sXe Electronic

I just want to brag to everyone. The sXeRaver recently made her mark on the community at MIT. This past weekend I was in Boston for a family event, and happened to pass the installation of this project in MIT's "Infinite Corridor." I thought maybe I could offer some Electronic Love to some MIT students in need.

More than just amusement (although it was amusing), I had the idea almost immediately and each song I listed contains a prescription specific to the outreach of expression I read. I don't know if the students who wrote the thoughts will ever read the suggestions or ever listen to the songs I wrote. But I hope they do. And I hope they hear what I heard in them, because these songs (vocal or not) aren't just the product of stellar production, but also express some of the most hopeful, universal, and strengthening of human sentiments.

These songs get me through, including during this pause between sXe posts. They deserve to be liberally shared among anyone looking for uplift and some electronic sXe.

Sometimes I think...

An sXeRaver year of club sets in plurfect (because you know I had to say it) superlatives...!

Here's where I tell you all my impressions from a year of live electronic sets!

The nostalgically breezy deep house soundtrack to an sXeRaver expected life -

resembling the dolphins-and-pastels patio lunch vision of a Paradisa lego set by day,

The post title says it all - a Middle East thematic playlist.

Here it is. As promised, this post covers Techno or Detroit Techno which are, in many respects, basically the same thing.

How, you ask? Well, the same way house music came out of Chicago clubs, techno is one more way Motor City has influenced the world. Listening to Detroit techno is definitely a #soundofplace experience. This means a harder sound not for the musically faint, but stick with me! You'll learn something at least.

But before jumping into tracks, let's get a few things straight:

1- Techno is a subgenre of electronic music.

It originated in Detroit. It has a specific set of musical characteristics. That's what this post is talking about. And if right now you're thinking "I know what techno is, isn't that what this whole blog is about?", the answer is "No." But don't worry, because this can be confusing.

It's confusing because techno has also been used to describe the wider range of electronic music, similar to what we in America now usually call EDM. It seems techno was used that way mainly in the 90s, and possibly still is some places in Europe. So some of us used to call things techno that would now be called EDM, unless they actually were techno (that is, belonging to the subgenre.) Get it?

2 - Techno is from Detroit, and it's definitely about #soundofplace.

The #soundofplace hashtag is something I started using to describe connections between non-musical aspects of a place and the sounds that come out of it. For example, the idea would be that Björk sounds darkly ethereal because she is from a darkly ethereal place (Iceland).

This is especially important with techno, because techno reflects the place it comes from. And as I said, it comes from Detroit.

Detroit is a city in decline but not dead, and it's indignantly proud enough of itself and its contributions to the world not to concede defeat. Detroit techno suggests just that in my opinion, alternating between eerily post-apocalyptic and a forward-sounding soulfulness depending on the day and the ears that are hearing it. Whether or not you like it as a matter of taste, one really has to consider that #soundofplace expressiveness brilliant.

And now that I've gotten that out...let's hear it.

Starting with something familiar. Remember the post on house music? This is acid house, a futuristic style of House that also came out of Chicago in the late 80s. (For Detroit, Chicago is the closest bigger American metropolis, since Toronto is across a border.)

Detroit techno developed underground both concurrent to and stemming from acid house in the late 80s. It started as house music but had its own established sound with Detroit-based labels by the late 80s and early 90s. Raves at places like the abandoned Packard plant helped the scene grow.

Most important were the Belleville Three - Atkins, Saunderson, and May - who grew up together in (you guessed it) Belleville, MI. Don't let the piano at the beginning of "Strings of Life" fool you into thinking this is an acoustic track.

Also important was Underground Resistance, both a label and a group of artists who view music production as a form of social and political activism. Here's a cool, fairly short docu-vid about UR and their "music over musician" ethic:

As for what techno sounds like, note the UR musician in the vid above who said the Detroit sound was a harder sound: beaty and "working hard" like the people of Detroit.

But the best description of techno in my opinion, comes from Atkins who said techno was supposed to be:

"Music that sounds like Technology, not Technology that sounds like music."

This a great example of #soundofplace since manufacturing and technology have always been important parts of the identity/culture of Detroit. You can listen to techno and easily imagine, for example, the robotics at an automotive plant.

That technological focus gives techno a certain futuristic feel and outlook. In the mid-90s, techno kept the futuristic focus, but also took a more hardcore turn.

Techno also took in Europe where it influenced the development of styles like trance. Talla2xlc was a big proponent of techno, starting "Technoclub" night at clubs in Frankfurt.

I should also mention the influence of techno on other sounds like hardstyle.(For an example of that check out Headhunterz.)

Original Detroit artists are still around though and have continued to evolve, with some reacting against intrusion from other subgenres through the "Minimal Techno" movement. The idea is to use less equipment while producing or playing live and do away with elements like melodic top layers. Minimal should NOT be taken to mean its less beaty or its sound is less hard.

Another important producer I didn't pull a track for is Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman from Ontario across the river. Detroit artists tend to produce under a high number of aliases, maybe because of the "music over musician" ethic.

And in news just this week, even deadmau5 came out as having released a techno track on Richie Hawtin's label under the alias "testpilot."

So now you know what techno is. Hopefully, this has helped you find your ear for recognizing it. It's still here, still looking to the future, and its beats are still working hard.

There's another mouse now in electronic music! I haven't known whether to be excited or horrified at the news about Disney getting world-class djs to produce EDM versions of Disney tracks. On the one hand, this is an awesome idea, because who doesn't love Disney and who wouldn't love Disney songs infused with the added magic of Electronic? On the other, is there anything Disney doesn't take over or touch? Well, at least now we have the tracklist to help us form an opinion. (Or maybe not.)

This series is a little different from prior posts on trap and dubstep in terms of focusing on one subgenre of electronic. This is because, as I've said, house music is probably the widest and most prevalent genre of EDM. Also I admit, I'm not interested enough in musical history to bother trying to trace house music from 1980 until today in any logical fashion. There's plenty of debate about what the FIRST house track ever was, but frankly, I think it's impossible to pin trends to one song and I don't really care about that. So I've ignored that discussion.

What is clear though, is that "house music" came out of Chicago clubs in the 1980s. Seriously guys, Chicago is awesome! And I've been scouring old Chicago house to share with you all week.

I picked a few I like, then paired each old school track with a contemporary one that shares a basic sound element (in three different sub-styles.) It's just my opinion...maybe you can hear it too. Diving in!

Master C & J - "Face It" (From State Street Records. It doesn't get more Chicago than that.)

Deadmau5 and Kaskade (or Kaskade and Deadmau5) - "Move for Me" (Progressive house - More melodic elements grounded by a strong beat. "Move for me...I'll move for you...")

One thing to consider with old school Chicago tracks is the connection between sound and place. I really believe in it. (Hence, #soundofplace.) Chicago was much more on the rocks in the 1980s and I think the tracks reflect it. We'll come back to this point when I cover Detroit techno.

Frankie Knuckles - "The Whistle Song." Flute jazz (Chicago has a long history with jazz!) sailing on top of four-on-the-floor beats.

Kaskade - "Take Your Mind Off" (Deep house - Jazziness up there on top again.) And Kaskade? From Chicago, of course.

So, why is it called "house" anyway? There's a story written a lot of places about it coming from a club called The Warehouse in the West Loop, but to me that's too convenient. I always thought it was "house" music because it was what "the house" (i.e. the club) played. According to this idea, it originated when "house" djs at a number of clubs started mixing and adding their own elements to records through the use of synths, drum machines, and the art of turntabilism. "House" music then, like anything, was/is a trend growing out of a certain time and place through the influence of more than one person or force.

JM Silk - "I Can't Turn Around"

Wolfgang Gartner -- "Hook Shot" (Electro- house - Characterized by its harder, sharper-edge beats and higher-pitched melodic glitchiness.)

Warning: Some of the following songs contain offensive/explicit lyrics.

Once upon a time, there was West Coast rap/hip-hop:

And there was East Coast rap:

And then there was Southern hip-hop (much of it out of Atlanta.) Southern hip-hop had a slightly more electro influence heard here in the way it used synths and drum machines:

There was also a sub-genre of Southern hip-hop called crunk (out of Memphis) with a slightly dirtier electro sound:

Crunk became semi-mainstreamed partly through a hit by Atlanta-based artist Usher (which you may not realize featured Lil Jon):

There was also a related style of hip-hop called trap. "Trap" is rap music that talks about "the trap" as its main subject - i.e. ghetto life generally but more specifically drug dealing:

Electronic producers started paying attention/producing/imitating these styles on their own. They still called it trap, but it was even MORE electronic and started incorporating characteristics of other electronic styles, like dubstep. And then the Harlem Shake went viral:

So now we have the word trap used to describe a heavily hip-hop influenced style of electronic, characterized by snare and bass beats similar to Southern styles of hip-hop/rap, at about the same pace (generally lower bpm).

Here's another example with great use of melody:

Like I said last week, trap (whether we consider it hip-hop or electronic, or both or something in between since that's what it is) is coming round recently to influence/be incorporated into pop music. Juicy J is from the more hip-hop side of this equation:

So what's interesting about Justin Bieber (because these days all roads lead to J.B.) is NOT that he's just released a trap-influenced song, since he's Usher's protege and his manager comes straight out of the ATL music scene. What IS interesting about it is that the producer of this song is actually Diplo, who we might call a hip-hop artist but is also definitely an electronic producer.

To start, dub: a dancehall form of reggae that influenced electronic music and is just one of the influences on the trend called dubstep. Listen for the manipulation of organic instruments on the record, sounds like whistles, and effects like wobbliness.

Dubstep - An electronic style influenced partly by dub growing out of the electronic scene in UK clubs. Focus on heavy bass and sub-bass (more felt than heard.) There's a recognizable wobbliness or lilt to the beat and often a darker, minimalist feel.

(Pinch's "Qawwali," I should mention, features samples from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and is named after a kind of Sufi devotional music.)

Other "classic" UK dubstep artists include Skream, with a top line contributing to a minimal, dark ambiance above that same "wobbly" style of bass:

And Burial. (Once again, darker and ambient with a clear drum and bass influence.)

With Benga and Coki (also UK-based), the beat is slightly sped up with somewhat less of an ambient feel but still the same beatstyle along with sounds we might liken to those initial dub whistles/hoots.

In the U.S., Skrillex speeds it up even more, retaining basic elements but moving away from the extremely low basslines and dark ambiance. He also manages to start mainstreaming it.

Another U.S. producer is Bassnectar. In addition to the obvious focus on bass, note the use of glitch noises, and the beat's lilt:

And here's an Australian duo in some respects closer to "classic" dubstep but with an accessible, almost pop edge to the song:

Unsurprisingly, dubstep has been influencing pop music over the past few years. For example, in Britney's wobbling bassline here:

And then there's Justin Bieber. And I sortof love this song. (I totally, completely and unashamedly admit it!)

Which Audien remixed... He manages to get some of his developing signature sound in the song but he's mainly a progressive house/trance artist and this is arguably not his best work...even though I love Audien!

So basically, what we have is a primarily progressive house EDM artist (Audien) doing a remix of a pop song (Bieber) influenced by an Americanized somewhat lightened version (Skrillex) of an originally UK electronic style (e.g. Pinch and Benga) called dubstep, which partly traces back to dub, a style of reggae music.

If it weren’t for Amazon's sale on Grammy-nominated recordings, I admit I would not have listened to Zedd’s Clarity. I needed a new album and already had Atmosphere (Kaskade), and Clarity was the next choice for $5. But I have to thank Amazon here. Missing this would have been a travesty and I wish even more I had been at Zedd’s party in Chicago New Year’s Eve. While the two singles giving a first impression of Clarity suggest run-of-the-mill dance tracks likely to succeed in an America just now discovering Edm, this isn’t just a mainstream dance album. And looking at the roots of classically-trained German/Russian producer Zedd, there should be no surprise that Clarity is much more sophisticated than that.

As the older [now Grammy-winning] single that catapulted Zedd into attention as a free iTunes download, title track "Clarity" is still energizing if no longer fresh. It’s nice to have it here surrounded by the full range of the album, but it’s not as interesting as it once was when placed with new tracks that exhibit Zedd’s more complex sense of composition. Similarly, the album’s second single, “Stay the Night,” is neither impressive nor memorable merely as a standalone, with lyrics that slide between sex at its most prosaic (“you kill the lights I’ll draw the blinds”) and attempts to steam it up with metaphors that seem fetishist at worst and unoriginal at best (“I am fire you’re gasoline come pour yourself all over me”). The chorus is underwhelming, interspersing “Are you gonna stay the night?” with the singing of “Ohhhhhh” in a way that screams “I just couldn’t think of another line.” But even on “Stay the Night” there’s nothing to kid about when it comes to the song’s overall sound, and listening further shows what little radio waves transmit in the way of Zedd’s full production range.

[March 2014 update: 6 weeks later and"Stay the Night" has become one of my favorite tracks, with a smile-inducing salaciousness that has me singing along in the car and shouting on the club floor.]

Clarity’s two singles may have been well-chosen for audiences familiar with light electronic through hits by J.Lo and Gaga, but in the end, they’re poor album samples and don’t showcase what’s really here or interesting. While a few rare moments seem borrowed, Zedd’s nods to different genres (largely trance and dubstep) on a mostly electro-house album seem more progressive in their seamlessness than similar attempts by more established artists. “Spectrum” is a great example, containing hints of BT’s “Surrounded” while feeling less split-personality and more integrated. If the chord progression in “Lost at Sea” seems familiar, it’s because it is, serving as something like a male-vocal companion to “Stay the Night” later on. "Lost at Sea" not only lends the album cohesion, but is also a great track in its own right. Ellie Goulding’s track is also somewhat surprising, with Zedd managing to solidify more intangible aspects of Goulding's often troubled vocal offerings. And rather than serving as mere transitions between vocal tracks, non-vocals “Codec,” “Stache” and “Epos” are some of the most standout pieces on the album, exhibiting the full range of Zedd’s abilities as a producer and his vision as a musician.

In the end, Clarity lives up to its own name with a meticulous production sound that delivers crisp multi-layered electronic just as well on a high-end stereo as a cheap set of mini-headphones. That’s the magic of Zedd.

I partly started sXe Electronic for friends who wanted to get into (or maybe just "get") electronic music but said they didn't know where to start.

So I've made it easy for you!

Below, I sample some of the bigger genre divisions in electronic music. Not everything is covered and later posts will get into more specifics about subgenre developments.

While all genres tend to fuse and evolve over time each track was selected because it exemplifies something in the subgenre it represents. Basically, you should hear a very clear difference between each track.

Next time your friends say EDM/electronic is all the same or that they don't get the differences between house, trance and dubstep, send them here. This should sort them out.

Trance:

Open "epic" sound (songs are often called "anthems") with melodic focus in the upper register (higher tones.) Often considered emotionally uplifting, Europeans (Dutchman Armin van Buuren, Germans ATB and Paul van Dyk) are the real masters of this style.

House:

Strong danceable beats, often also melodic, but more grounded without the same "epic" feel or use of the higher-register electronic tones that make trance what it is. Probably most of what you typically consider EDM is house music.

Deep House:

More minimalist than house with a low, steady beat, it often has a "lounge-y" vibe. You can hear the jazz influence in there, particularly in the use of slightly dissonant chords.

Dubstep:

Depending on who you ask, dubstep can either be deeper and more ambient (like Pinch, Skream, and Burial) or closer to Skrillex. Emphasis on the extreme lower end of the register (i.e. Bass!), with glitchy sounds and a "wobbly" characteristic. Wait for the drop in this sample (about 1 min. in.)

Trap:

A very current trend in EDM, if it reminds you of rap or hip-hop without the actual rapping (or maybe even with a little bit) it's trap. The same way dubstep has been influencing pop in recent years, there's a lot of talk about that now happening with trap. Pay attention, because there will be more! Like dubstep, trap is considered a "bass" genre.

Drum and bass:

Fairly self-explanatory. Emphasis on a main drum and bass beat (i.e. note the snare) generally with high bpm (beats per minute.) Closely related to a style called jungle.

Ambient/Chill:

Spacey and ethereal.

Downtempo:

If you think about the word "downtempo" (or lower tempo) this is obvious. The beat is there but with a chill vibe neither as spacey as ambient or as danceable as other styles due to the lower bpm count.

Electropop (or Synthpop):

Also self-explanatory. It's electronic. It's pop. It doesn't fit above. I'm hearing a lot of electropop these days as part of the new New Wave movement (think 80s.) Thank goodness people are making more of this because we definitely didn't get enough the first time around.

And once upon a time, there was Happy Hardcore.

Manic to the Max! Also, gross. I'm so glad this is out of vogue. It sounds like Frankfurt in the 90s. "I find crazy boys so great...crazy boys do things other boys don't do ..." With those lyrics and that beat, why did anyone ever listen to this?

Welcome old and new to the passion of sXe Electronic!

Things aren't perfect yet while I get up and running, but I'm sharing anyway because I could use your help. I need basic feedback on things like whether embeds are working properly so you can play posted soundclips.

Feel free to post a question using Ask or suggestions for improvement, and come back soon because new content is coming along with freshened versions of old posts for those who were following on Facebook. I've got plenty in the queue, possibly including news about a certain mouse (or mau5?), Mat Zo, Skrillex (whose new album just dropped), more Chicago developments, and even a playlist inspired by one of your FB comments.