What's the Best & Worst Electronic Music Ever from SF?

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What is the best electronic music to come out of San Francisco? What's the worst?

― monty (mltronik), Saturday, 13 May 2006 05:15 (nineteen years ago)

worst: goldchain

― jäxøñ (jaxon), Saturday, 13 May 2006 06:08 (nineteen years ago)

In the best category: Kit Clayton, also Sutekh. The first Gold Chains record was not bad at all, actually.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 13 May 2006 06:28 (nineteen years ago)

best: Hardkiss

― viborgu, Saturday, 13 May 2006 06:29 (nineteen years ago)

its all about the sf goth

― city of gyros (chaki), Saturday, 13 May 2006 07:18 (nineteen years ago)

best: Sylvester

― JoB (JoB), Saturday, 13 May 2006 07:51 (nineteen years ago)

Factrix ist grebt!

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Saturday, 13 May 2006 08:53 (nineteen years ago)

where is the dude from Blackhouse from? I kinda wanna say that he has made some of the best AND worst stuff i have heard, but now i'm thinking he's not actually from SF. i can't believe there has never been a blackhouse -vs- whitehouse thread. or maybe there was. i haven't checked.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:22 (nineteen years ago)

okay, dude's myspace sez he's from eureka. or at least he lives there now:

http://www.myspace.com/blackhouse1

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:24 (nineteen years ago)

max mathews is from san fran, no? he's the daddy. or grandaddy even.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:39 (nineteen years ago)

Best: Chrome
Worst: I don't care

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Saturday, 13 May 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

max mathews is currently at stanford, but most of his work at bell labs occurred in the 50's/60's in new jersey

san francisco tape music center, terry riley, ramon sender, morton subotnick, pauline oliveros

moved to mills college & reformed as the center for contemporary music in 1969 under the helm of robert ashley, and then things really got going. the league of automatic music composers are particularly worth mentioning, but the academic side of things are covered beautifully by this site: http://www.o-art.org/history/

from the 90's onward you couldn't list 50 people without leaving another 50 out just as worthy, not as much for the mainstream techno (nothing against Hardkiss) but outside of maybe Berlin, SF kind of leads the entire world when it comes to the weird stuff

http://s3.amazonaws.com/coolforever/XLR8R_44.JPG

issue #44, xlr8r

― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 13 May 2006 21:15 (nineteen years ago)

doesn't blackhouse = christian, while whitehouse = very much not?

― jonathon, Saturday, 13 May 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, he is xian. the weird thing is, i looked at his myspace this morning and there was this great recounting of how he started blackhouse after seeing whitehouse (and how bennett is a fan) cuz he wanted to counter their evil(black)noise with good(white)noise. but now it's gone!

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

Tons of tossed-off Tigerbeat stuff

& add another vote for GOLD CHAINS! yech

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Saturday, 13 May 2006 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

^ (for the "worst" category)

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Saturday, 13 May 2006 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

scott if you don't start a blackhouse vs whitehouse thread i will, i like that idea! there aren't any threads on blackhouse at all.

― sleeve (sleeve), Saturday, 13 May 2006 23:26 (nineteen years ago)

worst: wobbly & matmos. hate those fuckers

― jäxøñ (jaxon), Sunday, 14 May 2006 00:32 (nineteen years ago)

regarding hardkiss...it's kind of a dirty secret that the guy who worked the boards for those classic records, jeff taylor is the one who really made those tunes what they became, and got very little if any acknowledgement for it...

anyone remember the bassbin twins? holy crap.

― monty (mltronik), Sunday, 14 May 2006 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

best SF bleep techno w male diva vocals: gravity
best SF bleep techno w/o vocals: weird blinking lights

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Sunday, 14 May 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

Best is "Highlights from Vortex", '58 - on Folkways. I think the CD is called something else, however.

― So Ho La (So Ho La), Monday, 15 May 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

German Shephards LP is post-TG kick ass power electronic freakery from early to mi-80s. Fucked up shit.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Monday, 15 May 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

Best: Hmmm...Chrome? Fifty Foot Hose?

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

Soft. Pink. Truth.

(hey monty! it's ken...)

― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

best: Tuxedomoon were pretty fab.

worst: all that crap, faceless jazzy house they play at all the fucking restaurants to try and appear hip

― jäxøñ (jaxon), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of jeff taylor - ULTRAVIOLET CATASTROPHE!
his Deluxe stuff was great too, circa 1994/5...

― something less threatening (heywood), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

my vote for worst is a new label that's popped up in the past year: PsyBooty Records. Uniting Psytrance & House -- something TOTALLY! NEW! as they claimed. i had a listen to their compilation (as is my job) and it sounded just like progressive house circa 1995.

― something less threatening (heywood), Monday, 15 May 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

Paul Parker - Right On Target (best)

― Eazy (Eazy), Monday, 15 May 2006 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

I liked a lot of stuff on the Asphodel label. Were We from SF? Tipsy?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 15 May 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

We are from NYC, Tipsy are from SF though.

― something less threatening (heywood), Monday, 15 May 2006 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

Best is "Highlights from Vortex", '58 - on Folkways. I think the CD is called something else, however.

great call -- can not mention bay area electronic music without Henry Jacobs

the CD is called Electronic Kabuki Mambo, and the compilation of interviews & electronic music from his KPFA radio show, Radio Programme No. 1 has some interesting moments too -- kind of amazing to imagine what it might have been like to just channel surf into his show in the late 50's

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 15 May 2006 17:14 (nineteen years ago)

well, in nineteen hundred ought-95, an SF collective called Subtropic released a very good drum and bass LP called Homebrew...and while it is not up with the classics of the genre, it is still probably the best-ever US d n' b release, for whatever that's worth...

― hank (hank s), Monday, 15 May 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

UFO! - The Future is Listening
One of the best, but probably not THE best, electronic albums from SF. I didn't like it that much at the time it was released (2000) but it has aged really well. Plus the amazon.com reviews are really funny:

This is NOT UFO the rock band! (Whatever it is, it's awful!), March 13, 2002
Reviewer: Robert Dumas (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews

...make this more clear. This is NOT the classic rock metal band from England featureing Phil Mogg and Michael Schenker that has been around for 30 years and has a well-deserved worldwide following. No, this is godawful techno dance music that belongs at a rave...
The "creators" of this dance music CD put an exclaimation point on the end of UFO, I suppose to make them different,but it's so subtle that no one notices: UFO vs. UFO! So, consequently, you have a lot of UFO fans out there getting excited, thinking the band has released a new record. Then this thing shows up and the police end up having to talk them down from their collective window ledges.

The big clue here is the song titles. Mogg would never write a song called "Don't Step on my Dog." I mean what is THAT about?

So... be forewarned. This is NOT UFO, the rock band. This isn't even rock music. God knows what it is...

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― yours fondly, harshaw. (mrgn), Monday, 15 May 2006 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

afaik, jake subtropic is english and lived in england when he made homebrew. it was released on jonah sharp (spacetime continuum)'s reflective label (where i worked around that time), so technically it's an english d&b record, just released on an US label.

― something less threatening (heywood), Monday, 15 May 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

i'd also nominate residents and negativland into the SF electronic canon

― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 15 May 2006 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

Were/are Electric Skychurch from SF. 'Cause, boy, did/do they suck.

(xpost) Whatever happened to Jonah Sharp?

― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Monday, 15 May 2006 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

Silent Records in the 80's and early 90's:

http://www.silentrecords.net/

I believe Jonah Sharp had a couple of releases with Silent. This was Kim Cascone's label.

― ratty, Monday, 15 May 2006 22:55 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I'd have to say PGR's Flickering Of Sowing Time is one of my all time favorites. Right up there with Chrome and prime Residents.

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 01:25 (nineteen years ago)

hey ken!

no, no, no...electric skychurch were/are from l.a.

silent records. whoa. my first ever job in SF. I remember listening to the rodney king verdicts on the radio in my car on my lunch break.

my vote for worst: jondi & spesh? although, I have to admit they did do one cheesy house track called "big city" that is near and dear to the old ticker....

― ml (mltronik), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 01:53 (nineteen years ago)

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