Dance/Electronica Music Equivalents Of M.O.R.?

I remind all that this is all regional.

i like certain stuff by all the artists mentioned, tho i am under 30. now where is my pipe?

hahahahahaha

Is this because as an American I have sexy R&B to fill this void? I notice this because I can totally listen to Beyonce or Missy or Marvin Gaye with my girl while we drive around, but I would not bring out the difficult electronics or even the deeper Detroit stuff. Is this stuff like the safe middle of the road electronic stuff that couples can agree on, and if so, is this it's major selling point?

Actually, Moby has also released some bangin' techno under the name Voodoo Child. I think Moby's music as plain Moby has become quite MOR nowadays.

Another vote for Daft Punk. Also...

Almost all trip hop, especially Massive Attack (though I'm not sure about their newest LP), Portishead, Tricky's latest work, Lamb etc. They also have the diva aspect Barry was talking about.

Graig OTM about Nu-Jazz.

A lot of instrumental hip hop / blunted beats producers also fits here, no? DJ Krush, DJ Shadow, Herbaliser etc.

Also a lot of digi-dub artists, Krüder & Dorfmeister being the prime examples.

All jazzstep drum'n'bass.

The real answer = a Queer As Folk soundtrack

Superstylin' was a great record. Don't know or care about the albums.

What happened to the music of the future?

Closest rock equivalent to Autechre in my book would be Captain Beefheart - especially in attitude to their respective discographies.

I agree with Jedmond about Autechre being the Beefheart of Electronica.

Action figure cutout bins

What's next? Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert? DFA?

I think I'm losing my edge.

spot on i'd say

Studio :)

As the ravers get old and boring what do the 30 something ex-clubbers buy?

haha that should be a question on the 30 something thread really.

congratulations on listing artists filed under downtempo.

Downtempo in itself is a pretty MOR category... Or can you think of many cutting edge, experimental downtempo artists?

Kelpe
Hudson Mohawke
Flying Lotus
Architeq

No, not many, thankfully.

(that was my point, tuomas)

shall we speak of the 'post-j dillah' movement? not mor, yet, in the least.

just tell me what I shouldn't tell anyone I listen to lest they think I'm not cool.

that's a bunch of negatives.

The Buddha Bar series would be the main one I think, along with all of those horrid "lifestyle" downtempo comps... especially anything having a CD cover graced with Wallpaper-esque drawings of martini glasses and 60's furniture. They just scream "desperate attempt to cling onto youth and coolness".

cheesy vocal house a la Miguel Migs, Junior Sanchez, David Morales......all those "club/dance" comps one finds (in the U.S. at least) at Walmart/Target/Borders/Best Buy/Circuit City/etc.

on the plus side, Metro Area could be the dance music equivalent of Steely Dan

Dunno this stuff

Malcolm Money OTM

Burial

Roots Manuva

Theo Parrish

Moodymann

If MOR is like rock without the gutsiness and with pretensions to sophistication, surely this kind of quasi-intellectual hairy chested stuff that references dance culture without (often) being terribly danceable in and of itself is the equivalent. Obviously these picks are the 'cognoscenti' end of the scale, but I'd still say they belong in the same category. You never bump into 19 year olds who tell you about their love for Burial and Moodymann...

This thread is just depressing.

― dog latin (dog latin), dimanche 28 mars 2004 11:25 (4 years ago)

You never bump into 19 year olds who tell you about their love for Burial and Moodymann...

-oh trust me they are there.

No mention of Paul Oakenfold in the entire thread... wow.

"If MOR is like rock without the gutsiness and with pretensions to sophistication, surely this kind of quasi-intellectual hairy chested stuff that references dance culture without (often) being terribly danceable in and of itself is the equivalent. Obviously these picks are the 'cognoscenti' end of the scale, but I'd still say they belong in the same category. You never bump into 19 year olds who tell you about their love for Burial and Moodymann..."

The problem with this thread (as I've said before) is it uses "MOR" as an empty strawman notion to beat people with. Like, Jacob, I'm halfway sympathetic to the point you're making, but upthread it's clear that people are using "MOR" to mean the exact opposite - that is, "mainstream-appeal dance music for newbs." It can't be both these things at once really, unless "MOR" means "stuff that someone somewhere thinks is crap."

Kelpe
Hudson Mohawke
Flying Lotus
Architeq

homeboy you forgot Rustie ) still not mor.

I'm not sure I "get" the Flying Lotus album. I see more similarities to Prefuse 73's less noteworthy moments than I do to, say, Madlib's great ones. I don't actively dislike it... but I've given it a few spins, and it hasn't quite clicked yet.

ˆˆˆ this is a m.o.r. thread.

Weird having this thread and the indie pop/rockism one revived at the same time - they seem to both be on this strange quest to define the undefinable

If everything-that-isn't-Venetian Snares = MOR then that covers the vast majority of electronica. There is a difference between being Estate Agent Friendly e.g. Morcheeba and being Downtempo But Sinister e.g. Boards of Canada. It's like confusing Katie Kahlua with Joni Mitchell.
― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 28 March 2004 18:44 (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^basically this

not really, the "estate agent friendly" (subtext - listened to by middle class dinner party hosts) vs "downtempo but sinister" (subtext - listened to by the cognoscenti) binary doesn't ring true. i don't hear that boreds of canada are any more sinister than morcheeba.

OK, in retrospect I only really wanted the first sentence from NV's post and do think that people talk up BOC's 'sinister' vibe a bit too eagerly, even if I'd rather listen to them 1000 more times before hearing Morcheeba again

As a rule I don't do dinner parties but I'd be very surprised if I heard BoC being played at them. I must ask Michael Caine next time I bump into him in the street.

Portishead were always held up as both 'sinister' and 'dinner party'

a lot of BOC's music is 'sinister'. nothing by Morcheeba is (but they're a bad example in this argument...Lamb might be a slightly better one, still worlds apart obv)

My feeling is that BoC at dinner parties would fall down because of the "is there something wrong with your CD player" factor.

depends on the dinner party innit. i think critically acclaimed turn-of-the-century slightly-edgy electronica a la boreds of canada would be just what lots of stereotypical 30-something hosts would want. morcheeba, maybe for people in their 40s.

there's some vaguely sinister stuff on the first morcheeba album. don't really want to defend either act but neither are awful.

why do you keep writing 'boreds'?

I think it's supposed to be "humour."

What is so wrong with having people for dinner and having music in the background.

Tres bourgeois, mon brave

I disapprove of cannibalism.

but what if boards of canada are playing at the same time?

Just stick on some new age panpipe music and be done with it

It's not going to make them taste any better.

I think any act who collaborates with indie band singer is in danger of the M.O.R. tag. Thirtysomethings can then play album at barbie and still feel with it.

Lumping in BOC with this lot seems a little unfair, although their last album did go a bit Zero 7 in places. I remember reading an interview with BOC, how they were describing themselves as part of the "analogue to digital generation" which I think would apply to a lot of thirtysomethings, so maybe the charge stands.

Sadly, Burial has been hijacked by the little-rectangular-glasses-people but then his stuff always slotted into that bracket of what they think is "real". The Wire made his debut album of 2006 which tells you all you need to know really.

SCIENCE: stuff I actually play in the background when I have friends over (a subset of the slightly broader "stuff I can play in my boyfriend's presence" category):

henrik schwarz
body and soul mixes
laika
'o'rang
alice coltrane
eskimo III
dj harvey mixes
amerie's first album
metro area

^ M.O.R. for my bourgeoisie

BOC have actually been going for about 20 years haven't they? They must be in their late 30s at least. I imagine they live the sort of comfortable lifestyles that would find a lot of common ground with this 'Zero 7 dinner party' strawman

Apparat

The depressing thing about all this is the endlessly cyclical nature of it (for example 1970s easy listening / Library music was dismissed by the average trendy hippy of the day, but has since been re-appraised as not half bad, especially where past-it jobbing musicians of the jazz generation were forced to move with the times and do impersonations of rock or funk). Much as remembering thinking Air or Daft Punk or whoever were 'the future' ten years ago makes me feel sick, there's the knowledge that, with anything, it's just a question of waiting for its time to come again. Knowing that you only have to wait is what's tedious.

for example 1970s easy listening / Library music was dismissed by the average trendy hippy of the day, but has since been re-appraised as not half bad

Not half bad but still not that good really

No, I think it's good, or at least some of it is. There's a charm to it and not having any vocals on it has an appeal as well.

Piero Umiliani is the sound of a wonderful time

Most of what you hear on Sound Gallery-type compilations is Britain's best jazz and improv musicians earning the money that allowed them to go on living and do the stuff they loved. Bit like me and the day job.

the little-rectangular-glasses-people

Haha! Seems to be the signature eyewear for "I'm an intellectual yet I'm also 'down' " types. Deserves its own thread on ILE.

But who among us is enough of a fearless renegade to start such a thread?

The thing is it doesn't.

the avalanches are to blame for everything!