I havent been trying to follow all the new genre classifications but before all this mass dub-step. I thought Burial was dub-step (who I like).

some really interesting discussion here.

whitenoise, there's loads of good stuff out at the minute - try four tets album/mixes, julio bashmore, daphni, omar-s, joy orbison, floating points - just really raw, techy grooves. check out the boiler room, beats in space radio show, little white earbuds podcats or the fact magazine mixes for new, non formulaic inspiration.

here is a patronising article about american rave culture:

http://www.vice.com/...f37cd8b7b017b9e

it amused me as a) i knew it not to be true following a wicked josh wink rave up at avalon with whirly/stash/darkstar/marsh/jeans - great crowd and vibe and b) i believe it to be somewhat true of the new edm hipsters.

it depresses me how its gone from this:



to this:

mippio, on 16 January 2013 - 12:50 PM, said:

That Vice article was funny.

It may have been patronizing but there were some kernels of truth in there and is applicable to many people who have hopped on the bandwagon. I read the article to stash and we had a nice laugh, and we both let out an audible "ouuuuuch" when DeadMau5 was referred to as a Phil Collins of scene. But back to the article... kids. Younger folks who are reveling in being young and being a part of something, you know? When kids discover something and grab hold of it, it is a natural reflex to call it their own. I can't really say I have a problem with that. The previous generations accused us of doing it, as did the generations before the previous ones. That's how it was in the late 80's/early 90's, in the late 90's and in the mid 2000's. When I was at a club or a rave I felt like I was a part of something. It is a great feeling to belong. It is not called a culture for nothing.

The article references to learjets, Creed and the cultural neglect of the past 25 years smacks of plain music snobbery to me. But whatever, it's all good. The article was still ripe for a laugh and is apropos of the topic at hand. I can't take it too seriously and I don't think it's meant to be taken as such. This current "EDM" explosion is just another loop in the cycle.

And yeah, that night at Josh Wink was all kinds of fun. And it really is such a fond memory.

I didn't get very far in the second link. It's just... eh. Not really my thing.

mippio, on 16 January 2013 - 9:50 PM, said:

Ahhh so good to see here those names. How many of you know that Daphni is actually Caribou and made a nice album under that moniker . The thing is - there's plenty of outstanding electronic music these days. You just need to dig it out. Don't just eat what the mainstream is giving you. Don't even read mixmag

I'm so amazed by how techno is rising back those past few years. Check out albums from such labels like Ostgut Ton, Stroboscopic Artefacts, CLR, Prologue. Techno at it's best. A true return to the 90's. Especially those industrial techno ones. Real power!

As Mippio pointed out - check out some good sites. Resident Advisor, Fact, Xlr8r. Yeah, those podcasts and mixes are also cool. Check Boiler Room at youtube - http://boilerroom.tv...ory/recordings/ - nice stuff.

Maybe if somebody wants to catchup the 00's, check out the RA top 00's albums: http://www.residenta...ature.aspx?1144

Some 2012 best of lists:
http://www.xlr8r.com...releases-part-t
http://www.residenta...ature.aspx?1704

I mostly search for music by labels. I have my favourite ones, I know the sound and by the time they release a new album or EP, it's almost inevitable that it's a good one.

The 90's had also bad music in the genre. The accessibilty of tools these days, the internet, mp3 made it so easy to make. So you need to dig through a lot more of bad stuff to catch the right one. But once you know where to search - you'll be amazed by how much good electronic music is produced now. And 99% of music I listen to is electronic.
Who even cares about EDM..... What the f$## is that?

Keep diggin!

JEEZUZ TITTY FUCKING CHRIST!!! Do you know how hard it is to recover your freaking password for this goddamn site?!??!?!? Seriously, it's easier to file your taxes online than post about the Chemical Brothers...

Anyway, Whirly read that article to me last night, and I read a brilliant response to it on reddit today, that basically sums up how I feel about today's dance music 'scene'. Of course, I haven't been to any of the recent massives, but based on the assholes who surround the Sahara Tent at Coachella like the halo of scum that surround a sewage outflow pipe, I get what this dude is talking about.

Anyway, love to everyone, I'll post again in another 3 or 4 years!

"I've been listening and dancing to electronic music since about 1989-1990. I started with acid house, techno and electro (as in electro-electro, AKA electrofunk, not the generic term "electro" that people use today.)


And I can say that EDM in general has been progressing to an awful, commercialized and incredibly, dangerously boring place for the disgusting purposes of maximum profit over the last 10 years, especially the last few years.


To me when I hear some of the new, popular headliners it just sounds like boring pop music structures clad in a thin veneer of stolen and previously used electronic sounds - and it's offensive to my ears.


It's about as pleasant or rewarding to me as listening to the demo tracks on a cheap department store keyboard.


It really has let the "barbarians" in the gate. Dumbass dudebros that don't actually care about the music, and who only care about raging and getting drunk, high and/or laid. They might as well be at a Nickelback or DMB concert drinking overpriced light domestic beer out of tiny plastic cups.


It has made many of my dancefloors unsafe places for women or GLBTQ people. It's turned the concept of PLUR into a mockery of itself and is used as a defense for the bad behavior of assholes who think sexual objectification, abuse or sexism is ok, and it's "unplurry" to call assholes on their bullshit taker/destructive behavior. (Fuck everything about that.)


Too much money is involved. The corpse is bloating. Ravenous vultures are circling, and they look a lot like fat old white guys in suits with pens and fucked up record contracts.


Thankfully there's still tons of good artists left making good new music whether it's underground or local or quiet artists that don't care about fame or gold records, people who would happily tell commercials, movies and the Grammy awards to fuck off.


If I may digress - I remember when the Insomniac crew (yes, that Insomniac crew) first started throwing parties in LA around 1996. I remember the first poster-sized fliers and excessive promotional gimmicks and bullshit. They'd promise all kinds of crazy shit like free water or carnival/festival rides and then totally fail to deliver any of it for what was then unheard of 20, 30 and 40 dollar ticket prices. (Most raves back then were either free, donation based or like $5 to $10. Maybe $15 if someone big was coming in from out of town.


Insomniac did more to single-handedly wreck the LA underground dance music scene in a couple of years than the LAPD did in almost 10 years. They burned up a bunch of previously safe locations with their lack of self control and self policing. Their parties got busted all the time by full troops of LAPD riot cops, complete with trapping party-goers in blind alleys and shooting them with rubber bullets and pepper spray and literally beating the shit out of peaceful people with their clubs and shields.


Little did I know that they were just getting started with taking from the underground music scenes and putting that stolen money straight into their pockets.


No, I'm not just getting old. I still (thankfully!) go to small local gigs, some of them underground. I've been to at least one genuine warehouse party this year and a couple of renegades. I was living with a soundsystem in a warehouse a couple of years ago.


There is still good new music out there, but you're not going to find it at the commercial megafestivals that people are mistakenly calling "raves" at this point. You're not going to find it on Mixmag, or Pandora, either. You might be able to find it on YouTube or Soundcloud, but you'll have to dig for it.


The only reason why I'm so angry about it and invested in it is because it pisses me off to see people - especially young adults who don't know any better - getting ripped off and lied to. They could be spending their money on better parties, better DJs and even maybe better drugs.


Sure, you can have fun at a safe and large commercial dance music festival where they actually charge you money for water. But I promise you that you could be having a lot more fun somewhere else, for less money, while directly supporting local artists and smaller promotional crews.


They could actually experience something real and maybe a little dangerous like I once did, and maybe it would change their lives like it changed mine - so they realized and learned important things about life. Like how your car or TV really isn't important. Or that what you wear or buy isn't important. And that how you treat other human beings is the most important thing of all.


And that there's much more to "raving" and life itself than just buying a uniform (like fun fur, day glow disposable "raver gear" made in China, etc) and fitting in and doing the same thing as everyone else.


That kind of shit isn't "unity" any more than buying the same socks at the mall is unity.


It might be too political or too idealistic but "ravers" used to think we could actually dance our way to a better future and change the world. Maybe we still can, but it's just not going to happen through tickets bought through Goldenvoice or Ticketmaster at a party where everyone is wearing the exact same day-glow hats and cheap-ass blinky sunglasses imported from China.


That's just crass consumerism and disposable culture, and the powers that be obviously love and approve of it. Because it's just the same old bullshit they've always been selling, just on a different day under a different label.


You obviously must be comparing today's decline to those halcyon days of the genre with those incredible pieces of art like


So, no. We're not comparing today's decline to that pop crap. We're comparing it to shit like Spiral Tribe or Czechtek. We're comparing it to real, underground and renegade parties right here in the states, some of it recent enough that it happened just last month - where the music can be dangerous and threatening, and free and innovative. Where the music is what the DJ actually wants to play, not where the DJ is playing a carefully selected list of songs designed for mass appeal and selling the most tickets.


This is what we mean by "lowest common denominator". It's pop music. It's too safe. It's even stolen from history and then cleansed of its danger or context or history so it can be safely resold to the masses.
"

Hmmm... convincing and well written side of the argument. And I can't say I disagree with all that was said either. I find it sad the PLUR is gone and even more disturbing that dancefloors are a hazard zone for women and the LBGT community.

Sorry about the log in issues, stash. But I am glad you came. <3

Thanks for taking the time for it posting it though! I pretty much agree everything you've said and relate to in some areas as well.

Kosek, on 17 January 2013 - 11:13 AM, said:

Yeah but i don't think the Daphni album is as good as the last Caribou album. Incidentally I caught Caribou playing live as a four piece at London's Field Day festival a couple of summers ago, and it was a wonderful thing. Catch him if you can.

There's an air of "commercial=evil" in that post that I instinctively disagree with, but that wasn't really the main crux of his argument, and I certainly agree with the point he's illustrating here:

toomuch, on 18 January 2013 - 1:08 PM, said:

As someone who was born in the 90's and can stake absolutely no claim to rave culture, I think it's frankly ridiculous the way that my aforementioned "punters" are co-opting all this stuff that's so tangentially related to the dance music scene as it exists today. It's like their most recent point of reference for dance music as a legitimate cultural force is the "Vibrations" era, and they just assume that this Hallmark channel vision of day-glo hedonism is the be-all end-all definition of what the genre can be. And since all they have to go on for "90's rave culture" is what it got reduced to as a cultural footnote, they can't even get that right. Any trace of meaning gets lost with revivalism like this; what you end up with is flimsy modern attitudes dressed in the cheap costume of something that no longer exists. And if they treat it like the second coming of the 90's (which it could never really be anyway) then it will inevitably collapse like it did in the 90's. A cursory glance at Ishkur's extensive contemporary field guide to the scene as it existed then should be enough to show that, for all the pedestals it's since been put upon, the whole thing was rather structurally unsound. I'd rather that we take this second chance at cultural permanence to build things from the ground up. If we set our minds to it I'm confident that "EDM" could be waaay better than raves ever were.

too much to read here but i will say that in twenty years time someone will post that they "cant believe its gone from Voodoo Ray to something current". i.e Classics will never die and continue to have influence. SHM can SMB

Long article, but the dj fees being paid in Vegas, and the comment that the clubs earn more than the slots made my jaw drop. If it gets a bit depressing just jump to the last paragraph.

SPIN article