Real talk, att jamma på en modifierad 808 med en polare på synth jämte är en av de bästa musikaliska upplevelser jag har haft.
Detta är vad rap baserades på på 80-talet innan De La Soul och A Tribe Called Quest kom och förstörde allt och det är vad nästan all bra ny rap samplar.
Psykos-slap av electro-skolan, och Stevie Joe, ja va tror du han dödar det, självfallet.
Buktområdet är knökfullt av kompletta artister av denna typ, som industrin hatar; för att de kan ta deras jobb, sköta det bättre än dem, och keepa det real as fuck.
Från Stevie Joes Tonite Show, med DJ Fresh. Nästa namn i den serien: Cousin Fik, The Jacka, och Freddie Gibbs!
BONUS, över BMF-beatet:
Yeah, I’m late on this… but it’s The Bay Area showing true love to the early eighties life style. First time I’ve seen The Jacka crack a smile in a video.
Italian sportswear represented thoroughly.
Also found this video from the same project – 2010′s well rounded electro throwback tape GoBots 2, featuring North Houston’s own Paul Wall.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/33546651"]
No, no… hell no… when I say electro, I don’t mean that cheezy raptechno that you hear on the radio… I’m not talking about that French noise… and I’m most definitely not referring to your hipster friends art school “electro” rock band.
This is that terminator funk, that music to surgically remove government implants from behind your ears to. That cooking up C4 in the hotel room with Linda Hamilton music. Do a driveby on the flesh eating zombie population swarming in on your survivalist colony to this. Blast this while going back in time to eradicate the roots of Skynet.
Shout out to Magnus Natt och Dag, sitting by his cabin in the woods outside Göteborg, with his wife, some canned food, and a shotgun across his lap. (Excellent work on the mix!)
“In the early Eighties, a romance better remembered than relived, the vocoder was the main machine of electro hip-hop, the black voice removed from itself, dispossessed by Reaganomics, recession and urban renewal, and escaping to outer space where there was more room to do the Webbo, where the weight was taken but the odds of being heard were no less favorable.”
(Citerat från s. 22 i Dave Tompkins How To Wreck A Nice Beach, boken om vocoderns dubbla musikaliska och militära historia, som jag just påbörjat.)
Nej, tyvärr – Detroit-duon gästar inte den rättvist hyllade tv-serien, och några Director’s Cut-scener där Omar sitter och putsar hagelbrakare till tonerna av Lab Rat XL går inte att hitta.
Vi får nöja oss med en utmärkt brittisk musiktidning om ett konstprojekt – skapat av den halvt briljante, halvt skitnödige Kodwo Eshun plus kollegor – som utgår från den mytvärld som Drexciya så effektfullt har frammanat genom sina låttitlar och sina skivkonvolut.
Konstnärerna i Otololiput-kollektivet är märkbart stolta över att ha fört över denna Detroitska krigsmaskin till konstvärlden, men varför? Styrkan i Eshuns More Brilliant Than The Sun var just förlitandet på musiken och dess värld i sig – att man inte behövde akademin för att tänka och berätta kring (eller rättare sagt inne i) techno, rap, funk, jazz – idéerna finns redan där. Att man nu vänder sig till konstvärldens rum och diskurser för att återplantera de Detroitska fröna känns fattigt.
Som tur är består The Wires Drexciya-special även av en genomgång av gruppens snåriga och svårslagna katalog. Och där droppas hetare och betydligt mer upplysande citat som uppmuntrar till ännu en electro-musikalisk djupdykning.
“A desire to have that kind of dancefloor status, to keep that notion of kick drums and 303s and the notion of sequenced funk, at the same time as to create a sense of enigma and mystery… it’s an unprecendented project to maintain a dancefloor presence and to keep a kind of mystique, what McLuhan calls a participation mystique.”
Kl. 22 på lördagen 30/10 intar BRYTBURKEN King Flippaz
Paradize (alltså källaren på Rex, Nobelvägen 107) igen…
Med en vinylback full av mullrade 808-kicks och kalla synthljud;
funken, hela funken, inget annat än funken…
Alltså perfekt musik för några billiga öl och flipperspel
(vill du höra konstskole-electro så stannar du hemma).
Sprid det goda ordet, medresenärer
(och på torsdagen 21/10 spelar Bruce Leenus där, vilket
ni inte heller borde missa)…
By chance I was listening to Mantronix’ second full length Music Madness the same day as I got Autechre’s ten tracks strong Move Of Ten from Soulseek (sorry Sean & Rob, your fans are broke).
I recall the Brits naming producer Kurtis Mantronik as one of their biggest inspirations when starting out. Listening to each artist’s oeuvre without context it might be difficult to connect the dots. But it’s really the same work, the same attitude, continued. Both stick to the harsh percussion, the sharp edits, the heavily processed sounds, the same adventurous spirit.
Mantronik was one of the few producers in the hiphop scene who was actually concerned with constantly updating the electro formula. On Music Madness he has harmonica and big band jazz samples. In 1986, that is. And while the kicks and snares are as unmerciful as ever, he also reaches towards a more structured, arranged, refined electro thing.
An image that often gets into my head when Autechre is pumped into my ears: the same nameless dude messing around with a drum machine, but fed through a constantly arriving stream of new formulas. It’s all about the studio wizardry, the studio as space shuttle travelling towards sonic landscapes never before seen.
You might say there is a certain romantic pop sensibility in most of the Mantronix catalog. But a track like nth Defuseder.n, with its driving beat and grand atmosphere, is defined by a similar thirst for beauty. It’s all about reaching that next level. New visions in sounds. Autechre stay true to their b-boy roots.
I’ve digged deep down in the old harddrives for the following tracks.
Edo 8 was copied from Goto80 some years ago, along with a bunch of other nasty electro.
You can read up on Silicon Scally here.
Lory D, the only noteworthy Italian artist I know of, has released rather filthy roots Techno on Rephlex, but Bluff City is a certified Electro banger, with just a lil’ twist of Acid.
The last two tracks have followed me ever since I starting listening to electronic music. The 12” that my mp3:s were copied from what seems to be Imperial Stormtroopers‘ only release. It’s nasty, full-on hardcore electro.
Silicon Scally – The Silent Years
In related news, check out this vocoder-themed mix. The vocoder-themed book seems to be intresting, too.
I know what’s wrong. I know why you’re hurting, baby.
You’re missing electro, right? Me too. Urban life is not the same without the original urban dance music. But the kids don’t wanna hear it. Nobody cares no more. In the late 90s to the early 00s you had that electro revival, with Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Anthony Rother and Adult releasing fine material, and American renegades like DJ Assault and Drexciya upgrading and perfecting the formula for electronic Funk. Some championed a traditional approach, others tended to mix it up with punk aesthetics, giving birth to the electro-clash, electro-punk styles. Well, those style had bastard kids. Obnoxious, deformed critters, who outlived their parents. Nowadays when you see “electro” written on a flyer, get ready to get disappointed. Usually we’re talking talentless indie rock groups that got a drum machine for christmas, or some sad Ed Banger-clones with questionable facial hair and way too tight jeans.
Well, let’s try to block out all that for the moment. Here below we got some thick 808 drums, some harsh basslines, and beautifully cold atmospheres. I hope there’s something you haven’t heard before. (Also, if you’d like to… go take a listen to my own humble attempts at electro here).
Blackploid – Photographic Photogenic
I’m planning to post more heavy slaps soon, so stay tuned…