Hello again, it is time to continue through the veritable jungle of artists and genres that lend themselves to the “Electronica” theme!
Oldies “electronica” hits that you may have heard of include Donna Summer’s I FEEL LOVE (70’s) and Soft Cell’s TAINTED LOVE (80’s). In my opinion, one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) electronic band coming out of the 70’s is Kraftwerk. A quadruplet of fellows from Germany using synthesizers almost exclusively, they revolutionized the way in which the electronic genre was perceived. Their music has been covered and remixed by everyone from Coldplay (Kraftwerk song “Computer love”) to a hard rock band out of Slovenia named Siddharta.
Another electronic hit of the 70’s was the single POPCORN by Kingsley, yet another surprise U.S. hit out of Europe. Both of these artists are classified, strangely, as DANCEPOP. The difference in sound from 70’s to 2000’s dancepop is incredible. Kraftwerk is also classified as ALTERNATIVE. Alternative is the genre that happens when the individual listening to the music throws their hands up in the air and exclaims, “what IS that????” It seems to happen frequently in less mainstream electronica as my favorite band growing up, Joy Electric (A single fellow from the San Francisco area who uses no instruments, no straight vocals, not even a drum machine, only a synthesizer) is also classified as ALTERNATIVE.
One of the aspects of electronic club music that even I cannot stand is what I refer to as “RAVE MUSIC”, or HARD TRANCE. I cannot even provide you with a sample artist because I find this genre so hideous. If you take a normal trance song and crank up the speed dial until it sounds like the chipmunks, congratulations! You now have a soundtrack that thousands of 15 year olds wearing glowsticks and not much else will gyrate to until the wee hours of the morning! How do I know this? Uh… personal experience? I admit that I too am a lover and wearer of glowsticks.
An interesting and less popular type of “hard” electronica is HARD HOUSE. Try DJ Icey, he has a more INDUSTRIAL flavor without the whiney emo (Stay tuned for Electronica part 3 where I discuss industrial electronica).
All right, we’ve covered the basics, now it is time to branch off into more interesting types of electronica! Stay tuned, next week I’ll deal with INDUSTRIAL, IDM, PSYTRANCE, HOUSEFUNK and DOWNTEMPO.
Until then, here is some bleeping and blooping to keep you happy.
Zero 7 – moody lite rock grooves, the have an unbelievable remix of Radiohead’s “Climbing up the Walls”
Scooter – As close to “rave” music as I can listen to, uptembo bouncy and repetative.
Sasha (& John Digweed) – I mentioned Sasha last time in regards to his single “Xpander”, but “Wavy Gravy” and “Clubbing Seals” (haha) are also worth mentioning. He often works in tandem with John Digweed and when he does the sound is less electronica and more funk.
Ratatat – Rock electronica. This is one of those crossover artists who I feed to individuals who are against the electric sounds on principle. They create a very interesting fusion.
Massive Attack – One of the few artists that seems to sit well with the general public. They are best known for their collaborations with Portishead.