Examples of 'cutting edge' dance/electronic music?

[vurt]

But I think Aphex Twin is somewhat special as I don't see someone comparable. But he was ahead of his time,

the "glitch" goes waaaaay back before aphex twin

[Eauson]

[quote="ghettosynth]

It's a popularity context, the list won't please everybody. But, you can't just dismiss it. Here's Hawtin from back in the day, was this "cutting edge" then?



I've seen many of the DJs on that list live and it's a list that I far more agree with than many others. For example, any list with Tiesto on it.

More than that, it's really not one thing that makes something "cutting edge." It typically becomes popular within a subgenre before it blows up.
[/quote]

Well, the Ritchie Hawtin was not really back in other day, 97 was more than 10 yrs after the initial sound. The track you posted, to me, was not very good and has been explored prior to RHawtin, the same can be said about Aphex, they just popularised and brought it to the mainstream.
However these are just opinions






Okay, Curtis Roads influenced Autechre and the Japanese feedback is just plainly weird

Sadly being on mobile restricts what I would probably write, so soz if its a bit terse

[Davias]

But I think Aphex Twin is somewhat special as I don't see someone comparable. But he was ahead of his time,

the "glitch" goes waaaaay back before aphex twin

This proofs that "cutting edge" is related to what the listener knows or not

I would be glad to hear examples of early glitchers ^^

[Davias]

Okay, Curtis Roads influenced Autechre and the Japanese feedback is just plainly weird

Sadly being on mobile restricts what I would probably write, so soz if its a bit terse

Two interesting examples but hardly dance music to me... No beats, sometimes no notes, and this hissing sound is just noise music, and not the kind that are sweet to my ears (ouch !) so maybe they have influences on autechre or aphex twin, but the root is buried very deep here...

EDIT : Quotes mess

[Eauson]

But I think Aphex Twin is somewhat special as I don't see someone comparable. But he was ahead of his time,

the "glitch" goes waaaaay back before aphex twin

This proofs that "cutting edge" is related to what the listener knows or not

I would be glad to hear examples of early glitchers ^^

^^ hey Vurt, you beat me to it





Check some of this

[cron]

I largely agree with Ghettosynth. Cutting edge tends to be a synonym for whatever the latest fad is, and once you've seen so many come and go very little sounds cutting edge to you any more. I don't know if it's the same elsewhere, but the UK music press is notoriously excitable and hype-driven, which gives pretty much every cutting edge sound an 'emperor's new clothes' feel.

For what it's worth, one of the most refreshing things that happened in dance music for me recently was the surge of producers turning the quantise button off and making things a bit deliberately wonky. The hip-hop guys have always done this to an extent, but I really enjoyed hearing that technique extended to other dance music. It got a bit silly and 'anti-groove' for a while (see the Slugabed track from 2009 - even more extreme examples exist) which was lots of fun while the novelty lasted, but it seems to have filtered out nicely and found it's place now. That's what I'd call cutting edge. An idea that comes along and hangs around, changing the sound of many styles at once.

As for unusual sounds in the dance world, I kind of feel like there's a whole 'post-genre' thing going on in the stuff I listen to. Just name the sound you want to hear and somebody is making it. "Oh, today I'd like to hear some shuffly 110 bpm techno with unquantised beats, no melody, and distorted noise between the gaps". "That's no problem sir. Would you like a side-order of poorly recorded, murky analogue drum machine repetition of highly unstable tempo to go with that?"

Some wonky things:

[vurt]

Would you like a side-order of poorly recorded, murky analogue drum machine repetition of highly unstable tempo to go with that?"

at least when i die i know ive influenced something, somewhere

[nineofkings]

That K&G Beat song actually has a pretty cool, shuffly groove - it's just very syncopated.

[Davias]

But I think Aphex Twin is somewhat special as I don't see someone comparable. But he was ahead of his time,

the "glitch" goes waaaaay back before aphex twin

This proofs that "cutting edge" is related to what the listener knows or not

I would be glad to hear examples of early glitchers ^^

^^ hey Vurt, you beat me to it





Check some of this

Okay this was cutting edge at the time I guess, and Aphex Twin of course didn't invented the glitch as skrillex certainly didn't invented the growl bassline but, this is not dance music here again or I'm missing something So maybe Aphex Twin did import glitchy elements inspired to him from the past (or maybe just by chance ? or by talent ? or maybe a little bit of everything). And sure he was not alone to make glitchy beat at the time (autechre, µ-ziq, bogdan raczinsky, squarepusher, cylob, amon tobin, etc, etc, etc). But in electronic dance music, they were cutting edge to me.. Again, maybe because I didn't know who made the same kind of music before.

The examples were very interesting to hear, but it is not dance yet... so who made the proto-idm, the early electronic glitch music (with beats or rhythms) then ?

Was the glitch cutting edge ? Is it still cutting edge now ?

[Eauson]

[quote="ghettosynth]

It's a popularity context, the list won't please everybody. But, you can't just dismiss it. Here's Hawtin from back in the day, was this "cutting edge" then?



I've seen many of the DJs on that list live and it's a list that I far more agree with than many others. For example, any list with Tiesto on it.

More than that, it's really not one thing that makes something "cutting edge." It typically becomes popular within a subgenre before it blows up.

Well, the Ritchie Hawtin was not really back in other day, 97 was more than 10 yrs after the initial sound. The track you posted, to me, was not very good and has been explored prior to RHawtin, the same can be said about Aphex, they just popularised and brought it to the mainstream.
However these are just opinions






Okay, Curtis Roads influenced Autechre and the Japanese feedback is just plainly weird

Sadly being on mobile restricts what I would probably write, so soz if its a bit terse

Two interesting examples but hardly dance music to me... No beats, sometimes no notes, and this hissing sound is just noise music, and not the kind that are sweet to my ears (ouch !) so maybe they have influences on autechre or aphex twin, but the root is buried very deep here...[/quote][/quote][/quote]

Yeah, I know what you are saying, however its the influence together with technology. Just shoving a dance 909 beat and some hi hats on music is just a thing. Most of the best beats are samples, everyone did it, until people realised that money was being lost so they stamped it out

You saying its just noise etc is what I would expect really, same as someone would say about techno/house way back again I'm struggling as I'm on mobile so I'll leave it and bid you adieu

[Sendy]

That whole "manipulating the master track" with edits, reverses, rewinds and glitches reminds me of I Feel For You.



For this and other reasons, Aphex Twin's Windowlicker is twinned (no pun intended) to this song in my mind. Windowlicker is Feel For You's demonic flipside and taken to extremes. Both very funky tracks.

[ghettosynth]

has been explored prior to RHawtin, the same can be said about Aphex, they just popularised and brought it to the mainstream.

Failure to bring your work to the mainstream is to fail to be on the cutting edge. As I've said, many ideas get explored, most are forgotten.

These threads always devolve into how some academic wanker from the 60s is the father of all things EDM. I call horseshit, you get credit for what you did, not for what other people did with your ideas. I don't think Hawtin's older work is as influential as the stuff that he did in the mid to late 90s. I have quite a bit of his catalog and I'm not hearing it. I think that like many artists, he had to figure out who he was musically before he could influence people. Before then, he was mimicking.

[cron]

That K&G Beat song actually has a pretty cool, shuffly groove - it's just very syncopated.

Fair point. It's just suuuch a good track. Should have gone with this one by him:

It's a bit hard to find later 'subtle' examples I guess because they're just that... subtle. The whole thing of making beats fly absolutely everywhere except the grid was faddish in itself, but I certainly heard a 'looser' aesthetic proliferate in loads of places after it. Kind of eating my own words here.

[Davias]

I largely agree with Ghettosynth. Cutting edge tends to be a synonym for whatever the latest fad is, and once you've seen so many come and go very little sounds cutting edge to you any more. I don't know if it's the same elsewhere, but the UK music press is notoriously excitable and hype-driven, which gives pretty much every cutting edge sound an 'emperor's new clothes' feel.

For what it's worth, one of the most refreshing things that happened in dance music for me recently was the surge of producers turning the quantise button off and making things a bit deliberately wonky. The hip-hop guys have always done this to an extent, but I really enjoyed hearing that technique extended to other dance music. It got a bit silly and 'anti-groove' for a while (see the Slugabed track from 2009 - even more extreme examples exist) which was lots of fun while the novelty lasted, but it seems to have filtered out nicely and found it's place now. That's what I'd call cutting edge. An idea that comes along and hangs around, changing the sound of many styles at once.

As for unusual sounds in the dance world, I kind of feel like there's a whole 'post-genre' thing going on in the stuff I listen to. Just name the sound you want to hear and somebody is making it. "Oh, today I'd like to hear some shuffly 110 bpm techno with unquantised beats, no melody, and distorted noise between the gaps". "That's no problem sir. Would you like a side-order of poorly recorded, murky analogue drum machine repetition of highly unstable tempo to go with that?"

Some wonky things:

I like theses
I'm fond of hard-synced beats, but i like anyway. I think there is something cutting edge in this.

EDIT : After thinking twice it made me think about Autechre. But I like ^^

[vurt]

The examples were very interesting to hear, but it is not dance yet... so who made the proto-idm, the early electronic glitch music (with beats or rhythms) then ?

perhaps coil?
or oval?