Electronica recommendations?

Mellow but not boring IMHO  Trentemøller - The Last Resort

Richard,

I would just like to thank you for your earlier recommendation of Londinium by Archive. This has led me on a journey through their back catalogue and, for me, this is their weakest album. Their later material is certainly less ambient but each album has a variety and song writing rarely found with other artists. It is a mystery to me why this band are not up there with Radiohead and the like. The best band you have never heard of. (I can feel a new post topic coming on!)

Just ordered this 4 x LP box-set of Miss Kittin - Calling From The Stars

It's a bit like Goldfrapp singing to Kraftwork with hints of Art of Noise and Massive Attack. Very easy on the ear, consistently good boppy material, would make fabulous music to dance or work-out to

Debs

Nik Fackler film maker & leader of the band 'In Dreama' traveled through various parts of North and South America during a promotional tour. It was during this transient period where Nik found himself immersed in a creative “awakening.” On this album Nik is joined by long standing collaborators Dereck Higgins (Digital Sex, Son Ambulance, RAF), Craig D (Tilly and the Wall, Dave Dondero), Aaron Gum, Ashley Miller (SSION), and Sam Martin (Capgun Coup) to present InDreama as an experiment in psychedelic soundscapes, pop music and visual performance.

Graham

Simon,

Interesting. So which Archive album would you recommed to a Radiohead fan then?

Ian

Ian

I would recommend most of their stuff after 2002. I started with You All Look The Same To Me but Lights or Noise are equally good. Obviously they are not the same as Radiohead (no Kid A type experimentation) but they make damn fine albums with plenty of dynamics IMO. Check them out on YouTube. They even cut it live.

Simon

Thanks Simon. Glad to hear it's not Kid A era stuff. I'm prefer OK and In Rainbows myself. If you haven't already, try the AMOK album mentioned by Winky above, it's Thom at his most musical as far as his side projects go.

Dance by Gary Numan, very underrated and almost Ambient in style.

Japan/David Sylvian/Rain Tree Crow

and did no one mention Jean Michelle Jarre?

Simon, Archive definitely took a turn away from the electronic trip-hop style towards something much more progressive with You All Look The Same To Me, the standout track Again (one entire side of the 4 side LP) being something of a homage to Pink Floyd.  Live at The Zenith is well worth getting, if you haven't already done so.

Archive are currently in the studio recording a new album apparently.

Thats usually a good sign ;-)

The track again can be found on you tube  - live.

Epic journey of a song.

They played part of it when I saw them in December.

They are well worth seeing live if you get a chance.

Electronica is a truly fascinating genre with its very varied sounds and styles and sub genres. The hypnotic rifts and grooves, beats, building suspense and release,   raw / organic electronics, sampling / remixing / tape loops and experimenting with timing, pitch etc are the themes which pervade through to the  very commercial dance oriented electronica now.

To me a lot of it started in Stuttgart with very early Kraftwerk back in 1972 under the creative guidance of Conny Plank

Kraftwek 1:

After this Kraftwerk split and electronica started to divide. Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother set up Neu! whilst Florian Schneider, Wolfgang Fluer and Ralf Huetter took Kraftwerk in a different direction - with Kraftwerk becoming more abstract.

 To me these two Neu! albums show the traits that you hear so much in less dance oriented electronica today - well worth a listen:

Neu! 

 Neu! 75 

Fast forward several decades, and the two contemporary electronica artists that are truly inspiring to me are Chris Clarke and DJ Krush.

Chris Clarke has had several albums but the one that I adore and it takes you through an intense listening workout with its swirls and jumps, light and dark, fast and slow, stark and frivolous:

Clarence Park:

(This  is a park in Clarke's native home city of St Albans - and I remember I have snatches of memory of loving Clarence Park as a toddler - perhaps there is something in that??)

DJ Krush has created some amazing Trip Hop / Electronica / Jazz fusion - really really good stuff. My favourites that I recommend anyone to listen to are:

記憶 (Ki-Oku)

Code 4109

This album is a fusion of remixes and groves of his and other artists working together  - great fun.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the listen.

Simon

This is a great thread. But becoming increasingly expensive!!!!

Cheers

Rod

Only one mention so far I believe for Boards of Canada. Their album Music Has The Right to Children is magnificent. This really is a must to check out.

Cordially,

Ghetto Yout'.

I can do no better than these 3 currently.

If you don't like the Weatherall CD I'll eat my hat. The Guy Gerber disc is a beautiful thing and all his own tunes, and Joris Voorn's CD is an electronic masterclass. 

Must check outs IMHO include:

Morcheeba

Hooverphonic ("a new stereophonic spectacular"disc in particular, everyone I've played it for has loved it!)

Thievery Corporation

Massive Attack

Unkle

Zero 7

Tricky (Maxinquaye in particular)

The new Boards of Canada album "Tomorrow's Harvest" will be released on June 11 :

Preorder on CD Universe :

http://www.cduniverse.com/prod...5424&style=music

You must listen to the first album by Suicide called Suicide released in 1977. 

Hailed as a 'classic' and highly influencial album, radiohead, joy division, soft cell, spacemen 3, new order, the sisters of mercy, spiritualised, nick cave, Henry Rollins, the Jesus and the marychain........

it's a v v dark piece of electronic music with vocals described as electronic protopunk!

YES!! 

Hyetals 'Modern Worship' is well worth a listen. I see the Jon Hopkins album Immunity picked up a very good review on Pitchfork. I only know him from the Eno colab on Small Craft on a Milk Sea... but will check it out. BLEEP is such an excellent website for electronic music. Simple, sleek site and choose your format downloads. 

All excited I was when it finally arrived, but the new Boards of Canada CD does not impress. In fact it irritates ; there is something very processed to the recording that I find mentally taxing to listen to. Switching to a well-recorded CD such as Squarepusher's Hello Everything is a relief ; I can feel my brain relax. What's going on ? Has anyone else bought this CD ? 

I've had the new Boards of Canada a couple of weeks now & it grows on me more each time I listen. It's darker/denser than most of their other albums but that's down to the post-apocalypse soundtrack 'theme'. Worth persisting with.

Nice to see Cabaret Voltaire/Richard H.Kirk being mentioned earlier: I'd recommend CV's The Conversation & RHK's Closed Circuit (as Electronic Eye) or Intensely Radioactive (as Sandoz) as starting points. RHK records under numerous aliases & most releases are great, my most often played being Agents With False Memories but this may be difficult to obtain.

Warp is the quintessential record label for electronica - a lot has been mentioned earlier but here are a few recommendations:

Aphex Twin - SAW 85-92, SAW II &, released as Polygon Window, - Surfing on Sine Waves

Autechre - first 4 albums but Chiastic Slide & Tri Repetae in particular (their stuff after LP5 went a bit up their own backsides imo but others will disagree!)

Boards of Canada - MHTRTC & Geogaddi in particular

Plaid - Not For Threes or Rest-Proof Clockwork are the places to start (after Double Figure they went the way of Autechre)

RHK - Virtual State

Squarepusher - Selection 16 (I don't get on with much else by him though)

Seefeel - Quique in particular

Warp have had a few decent compilations out if you want a sampler of their stuff

Some of my favourite releases in recent years:

Murcof - Martes - an absolute must-have electronica/modern composition hybrid

Senking - Pong - electronica/dubstep hybrid

Byetone - Symeta - a bit more up-tempo but similar to...

Pan(a)sonic - Kulma or Vakio - more minimal tonal stuff from Finland

Demdike Stare - Triptych - a collection of 3 ep/albums - more dark ambient/dub/soundtracky

Belbury Poly - Farmer's Angle or the newest, Belbury Tales, is a good intro but all their stuff is great - a mixture of 'schools science programme' backing music, dark psych-folk & cult horror soundtrack all with killer melodies

Isan - as mentioned upthread - Clockwork Menagarie or Beautronics

Freescha - Freeschaland - similar to BOC
Casino Versus Japan - Go Hawaii - a happier version of BOC

Global Communication - 76:14 - ambient electronica classic

Reload - A Collection of Short Stories - simply amazing mini-soundtracks for the short stories to be found in the booklet

Burial - Burial or Untrue - dubstep with atmosphere

The Haxan Cloak - Excavation - deep & dark ambient soundscapes (great on headphones)

Forest Swords - Dagger Paths - dark, filmic soundscapes with twangy Morricone guitars: superb

If the Plank! album appeals, other 'krautrock'/motorik-influenced (post)-rock includes the bands Eat Lights Become Lights & Public Service Broadcasting. That'll then lead you onto more pure post-rock & less electronic stuff such as as Godspeed You! Black Emperor & Marconi Union

That'll keep you busy for a while!

cheers

Lee

I have been working my way through all the things I bought on the back of this thread with much pleasure, thanks all.

Something else I discovered that might appeal to many above is this:

It's a wall-of-soundy piece of happy-time that defines bombast. Sort of like Chemical Brothers bashing into Polyphonic Spree at an ecstasy party, but it's exceptionally good fun, and very well produced & recorded. They've been going for ages, I must search out some of their older stuff, but this was the most recent, and it's ace.

Terraformation - Ocean Gates (electronics/jazz/music)

http://terraformation.bandcamp.com/album/ocean-gates 

"Apocalypso" by The Presets, an Australian duo gets my vote. Or their first album, "Beams".

Could also try some of the more recent releases from the scandanavian group Apocalyptica