2013 - The Best Year For Electornic Music In Recorded History?

[Salvatorin]

LOL, fuck no, how can you seriously ask that? 2001 was.

 

What's come out besides autechre and fluorescent grey anyway? I haven't been listening to very much new music recently.

don't even try. it would be too much for you to try and wrap your mind around

[joseph]

Hell yeah this year has been good for electronic music. It's moving in many directions all at once, and experimentation and reinterpretation is happening in full force.

Not a sarcastic question: who is doing this?

[LimpyLoo]

2013 is the best year in electronic music since the year of Boards of Canada's last release.

[Guest Rulohead32]

Goods have been delivered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3G_Y3aIlis

 

 

Hell yeah this year has been good for electronic music. It's moving in many directions all at once, and experimentation and reinterpretation is happening in full force.

Not a sarcastic question: who is doing this?

 

The Knife

[pyramidpanes]

I was going to say something about 2001, but 2013 has really been made great by all this rephlex stuff.

I mean, I loved Exai and TH but it's all these rephlex things that's really pushing the year overboard, imo.

 

 

Can someone list the new rephlex/braindance stuff? would b amazin, cheers!

[joshuatxuk]

 

Nonsense, the early nineties were exciting times, sure there have been a bunch of releases this year, but there's nothing groundbreaking ,pushing the boundries of music. It's just a bunch of stuff that will fit neatly into whatever subgenres sound dictates.

 

In my opinion, electronic music this days is the same album over and over again. Nothing ground making, no one will remember 2013 in 2014 and in 10 years no one will even care about 2013.

 

The artificial Intelligence series (and all classic albums from that era) are fucking 20 years old and still relevant and people still love them and listen to them, i dont think people will be listening to the "classis" from 2013 in 20 years (and classic albums from the 90's will be 40 year olds and still more relevant than the "classics" from 2013)

 

The early 2000's were great too, it all went to shit when artists became lazier and less creative.

 

 

Hell yeah this year has been good for electronic music. It's moving in many directions all at once, and experimentation and reinterpretation is happening in full force.

 

Alright, I'm going to say I actually agree with both views. Funny enough today I was chatting with an acquaintance who personally thinks Disclosure's Settle is one of his favorite albums this year (it's not at all for me btw) and he mentioned a major reason was that for him it hearken's the glory days of Warp Records and made he want to listen to AI again. I found this a bit random but the point is this: everything from previous halcyon days of electronic music, especially years like 2001 or 1996 for watmmers, is very much relevant and perpetually influential on music now.

 

Gocab and Deer are right about the past and the state of music making to a lesser extent, but I agree with Salvatorin about the present and future. I have never personally been this excited or optimistic about the state of electronic music. For all the cynicism and negativity and utter bullshit that surrounds the hyped artists, the taste-maker music journalists, superficial listeners, and the ever present corporate music industry appropriating and marketing everything "indie" and "underground" there is nonetheless a healthy and positive amount of sincerity and creativity to explore right now. Many young kids, despite being born into the age of social media, are still gravitating to small local and niche scenes and genres. Vinyl and cassette sales are exploding, and more often the middleman is minimal or non-existent. Underground labels and collectives have appropriated facebook and tumblr to keep their efforts alive and going. Soundcloud and bandcamp allow artists to put their music out there for potentially an infinite amount of time.

 

As for the music itself, 2013 has been a hell of a year, a lot of novel and experimental music was being fleshed out over the last 10 years but never in the concentration and acclaim that it's being met with right now. When I really got into electronic music in 2004 and 2005, in retrospect it was quite a dark age. Big beat had fizzled out and trance was still king in most clubs, IDM was a bit quiet and subdued, and a lot of then hyped music like electroclash and dance-punk, turned out to be quite forgettable. It was a really slow return to a far more diverse and interesting state of electronic music, at least in broad terms as a listener. When I think of 2006 and 2007 I recall predictable blog-house and pretentious techno being very prevalent and genres like breakcore seemed to gravitate to gimmicks too often. I hate to say it, but trends like dubstep, chillwave, witch house, and juke have served as springboards for exciting new music. At some point many producers found the confidence to chunk out genre and restrictions. I can't imagine producers like Actress, OPN, Machinedrum, Shackleton, Andy Stott having the same level of "mainstream" acclaim and popularity 5 years ago. Hell, even much of the crap within EDM is aesthetically interesting compared to the prog house and trance of the past. Things are more fluid and flexible now than ever. Sometimes it makes for very arbitrary acclaim for some, but overall, it's likewise a more friendly and supportive environment than ever before.

[ghOsty]

Well said

[Atop]

indeed! You are the man Joshua!

 

my fav lps of the year so far:

Holden

Jon Hopkins

The Knife

BoC

Fuck Buttons

Autechre

 

 

great year thus far......

[o00o]

Since I got spotify there is no day I am out of good music. I do not even care anymore when it was released I just consume what ever I please

[Jody Dark]

post more lists of awesome 2013 stuff. i thought this year has been shit for the most part

[Silent Member]

There's a best of 2013 so far thread somewhere in watmm. Nothing really blew my nads off.

[Guest jasondonervan]

Autechre - Exai

Bibio - Silver Wilkinson

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Ceephax - Cro Magnox

EDM - A2

EDM - B2

EOD - Volume 1

EOD - Volume 2

Ultrademon - Seapunk

 

Awesome year so far, and we've still got another 4 months or so to go (Oneohtrix! Autechre EP! 1 album-track BoC promo!). Not sure about BEST EVAR status, but 2013 has definitely been a fine year for the electronics.

[joshuatxuk]

Since I got spotify there is no day I am out of good music. I do not even care anymore when it was released I just consume what ever I please

 

Yeah it's been really helpful for me to browse music at work. Lastfm's recommendations are a lot better though, but spotify scrobbles to that so voilà!

[Ethel]

Besides what's been mentioned above here's a few things that I've really gotten into this year.

 

Arca - &&&&&

If you haven't taken a serious listen to this kid I'd recommend doing so. That albums not out yet but will be by years end.

 

E.M.M.A. - Blue Gardens

 

Great Dane - Alpha Dog

Very upbeat and the progression / butterz on the beats is lovely.

 

Hmot - Lost in the Taiga

 

Valance Drakes - Wisdom Comes Through Struggle

Just an EP but worth a listen!

[Salvatorin]

Also the new gold panda album and th james blake one from earlier are great

[Friendly Foil]

Bibio

BOC

Autechre

EDM albums

EOD albums

Photodementia

New Clark

That Jackson And His Computer Band thing.

Tim Hecker

 

Totally amazon year for me at least.

[awepittance]

i guess for 2013 to be the 'best' year there would have to be something drastically game changing like there was in the early 90s, early 2000s, the late 70s or something equivalent to those eras of electronic music. If it's something like 'a lot of moderately good to enjoyable albums have come out in 2013 that are enjoyable to listen to but not ground breaking or game changing in any way shape or form' then I'd completely agree with that. I just think it's setting the bar awfully low, especially to proclaim its the best year, it also seems (dick mode on) uneducated to me about the history of the genre in general. I'm not dismissing that a lot of good or even great electronic music have come out this year, but have they broken your brain? Have they made you think of the paradigm of 'electronic' music in completely new ways? Has there been anything even close to the 'wow' factor of Confield or Go Plastic or even Analord? Absolutely not as far as i can see, but I'm willing to hear counter arguments

[awepittance]

Hell yeah this year has been good for electronic music. It's moving in many directions all at once,

fully agree

 

and experimentation and reinterpretation is happening in full force.

completely disagree, the 'force' of such experimentation and reinterpretation is not as strong as it has been in many other eras including ones for the last 4 decades. again there is good and pleasurable to listen to music happening at an alarming rate, that I will concede, but experimentation happening in 'full force' is not what i see happening at all. Where is the Stockhausen or John Cage of this decade? Who is filling the shoes of Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk? That to me is experimentation in full force, we have no one even touching those guys happening right now who is flipping the paradigm as we know it on its head

 

I'm not trying to diminish the excitement others are having about this year, but some wildly off-base claims have been made in this thread that don't take into account the 60 years of electronic music that already exists.

[awepittance]

but overall, it's likewise a more friendly and supportive environment than ever before.

 

and it's also heavily over saturated with everybody and their brother being a DJ or an 'electronic music producer' too. I would argue that the 'friendly' vibes have more to do with so many toes that nobody wants to step on. I see it more as a false friendliness, everyone wants to get ahead, climbing the ladder and promoting is easier when you are bros with everybody, but is it authentic? Not really. A supportive environment like the one we see now is not necessarily a catalyst for creativity, in my strong opinion it leads to more stagnancy and less forward momentum. Back during artist movements pre social networking people were very harsh to fellow artists, this helps artists grow. Without harsh criticism, we just become a bunch of dudes giving each-other merit badges to feel good

[DorkingtonPugsly]

Plaid was planing for a summer release, but as long as it comes out in 2013, it should add to the year.

 

it has been a fucking great year so far but 2001 still beats 2013 because Drukqs x Go Plastic x Confield (imo of course, all subjective)

Don't forget Double Figure, and even Clark's debut.

 

All in all 2013 has been a really good year so far, but it hasn't blown me away like releases from '96~'97 or 2001 did.

There's still new Jackson, OPN, L-Event, etc. coming and I loved Ceephax and EOD's output.

 

But yeah I wonder if there'll be any new artists in the near future that can match the greats and blow us away, take shit to the next level.

[joshuatxuk]

 

but overall, it's likewise a more friendly and supportive environment than ever before.

 

and it's also heavily over saturated with everybody and their brother being a DJ or an 'electronic music producer' too. I would argue that the 'friendly' vibes have more to do with so many toes that nobody wants to step on. I see it more as a false friendliness, everyone wants to get ahead, climbing the ladder and promoting is easier when you are bros with everybody, but is it authentic? Not really. A supportive environment like the one we see now is not necessarily a catalyst for creativity, in my strong opinion it leads to more stagnancy and less forward momentum. Back during artist movements pre social networking people were very harsh to fellow artists, this helps artists grow. Without harsh criticism, we just become a bunch of dudes giving each-other merit badges to feel good

 

 

At my most cynical and pessimistic I focus solely on this problem. I think though it's also forcing a resurgence of self-contained scenes and labels online as well. Good music will come from there, not the aspiring "DJs" or "producers" who want popularity and money.

 

I mean even now you can easily browse well-made music videos on youtube, ones easily with tens of thousands of views, of the most predictable and redundant electronic music (pop oriented chill-out music especially) I suppose the only caveat is that much of this presently popular music is not going to have a long-shelf live. For every Justice there were a slew of electro-house producers that were hyped and promoted and who have largely been forgotten, and the same could be said of the core chillwave artists and all of their bandwagon clones. This is something indie rock has wrestled with a lot too: there's an arbitrary popularity based on who can get signed to a label or written up on pitchfork, but more often than not actual fandom and critical acclaim is simply not there.

 

So now, for every kid making slick trap music with ableton and commercial sample packs and likewise excellent PR websites and related social media accounts, their peak of popularity will be "likes" and some teenagers writing derivative shit like "this is so ill" "OMGZ SO GOOD" or whatever the fuck. Maybe one will have a song in a car commercial. It's distracting and damaging to creativity and growth, but it's never going to "ruin" anything because that kind of derivative and lifeless fodder has always existed.

 

The "mainstream success" aspect is there too, and it's quite maddening when I personally think about it. The rise of "EDM" is very dependent on networking, ass-kissing, corporate dealings, etc. But feel like there's always been a "superstar DJ" culture in some form or another that made people like DJ Tiesto "the biggest DJ" in 2005, or played into the popularity of Daft Punk when they did their Pyramid shows a few years later, and likewise the breakout of producers like Skrillex or Deadmau5. I feel like that's been a well-established and perpetual problem since the 90s.

 

 

 

I'm not trying to diminish the excitement others are having about this year, but some wildly off-base claims have been made in this thread that don't take into account the 60 years of electronic music that already exists.

 

 

I agree with this, and I hope that was clear in my post. There's simply no way to quantify this year and compare it to past years of ground-breaking releases. I just think it's been a better than average year, especially in the context of say, how long watmm has been around. I can't take that same claim and place against 2001 or even certain specific releases from the 70s or 80s.

 

I suppose rants and counter-rants about postmodernism and musical innovation are bound to come out, but for me the question is, what is next? What's even close to the next major innovation in electronic music? I mean, I'll just flat-out admit my own ignorance and ask, what should I be listening for? I sincerely look forward to any input on this.

[awepittance]

 

I agree with this, and I hope that was clear in my post. There's simply no way to quantify this year and compare it to past years of ground-breaking releases. I just think it's been a better than average year, especially in the context of say, how long watmm has been around. I can't take that same claim and place against 2001 or even certain specific releases from the 70s or 80s.

 

I suppose rants and counter-rants about postmodernism and musical innovation are bound to come out, but for me the question is, what is next? What's even close to the next major innovation in electronic music? I mean, I'll just flat-out admit my own ignorance and ask, what should I be listening for? I sincerely look forward to any input on this.

 

great post btw. I think you ask a good question at the end. What *is* the next step? The state of electronic music in it's current form sort of reminds me of Science Fiction writing after it's peak. Where do we go once every conceivable technological futurist projection is thought of? And even worse, where do we go once those predictions actually start to become reality, how do we invent exciting or interesting or utopian projections of the imagined future when so much ground has already been covered? TO me it's this intangible mysterious aspect of where the future is headed that still makes electronic music very exciting territory. Electronic music has always been until very recently a direct reflection of the technology of the time period. I'd like to believe that there are still many insanely ground breaking innovations in music that just haven't been done yet. I still feel that the interaction between a performer and a purely electronic instrument has remained relatively stagnant for a while, even with all these fancy Abelton midi controller that are popular right now. There still hasn't been as far as im concerned a seamless joining of acoustic live music and electronic music yet. There have been attempts, bands do a good job of doing this as a production (in the studio only but unable to be recreated truly fully live). Bands like Tabla Beat Science have tried the equivalent of a musical dream-team of electronic and acoustic. I still think we have a lot of room to play with. James holdon had an interesting interview recently where he explained that he likes to sequence his music on a grid and then add midi effects to give his programming a 'human feel'. Thats just a little technical addition to a standard method but comes through in the music very clearly. I'm very excited for the future, I could talk about it for many more pages but then I'd be worried someone who isn't me would actually use one of my ideas and not credit me :)

[awepittance]

 

 

What's come out besides autechre and fluorescent grey anyway?

haha!

[joshuatxuk]

 

 

I agree with this, and I hope that was clear in my post. There's simply no way to quantify this year and compare it to past years of ground-breaking releases. I just think it's been a better than average year, especially in the context of say, how long watmm has been around. I can't take that same claim and place against 2001 or even certain specific releases from the 70s or 80s.

 

I suppose rants and counter-rants about postmodernism and musical innovation are bound to come out, but for me the question is, what is next? What's even close to the next major innovation in electronic music? I mean, I'll just flat-out admit my own ignorance and ask, what should I be listening for? I sincerely look forward to any input on this.

 

great post btw. I think you ask a good question at the end. What *is* the next step? The state of electronic music in it's current form sort of reminds me of Science Fiction writing after it's peak. Where do we go once every conceivable technological futurist projection is thought of? And even worse, where do we go once those predictions actually start to become reality, how do we invent exciting or interesting or utopian projections of the imagined future when so much ground has already been covered? TO me it's this intangible mysterious aspect of where the future is headed that still makes electronic music very exciting territory. Electronic music has always been until very recently a direct reflection of the technology of the time period. I'd like to believe that there are still many insanely ground breaking innovations in music that just haven't been done yet. I still feel that the interaction between a performer and a purely electronic instrument has remained relatively stagnant for a while, even with all these fancy Abelton midi controller that are popular right now. There still hasn't been as far as im concerned a seamless joining of acoustic live music and electronic music yet. There have been attempts, bands do a good job of doing this as a production (in the studio only but unable to be recreated truly fully live). Bands like Tabla Beat Science have tried the equivalent of a musical dream-team of electronic and acoustic. I still think we have a lot of room to play with. James holdon had an interesting interview recently where he explained that he likes to sequence his music on a grid and then add midi effects to give his programming a 'human feel'. Thats just a little technical addition to a standard method but comes through in the music very clearly. I'm very excited for the future, I could talk about it for many more pages but then I'd be worried someone who isn't me would actually use one of my ideas and not credit me :)

 

 

Meant to respond earlier, I really appreciate the response. I was thinking of the aspect of music making and performance that seems most untapped. In fact, right now a lot of it seems only to perpetuate existing trends, things like Araabmuzik's MPC beat-making, the continuation of novelty mash-up DJing and light shows at EDM festivals, new producers using the latest controllers and software to simply re-arrange the same old drum and synth sounds. Done well these are entertaining, but nothing remotely important or novel. I'm hoping far more experimental and adventurous producers begin to cross-over into this territory. In terms of recorded music, Bjork's effort to make an "interactive" album was a step in the right direction but still just scratching the surface. I'll keep an ear out. Again, thanks for the input John.

[Guest zaphod]

eesh, that's a weird post from ehrlichman. science fiction is only partly about futurism and predictions. most sf that predicts the future is unsuccessful, both as fiction and as futurist writing. when do you think the "peak" was with sf? please don't say the 60s, when most sf was either american exceptionalism in space or the seeds of the british new wave. i can't imagine genre writing has ever had a "high point" or some kind of peak production moment where the best, most "visionary" (lol) future writings took place.

i would say the future is bright, as there are few if any female writers of prominence and very little writing coming out of africa, asia or the middle east. sf has a lot of growth potential as long as it doesn't turn to the kind of future/tech fetishism that you seem to be interested in.

yeah, so this post has nothing to do with music, i'm just bothered by the idea that genre writing is about its surfaces. that post seems to completely misunderstand the purpose and use of sf. move along, nothing to see here.

 

and i think electronic music has plenty of room to grow. i've never been particularly interested in it as a demonstration of technology. i've actually never looked at music as a thing that needs to grow or innovate.