Some time ago, I compiled a list of albums, which I cherish the most. Although I wouldn't change this list one bit today, if I was forced to pick just 10 albums again, my heart would bleed out. It'd be sort of Sophia's choice for me.
Anywho, last year and a half I managed to attend a number of interesting gigs, allowing myself to see live performance of great number of artists, many of whom you may not even know, who mean a lot to me. Some of them were my "little child dreams", for instance Fatboy Slim or Electric Light Orchestra. I am not saying all of them were good (Jean Michel Jarre could have definitely put some amusement to his "show", I know he's more than capable of in doing so - just remember the pyramids or Eiffel tower), but still, most of them did very well.
Since number of artists I like grows like every day, I am starting to realize that it'll be impossible to see them all in my lifetime. This little journal entry won't be about my existing experiences, the reader can easily look into
my events page and see for himself/herself. Instead of that, I am going to highlight 10 (or more or less, depending on... who knows what) artists, whom I haven't heard live yet, as of today (year 2009). A short commentary will follow every one of them and I'll also try to add some important track, if not defining that particular artist, then at least providing a little peak into that his/her production.
The order matters, lower the number, more saliva I'll produce once I hear that artist is going to play in our country.
10)
Fischerspooner
One of the few artists in this list I don't know that much about. But still, that does not change the way I admire their production. I don't even know how I've got to this artist, it just happened... somehow. I think it was my first electroclash experience and definitely not the bad one. As time went, I found myself listening to their two albums quite often (which is not that common for me, as I prefer listening to tracks mostly), while doing something to work or school. There's not much more to say about them, unlike other artists here, they're not that peculiar in their genre, but still are a band definitely worth mentioning when discussing electroclash branch of electronic music, as some of their tracks are full of energy, maybe imbued with some indie-rock spirit. It'd be also worth noting that this is the artist, who initially brought me to the idea of writing this article (and it's no shame to be at the bottom of it).
Notable track, not only for Gentoo GNU/Linux fans:
Fischerspooner - Emerge
9)
Xploding Plastix
This position was hard to fill, there were so many artists to put in... Funny thing is that I was actually chosing between three idm artists, the other two being
Aphex Twin and
Proem. The choice was finally made and here are is my reasoning. For me, Xploding Plastix is the artist found very randomly on last.fm at one of my neighbour's profile. I got lucky and first track I ran into was "Sports, Not Heavy Crime", which somehow reminded me of
Bonobo. That was a good sign and half an hour later, I was inhaling the whole album, getting deeper track after track. Definitive falling for Xploding Plastix came with the sixth track "Treat me mean, I Need the Reputation". Interesting about this "idm" music is, that many tracks are just instrumental, whereas other artists heavily rely on electronic samples. Of course those instrumental ones are sometimes poked with computer, but hey, we're in "idm" music, musicians would probably broke their fingers in order to fullfill some of the "classic" genre's artist's desires (let's name Amon Tobin for all). And we definitely don't want that, do we.
Notable track:
Xploding Plastix - Sports, Not Heavy Crime
8)
Colin Hay
Some people may be surprised to see this name here (if they know him, of course). This Scottish/Australian musician was brought to my attention via my favorite TV show
[scrubs], where he performs a few tracks during an opening of the second season. I am not a huge fan of "singer-songwriter" guitar artists (with a few honourable exceptions like
Jaromír Nohavica), but this guy just knew how to get to me. Awesome voice with typical accent, somehow interesting lyrics and a guitar, that's all it takes to make this calming effect which his music carries. And even that those six albums (or how many does he actually have) aren't that different from each other and some tracks actually touch the "country" genre which so many young people can't stand, devoted listener still doesn't mind. If you don't believe me and you like the example I post here, try "What Would Bob Do?". I am sure that at least
one close friend of mine would second that recommendation without a blink of an eye.
Notable track:
Colin Hay - Beautiful World
7)
Peace Orchestra
This is probably the slowest music in this list. Discovered a few years ago thru Animatrix soundtrack, it immediately got my attention for its deep but calming sound. By that time, I had only little chillout music, so this artist was more than welcome to my library. Today I have, of course, much more music of this genre, but I've not come across another artist similar to this one. As with other artists on this list, it's hard to describe, why. With influences of acid jazz, lounge, trip-hop and many more, Peace Orchestra delivers atmosphere described by some people as creepy, by others as "surprisingly comforting". No matter what, it is apparent that this music can go under your skin very easily. In which way - that depends on a very listener.
Notable track:
Peace Orchestra - Who Am I? (Animatrix Edit)
6)
Infected Mushroom
I struggled with myself for a while about who to put in place five and who will get number six. After all I decided that it doesn't matter that much (go ahead and take a look :)), those two artists are probably the most similar ones to each other in this list anyway. There's also a good chance that I'll see both of them at one gig. Music of this Israeli duo is psytrance, no doubt about that. But stil, there's something that distinguishes them from "the crowd" - and it's hard to describe. Maybe it's that subtle funky-like touch which takes away a part of psytrance's depth and eteric, hypnotic feeling but adds a load of fun, energy and playfulness. Or is it usage of vocals (such untypical of psytrance), yet carefully composed into their music, so you'll probably sing along when in a good mood? Probably both, probably something completely else, who knows. Fact stays, their music is popular, unbelievably catchy and never a disappointment when heard in a live set of some DJ.
Notable track is one of the most popular one (since their older music is not used that much nowadays and this one gives you peek into their current style of music). Interested listeners can also try "Psycho" from "The Gathering" album.
Infected Mushroom - Becoming Insane
5)
Juno Reactor
My interest in a Matrix movies is well-known and I guess most of you figured it does not take only picture to make a bloody good movie, music comes closely second. In this case, two main protagonists responsible are
Don Davis (composer of the actual score and most of the music for Matrix sequels) and Juno Reactor, who provided spicy (psy)trance to some thilling action scenes. Although tagged as psytrance, their music varies from acid trance (early days) to much more broad spectrum of genres like post-rock or even dub-step (latest album
Gods & Monsters). And even that psytrance somehow has its distinctive feeling, separating this artist from "classic" artists like
Hallucinogen,
Etnica,
Prometheus or
Atma. Putting chanting and screaming into their tracks and giving them dark feeling so many times makes Juno Reactor unique in its genre - in a way, of course. Chance of hearing some Matrix legendary "rush-songs" like Mona Lisa, Burly Brawl or Masters of the Universe is just too low to let this artist slip through my hands while I am alive.
Notable track (purposefully picked from other album than Matrix OST):
Juno Reactor - Zwara
4)
The Crystal Method
L.A.'s electronic duo, whose music most of you have probably heard, even if you don't know about it (look for some Need for Speed music or pay more attention when soccer commercials are on). Aside from Prodigy, this is the artist, whose albums I listen to most evenly. Usually, when I have my "CM" mood, I just drop the whole discography in playlist and let it play (with a sinister exception to "Acetone" track, which I do NOT recommend as a starting example, this is just my private addiction, sane people, stay away! :)). Their music is mostly uninstrusive, with stable bpm and most of their albums have character of a well compiled breakbeat set. Their music actually does not have some huge highlights swirling in my head giving me the picture of total musical katharsis, but I can still imagine they'd make a hell of a gig with so many great electronic tracks on their backs.
Notable track:
The Crystal Method - Starting Over
3)
Mike Oldfield
He was also mentioned in my previous
journal entry, and I am going to do him "the honour" once again. Of the "mighty childhood four", the other three being
Vanessa-Mae,
Jean Michel Jarre and
Kraftwerk (who unfortunately did not make it to this list, but I'd like to see their outstanding live performance too), he's probably the one I'd like to hear the most. I guess there's no need to write long paragraphs about him, his music made its way even to year 2009 and while nearly 40 years old, albums like Tubulas Bells still have their own specific taste delivered thru thoughtful combination of instruments. I am afraid that once the opportunity comes, ticket will cost a few hundreds of Euros (which is a significant portion of an average income in our country), but that's the downside I am willing to overlook. And something tells me that this utilitarian negligence will pay itself.
Notable track:
Mike Oldfield - Part 1 - Airborne
2)
Shpongle
One of the most surprising artists I have in my library. Tags you'll find on this project make it look like a kind of ordinary, but don't get fooled. So far, I have found only a few tracks (and even fewer artists) resembling music like Simon Posford and Raja Ram could bring to our world. With parts from traditional
goa trance genre, Shpongle offers much more complex music with many combinations never heard before. This is music, which always puts an image of murky teahouse with its heavy but calming atmosphere in my head. Most of their tracks have 10mins+ in length and as it may seem overwhelming to listen to the whole album, this music just lets you slowly drift through it, probably leaving you with peaceful smile at the end. For that, it'd mean a deal to me to hear some of this live, even in a hall, which may not be the perfect place for it. For whom it may concern, in my library, the most similar artist for Shpongle is
Banco de Gaia (try
Igizeh album).
Notable track:
Shpongle - Around a World in a Tea Daze
1)
Venetian Snares
I guess no one who knows even just a little about me is surprised. While definitely not my "favourite of all time, ever and ever for all eternity" artist, Aaron Funk surely redefined the way I perceive music big time. He can turn something that disturbing, as breakcore can be, into tracks, that are positively received by many people, who even don't know the genre and definitely would not listen to it by choice if they did. A few of my friends got recently interested in creating music, so I've got a chance to see how these things work, which tools are used and whatnot. Observing them using different devices give you a decent picture of ways in which music originates. But when you listen to some Venetian Snares music, you just think - how the f*ck does he do that? The most corresponding picture I've come up in my mind so far is just Aaron recklessly pushing everything on his player and voilà, there it is - pure experimental music, which somehow makes my head float. So mostly for that, but also for other reasons, I'd like to see this Canadian mage do "his thing" live, in front of me.
It'd be also fair to note that if I haven't heard
The Prodigy already, Venetian Snares would make it to number two.
Notable track is kinda obvious, since it earned about 1500 rounds in my Top tracks chart. You can also try tracks "Nutimik" and "Cancel", both of which represents completely different styles (from Szamár Madár and from each other too).
Venetian Snares - Szamár Madár
(proper sound system capable of disturbing neighbours or high quality headphones recommended)
So, there you have it. It was quite longer than previous article, but I wanted to give you a little bit better insight on depicted artists this time. The chosen criteria was solely a construct to have a way of picking from my library by some pattern. But I think it was the nice one :).
I think you are sure there are so many more artists I'd love to hear perform live, who did not make it here, so I'm not even going to name them, you can just pick anyone from my top artists and you won't be mistaken.
If you make it all the way down here, I am happy. If you got inspired for some new music, I am even happier. If you actually enjoyed reading this, happy birthday to me. For anyone else, I just hope I didn't waste too much of your time by blabbing about some weirdo-shmeirdo music like there's nothing more worth experiencing in a human life :).
~EOF~
Hallucinogen
