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A Personal History of Electronic Music |
After this period my new music purchases were drying up - all I seemed to do was plug gaps in the collection, where I did not have everything by someone I liked. In the last few years, and particularly recent months though my interest in E.M. has exploded again, and I have found many new artists worth collecting. And many of them were located via lists of personal favourites on personal web sites, so I am hoping that some of this will be of use to others of you, trying the same route. (Or maybe just playing with google in the office on your lunch break).
The first artist I got seriously excited about was Geir Jenssen, better known under his recording name of 'Biosphere' Over his career he has moved from the quieter end of techno, into something more like ambient, into an area largely of his own. Biosphere is best known for the track 'Novelty Waves' used in a Levi's advert. But this is generally considered as his last flirtation with techno. It is difficult to describe tracks, because its more a an accumulated mood you get from listening to his music. The earlier stuff makes much use of sampled voices, (often from the Russian space program, or science fiction films). Also much of his material is rather difficult to get hold of - even Mail Order from Amazon or Tesco gets a very limited range, but specialist shops can generally get hold of it. His music is sparse, calm, uses all sorts of found noises, and sometimes puts very unlikely combinations together. Fortunately on his (appropriately minimal) web site there are quite a few tracks from commissioned works available for you to try for free. (See links at the bottom of the page). Biosphere's music rewards repeated listening, even in the background. For me the best stuff is on 'Microgravity' and 'Patashnik' but these are not easy to locate. Substrata II, (which includes Substrata I), is a very good value double CD though, and will work as an excellent introduction.
From Biosphere, I found Higher Intelligence Agency. (They did one album together). Much more bleepy than Biosphere, HIA is also more tuneful. The CD's 'Free floater' and 'Colour form' are good, (but not classics).
This sort of led me sideways in an excursion into techno, where I rapidly got completely confused. many different versions of the same tracks, (very different), artists that only ever produced one single, and a fairly low average standard are the major hazards here. If you want to explore this kind of stuff it's probably best done through the many good value compilations available at the big online shops. I found I liked quite a bit of the style generally referred to as 'Goa Trance', though I am reluctant to be too specific here, as its such a mess. But there were a couple of albums I did end up liking a lot.
Space Tribe - Shapeshifter. Most techno dissolves fairly quickly into what can best be described as bleep thump bleep thump bleep thump bleep thump bleep thump bleep thump bleep bleep bleep bleep thump thump thump thump at 180 beats to the minute. But at least this bunch have actually managed to get a tune in occasionally! The noises are weird and rich, their tracks are unusually varied, and from what I have heard, most of their stuff is up to a consistent standard.
Morphem / X-Dream. Lumped together because of strong similarities, (and one mixing the other). Also they apparently use the same sound engineer which accounts for a lot of similarities. I probably prefer the Morphem stuff, but it seems devilishly hard to track down... Highlights would have to include XD's 'The Frog' mixed by Morphem, (Wonderfully over the top frog noises!), and one mix of 'Hypnotone' by Morphem. (Morphem should also get some kind of anti award for releasing an album that consists entirely of one rack in different forms). Hypnotone is downright weird - It starts as a sort of distorted simple song, the kind of thing that might be sung by a lonely cowboy in a bad family western. it gradually echoes and distorts more, and the pulsing beats come in, then the whole process reverses, and it backs out again. It really shouldn't work, but it is rather special, and quite unique.
Anyway, returning to more mainstream electronica, I next started reading of bands that were considered the descendants of Tangerine Dream. And one that got a lots of mentions were 'Synesthesia'. Synesthesia also proved a bit difficult to get hold of, but not impossible - there's a double 'best of' that has a lot of the best stuff on it, available from the big online stores. Their best tracks are characterised by being very well structured - unlike much E.M. you find, you get the definite impression that they know where they are going, and there is plenty of development within tracks. Unfortunately they seem a little inconsistent, (one reason I recommended the 'best of'), but personally I find their best stuff to be amongst the best electronic music ever recorded. They excel at the dark and gloomy, but can also do exultant too. My favourite track of theirs, the awesome 'Lifeless' goes from gloomy and formless, to gloomy and structured, to downright glorious. "Dark Core" and "Naked Sun" are also stunning - the latter with a middle eastern feel reminiscent of some of the more successful experiments by Jah Wobble. Approachable and powerful, they are an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to try relatively recent E.M.
Thanks to a friend at work, I was then introduced to some very good little known synthesiser and sequencer music. You are not likely to see it on the shelves at HMV, or much of it on Amazon, so if interested check out the specialist web sites listed in the links section of this article. You can listen to good sized samples at most of these places too, to 'try before you buy'. Most do the occasional good deal bundle of CD's too.
Under the Dome. Strange name but good music. Not just synths, though they dominate - effective use of traditional instruments as well. One of my favourites, 'Bellerophon' and 'Demon Haunted World' are constantly excellent.
Brannan Lane & Zero Ohm, Soundfall to the infinite. The tracks are in pairs, and are gentle, almost ambient - extremely relaxing but unusually also extremely memorable. Reminds me at times of Eno at his best. Trying more stuff by these two, (who do not usually work together) is currently high on my list of priorities.
Redshift. 1st Album. I want to get more by this guy, (Mark Shreeve), but its a bit hard to locate. This one is very reminiscent of the best bits of early Tangerine Dream. And that can't be bad. Sounds are rich, varied and layered, and the overall effect is excellent. God knows why he chose to stick six minutes of plain, quiet, heartbeat in at one point though...
Stephen Parsick, Traces of the Past: Guitars soar over sequencer backdrops, before we shift towards gently shifting minor chords and distant squeaky noises. I like this a lot. Other parts have a backing that's straight from the earliest Schulze stylebook.
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