Should More Artists Add Vocals to Their Tracks?

[Joyrex]

With Clark's recent release of Sus Dog, do you think other electronic music artists should consider adding vocals to their tracks?

[toaoaoad]

No

[hayhook]

Clark did it well. but I don't want all of his future output to have vocals.

the Orb's Prism is garbage because of the vocals. I might enjoy it if they ever release an instrumental version?

hard to make a blanket call...

 

[hoggy]

I think they should try it - I like how Venetian Snares did it - initially it sounded really weird as he's clearly not a vocalist, but then he managed to make something I find pretty surrealistic. Aphex does have manipulated vocals in some stuff, and it always brings strange imagery to the tracks which enhance the vibe. I don't think Autechre could ever create straight vocals, because they would ground the music too much in the representational, where their stuff is typically totally abstract.

So, yeah, why not - but I think it has to fit the music, since stuff in that kind of area of electronic music seems to focus a lot on abstract sensations. Maybe could be interesting to have Melvins style nonsense lyrics, since they can be more sound based than verbal - I can imagine taking something like that and adding changing effects and so on to paint vocal sounds into the music without it sounding too sampley and stiff.

tl;dr - Anything is possible really, why not?

btw, haven't heard the Clark thing - haven't listened since didn't like early stuff, maybe he improved in the decades since then

[hoggy]

Just now, Summon Dot E X E said:

Abstract/sparse vocals are much different from regular lyrical music

It's a spectrum though right? A lot of house music is song-like, without actually being fully songs.

[ARPA]

[hoggy]

I guess another thing to consider is that a lot of the electronic music guys are solo artists, so either they have to hire someone who can understand their vision, if that vision includes voice, or they have to do it themselves, where voice is kind of a unique talent in that it involves a certain amount of rare physical giftedness, which they are not likely to have, so they'd have to develop a whole new skill, which they might not be equipped for.

But I'm sure that if Squarepusher worked with an experimental jazz singer, or if Hellfish and Producer worked with a really hardcore rapper, or if Venetian Snares worked with someone who could scream, like Katie Jane Garside or a death metal or goth/punk singer, they would make something awesome that we couldn't have imagined, providing they had a shared creative vision... the working relationship is definitely something to consider too - if they didn't understand the same creative vision it probably wouldn't work.

Who could Autechre work with though? Hard to imagine... I bet they could do something cool with Elizabeth Frazer doing her non-verbal sounding Cocteau Twins type stuff, but it would have to be processed in some way to merge her voice seamlessly into other sounds.. but even then it could be too much of a focal point distracting from the relationships between the other sounds... I'm sure they could come up with *something* though, but I dunno how it would work.. the working relationship would have to occur organically too, which is another thing that depends on luck

[aderei]

If they are ethereal airy and wistful standard vocals then no....something original please....

[hoggy]

2 minutes ago, aderei said:

If they are ethereal airy and wistful standard vocals then no....something original please....

What if they were ethereal, airy, wistful and non-standard vocals? Or do you think ethereal, airy and wistful is the standard?

[Limo]

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Limo

[zlemflolia]

i want to see them put tracks in their vocals

[dcom]

The human voice is an instrument in itself. Vocals are not restricted to melodic phrases and understandable lyrics: people can scream, drone (e.g. throat-singing), whisper, chant, rap, scat, beatbox, some people can even do harmony alone. A lot of electro has vocals through a vocoder or other processing. Vocals don't have to mean lyrics, verses and choruses, and there's plenty of electronic music that uses vocals in myriad other ways. Autechre, Aphex Twin, almost all of (at least my) IDM (head)canon uses vocals, vocal samples, phrases in many ways - yes, they're not traditional verse-chorus vocals, but vocals they are. Should the music this forum discusses have popular music -style verse-chorus vocals with actual lyrics, rhyme and/or meter? I would say no, but using the human voice broadly as an instrument is as valid a choice as the choice of any electronic (or traditional) one. I mostly don't listen to music that has lyrics, because of the cognitive distraction it causes, which is detrimental to my concentration i.e. when working (writing code and doing intricate technical things).

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by dcom

[o00o]

I really like female voices when its done in a cool way like this: 

I also like femle MCs a lot.  

 

 

 

[Squee]

If it works. 

[X4creek]

I wish there was an in between option

[xox]

Lol

no

[Limo]

1 hour ago, dcom said:

I mostly don't listen to music that has lyrics, because of the cognitive distraction it causes, which is detrimental to my concentration i.e. when working (writing code and doing intricate technical things).

Same here, but also because most lyrics are inane. Even the good ones.

[dcom]

9 minutes ago, Limo said:

Same here, but also because most lyrics are inane. Even the good ones.

Shouting lager lager lager lager mega mega white thing mega mega white thing.

Edited June 1, 2023 by dcom

[Limo]

2 minutes ago, dcom said:

Shouting lager lager lager lager mega mega white thing mega mega white thing.

Right. That's one of the good ones.

[thumbass]

I like sampled voices a lot a la UK Garage vocals. Other than that I listen to rap music pretty often too. I'm not that big into singing if I'm being honest so I don't think artists should do it more but if it works (like in Clark's case) then it works! It shouldn't be shoehorned in though.

Edited June 1, 2023 by thumbass

[Limo]

2 minutes ago, thumbass said:

I like sampled voices a lot

Yeah, those can be pretty good. They can add some humor, which I like.

[iococoi]

6 hours ago, ARPA said:

cmon..fuxx that fade out quote shite.. no quote-gore, no more

Edited June 1, 2023 by iococoi

[TubularCorporation]

Fred Durst style vocals on everything plz

[Rubin Farr]

RJD2 pulled it off, but that album is forgotten now. Moby is a good reason not to sing on your albums.

[Limo]

13 minutes ago, Rubin Farr said:

Moby is a good reason to outlaw music.