New name on me - any good?

Yasunao Tone

boards of canada
fennesz
kode9
ltj bukem
chris clark
tim hecker
deaf center
loscil
burial
carbon based lifeforms

Max Matthews created MUSIC I, the first music software ever, which in turn allowed synthesis of electronic sounds on computers instead of the available synthesizers-like technology at that time (around 1956, if I am not wrong). Pretty much the first instrument simulator software ever. Try finding his article 'The Digital Computer as a Music Instrument' if you can, 'cause it's well worth your time regardless of your approach to music making.

Obviously he is a genius.

he did a version of A Bicycle Built For Two that is pretty incredible, and only about 20 seconds long if i remember corectly.

Cool, I shall hunt that down at some point. I'm quite a fan of the earlier (academic) stuff, which is why the alleged 'high-brow' 'electronica' comes across to me as pleasant enough but a bit soporific.

Anyway.

And you can find some of his music on the early electronic music gurus compilations. I'll upload some of these if anyone is interested.

i dunno batreleaser you pretty much got it honestly.

glad you didn't list venetian snares by the way. 100% overrated hack. though i like a couple of his albums...

I listened to half of one of them, couldn't really be bothered. I got the sense from listening to the songs that I'd much rather have whole pieces rather than shorter versions.

Have you ever checked out the label Creel Pone?

http://www.orkstorm.com/creelpone/

Hunting down a lot of this stuff is either impossible or dries up your funds. I listen pretty much to any early electronic music all the time and never find it tiring because what a lot of what these people did was quite amazing considering that not only thye were the players but a lot of the time also the inventors or developers of these machines.

Yes.

This thread can't be complate without a mention for Donald Buchla, one of the most important inventors of synthesizers and electronic music software.

Yeah, seen.

I have a theory that the best musicians do what they do in spite of their instrument's limitations (actually, the truth of the matter is that there's no such thing as the 'perfect instrument', they're all flawed somehow). With the first 20-30 years of electronic instruments people either made the best of a bad lot (early hip-hop/ tapeloopers/ your TGs and Cabs) or invented an instrument to articulate their thoughts (your Buchlas and the like) or explored but didn't transpose new ideas to new instruments (Oliveros/ Cage/ Stockhausen etc). When you get to the realm of standardised instruments (the moog/ 'commercial' synthesisers) people tend to stick to set formats, which can be wonderful (techno, HHC, DnB) or fiddle about with inappropriate structures (I'm thinking of dire indie with synths).

i havnt seen kid606 mentioned, hes had some great records.

i didnt wanna mention composers like stockuahsen, thats like listing the best point guards in history of the nba, then going, "michael jordan".

i think a lot of people would be surprised that im into electronic hip hop beats too, like te first dj shadow album.

Two classics mid-90s records:

i don't really count dj shadow as electronic (at least his earlier stuff) as there are no electronic sounds, i know samplers count are technically electronic, but then so are guitar pedals. otherwise i'd have mentioned endtroducing.

Future Sound of London
Bola
Carl Craig
Autechre
Burial
Move D
Kirk Degiorgio a.k.a. As One
The Orb
LCD Soundsystem
Underworld

Kid 606 has a few good tracks and that's about it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mzlvol1bd2d
This is a long out of print book by Daphne Oram called 'An Individual Note of Music Sound and Electronics'' that is well worth your time. Enjoy.

Paul Lansky. His stuff is really enjoyable for how abstract it is. He also basically wrote Idioteque.

yeah kid606 is kinda below average .

Haha I saw that edit. That was hilarious.

hahaha.

I've tried to be a little nicer lately on my posts...

I've got about halfway through this this evening... she's great. It's like a physics/ music lesson made by a charming lady who's like a feminist but instead of being a man-hating horror she's really nice (end of chapter 6).

She explains complex things in a relaxed way, let's put it this way. Glad you've enjoyed that.

Aphex Twin
Autechre
Squarepusher
Luke Vibert
Boards of Canada
Venetian Snares
µ-Ziq
DJ Shadow
Future Sound of London
The Orb
1990's Chemical Brothers

All great artists.

My list is likely to be far too similar to many others, but what the hell. I'm leaving off punk bands who influenced electronica, so no Suicide or Screamers (otherwise that would be mostly my whole list). Also going to stay away from pioneers before Kraftwerk for the same reasons, otherwise it would be all Delia Derbyshire and Xenakis, et al.

1. Kraftwerk
2. Autechre
3. Cabaret Voltaire
4. The Orb (through Orbus Terrarum)
5. Muslim Gauze
6. Squarepusher
7. Aphex Twin
8. Boards of Canada
9. Christian Vogel
10. Porter Ricks

Does that mean from Orbus Terrarum onwards? Or do you mean all their albums up to that point?
If it's the former I disagree.

I don't really ever listen to electronica.
Einstuerzende Neubauten (I know they're not really an electronica band, but they used elements of it)
Tangerine Dream
Kraftwerk
The Screamers
Suicide

D&TM
Are you German? Or just dig the music greatly?

The latter, though I did study German at school for four years. People have said the same thing about my fascination with New Zealand bands, and they will soon be saying that about the Norwegian bands I listen to.

Cool
Listening to a lot of Burzum and Mayhem then? A few of my friends listen to black metal exclusively.

Yeah, Burzum, Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone, Ancient, Fimbulwinter, Satyricon, Windir. It's been nothing but black metal lately.

People involved with Norway Black Metal were generally fuckin' nuts. Like the cover of Dawn of the Black Hearts. It brings a strange intrigue to the music nonetheless.

I don't know if I genuinely enjoy the music. It doesn't sound great, so I think the imagery and stories (corpsepaint, forests, murders, suicides, arsons) have a lot to do with my fascination with it. If I had only listened to the music and didn't know anything about it, I probably wouldn't enjoy it.

I actually saw Dawn of the Black Hearts at JB Hi-Fi, but it didn't have the cover, just a white cover with the details on it.

:O whoah, really? I thought companies like JB would refuse to stock albums from bands like that due to their supposed satanic, racist nature.