Had a buddy get hurt the other day, and he’ll be a while recovering. He has mentioned that one of his favorite things is to get absorbed in listening to electronic music and picking apart all the different layers of sound. We’re trying to reduce the post-op depression of his not being able to do anything.
Now I’m a metal guy, myself, so I don’t know much about electronic. Recommendations for something that is layered, fairly new, and generally considered good?
How new is “fairly”? I’ve been out of the scene for a while, so I only know about stuff from like 10-20 years ago.
I’d say in the last 5 years. But I’ll take awesome no matter its age.
M83? Very lush orchestration, deeply layered, electronic (and guitar/rock sounds as they matured) shoegaze inspired music. Their best album is probably Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming from 2011 (you might recognize “Midnight City,” which got a decent amount of airplay on alternative stations), but they have releases as recent as 2018. If you want something more purely electronic, and more ambient and instrumental, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is a good place to go, but that’s 2003.
I’m also a long way from ‘the loop’ but I’d research trance in general and, specifically, Goa trance.
I loved the really dark stuff. Some dj’s that were my favorites were Digweed (prog trance), steve Lawler (tribal house), Seb Fontaine (tech houseish). All three dj’s and genres had overlap.
Look for the Global Underground series that was put out late 90’s to mid/late 2000’s. They’re probably on YouTube.
I went through Dead Cities, etc., but it’s maybe not… forceful?.. enough. Haven’t gotten to Hurry Up yet.
Now see… that’s what I thought electronic music sounded like. I’ve learned differently in the past twenty minutes or so.
I’m just skipped through Patrice Bäumel and Global Underground 42. Reminds me of Pink Floyd.
Got some Digiweed going now. I think that’s more or less what he likes.
Thanks for the help, everybody. Keep 'em coming!
Right on. I hope he likes it! Digweed would play some epic sets at The Mayan downtown LA on Thursday nights. Thursday night kept the punters and phonies out, so it was always a great crowd of fans there for the music instead of (just) the drugs.
Digweed was part of a legendary duo, Sasha and Digweed, but honestly I loved his solo sets better. But your friend might be into it. Tons of people were.
Oh, yeah, given your remarks above, Hurry Up will not be what he’s looking for. WIth Dead Cities, I was thinking more textural ambient with lots of layers, not as much trance with a dance beat. Astrix might be something he likes.
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Bassdrive.com Try looking through the archives if the live stream isn’t doing it for you.
Somafm.com has a lot of good stations. Groove Salad is light. Dubstep Beyond is heavy. Black Rock FM follows a progressive 24hr cycle from ambient noise in the am to killer dubstep sets from 10pm to 2am ish central time. Suburbs Of Goa is Sub Continent inspired techno which I like a lot and that station also hits hard at night on the weekends.
Best of all no commercials on either site.
I grew up on 90s dnb and the above stations pretty much do it for me these days. Have a listen to the other soma stations if you need variety. Fluid is interesting clicky techno. Bagel Radio and Indie Pop Rocks are good indiebrock.
I probably spend the most time on Black Rock FM
Oh, I think he’ll like that. I was kinda meh on it at first, but around the two-minute mark, it really took off. Thanks!
How bout the Pet Shop Boys?
I “watched” those with my eyes closed, and they’ve certainly got the layering he likes.
How about one of my favourite bands “Mogwai”. Not strictly electronica but mostly instrumental with lots of interesting, layered, dense tracks.
e.g. “Take me somewhere nice” or “Death rays” (with a wonderful transition at around 4:00 that may be right up his Strasse)
Following the German nod, other options are the rather beautiful Kosmicher Laufer, here is “fur seelenbinder”, allegedly they are found tapes of East German athletic warm-up music from the 1970s/80s. Bollocks of course but great music.
Or how about a forgotten classic by Wolfgang Reichmann “Himmelblau” or those early pioneers “NEU!”
How might he feel about Ladytron? Their most well-known stuff is older, but I love theireponymous album of last year.
Ooo ooo oo this is my Jam. Let me point you in some of the right directions.
You are going to NEED to listen to:
David Guetta - Dangerous etc. David Guetta - Dangerous (Lyric Video) ft Sam Martin - YouTube
Delta Heavy - Kaleidoscope etc. Delta Heavy - Kaleidoscope (Official Video) - YouTube
Grum - Heartbeats etc. Grum - Heartbeats - YouTube
Dragonette - Pick up the phone Dragonette - Pick Up The Phone (Arithmatix! Remix) - YouTube
Get Famous - Slip away Get Famous! - Slip Away (HD) - YouTube
For now just have a look at these and if you like them I’ll post some more.
Not sure if he’ll like it, but Commercial Album by The Residents is mostly electronic and has wonderful melodies perfectly layered on top of each other.
There are 40 songs on the album. Each is one minute long.
I’m sorry I missed your post earlier. I don’t know if my friend’ll like it, but I’ve been digging on Deep Space One. Thanks!