust, Soft Machine, i would have liked to see all this, live…
I guess you're smiling a bit when reading our words on break-nu-tech-beat thing.
Reminds me i spoke of Add n to X somewhere up this post. Did i mentionned some Bruce Haack did this more than 30 years ago ?
Damned… :?