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Abstract: Electronica (part 1)
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Kaz
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
90
Posts :
2268
Posted : Jun 6, 2004 13:07
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Psytrance started out as music with Baroque roots - at least from a certain point of view. There is a story behind each track, themes change and with them the listener is taken on the ride. Taking the concept of the story in the music to a higher level, using the changes in sound to create the motion between the pictures. While psychedelic rock is definately NOT what most people would call standard music, it is still chained down by the limits of things that are REAL. Guitars, drums and so on. The surreal must bend that which is real to it's own uses, sometimes using the fantastic to achieve this. When Hallucinogen started sampling the hell out of synths and then working them into something new, he created for me something new. Music that is art not only because it is music, not only because it is psychedelic, but rather first and foremost because it's surreal.
Twisted was the first album that I appreaciated as a general work of art, and not just a musical one. After a few years of that, I guess I found out that surreal art is nice, but it's not my REAL thing. The wild rides of goa trance stopped and people started thinking of how to make each element have punch. This is where psytrance took a step back in my opinion - the ideology of the two-guitars, bass, drums and singer was returned to this genre as production values from the acoustic world returned with a vengance to psytrance in the late 90s, effectively giving the sound the same roles it had before the electronic music, leaving psytrance as surreal only on the basic level (something I am sad to say started in Israel - and I mean Infected Mushroom here), not on the deeper ones.
Aphex Twin was probably the first to try and create an impressionist piece of music. As he advanced and grew out of his deep techno roots, he started experimenting with sounds in a new way - the first artist to try and break down the barrier between thought and sound (and the most successful at that to date, IMO), by not caring about smearing the sound, making it less clear and less to-the-point in order to create a more powerful picture. The need for a story was thrown out the window on the motorway, along with standard ideas. Since then, he has successfully created art while ignoring every single rule in music and sound that originated in the acoustic world.
Doing this, he created a new genre. First dubbed 'techno', then 'ambient' and as more artists followed his path, finally named IDM as this was found to be a genre on it's own. Complex orders that are sometimes just plainly confusing if you don't expect them, or very simple order and elements that just don't fit it in any way possible (any combination goes) - the experimentation in this type of music is not only on a level of sound. Atmospheres suddenly become a dominating force, built on a base for abstraction which is the single parts of the track, ignoring the rules of harmonic interaction that were set hundreds of years ago.
Electronica nowadays is a very wide genre. From attempting to immitate acoustic music (Brian Eno, JM Jarre) to alienated sounds connected only in a very abstract sense (Autechre, Venetian Snares) and with infinate options in the middle - the tools for analyzing electronic music are still not as perfect as those for older forms. Analyzing sounds on a technical level isn't enough (then Squarepusher would be considered the greatest musician evel), neither the musical dissection (then we'd all be listening to JM Jarre), or even production (Infected Mushroom).
Suddenly, words cannot do anymore.
This is what makes electronic music into something more, into something that could be called art not just as music. Like many forms of art out there, there's the simple and easy to describe pieces, but there are (finally) things in this music that cannot be put into words, or even cannot be put into terms which are part of the musical world anymore. Suddenly there's a necessity to use terms from the worlds of painting and sculpting in order to describe sounds and structures (Squarepusher is very aptly named for instance), and even then, you'll probably never have a complete grip on some of the music out there.
That sense of discovery which was at first given to me by psytrance is still there, as every barrier in music is broken (Machine Drum - Def In It), shortcuts taken in the transformation of thought to something real (Plastikman - Panikattack), beauty and power being found not only in something comfortable but sometimes in disturbing material (Autechre - Piobmx19) and even sadistic monstrosities (Aphex Twin - Ventolin).
It's a brave new world out there, with so many ways to understand music out there, there's just nothing left to do other than to sit back, press play and try and see what impression is given. After all, what's the use endlessly analyzing this stuff if you just can't shut up and enjoy this    http://www.myspace.com/Hooloovoo222 |
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david kebab
Faction
Started Topics :
56
Posts :
181
Posted : Jun 6, 2004 15:50
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u would say i am being rude and un-nice
but this all essay is just non-sense.
out on 31.05.04
faction - the end of tel aviv
on neo ouija
www.neoouija.com |
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Kaz
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
90
Posts :
2268
Posted : Jun 6, 2004 16:19
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Kebab: true, but you still read it
Then again, you could say that this entire board is nonsense and a waste of time excludint the CD Reviews and Party sections. Don't trivialize nonsense 
Like a lot of things, it has first and foremost a meaning for me - that's why I dubbed this 'abstract' and not 'article'. This is all from my point of view, and I'd rather discuss this than another 'who is the best' thread. If someone would like to debate this with me, I always enjoy that. Who knows, maybe I'll even learn something new
http://www.myspace.com/Hooloovoo222 |
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LeeLoo
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
364
Posted : Jun 6, 2004 18:23
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Quote:
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Suddenly, words cannot do anymore.
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Music has always been a different form of communication... That puts it primary in an other level, concerning just the fact that it uses its own code and semiology...
Even to put tags in music genres has always been difficult. They have always been to vague, to general to describe the form of art described as music.
Then to use words to describe music, this is truly an art also. Not very successfull but we can all communicate this way our personal preferences, our matter of taste. I can always smile instead. Or dance instead
One can refer to a marriage of different music genres, or sounds or whatever. As long as the oucome is at least interesting, it will catch my attention.
Looking back, even ppl like Fred Astair were inspired by natural sounds per instance in producing music. He was walking down the street and listened to tram sounds, bursting out his guts of inspiration, applying that to his music, his own body rythem.
Nowadays yes we can talk about ppl like Bjork and Aphex Twin, or Fundamental and Nitin Shawhney.
Ppl that are moving at another level of personal development and achievement IMHO.
Psychedelia in music... it has always been there... In various patterns, but always there...
PS It's my personal opinion, might be nonsence and I might be nonsent  Minds are just like parachutes. They only work when they are open. :) |
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