Strictly Electronic

It recently came to my attention that my significant other isn't familiar with a fuckton of the music I hold dear, namely key players in the world of electronica. This is unacceptable and must be remedied. Solution: PLAYLIST TIME! While I can't claim this is even remotely close to a History Of  or even Comprehensive Introduction to Techno,  I can put together a fun mixtape of songs and artists that were essential in developing my own personal appreciation of genre.

Because it turned out so long, I've divided into two movements. The songs are pretty much grouped by artist and somewhat organized by subgenre (...as defined by me). PART ONE starts off with Ed Banger bros and moves through artists based on what I consider to be incestuous remix relationships. It stays mostly within the confines of  minimalist, experimental house, if that's even a thing. PART TWO explores the more lyrical, danceable, psychadelic and poppy sides of electronica. So basically, everything else. It even has some dips into trance, drumNbass and triphop. God this was fun to make. A most productive trip down memory lane. Enjoy!

Listen on Grooveshark, Spotify or Download from Dropbox

PART 1

PART 2

Illustration by So Me.

HEADS UP: For the life of me, I can't find any of The Chemical Brothers on Grooveshark, so sadface. Also, in the zipfile version, the Lemon Jelly tracks aren't obeying my requested changes in their ID3 tags. They are supposed to be songs 63 and 64-- down with the triphop, out of electrohouse territory.

Lastly, no post about electronica is complete without a flowchart. Eventually I have plans to map out the artists featured in this mix based on their country of origin, remix connections and general subgenre tendencies. But that's a good amount of effort and research I'll reserve for another day. Til then, you get this classic:

(toothpastefordinner.com)

Yell at me for leaving your favorites out, I dare you. Some crucial dudes only had tiny roles because I believe their contribution to be universally acknowledged (yeah, I'm looking at YOU DPunk) and this lesson in techno was getting pretty lengthy as it was. But there are people I may have legitmately forgotten and I'm never opposed to expanding my music library -TEACH ME. This way I can have them all in the same thread. Actually I'll go ahead and start: "UHH...KRAFTWERK???"

And in case you need moaaarrrr, have some RELATED POSTS:

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Ticket to Plagiarize

A friend of mine was casually blasting the new Mother Mother album the other day. It's quite good. But that's not what made it memorable. It was the fact that THIS particular song struck me as so eerily familiar:

You feel an almost intimate connection with the melody, yes? As if you'd heard it hundreds of times before. An impressive accomplishment for an artist, yet I was skeptical. The album is too new for me to have heard it at a party and glitches in the Matrix tend to be more blatant.
Then it hit me:


(specifically, 2 minutes and 47 seconds in)

Hm.
Now I know. there are all kinds of arguments to be made here. "There is no such thing as a creative thought," you say. "It's not stealing if it's an homage," you say. "Stop putting words in my mouth, I honestly don't care enough to have an opinion," you say. Well I agree. On all counts. Call it what you will-- allusions, samples, references, tips-of-the-hat-- unoriginal ideas saturate every type of media and they aren't always a crutch. They can add dimension and support and are sometimes necessary in framing new thoughts.

But seriously guys? That's the same song. Go write your own chorus.