3 posts tagged “electronic music”

Portishead is reforming, putting out a new album, and curating the next installment of ATP (All Tomorrow's Parties, the music festival I attended at the surreal Butlins Minehead).

I DESPERATELY wish that I could go back for this!  Portishead is one of my all-time favorite acts.  This will be their first full set of new material in ten years.  Beth Gibbons' voice is seriously one of the sexiest things ever.  I'd listen to her sing just about anything.  Since they're curating the show they'll probably end up playing at least two or three sets, and show up at random sets to perform with the artists they've selected.  For those who aren't familiar with ATP, the curating artists invite acts that they dig, have been influenced by, or have been associated with.

I was pretty much entirely unfamiliar with the Dirty Three ATP lineup, but I still had a wonderful time (here's the lineup for the upcoming installment; perhaps you'll have more luck with it that me).  Groups like Portishead usually have pretty good taste in music.  If I were in the UK I'd be there in a second just to see Portishead, even if the rest of the lineup consisted of buskers and middle school marching bands.  But Aphex Twin is also going to be there <drool>.  PORTISHEAD AND APHEX TWIN!!!  To me, they represent all that is good about electronic music.  You never know what you might get with an Aphex show.  He might spin some hardcore DnB tracks, mix it with some tripped-out acid stuff, and then finish the set off with some of the most beautiful ambient music you've ever heard.  Or he might just get bored and make some weird noises.

The bottom line is that I really, really, REALLY want to go to this festival.  Too bad I'm not in England.

This subject hasn't been covered much, or at all really, in this blog.  Mostly because it's been a source of great frustration for me, and it's the main reason why my posts were so sparse for a while (not because I was writing nonstop; rather I just spent a lot of time worrying about it).  But it's due on Friday, and after that it'll be over.

In honor of my recent post about Daft Punk, I thought I'd regale you, dear readers, with what I bump to as I type.  I love listening to music while I write, but I really need stuff without lyrics (songs with lyrics that I know are out of the question).  Classical usually does the trick, though I tend to use that more when I'd reading.  For the writing, I turn to ambient techno.  One album in particular has fueled practically all of my late-night sessions (because let's face it, that seems to be the only time I can work for real) since my sophomore year of college:

I picked this album up when I was out in Seattle for Thanksgiving that year and never looked back.  It's beautiful, haunting, sprawling, inspiring.  I found that I was able to become completely enveloped by Aphex Twin's sonic landscapes yet still work inside them; I was fully aware without having to give my full attention.  Really amazing stuff.  I credit much of my success, as it is, to this album.

Aphex is still one of my favorite artists to this day, but recently Selected Ambient Works 85-92 has been supplanted as the writing music of choice by two of his brothers in arms:

I have been looking for more great ambient music ever since I picked up SAW, and have met with little success (Brian Eno's Music for Airports being a major exception).  Ambient is a bit nichey, even for the over-taxonomied glut of a beast that is the world of electronic music.  You won't really hear it in clubs because most people wouldn't dance to it, and it certainly isn't played on mainstream radio.  So you have to seek it out.  I haven't made it my mission, though I have wasted plenty of time scouring Wikipedia and AllMusic.com for something that might compare to the generally incomparable Aphex Twin.  Autechre is the group that seemed to be mentioned the most, so I finally picked up their debut album a couple of months ago.  And it's awesome.  A bit more dynamic than SAW, heavier on the beats, but still wonderful.  It has become my dissertation trail buddy, a companion in the lonely desolation that is the room of a graduate student trying to write a thesis.  SAW served faithfully for four years' worth of term papers; it has received an honorable discharge, but retains reserve status should a time of great need arise.

As usual, here are some samples.  The tracks are only on my iPod, so I am forced to resort to YouTube videos set to the songs.  Xtal (which I only recently realized is probably pronounced "crystal;" Aphex has a penchant for unpronounceable titles, so I just assumed) is the lead track from SAW, and one of my favorites.  Ignore the visuals if you like, it's some weird experimental stuff (it was either that or an upsetting reel of disaster footage including shots of the plaza in front of the WTC with bodies of those who jumped to their deaths on 9/11).  Kalpol Intro is the lead track from Incunabula, and it's set to some good clips from "Sunshine."  I blogged about that one earlier in the year, it's finally out in the States.  You should see it if you haven't yet.   Ignore the bit at the end; it's dialogue from the "Pi" soundtrack.

I love live music, but I'm really not a regular concert-goer.  It's mostly a money thing.  A movie ticket is probably going to be cheaper than a ticket to a show, at least for a lot of the bigger acts I'd like to see.  It's also about opportunity.  I don't make it my business to find out who's going to be in town when.  And I'm not always willing to take chances on groups I've never heard of.  So I don't end up seeing too many shows.  And I've never been to a live electronica show.  I've heard plenty of crappy DJ's in bars and other places, but no live performances of original electronic music.  And I LOVE electronic music.

Which is why I really wish that I had a) been in the United States on August 9th and b) been willing to cough up the cash to see Daft Punk perform at Coney Island.  I read about it on the Onion AV Club site and subsequently sought out some bootlegs on YouTube.  The entire concert is up there, shot from a variety of angles to varying degrees of audio quality.  It looked like an incredible show, and pretty much every comment I've seen seems to agree.  Pretty rare from the YouTube community, which is usually full of haters or people looking to cause trouble.

People who aren't into electronic music probably think that such a concert would be pretty boring.  I mean, the artists could conceivably just push play, sit back, and let people dance.  But great electronic artists find ways to improvise with their compositions just as any jazz or rock musician would.  I've watched a number of videos from other dates from this Daft Punk tour, and they mix the songs in different ways just about every time.  You never know what might come next and it's amazing to see how they make all of this stuff work together.  Plus they dress up like robots and perform from a neon pyramid.  Who else does that?!

So let's go to the videotape.  I'm posting two.  The first one is the best-sounding bootleg that I've found.  The guy must've had a pretty nice camera.  They start off with "One More Time" and blend into a funky rendition of "Aerodynamic," which is probably my favorite Daft Punk tune (I think this is actually from their Coachella show).  The second clip is my favorite remix from the concert, and the one that I really wish I had been there to hear.  It begins with "Around the World," and then they build up to a rather epic inclusion of the line from "Harder Better Faster Stronger."  That one must have been a real beast live.

Note: I've checked the actual post, and Vox seems to be actin' a fool.  The videos don't seem to want to play here.  If this is the case, just click on the video while it's playing.  That'll instantly take you through to the source at YouTube.  Please do, I think they're killer clips and hopefully you will too.