Electro suggestions

[popotter]

Anyone suggest any interesting Electro going on out there at the mo?

[fee]

i realise it's not the done thing to promote one's friends but my favouritest electro blokey would never forgive me if i didn't

www.kingshavelongarms.co.uk

[ShariVari]

I really like The Fairlight Children's debut album.

www.fairlightchildren.com/mainpage.html

Try and find the song Invade My Heart Tonight.


Scandipop alerted me to the excellent "Spiel Mit" by 2Raumwohnung a little while ago - that's worth seeking out as well.

[yorkpete]

How recent do you mean?

If you haven't heard of any of the below I'd investigate:

• The Faint
• Patrick Wolf
• Chicks on Speed
• Louie Austen
• Schneider TM
• The Postal Service
• Adam Sky
• Atomizer
• Miss Kitten
• Broken Spindles

Although you may hate them all, of course.

[tigermilk]

Neither are particularly new, but I'd reccommend Vive La Fete and The Knife.

[popotter]

ooooh lovely - plenty to be getting on with....

[Kittens-In-A-Hoodie]

Depends what you mean by electro, too.

Lali Puna - Faking The Books
Fennesz - Venice
Felix Da Housecat - Devin Dazzle & The Neon Fever
Paul Wirkus - Inteletto D'Amore
Miss Kittin - i-com
Mylo - Destroy Rock 'n' Roll

have been the best electronic albums so far this year I think.

Other recent-ish electro essentials that you must (and may already) have in your collection:

Four Tet - Rounds
Golden Boy - Or
Crossover - Fantasmo
DNTL - Life Is Full Of Possibilities
Ms. John Soda - No P. or D.
Colder - Again
Barbara Morgenstern - Night Muss
Console - Rocket In The Pocket
Ellen Allien - Berlinette
Chris Clarke - Empty The Bones Of You

[lockedintheattic]

These all sound great. I have recently discovered the delights of Barbara Morgenstern thanks to this board, she's one of my favourite discoveries in ages.

Kittens - based on my love of Barbara, which 1 or 2 of your list of 'essentials' (none of which I own yet) should I be buying next?

[Pierre]

You should also listen to :

* Isan's latest album
* Early Autechre, if you don't know them yet (Incunabula for instance)
* Multiplex
* Mu-Ziq (with the greek letter 'mu' I can't find on my keyboard) (the Royal Astronomy album)

And if you want recent albums with nice bits of electro in it, you have Sigur Ros' latest EP (Baba/Tiki/Dido) or the latest album from The Album Leaf.

[Modern Diva]

You HAVE to hear the Knife. Not everyone's cup of tea but get Heartbeats and have a listen.

[popotter]

so what are the knife like?

[lockedintheattic]

I generally love electronic music, and I bought Royal Astronomy based on the great reviews.

It made me want to stick pins in my eyes and remove the skin from my genitalia with sandpaper. I thought there was something wrong with me, but then I noticed it topped the year-end chart in (i think) NME for most-returned album of the year, which is quite impressive for a relatively low-selling album.

[miamicounting]

You might like I AM X, which is the 'side project' of Chris Corner from Sneaker Pimps.
www.iamx.co.uk (not much there at the moment, but apparently coming soon).

[popotter]

hmmm, i might leave the Royal Astronomy one.

Tho i've been sold on the Barbara Morg...what's her name. i'm checking her out....

while i'm at it - any good compilations for these artistes?

[Pierre]

popotter said:

hmmm, i might leave the Royal Astronomy one.

You shouldn't. It's great. Much better than other Mu-Ziq released. It's very diverse with loads of strings and you can't really go wrong with a mix of electro and strings.

Try to download listen to it first.

[popotter]

luckily i have handed in my notice at work, so will happily download things at me desk without fear of a telling off....

i'll give it a try

[Kittens-In-A-Hoodie]

lockedintheattic said:

These all sound great. I have recently discovered the delights of Barbara Morgenstern thanks to this board, she's one of my favourite discoveries in ages.

Kittens - based on my love of Barbara, which 1 or 2 of your list of 'essentials' (none of which I own yet) should I be buying next?

Glad to hear that Babs is working for you too!

The closest, both geograhically and spiritually would be Ellen Allien - "Berlinette" (who's another Berlin DJ cum electro wizz) but she's more dance-floor orientated. I'd say that the melancholy melodic electronica of:

1. DNTL - Life Is Full Of Possibilities (see review: [ftp]http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/d/dntel/life-is-full-of-possibilities.shtml[/ftp]

2. Ms. John Soda - No P. or D. (see review: [ftp] www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/ms-john-soda/no-p-or-d.shtml[/ftp]

3. Lali Puna - Faking The Books (or either of their previous two albums) (see review: [ftp] www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/l/lali-puna/scary-world-theory.shtml[/ftp]

Should definitely work for you as well.

DNTL is also the precurser to the Post Office album, and is vastly superior IMHO...in fact it's surely one of the best electonic albums ever made.

Oh, and how could I forget another that you would almost certainly adore:

Juana Molina - Segundo
images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0001W30RW.02._OU02_PIuk-r-fp-1199,BottomRight,10,10_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg [/img]

If you wanna PM me I'd be happy to send you a sampler of all of the above, so you can ponder at your leisure.

[Kittens-In-A-Hoodie]

popotter said:

so what are the knife like?

They're VERY 80's, Swedish new-wave/pop. (they call it emotional electronic punk pop) Here they are now:
www.rockfeedback.com/images/theknife_2.jpg[/img]
"Heartbeats" sounds precisely like something from 1981 or so. It's a good song, and fun, but personally, I don't like the Cyndi Lauper-ish vocals too much, and it's slavishly retro, with syn-drums a go-go.

I suppose you'd have to say that alongside Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert and Squarepusher µ-ZIQ is "post-techno" which is an ugly term I agree, but is probably the most literal name for those who's music developed from the likes of Orbital, LFO & Plaid and became more angular and exprimental, hauling bits of industrial, hip-hop, ambient, noise and other influences into the mix.

The term "electro" covers a huge diversity of different music these days, and it's all the better for it.

In one corner you've got 80's influenced electro-pop, which briefly crossed over under the banner of electroclash, but has been bubbling around for years and will no doubt continue to do so. Hoards of British, Japanese & US bands specialise in this (Golden Boy, Freezepop, Crossover, FC Kahuna etc)

In another there's semi avant-guard glitchtronica: invented by Oval, developed, and technofied Autechre, mastered by Christian Fennesz, jazzified by Jan Jelinek, dabbled in by Bjork, and closer in spirit to modern jazz than anything else. It's a diverse music, but characterised by being generally boundary-breaking and striving for the new.

Then there's the post-punk, rougher and thrashier electro, like Peaches, Chicks On Speed etc.

Also there's the so-called folktronica, (Four Tet, Neotropic, Leila, The Books, Matmos, Colleen) which brings in lots of organic sounding elements and often sounds more acoustic than most other music, even though it's generally all done on lap-tops.

Plus of course more dance-floor orientated post-house stuff, like Underworld/Leftfield say.

Oh, and broken beats electro, (a sort of post hip-hop) like Prefuse 73, Manitoba and, in a more soulful guise, Spacek.

and good old fashioned 70's ambient electronica (see Susumu Yokota etc) is still going strong, with offshoots into drone, and so-called dark ambient.

Lots of musicians bring bits together from different of these (admitedly rather loose) categories too.

[popotter]

a fine breakdown if ever i read one!

now i just want a shelf with all the cd's on so i can dip into each one and see what i think...

tho, i think i've got a fairly good idea of what to expect now i've read that.....and the talk of the Berlinette one has just reminded me that i wanna get that trip to berlin sorted out!

[Kittens-In-A-Hoodie]

popotter said:

a fine breakdown if ever i read one!

now i just want a shelf with all the cd's on so i can dip into each one and see what i think...

tho, i think i've got a fairly good idea of what to expect now i've read that.....and the talk of the Berlinette one has just reminded me that i wanna get that trip to berlin sorted out!

Well, Berlin is the modern capital of electro, so that that'd be totally appropriate!

Again, I'd be happy to send you a sampler of stuff if you'd like, anything to spread the electro word - drop me a PM.

[ShariVari]

Does anyone have any information on a couple of German electro groups i have heard interesting things by - Klee, Spillsbury and Slut?

[neonknight]

THE KNIFE RULE THE SCHOOL!

[neonknight]

try and see the Knife video for PASS IT ON_ it's ace!

[mattcgx]

I'm confused about what exactly defines something as 'electro'?

I mean, is Peaches electro? Har Mar Superstar? etc.

As far as suggestions go, I'm clearly far from being an expert but Chicks on Speed are consistently brilliant, and the Fischerspooner album isn't as bad as people would have had you believe at the time. Ooh, and the Tiga and Zyntherius cover of Sunglasses At Night. And 2 Many DJs.

[Splendid*]

Might I suggest you listen to I Monsters rather superb electro pop meets glam fusion, 'Hey Mrs'. Which ranks as one of the best and most imaginative songs I've heard all year. Whilst you’re at it, give their album a spin too.

[Modern Diva]

neonknight said:

try and see the Knife video for PASS IT ON_ it's ace!

It's fab, esp when the boy starts dancing.
But the one for 'take my breath away' (sample lyric: "I wanted to get laid to 'Take my breath away'" - step up, Jessica Simpson) pisses all over it.

I just like funny dancing.

[drbastard]

Check out The Bungle Brothers' fantastic 'Secrets'. You can download it for free at SoundClick so go. Some stuff is very disco punky electro...

www.soundclick.com/bands/1/thebunglebrothersmusic.htm

Secrets. Get it.

[Dennis]

Simian vs. Justice - Never be alone

You won't need anything else.

[klaa]

I dont know maybe theyre too 'commercial' for what youre looking for or maybe theyre not electro at all, but Add N To X's Avant Hard is a wonderful album especially FYUZ and Buckminster's Fuller (or sth like that).

[yorkpete]

I love Berlin.

Speaking of which, Rhythm King and Friends are rather good. I went to see them the other night. Their new album is called I am disco and it's quite nice.

You can download a track from it called Get Paid here

Kittens-In-Mittens said:

Well, Berlin is the modern capital of electro, so that that'd be totally appropriate!