what bands or artists that started off electronic but then went 'live'?

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i cant think of many

― splooge (thesplooge), Saturday, 27 May 2006 09:54 (nineteen years ago)

Eddy De Clercq, 4Hero

― Siegbran (eofor), Saturday, 27 May 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

spring heel jack

― lil' merzbow wow (haitch), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

OMD. sort of.

the human league. sort of.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

― Matthew Herbert, Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

i'd add cabaret voltaire to that too, grimly. (early tape experiments -> morphs into 'live band' -> eventually go more electronic again)

― lil' merzbow wow (haitch), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

good point, yes.

did soft cell ever play with a bigger band? i know they always had a saxophone/clarinet aspect to their synthpop, but i can't remember if they were using guitars etc by the time of the last album. i don't think they were.

depeche mode, of course. well, sort of: they started using guitars and drums and stuff. OMD and the HL actually started hiring proper "musicians" - especially OMD, with those fucking trumpeters.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.

― Herr Fahrstuhl (Herr Fahrstuhl), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

a lot of the german morr type bands have been switching over to a more guitar based "live" sound (eg. lali puna, barbara morgenstern) - ladytron with their last album as well i suppose.

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:59 (nineteen years ago)

The Prodigy?

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

Magnetic Fields

― Jason Toon (Jason Toon), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

If "live" means adding "real" instruments and vocals to your set (rather than just playing live, which many artists do), there are a few:

Roni Size
The Underwolves
Carl Craig (with the Innerzone Orchestra)
Mouse on Mars (does having a live drummer and a vocalist count?)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

Languis have mutated over time.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

Prefuse 73
Boom Boom Satellites

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Saturday, 27 May 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

Doves

formerly sub sub or something

― justsomegalwitnofashunsensebutalottacommonsense, Saturday, 27 May 2006 14:33 (nineteen years ago)

Moloko did it pretty well.

― JoB (JoB), Saturday, 27 May 2006 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

Talk Talk

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Saturday, 27 May 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

Simple Minds, to some extent

Japan started out rather organic, became more electronic and broke up, then David Sylvian went the opposite way during his solo career

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

Squarepusher?

― Harrison Barr (Petar), Saturday, 27 May 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

talk talk are probably the ur-example, actually.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

Jan Jelinek!!!!

I just saw him last night with a guitar players and a drummer and it was AMAZING - somewhere between Suicide, Spacemen 3, Stereolab, Oneida, and ... well, Jan Jelinek. The best rock show I've seen in New York in ages and it was a techno act. ???? They're going to Mutek but sadly will not perform as a trio.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't Super Furry Animals start out as a techno act?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

Moby

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

Caribou, dammit

― handsome dick manitoba, Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

Moby is a fine answer, but didn't he play hardcore punk originally? (Though he probably didn't release any records back then.)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, the meaning of "starting off" has been switching between "start of music career" and "start of recording career" over the whole thread ...

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

I can't think of any Moby songs that don't have some sort of sequencing in them; even on Animal Rights he used presequenced drums and synths.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

David Holmes.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

Probbaly the most suprising electronic artist to go "live" is Pole, though his excursions to "real" music only include a featured guitarist and a rapper. Still, who the hell would've expected rap tunes from Pole?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

Consolidated.. to degrees this thread could never imagine.

― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

the whole Ministry empire... although Al's first ever band was a "new wave/hardcore" band, or something.

― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

The Blue Nile.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

A side question would be, who has actually done this succesfully? Because for many artists, starting to make "real" music has meant a downward slope (The Prodigy and Goldie are probably the prime examples of this). The only electronic producers I can think of who've made great records with "real" instruments are Carl Craig and 4 Hero, and most of you will probably disagree on the latter. (But I still love Two Pages to death.)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

talk talk are probably the ur-example of doing it successfully too ;)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

Beastie Boys, kinda?

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

Beth Orton, kinda?
Erasure? (lately)

― fronk, Saturday, 27 May 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

Talk Talk did it critically successfully. Commercially they did way better with synths.

Erasure? Other than one one-off acoustic album, they haven't done it to any larger extent than Pet Shop Boys.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

Jan Jelinek's drummer will be playing with Pole at Mutek.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 27 May 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

Future Sound of London?

great textured elctronica >>>>>>>> bad pseudo prog

― Dave Bush (davebush), Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

tv on the radio

― splooge (thesplooge), Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

avalanches

― chicken tonight (chicken tonight), Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

Avalanches started live then went electronic (then just became DJs)

― kit brash (kit brash), Sunday, 28 May 2006 03:02 (nineteen years ago)

Magnetic Fields!!

― yes_plz, Sunday, 28 May 2006 09:28 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, Beastie Boys started out a "live" band, then did the whole rap thing, then (somewhat) returned to being a live band.

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

N.E.R.D.? If you consider the Neptunes and NERD as basically the same thing...

― Roz (Roz), Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

Nine Inch Nails

― Atnevon (Atnevon), Sunday, 28 May 2006 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

Moby was in the Vatican Commandos, who did release (at least) one record, a 12" called Hit Squad For God.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

accelera deck

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

The Go! Team (kinda)

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Monday, 29 May 2006 07:18 (nineteen years ago)

Benjamin Diamond, kinda.

Astrud is an spanish band that started being electropop and ended with a lot more "live" sound, and did it pretty well in my opinion. Probably one of the few bands, if not the only, that I like more in the latter "live band" sound than in their more electronic encarnation.

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:08 (nineteen years ago)

Breaks Co-Op

― chris andrews (fraew), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:13 (nineteen years ago)

How about the other way round, like Underworld?

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:25 (nineteen years ago)

To some degree, Tackhead... they never were purely electronic, but listen to those mid 80s 12" singles, then listen to Strange Things... again, an example of this going bad.

Ironically, their final single was the most electronic thing they've ever done, produce by Tim Simenon.. "Videohead".

― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

Donut OTM re: "example of going bad"

― kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:49 (nineteen years ago)

Masters at Work as Nuyorican Soul perhaps?

― scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Monday, 29 May 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, They Might Be Giants hasn't been mentioned yet? The definitive example in my mind. They fucked it up bad, too.

Le Tigre sort of began as Julie Ruin (electronic) going "live," sorta, right?

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

Ladytron? By the next release, I expect.

― bendy (bendy), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 00:49 (nineteen years ago)

It's not really that surprising to me. Most of the electronica guys I know are heavily into hiphop as well.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 01:18 (nineteen years ago)

Two Lone Swordsmen

― r3000, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:03 (nineteen years ago)

TMBG went from guitar & accordion to 'live'?

― kit brash (kit brash), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:26 (nineteen years ago)

Well, a real rhythm section and extra guitarist as opposed to a backing tape.
Also along those lines: Ween

Didn't Smashing Pumpkins' early shows use a drum machine?

This is all reaching wrt "electronic" but whatever.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:45 (nineteen years ago)

ADULT. is now mostly live. I've seen them three times. The first time was just laptop + vocals, the second time had some live bass and keyboard playing, and the third time they had added another member to play guitar. The only things still sequenced were the drums and maybe some incidental sounds.

― naus (Robert T), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 03:03 (nineteen years ago)

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