Electronica recommendations?

...talking of classics:

You must dig out some Caberet Voltaire and DAF for first class early electronica.

Jono

Please try Thievery Corporation on your S400

Regards!

This is just a few weeks old...

If it means anything, NME gave it 8/10.

By Trent Reznor and Brit Atticus Ross.

Available direct from the artist including 24/96. 

How To Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion

Great opportunities out there to pick up the tangerine dream back catalogue at the moment!

the Scandinavians are pretty good at electronica - must be the long nights - try royksopp, the knife and fever ray all featuring karin dreier Anderson. fever ray has a couple of good hifi test tracks ....try keep the streets empty for me + when I grow up

Would second The Knife and Fever Ray.. just ordered the new Knife on vinyl..

Hook..

Can you clarify what you mean by 'Electronica' ?  In the US this is a genre applied to "Club Music" here in Europe which evolved from the Acid House/Rave scene.. If this is what you mean then back to the roots with some KLF , 'The White Room' covering their stadium house phase and then 'Chillout' or 'Space' for their more ambient works...  memories of long nights flooding back as I type

Hook, if you like Massive Attack then Archive's Londinium is a must - the best album Massive Attack never made;

Another favourite trip-hop/electronica crossover is a Alphawezen.  En Passant or Comme Vous Voulez would be a good place to start here;

Otherwise, Ellen Allien and Apparat is fun;

This one is pretty much essential;

On top of that, has anyone mentioned Boards of Canada yet?

Oh yeah.

'Dayvan Cowboy' often pops up as background atmosphere music on TV documentaries.

John.

Go grab a copy of Sound Canvas from http://mikrotondigital.bandcamp.com. 

You can pay £2 and for that you will get a good idea of where electronic music is today (some big names in that list including Alva Noto, Frank Bretschneider, etc).

Even if you don't dig the tracks at first, you will most definitely be surprised by how much they can stretch your gear.

Electronica is typically the easy listening part of electronic music that, as a category, spans a massive landscape from classical & Stockhausen, to Eno, to bleeding edge experimental.

Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Vrioon, would be my recommendation as an entry point.

…and as a side note on the OP, neither Can nor Neu! is electronic music (definitely not electronica). Both are much nearer to what David Bowie and others where doing at the time.

Hi Deeg1234 (and YanC) -

I used the term "electronica" because the Wikipedia entry:

"...Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities. Unlike electronic dance music not all examples of electronica are necessarily made for dancing.In the United States genres such as techno, downtempo, and ambient are among those encompassed by the umbrella term, entering the American mainstream from "alternative" or "underground" venues during the late 1990s..."

Was hoping that it was an umbrella term, and was not trying not be restrictive at all in my request in my recommendations.  I like both uptempo and downtempo music -- everything from synthesized pop to trip/hop to background/ambient to, well...you name it!  Was definitely *not* trying to spur a debate over issues of taxonomy!  Was simply feeling that I was in a rock/folk/jazz rut, and needed to spice things up a bit...

So far, I am thrilled by the responses, and have already ordered some CDs. The best part of all is that most of these artists are totally new to me. I love that music is such a big world, and that one can spend months or years on just a single genre, and never come close to completely plumbing its depths! Sucks that I have to go to work today...  ;-)

ATB.

Hook

"…and as a side note on the OP, neither Can or Neu! is electronic music (definitely not electronica). Both are much nearer to what David Bowie and others where doing at the time."

A fair point. 'Krautrock' is what it used to be called, but that's probably not PC nomenclature now. I like Rother's term of 'Stunde Null' - zero hour. Disaffected German youth felt that their music needed to start again from scratch to build something from the ashes of the devastating consequences of two wars.

John.

This might be (allegedly) the starting point of the genre

An Electric Storm

White Noise's landmark 1969 album An Electric Storm might not the first thing most people think of when considering 1960s music, but there are few records anywhere tied more intrinsically to the moment of their creation. Recorded in the months immediately prior to the widespread availability of keyboard-based synthesizers, An Electric Storm might be one of the most painstakingly crafted electronic recordings of all time. Pieced together on improvised equipment via innumerable tape edits, this remarkable album is at once futuristic and unavoidably date-stamped, serving as a fascinating audio snapshot of a bygone era in sound generation and recording technology.

This group included the  "mother" of electronica Delia Derbyshire from BBC Radiophonic workshop.

Absolutely. Apparently made when he was a teenager, at home, using various home-made devices.

Lunatic Soul, aka frontman of Riverside has "impressions" on cd & vinyl. This album contains no lyrics, and is electronic based largely. 

To try simply go to You Tube where the entire album can be found.

Exceedingly well engineered & mastered - this guy is another Steve Wilson imo.

The first two albums are well worth a try, but not purely electronica. Those will inevitably lead you to Riverside, and post metal..

What about ...The Human League...Travelogue? Transition from being a bit dodgy ("Reproduction" sounds half worked) to being a pop band ("Dare"). Travelogue - their best. Good to see Bill Nelson get a mention.

PopI

+1 for RHK and the cabs 82 and on

orbital and last year wonky lp (on my lp12 now) great sound live chimetastic

have we had trentemoller last resort

pauls

This is known as Acid Jazz. The following are some good examples of the genre:

Jori Hulkkonen - Different

Luke Vibert - Big Soup

There have been some great recommendations in this thread but there has been a criminal dearth of Detroit techno/house. Here's a remedy:

Juan Atkins - Wax Trax! Mastermix Vol 1.

Derrick May - The MayDay Mix

Anthony Nicholson - Dance Anthology vols 1 & 2

Did you save some room for drum n' bass? It ranges from the atmosperic:

LTJ Bukem - Logical Progression, Level 1

LTJ Bukem - Journey Inwards

To the dark and technical:

Photek - Form & Function

Source Direct - Controlled Developments

You should be able to find something you like in the previous suggestions.

Also investigate Autechre, The Future Sound of London, Trevor Lovey, Carl Craig, Aphex Twin, Sten, Andy Caldwell, Sasha, Danny Tenaglia, Zuntata, Boymerang, Jazzanova and John Digweed for starters.

Good posts a few additions and a suggestion.

Hook when I am looking for new music I use AllMusic.com's genre browser.

Either hit explore on the main page and go from there or find a specific group you like and go from there.  

You've mentioned both Massive Attack and Portishead, so when searching for Trip-Hop will find you similar artists.  Ambient Breakbeat is another good and related genre to explore.

The genre browser on that site is great.  It doesn't have everything, and you may not agree with all of its choices for most influential albums in specific genres, but it has introduced me to a lot of new music.

Flying Lotus

- Surprised Flying Lotus hasn't been mentioned yet. I haven't spent much time with his latest album yet, but his earlier ones are great and by all accounts so is his most recent one.

- Los Angeles 

- Cosmogramma

-  Until the Quiet Comes  Going to dig into this one this weekend finally.

The Prodigy

- Experience   This is their first album, its very early techno but some great tracks..

- Fat of the Land   Many great tracks, and at least one very controversial one.

DJ Shadow

- Private Press  very different from the amazing Entroducing, but it is also very good. 

DJ Spooky

- Creation Rebel - Reggae electronic mix, it is great fun.

- Optometry - This is electronica / jazz mix - its very interesting.

- The Secret Song -  Most recent - quite good.

Bibio

- Ambilvalence Avenue - Some of the tracks are very playful and fun and others veer towards somber indie rock - it is a very interesting disc.

Roni Size

- In the Mode -- I haven't spent much time with his earlier (and better reviewed album) but this one is good. 

UNKLE

- Psyence Fiction  -- Since you mentioned Yorke - he has an interesting contribution on this album and DJ Shadow was part of UNKLE at the time of this album's release.

Amon Tobin

- Mentioned earlier and I completely agree with the recommended albums, but I would add...am

- Out from Out Where  It is darker in tone and a little different than his previous albums, but good.

The Cinematic Orchestra

- I find their music to be beautiful and relaxing. 

- Every Day

- Ma Fleur

- Live at the Royal Albert Hall

As referenced earlier in the discussion, when defining what constitutes 'electronic music' (as with any genre) it can get tricky (no pun intended).   What I've listed is what I would consider to be more on the electronic side of things.

However, some of the more interesting music with electronic elements that I have encountered fall more on the undeground/alternative rap / jazz side of the spectrum. Case in point DJ Shadow is frequently categorized as electronic or rap. There are strong elements that can be traced to both genres in his music but (with the exception of The Outsider) I wouldn't call any of his albums 'rap albums'. 

There is some very interesting music that doesn't fit at all with what one thinks of in terms of 'popular' rap.  

If those types of recommendations are of interest please let me know and I can point out some stuff that I find interesting

Nathan

On the mellower side 

Foals - Stepson, Spanish Sahara (great progression in that song)

The XX - any of their stuff is good, but the recent Jamie XX edit of Sunset released for RSD is the best I've heard.  IMO their sound is best heard on vinyl.

Flume - Insane feat. Moon Holiday

Slow Magic - On Yr. Side, Feel Flows

Ra Ra Riot - Is it Too Much

An earlier poster mentioned Tricky - definitely one of my favorites, but specifically Pre-Millenium Tension is one of the best electronic albums ever put together.  Check out Christiansands for a song that pretty much defines the mellow electronica genre.  Maxinquaye is another decent album, but his solid tracks get pretty spotty after those two.

More Upbeat - 

Old, but still one of my fav's - Zoot Woman - Grey Day, We Won't Break

Sameblod - UR Road

"Epic" sounding  - 

Zedd - Shave it (Kaskade Remix)

Flight Facilities - Crave You (Adventure Club Remix)

AWOLNATION - Sail

Crystal Castles - Affection

The Cinematic Orchestra has been mentioned above. I can recommend this album. It is relaxing, invigorating and comforting all at once, the strings and percussion blend wonderfully "In Motion" is the ideal title for this piece.

 Sorry for the quality/ size of the picture.

Graham

Hi Hook

just wanted to thank you for starting this thread. Made me think and delve into storage to find some Depeche Mode, Everything But The Girl, Chemical Bothers CD's. I hadn't ripped any of these and actually forgotten I actually had them.

anyway, now got the Kraftwerk CD's and can't believe how much I like this stuff. Never herd it as good as this also since it's now playing through Naim .

also now built a list from the recommendations on here. I love the forum for this!

thanks to you and all.

ATB,Anton

I like both these from Thom Yorke et. al.

I would like to suggest a rather new band called Vondelpark. Nicely produced emotronic pop with some future rnb elements. If it makes any sense

Some great records above. Maurizio is on my top ten.