Electronic Music

By now that the class may know, and based around alot of my previous blog post(s) both for the class and personal, A good amount of my time revolves around writing and recording electronic music in my project Silent Ill back home in the Maryland/ DC area, which has been writing/recording/ for the past year and a half sending tracks back and forth over the internet for us to both tweak and and attempt to perfect.

I originally got into electronica many years back when I first heard many more downtempo acts such as The Postal Service (Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie's electronic Project) and Telefon Tel Aviv, which when I in early high school eventually grew into a love for other groups and performers such as Cocorosie, Bjork, Milosh, etc. Yet at this point in my musical career I was still more concerned with writing and playing heavier music such as metal,screamo/scramz,and punk/Hardcore.

As I graduated high school and went into my first year of college, I was listening to a wide range of music from death metal to ambient, but within my love for electronica specifically,I started listening to more aggressive acts which are easier to dance to such as Justice, MSTRKRFT, Daft Punk, Crystal Castles,and many more Dj's in general. I started to go to many dance parties in Boston when I could with friends who lived in the city and fell in love with the rush of it.

When I transferred down to the University Of Tampa, I quickly became apart of the crowd down at Czar with nights like Pulp (Whom I also do street team/ promotion for) where I was exposed to many more Dj's and producers such as Designer Drugs. Although I love dance music in general, I've always enjoyed electronica more, just based around the fact that although trance/house/ fidget house are enjoyable, but I feel that electronica specifically has much more song writing substance to it.

as of the past year and a half however, ever since I've been writing my own electronic music, I've noticed that electronic music has been a big hit with the youth who are more affiliated with (a word I hate to use) an "alternative" subculture. The subcultures of the indie/hardcore (or more ignorantly yet true to a certain extent known as emo/scene, depending on whom your discussing) worlds have also a few years back began to incorporate electronic elements into their music, as for example one of my favorite Post-Hardcore bands The Receiving End Of Sirens who meshed experimental Post Hardcore with down-tempo electronica and drum machines.

I believe that electronica has become so accessible within the past few years to these many different subgenres and subcultures working towards to mesh electronic elements with their own personal music preferences is due to the widespread availability of easy to use programs such as Apple's Garageband or the PC equivalent Fruity Loops, allowing users to easily create songs regardless of owning any musical equipment at all as well as once mastering novice level programs like garageband can move up to better and different electronic music programs such as Logic, Cubase, Reason, or Ableton.

Last semester, I took an introduction to electronic music class with Professor Blackburn (If anyone is interested in taking it do, its a lot of fun to take as an elective) where I learned about both the creation and theory surrounding electronic music as well as it's origins and history. A lot of the history that we covered in class crosses over into what we covered in Art In Technology, from The Futurists to John Cage to Wendy/Walter Carlos, etc. What we didn't cover in Blackburn's class though was the modern evolution of Electronic music for what people are listening to today, it gave me a interesting perspective to how Electronic music is written and created such as how a lot of it came from post punk and more alternative acts at the time. I really enjoyed how we listened to such groups as New Order and Depeche Mode, two acts who as of late (even before that class) I have been listening to quite frequently as well as other "older" groups such as the Pet Shop Boys among others. The new wave of electronica varies and there is no real definite sound one can give electronic music for the most part other than the instruments for the most part are all electronic.

Some more mainstream modern acts I do recommend for anyone who is interested in listening though:

Passion Pit ( a 5 piece live electronics band from MA, they've been blowing up since the summer and are still continuing to gain fans all over)

Junior Boys ( a 2 piece act from Toronto Canada, who I had the pleasure of seeing 2 months ago in Ybor, they are great who write very minimalist yet catchy and emotional songs)

Crystal Castles (Another 2 piece act from Canada, CC write songs that are as equally calming as they are sporatic and aggressive, they have also been remixing many other's music such as bands like Health and Van She. They have been blowing up for the past few years and if you haven't heard them yet, you really do not want to miss out)

Chromeo ( yet Another 2 piece act from Canada, for those who enjoy 80's Michael Jackson inspired electro who are as fun to listen to as they are technical with there electronics, there album Fancy Footwork has been in heavy rotation with what I've been listening to since it came out)