c4countdown

One of the things apart from Countdown that I am really into is music. Though I could listen to most types of music (apart from some cheesy mainstream tracks), I particularly love electronic music. I particularly love House, Techno and some DnB. I regularly listen to radio shows and mixtapes with that sort of music and I also go raving to that sort of music haha. Hoping to be a DJ at some point too.

I'm just wondering if there is anyone else on this forum that likes electronic music of any kind? I noticed that people seem to either be into mainstream or rock on the music forum.

Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and Inventions are much loved parts of my CD collection but that's more or less where it starts and ends for me with electronic music.

Is Daft Punk (specifically, the album Random Access Memories) considered electronic? If so, it's the only album I own from the genre.

Johnny Canuck wrote:Is Daft Punk (specifically, the album Random Access Memories) considered electronic? If so, it's the only album I own from the genre.

Definitely. I love underground dance music (electronic) but Daft Punk is definitely electronic even though it's mainstream. RAM is more funky where as in the old Daft Punk days it was more housey. Daft Punk are legendary.

I used to be big into the scene back in the latter half of the 90s...... house, techno etc. Used to be out clubbing 3 to 5 nights a week back in the day, while working 9-5 and playing 11-a-side football.... I was young, fit and child-free back then though

I love all sorts of electro, with a preference for the extremes, so ambient/beatless or gabber does it for me, but I also love Portishead, Depeche Mode, Eno, Jarre, Art of Noise, Prodigy, PSB, lots of early 90s rave, and a random selection of recent stuff with no particular focus. The more dirty/distorted something is, the more likely it is it'll catch my attention.

Peter Clarke wrote: I noticed that people seem to either be into mainstream or rock on the music forum.

I just re-read the music thread and I don't get that impression at all. There was a huge selection of genres mentioned as well as extremely rare stuff that no one would have heard of before. Anyway, in terms of Electronic stuff I prefer older stuff like Kraftwerk and early Human League. Then I like the more mainstreamy stuff like Prodigy and Chemical Brothers. Love Melody A.M. by Royksopp too and, back when I was pilling, "Where's your Head At" by Basement Jaxx was a monster.

Yeah, some good shouts on here- Boards of Canada are really relaxing to listen to, and Daft Punk have some great stuff as well. Also CHVRCHES and Strfkr are worth giving a listen.

I was being a bit purist about the definition of electronic, but if we're including synthpop or whatever, add Grimes, Summer Camp and Fever Ray to my list. And 1989 by Queen TayTay of course Also forgot Teen Daze and Pantha Du Prince from my original list.

Not a Daft Punk fan though.

Mark James wrote:

Peter Clarke wrote: I noticed that people seem to either be into mainstream or rock on the music forum.

I just re-read the music thread and I don't get that impression at all.

Me too - to an extent - interesting that Peter got another impression. There's certainly a lot of rock fans there but there's as equal amount representing electronica and dance (plus the people who like a bit of the best of everything).

That said, I would venture that members of this forum tend towards the extremes of the particular genre, whether that be metal (so Slayer/Metallica rather than, say Iron Maiden or Def Leppard), electronica (so Aphex Twin/Squarepusher rather than stuff like Royskopp or Moby) and so on. Personally that's a thing that I can get into; if you're going to be into something, then (to me) it's logical to gravitate to the most extreme examples.

JimBentley wrote: That said, I would venture that members of this forum tend towards the extremes of the particular genre, whether that be metal (so Slayer/Metallica rather than, say Iron Maiden or Def Leppard)

Bad examples on the metal front there. Slayer and Metallica would be fairly mainstream and not in the extremes at all (Maybe Slayer a bit) but I agree with the sentiment. This is one of the better forums for music discussion because of the eclectic tastes of the members.

Mark James wrote:

JimBentley wrote: That said, I would venture that members of this forum tend towards the extremes of the particular genre, whether that be metal (so Slayer/Metallica rather than, say Iron Maiden or Def Leppard)

Bad examples on the metal front there. Slayer and Metallica would be fairly mainstream and not in the extremes at all (Maybe Slayer a bit) but I agree with the sentiment. This is one of the better forums for music discussion because of the eclectic tastes of the members.

Just because they're both mainstream in context, don't forget that they are relatively extreme in their own ways, Slayer especially back in the day. Metallica discovered that people will listen to thrash if it has the edges smoothed a bit.

I do agree with Jim in that I tend to extremes - Slayer are pretty much my favourite band, but I do love the approaching logical conclusion sort of stuff like Carcass, Mortician, Obituary etc etc. I think in some ways, the very heavily distorted likes of Mortician and Entombed end up converging with the ridiculous end of extreme techno type stuff. I'm so out of touch these days though, the main problem of being nearly 40 and sharing living space.

JimBentley wrote:

Mark James wrote:

Peter Clarke wrote: I noticed that people seem to either be into mainstream or rock on the music forum.

I just re-read the music thread and I don't get that impression at all.

Me too - to an extent - interesting that Peter got another impression. There's certainly a lot of rock fans there but there's as equal amount representing electronica and dance (plus the people who like a bit of the best of everything).

That said, I would venture that members of this forum tend towards the extremes of the particular genre, whether that be metal (so Slayer/Metallica rather than, say Iron Maiden or Def Leppard), electronica (so Aphex Twin/Squarepusher rather than stuff like Royskopp or Moby) and so on. Personally that's a thing that I can get into; if you're going to be into something, then (to me) it's logical to gravitate to the most extreme examples.

Okay I probably either remembered incorrectly, did some lazy reading or didn't take into account of those who love everything, apologies for that. I'm reading it again, yes I can see more of a variety than I remember. I don't see much dance and electronic music there though, maybe it depends on how people perceive music as dance or electronic music. Or am I missing something?

Mark, you did mention a Caribou track (Odessa if I remember correctly) on that forum. That's a brilliant song!

favourite electronic groups are Sparks, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Erasure and Chemical Brothers

Ian Volante wrote: Just because they're both mainstream in context, don't forget that they are relatively extreme in their own ways, Slayer especially back in the day. Metallica discovered that people will listen to thrash if it has the edges smoothed a bit.

I do agree with Jim in that I tend to extremes - Slayer are pretty much my favourite band, but I do love the approaching logical conclusion sort of stuff like Carcass, Mortician, Obituary etc etc. I think in some ways, the very heavily distorted likes of Mortician and Entombed end up converging with the ridiculous end of extreme techno type stuff. I'm so out of touch these days though, the main problem of being nearly 40 and sharing living space.

They're extreme compared to other music but mainstream in terms of the genre. Jim's point was how people on here tend to go to the extremes within a genre, making a journey from Iron Maiden to Metallica. My point is that's not a very long journey as they're pretty much in the same room and so wasn't a good example of the kinds of journeys to the extreme Jim was talking about. I still agreed with the point he was making just that those examples didn't help make the point. The fact you like Carcass is a better example. I was actually going to mention them. I have an album of theirs but its fairly impenetrable even for me. I'm more into the proggy, technical stuff like Blotted Science or Animals as Leaders.

Sorry for hijacking the electro thread with metal Peter. I'm always surprised by the lack of crossover of the genres though, I mean Prodigy always seem to play at Download so there's obviously common interest in both genres. Enter Shakiri are pretty rubbish but the only real example I can think of. It could be done so much better. This remix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpb23slsoyU is kind of techno/metal. Love to hear what you think.

Mark James wrote:

Ian Volante wrote: Just because they're both mainstream in context, don't forget that they are relatively extreme in their own ways, Slayer especially back in the day. Metallica discovered that people will listen to thrash if it has the edges smoothed a bit.

I do agree with Jim in that I tend to extremes - Slayer are pretty much my favourite band, but I do love the approaching logical conclusion sort of stuff like Carcass, Mortician, Obituary etc etc. I think in some ways, the very heavily distorted likes of Mortician and Entombed end up converging with the ridiculous end of extreme techno type stuff. I'm so out of touch these days though, the main problem of being nearly 40 and sharing living space.

They're extreme compared to other music but mainstream in terms of the genre. Jim's point was how people on here tend to go to the extremes within a genre, making a journey from Iron Maiden to Metallica. My point is that's not a very long journey as they're pretty much in the same room and so wasn't a good example of the kinds of journeys to the extreme Jim was talking about. I still agreed with the point he was making just that those examples didn't help make the point. The fact you like Carcass is a better example. I was actually going to mention them. I have an album of theirs but its fairly impenetrable even for me. I'm more into the proggy, technical stuff like Blotted Science or Animals as Leaders.

Fair enough. Regarding Carcass, which album is it? If you aren't much into grindcore, then the first two albums are pretty much unlistenable I'd say! However, the third album (Necroticism...) really slows things down a lot, and the lyrics are wonderful at times (if you appreciate endless puns on making good use of corpses in a variety of settings!). If they'd kept on in that direction, they could have ended up in the realms of death jazz, something like Cynic.

As for prog/prog metal, I've struggled with it. I love some Tool, and enjoyed a good bit of Opeth and Machine Head's more epic work, but I need some sort of in, otherwise I find it a bit impenetrable. Tool grabbed me with their wonderful videos, I was transfixed the first time I heard/saw a track off Lateralus.

Mark James wrote:

JimBentley wrote: ...whether that be metal (so Slayer/Metallica rather than, say Iron Maiden or Def Leppard)

Bad examples on the metal front there. Slayer and Metallica would be fairly mainstream and not in the extremes at all (Maybe Slayer a bit) but I agree with the sentiment. This is one of the better forums for music discussion because of the eclectic tastes of the members.

Fair play, my metal phase was in the mid to late 1980s (as scholars of modern history will know, it was the law in those days that all teenage boys had to go through a heavy metal phase at some point) so my references were always going to be outdated. Stuff like black metal and doom metal (and the seemingly unending sub-genres/fusions etc. that have come about since) have sort of passed me by. Of course, some of the participants in such music didn't really help their cause by going round burning down churches and murdering each other, although come to think of it, publicity stunts don't come much better than that (Katy Perry considered a similar strategy in her early days).

Anyway, electronic music. Some of you may know that this is a subject in which I have an interest. I'm going to have to give this some thought before replying properly, I think, and read the previous threads or otherwise I'll just end up repeating stuff I've recommended before.

Peter Clarke wrote:One of the things apart from Countdown that I am really into is music. Though I could listen to most types of music (apart from some cheesy mainstream tracks), I particularly love electronic music. I particularly love House, Techno and some DnB. I regularly listen to radio shows and mixtapes with that sort of music and I also go raving to that sort of music haha. Hoping to be a DJ at some point too.

I'm just wondering if there is anyone else on this forum that likes electronic music of any kind? I noticed that people seem to either be into mainstream or rock on the music forum.

I'm into quite a lot of electronic music, skewed towards the 90s when I was listening to more new music than I do now. I tend to listen to unthreatening stuff these days because I'm usually working or otherwise concentrating when listening to music, so that's artists like Global Communication, Future Sound of London, Boards of Canada, Spooky, Reload, Aphex Twin, Bola, Minotaur Shock, Max Richter, The Orb, Jon Hopkins, Orbital, Four Tet. Plenty of others too.

Was going to do an insanely long post about this (following my previous threat, above), but it's just too big to do in one go, so...always been into a bit of everything, but especially electronic stuff, probably starting from when Tubeway Army's 'Are Friends Electric?' was all over the radio, followed by Numan's solo 'Cars' and a couple of other things (Visage's 'Fade to Grey' and 'Night Train', Kraftwerk's 'The Model', the early Depeche Mode singles and subsequently anything Yazoo did).

But I suppose the period I was most into was around 1987-1992, i.e. encompassing early house, techno, breakbeat and rave (rave gets a bad press but if you were into the 'scene', it was one of the most fun times ever, trust me (that said, some drugs may have been involved)). And I might be wrong (I often am) but I think this (from 1990) is still the go-to track for testing amplifiers/speakers, because of its very very wide dynamic range:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7DlMlnWtEE

I could go on forever about this stuff. I'm not going to though.

JimBentley wrote:Was going to do an insanely long post about this (following my previous threat, above), but it's just too big to do in one go, so...always been into a bit of everything, but especially electronic stuff, probably starting from when Tubeway Army's 'Are Friends Electric?' was all over the radio, followed by Numan's solo 'Cars' and a couple of other things (Visage's 'Fade to Grey' and 'Night Train', Kraftwerk's 'The Model', the early Depeche Mode singles and subsequently anything Yazoo did).

But I suppose the period I was most into was around 1987-1992, i.e. encompassing early house, techno, breakbeat and rave (rave gets a bad press but if you were into the 'scene', it was one of the most fun times ever, trust me (that said, some drugs may have been involved)). And I might be wrong (I often am) but I think this (from 1990) is still the go-to track for testing amplifiers/speakers, because of its very very wide dynamic range:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7DlMlnWtEE

I could go on forever about this stuff. I'm not going to though.

I quite like that tune, although I only discovered it in the last few years. For whatever reason, my local pirate rave station never played them as far as I noticed!

One late night about 10-15 years ago, I was studying for school exams and listening to the radio and I stumbled upon this weird and wonderful music on Raidio na Gaeltachta (Irish language radio station that mostly deals in fiddles and farming, finding electonic music on this station would be like finding Dave Pearce playing bangin' club choons on Classic FM) The show is called An Taobh Tuathail ('The Other Side') and I don't get much opportunity to listen to it these days. From what I remember, it starts the week with ambient music and builds up to more dancey stuff by the end of the week.

I love lots of electronic music and there are too many artists to name but here's some of what I like at the moment:

Leon Vynehall - It's Just (House of Dupree) (house)
Helena Hauff - Piece of Pleasure (techno)
Walls - Moon Eye (house/techno)
Kelela - Rewind (dance)
Clark - Unfurla (EDM)
Objekt - Ganzfeld (techno)
Burial - Temple Sleeper(dance)
Gazelle Twin - Exorcise (?)

Don't really engage with music enough to know whether this can be defined as electronic music because there's definitely some guitars and shit in there but Public Service Broadcasting are good.

Jon O'Neill wrote:Don't really engage with music enough to know whether this can be defined as electronic music because there's definitely some guitars and shit in there but Public Service Broadcasting are good.

Yep, I've got their albums, most excellent stuff.

Recently found out about the genre Synthwave. It's bloody top. Fav artist so far is Dance with the Dead. Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEtsFqCY1LY.

Mark James wrote:Recently found out about the genre Synthwave. It's bloody top. Fav artist so far is Dance with the Dead. Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEtsFqCY1LY.

Darkwave via the 80s? Not doing it for me initially

I'm a big fan of electronic music, leaning more to the ambient side of the spectrum.

These are some the albums I turn to again and again, and would strongly recommend all of them.

Kiasmos – Kiasmos
Orbital – In Sides
Caribou – Swim
Actress – RIP
Susumu Yokota – Sakura
Aphex Twin – (basically his entire catalogue)
Four Tet – Rounds
Darkside – Psychic
John Talabot – Fin
Floating Points – Elaenia
Propellerheads – Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
Ian william craig – A Turn of Breath
Steve Hauschildt – Where All is Fled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxWdje58cV0

Have become incredibly obsessed with this one, even though it's like a year old.