Blender.com Electronic Feature

Landcruising
Alien
Innovator
Neptune's Lair
Purpose Maker
Deep Space
LBH-6251876
Alone In The Dark

I guess they're too obscure (and old) to mention in such an article (catch 22) but they're genuinely good albums in their own right (as good as the ones mentioned in the article if perhaps in different ways/for different reasons)

I 2nd Deep Space.

This is truly mind blowing.

but it would probably suck

http://www.ghostly.com/1.0/img/covers/spc33-400.gif

The Wire still has an electronica review section. In addition to critical beats, at that.

maybe I'm wrong about this, but wasn't "electronica" initially a term for melodic stay-at-home synthy stuff, not necessarily IDM but in that realm? (before it became more of a blanket term for all house-diaspora stuff.)

'techno' SHOULD'VE been the catch-all (there's another thread about this) but too many sniffy purists said nooooo.

i think the villalobos / isolee axis is a pretty common in for a lot of people in my situation. it grabbed my attention in a way that the progressive trance / tribal house i had been exposed to growing up never did. it also turned a ton of my friends on to techno music. i think the reason for the early 90s switch to europe is:

detroit 3 >
ur, hood, mills, bell, hawtin >
basic channel / perlon >
villalobos

it ties in a little with me thinking about how i always (or at least as i was growing up and up til early 20s and ILM) liked dance/electronic stuff that was 'neither too clever nor too stupid' if that makes sense.

these days i feel that there is no longer any middle ground in that respect. if this is true it would explain why students might pick up on Isolee, Villalobos and the hip Euro labels via webzines because they're interested in it from technical/sonic/musical perspectives as much if not more than 'great to dance to/lose yourself in' without turning your brain off. the same could be said of much 80s and early 90s stuff which sounds fresh again and revitalised in the current climate.

OTM

side question: what is the best American techno-based album of the 00s?

Honestly -- and I realize I'm probably implicated in more than a few "hip American webzines" -- I think that generalization is off the mark, especially when you consider the recent rise of Justice et al, and also the Switch/Sinden UK axis. Also, where are these webzines that are somehow better because less hip?

i always liked disco, depeche mode and new order from middle school or so, but for the most part was intimidated by electronic music and dance music simply because it is such a large world unto itself-- for the uninitiated (especially one who rarely gets the chance to listen to such music until college), it is overwhelming.

the reasons behind it? i heard Deep Cuts, i got sick of the endless noise musics i was accumulating, and finally felt like i could dive into dance/electronic music without hesitation and learn about it at my own speed. especially with help from these boards.

also see: http://ilx.thehold.net/thread.php?msgid=60648

this has some truth to it, but as a whole, i disagree. you might change "american webzine" to "philip sherburne" and then you would be a little more accurate. he hipped me to villalobos AND alex under. but really, from my point of view, the hip euro labels are perlon, playhouse/ongaku/klang. maybe kompakt a tad, but not so much. the view is probably different from over there in those hip european continents.

because that's the only dance music hip American webzines cover, isn't it?

uh, no. try again.

Surely there are none. What American indie-centric magazines cover dance music in general and not just minimal stuff? I'd like to know. Besides, Blender of course :)

Because from a Euro perspective, I would imagine hardly anyone would get into dance music from a magazine or a movie. You grow to like it by going out into clubs.

otherwise, very divided beast.

you have to have a functioning club scene in order for this to happen. The difference between the US and Europe is that the club industry in the EU is on a scale where you can get your bullshit club music *and* your arty dance music too. I cannot speak for the bigger cities in the US, but from what I've seen you have the *club* scene with bad music and too much cologne and the underground dance scene with marginal venues with hard focus on music. In the US it's either one or the other, and in Europe it is both or one or the other to varing degrees. You cannot grow into good music anymore in the US via the club scene.

In the US, club music isn't percieved as real music, it is just the soundtrack to your party experience and that is where it stays. It is something you hear during your late teens and early 20's and then you outgrow it for Eagles greatest hits comps.

Also, there hasn't been a strong US touring circuit since rave died. I mean you still have NYC, maybe Detroit, Chicago, LA, and San Fran tours, but that it about it. The south and midwest are dead for the most part.

On the 'student' question (that's such a brit phrase) i find a surprising amount of average (ie- sportsbar attending, abercrombie wearing) college age people who are into jungle. the funny thing is, they don't know how to reference even the big name DJ/producers (bukem, goldie, hype, whoever) from the rave era, and seem to just own a few generic Jungle CD. This is strictly from personal experience, and i've not quite figured how to qualify it. It certainly has failed to form a cohesive 'scene' and the clubs still remain very empty. it just seems that as casual music consumers, they hit upon jungle and like it more than say minimal house or techno.

if anyone here has a similar experiemce and more structured take on this phenomenon, i'd love to hear what you know.

whaaaaat? i wouldn't trust any article on dance music (sorry "electronica") with assertions so...bizarrely unaligned to how dance music works in them

For the past year, I've run the weekly dance column over at Stylus Magazine, and I can say it's tough getting people interested in writing about new 12 inches, especially if its outside the vogueish minimal stuff. In many ways I've framed the mini-essays and reviews in the column to be as inviting as possible to neophytes, since Americans do seem to have a hard time understanding why people love this kind of music so much. There are times where I wonder if it all goes on deaf ears though.

I do agree with Mike (Disco Nihilist,) the U.S. club scene doesn't seem to "function" well and attract new listeners into dance music. And if people do get into trance/funky house or the cologne stuff, I'm not sure it imbues the listener with a lot of respect for the music. I say this as a person who sort of stumbled into dance music by reading about it, and then after a year or so of home listening and reading, found that it adapted to my personal temperament better than any other music I had heard before.

this is true, but brits seem to be equally obtuse when it comes to hip-hop and r&b outside of a couple of big hits per year. i can understand this with, y'know, normal people, but i don't understand ilm types being so obdurate about it. it's music! just cos it's not in your cultural sphere doesn't mean it should be incomprehensible to you.

Just to clear up any misunderstandings; I meant the stuff you wear, not the place where Mike Ink lives...

Electronica blows. Long live IDM (the most pretentious title for a musical genre ev-ar).

lol

If I was trying to get someone into current dance music I'd probably give them the Booka Shade album.

Hmmm, I'd like to put some Booka Shade on a compilation of "l@@k, dahnce is good again" not the album though. Been meaning to make that comp. for ages, The friends it'd be intended for are probably lost causes so... careometer.jpg :P

I'm making these comments despite believing that the premise of the article is completely lame (no offense, James).