The beauty, that is........Analogue Electronica

It always makes me wonder how informed most "ravers" ACTUALLY are!! Ask any afficionado worth his beans, and s/he'll tell you, Analogue Electronica (not an artist, a genre) is the FOREFATHER of what we, today, know as Electronica. Before DATs, before DJs, hell, even before IBM's "8086" (IBM's first PC), people were creating/enjoying the sounds of Electronica.

Most people, these days, when asked, believe that Electronica surfaced in the '90s. NOPE, sorry!!! Analogue has been around since the days of platform shoes and Disco (ewwwwwwww *shudders*).

I have two good examples of movies (from the mid-'70s) that showcased the sound of Electronica.

My first example, "Flash Gordon" (minus the Queen songs). Everyone's seen it!! It even played tonight, on the Sci-Fi channel. Everyone knows about the fight against "Ming".

My other example is "Midnight Express", it's a bit abstract, plus (since it's based on Turkey, and Turkey's quite abstract). Just about every song on this film is Electronica.

According to my mom, this movie came out when she worked for ABC Television, and had just gotten finished with a rather long (100+ hours) "Jerry's Kids" telethon (she apparently worked with Jerry Lewis on more than one occasion, or so I'm told.), and she watched it in the break room. This would probably be the ONLY movie she's ever been able to stay awake for, since it was "One of the best movies I've ever seen!!"...

A very good artist that I've found, that's trying to bring this music back, is Wintermute. I'm not sure where he hails from, but I'd sure like meet him, he must have had some enlightening experiences before, this music is more for the enlightened sort, since it's not really much for dancing (very small bassline, if any). Check out his stuff on mp3.com, it's very good stuff!!

You have to listen to the songs completely, don't just listen to 30 seconds or a minute, because that wouldn't be giving it a chance, since it's progressive.

Anyway just thought I'd inform the uninformed. Thanx for listening.


- Shaun

Ok, here's the link to Wintermute's MP3.com page.

Click Here

I suggest "Giants of the Sun", "Chiba City", "Spaces (Miles to Nowhere Mix)", "Black Ice" [Old Skool Trance], and "Metropolis II (The Golden Years)", "Into the Void (Countdown Remix)" [Old Skool Trance]. Several of his songs I haven't heard yet (he's constantly adding new songs!! )

Anyone else familiar with this genre know any other artists specializing in it?

[KiloWatts]

Good info, but not enough!

Electronic music started in the 30's with things like the Theramin, and tape looping! Steve Reich was a master of creating entrancing soundscapes by simply doing loops of real instruments on tape and phasing them... Lev Theramin created the first electronic instrument - and you didn't even have to touch it to play it! You might have seen Koxbox using one of these when they were in town a couple years ago.

On forward, in the 50's we had Karlheinz Stockhausen, the master of creating strange sounds in whatever manner he could think of, including a giant gong (the source of much of his genius)...

On forward we had John Cage, who generally took this principle and ran with it. He turned ambient music into a respected genre of its own, instead of just a bunch of noises as a gimmick. He was one of the first to actually perform this music in a live environment, concert halls, etc...

On forward, was Brian Eno, another genius of his time (70's), and from there sprang up the whole revolution. Tangerine Dream, and others started hitting electronica full and hard.

It wasn't until this time that people started realizing the magic of repetition in electronic music to create entrancing dancable beats. And that's where all the dance hype came from, and is still coming from. But there's a whole different world out there full of artists that are creating MUSIC with electronics that isn't intended to be danced to.

I think with the advent of raves, people have been blinded by dance music, thinking that it's the only kind of music reputable that people do with electronics. After all, anything electronic at Best Buy is in the "Dance" section.

But look at some of the artists that are making music right now electronically. Tetsu Inoue, Datacide, Atom Heart, Arovane, Terre Thaemlitz, Aphex Twin, Nautilis, and the list goes on and on and on.

So anyway, yeah... this music started in the 30s.

ok Jamie,
good rollcall of people... but you forgot someone.
Bob Moog.
Creater of the various line of Moog Synths.
that is all
Chris.

[KiloWatts]

good call, Cryo... can't forget him