Examples of 'cutting edge' dance/electronic music?

[ZenPunkHippy]

What is it that drives large groups of followers to move back and forth between genres of excess and genres of restraint?

This is almost too obvious but it does make a lot of sense, at least for some genres / dance music sub-cultures:

... drum'n'bass continues on its own path, which I see as a river branching off the continuum, and meanwhile a huge proportion of the London audience for jungle switches to a new sound UK garage or speed garage. It wasn't actually a new sound, if had existed in parallel with jungle for a few years in the mid-90s -- if you'd gone to a jungle club in those days, the chances are the second room, the chill out room, would have had garage, soulful house mostly made in America -- I never understood it at the time, it seemed a bit bland to me, but it was a mellower, more R&B sound, and gradually those second rooms got more popular as the drum'n'bass in the main arena got more punishing. The garage room would increasingly be where the women were. And the guys started thinking, hmmm I want to be in the room where the girls are.

Quote is from a lecture by Simon Reynolds. Anyone attempting to understand dance music should read this:

http://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogs ... d-its.html

Peace,
Andy.

[ghettosynth]

What is it that drives large groups of followers to move back and forth between genres of excess and genres of restraint?

This is almost too obvious but it does make a lot of sense, at least for some genres / dance music sub-cultures:

... drum'n'bass continues on its own path, which I see as a river branching off the continuum, and meanwhile a huge proportion of the London audience for jungle switches to a new sound UK garage or speed garage. It wasn't actually a new sound, if had existed in parallel with jungle for a few years in the mid-90s -- if you'd gone to a jungle club in those days, the chances are the second room, the chill out room, would have had garage, soulful house mostly made in America -- I never understood it at the time, it seemed a bit bland to me, but it was a mellower, more R&B sound, and gradually those second rooms got more popular as the drum'n'bass in the main arena got more punishing. The garage room would increasingly be where the women were. And the guys started thinking, hmmm I want to be in the room where the girls are.

Quote is from a lecture by Simon Reynolds. Anyone attempting to understand dance music should read this:

http://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogs ... d-its.html

Peace,
Andy.

Yes, that's exactly right. In fact, I love that moment where the guys left realize that they're alone in their sausage fest. But this was part and parcel of the multi-room "rave." Those days seem largely gone and replaced by festivals. Also, of course, we can't stereotype females quite so easily. Watching the ultra festival it's clear that the girls are as into the agro as the boys. But, perhaps, if we look at the tendency for Skrillex concerts to induce a mosh-pit, we might see more pushback.

I'm hopeful. The current EDM culture feels very much like alternative music did in the late 90s, it was quite a shift from the more eclectic and romantic culture of the 80s but probably a fair response to the likes of MC Hammer and the clown culture of dance music in the early nineties. Oh, don't get me wrong, I love me some new jack swing, but, I can see how boys were looking for something more manly than hammer pants.

[trimph1]

In the past, I've really liked Daft Punk, but I'm not a fan of their recent hit Get Lucky. That's largely because I've never really liked Daft Punk's songwriting side.

But, the song is actually quite nice, and this arrangement is awesome.




In some sense, among current main room royalty, dubstep is the extreme ugly stepchild of Jungle and breakbeat culture and Electro/Big Room house the ugly stepchild of progressive house. My concern is that their popularity is a function of EDM becoming more mainstream. If that's true, we could have obnoxious music forever. That said, even pop music shows some signs of favoring the groove recently. I think moves like jagger is pretty snappy. What is it that drives large groups of followers to move back and forth between genres of excess and genres of restraint?

What do you think Daft Punk will do next, and will it matter?

That is kind of interesting..I noticed that even in some of the smaller dance clubs one could see a constant ebb and flow between several rooms...guess it must be a need for some kind of auditory rest? If that is what one calls it....

As for the obnoxious part, that would be typical...even back in the 'disco era' the obnoxious was a strong presence....sigh.

btw...your sig is not you...your opinions are different but not that bad...sheeesh

[Doug1978]

Undoubtedly this isn't what you're looking for in this thread (though it is more relevant than Boney M), but here is an interesting short feature about a new dance fashion - Passinho - coming out of Brazil right now:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22390914

Maybe not cutting edge music per se, but it does give the youngsters a chance to move away from drugs, guns and violence.
And I would argue THAT is literally cutting edge.

Cheers.

[an-electric-heart]

Undoubtedly this isn't what you're looking for in this thread (though it is more relevant than Boney M), but here is an interesting short feature about a new dance fashion - Passinho - coming out of Brazil right now:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22390914

Maybe not cutting edge music per se, but it does give the youngsters a chance to move away from drugs, guns and violence.
And I would argue THAT is literally cutting edge.

Cheers.

That's a cool positive story. There's an awesome Brazilian movie called 'City of God' about gangs and drugs set in those slums, it's so good you forget you're reading sub-titles (it's in Portuguese)

[vurt]

Frankly, where's the challenge here? It's nothing more than using granular tools and not having to worry about whether anything's in tune or in time. Give it a pretentious sounding introduction and you have art. I get it, he's an academic, this is related to his work in granular synthesis, that's interesting, as his his other work, but to me, the music is not. It's like a demo record that comes with a new synthesizer. It's as constipated as academic music can get.

the reason i pointed to earlier forms of glitch, such as roads and the like is because many years ago i would attend underground parties where djs would spin twisted beats alongside samples from the "academics".
and im willing to place money on it that aphex, squarepusher, uziq and co were attending similar parties and would have been influenced and gone on to refine what they heard there...
ie the dawn of what is now called idm, non repetitive beats, all because of one line in a uk law...

[trimph1]

Speedy J did that as well..IIRC.

Or a recording from E.A.R. as a backdrop to a live drummer...

[Eauson]

I'm even sure why I've returned, i guess i enjoy droning on,others will probably think the same
Some good future retro

http://www.mixcloud.com/markeyfunk/

The likes of Muslim gauze, early library music etc etc are the influences of many of the musik today. Refining is not cutting edge.

[bmanic]

The more I listen to the examples posted in this thread the more I realize just how limited the dance genre is when it comes to harmony.

Anybody got some examples of a dance track that explores things like going through several different keys in a single short track? I mean, Bach did this already 400 years ago.. surely it's time to explore melody and harmony a bit more, no? Or are we so stuck with the beat and keeping things simple?

I'm a real ass when it comes to melody and harmony, but maybe this (quite melodic) psy full on goa whatever trance track could fit the description ? I would like to hear your though about it

This song is still only in one key and uses only about 5 different chords with some inversions.

What I was talking about was basically going through several different keys within one song, meaning it's whole structure shifts so the dominant 5th changes together with the root note etc.

Cheers!
bManic

[ZenPunkHippy]

This song is still only in one key and uses only about 5 different chords with some inversions.

What I was talking about was basically going through several different keys within one song, meaning it's whole structure shifts so the dominant 5th changes together with the root note etc.

I think the progression you are looking for happens over several tracks, not within a single track.

In other words, you (and others) are looking at this from a traditional song point of view but that is now how dance culture / dance parties work.

The DJ mixes some of a single track with part of another track to create an entirely new "track" or piece of music. The best DJs will mix two or sometimes more than 2 tracks in key, so that the melodies / bass lines might combine to create an entirely new piece of music no one has heard before, right there on the spot.

It may never be heard again.

That is part of the charm.

New sounds, every time you go out. None of that tired old Hairway to Steven* !

Peace,
Andy.

* joke, I love the Butthole Surfers!

[bmanic]

Perhaps the next new thing could be less about the actual sounds themselves and even less emphasis on 4 on the floor but instead explore new realms when it comes to harmonic progression? I've composed a few piano pieces where I go through many keys and it becomes quite convoluted. The listener can't in the end of the track say what the main key of the song was! Perhaps this could be explored more?

With all due respect, this comes off as exceedingly naive. There are lots of deep and structurally rich IDM pieces that aren't really dance music. So it's not really "new" to suggest that you could throw more melody at things.

Show me. I have yet to hear a single dance track in my whole life that changes the root key of the song more than once, well perhaps twice (Eurovision song contest schlager shit having that 1 key change almost mandatory in the final chorus).

What I was talking about was not just "more melody" as you so weirdly put it. I was talking about harmonic progression and even the idea of going through all the different root keys in clever ways.

[bmanic]

This song is still only in one key and uses only about 5 different chords with some inversions.

What I was talking about was basically going through several different keys within one song, meaning it's whole structure shifts so the dominant 5th changes together with the root note etc.

I think the progression you are looking for happens over several tracks, not within a single track.

In other words, you (and others) are looking at this from a traditional song point of view but that is now how dance culture / dance parties work.

The DJ mixes some of a single track with part of another track to create an entirely new "track" or piece of music. The best DJs will mix two or sometimes more than 2 tracks in key, so that the melodies / bass lines might combine to create an entirely new piece of music no one has heard before, right there on the spot.

It may never be heard again.

That is part of the charm.

New sounds, every time you go out. None of that tired old Hairway to Steven* !

Peace,
Andy.

* joke, I love the Butthole Surfers!

True that. But I still think it might be a novel idea to create a dance track which goes through several root key shifts within one song. It can be used quite powerfully as a way of adding tension/as a buildup.. or then it will sound like crap and be way too confusing! Hence the speculation.

Perhaps it has not been done because it just doesn't work?

Cheers!
bManic

[bmanic]

This is kind of what I mean:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tonality

Cheers!
bManic

[ZenPunkHippy]

Perhaps it has not been done because it just doesn't work?

I think "not necessary" might be a better way of putting it.

Have you been to a dance party? After <x> amount of time (could be minutes or hours) dancing to relatively hard kick drum, bass line + alien sounds, when the melodic part comes in the expression of joy peoples faces can be almost overwhelming.

Basically, you would be hard pressed to find a happier person than someone experiencing this particular moment.

Adding yet another layer of melody or musical progression really isn't going to make them any happier or improve upon an already amazing point in time

And besides, there are other forms of music if that is what you really want ...

Peace,
Andy.

[declassified]

Okay, I will give you three tracks

Paul Woolford & Psycatron - Stolen

Why? Every sound is as good as it can be. Make sure you listen at 480p, but even then you won't be able to hear the level of sound quality this track has. The shaker (0:46) is razor-sharp, the base rhythm is nicely complex. The chords have an extremely remarkable, reverb-drowned sound. At 1:58 there's this white noise that bursts in and gradually turns into a crash cymbal on the 4ths. If that's not a cutting edge way of bringing in a cymbal, I don't know. By now the track has somehow built up to a huge soundscape, and instead of a cheesy pop vocal there's just this distant singing. The drop comes, but the energy goes down quickly, then at 3:27 it starts pumping again, for me this track just has incredible energy. And the bass hasn't even come in yet. After the second breakdown (~5:30) you'd expect the track to slowly take out elements and go down until the end. But no way: It drops into an enormous 303 bassline that's even larger and more alive than what was there before. Prove me wrong, but my point is that this is far beyond what was done in the 00s or even the 90s. I'm not even into techno that much, but this track is one of the most epic things I've ever heard.

Eats Everything - Entrance Song

You probably know this (?). Amazing how it's deep and huge at the same time. It might be placebo, but I hear Garage, Miami Bass, 90s Jungle (strings in the second breakdown) and of course Deep House melted together. The vocals (Floetry - Say Yes Acapella) and organ are instantly recognizable without being clichee or annoying. Then the sound is sort of thrown-together in an "I don't care if it's f***ed up, it's a party" way

Matthew Herbert - It's Only (DJ Koze Remix)

A lot of attention to detail, to the small sounds in between, instead of just repeating something over and over. Very nice dark/strange atmosphere. Somehow still playful/childish in the way the percussion is done.