Kind of a weird question, but how much stock do you put in the less well known sub genres of techno like Tech House or Italo Disco? I canāt tell what they mean or if they mean anything at all.
I personally think it is a mistake to ignore genres ā except in cases where it is justified or blah blah blahā¦
Yes, make freeform techno. However, donāt expect to show up to an event and get anything right. I mean you might. But probably the people that are more freeform are well aware of the genres.
There is a lot I cannot comment on. I donāt know much about Italo Disco, but I do know that some cultures have spent too much time staring at their own self-image, reflected in the way other cultures copy them ā cough America cough. Legowelt is heavily influenced by Italo Disco. But then there is also Dark Disco which is super important.
I think the thing to do is give freeform art, film, whatever its due. Then thatās done and we get back to knowing our place in history. To create a legitimate example of a contribution to, say, math you would have to understand what comes next ā in everything that entails. I work in house music because it is simple. This gives me the space to explore all of the elements that go into a track without worrying about the structures too much. But also asking; can I stretch these themes across an entire album. Do I have the attention span to cobble together 7 tracks that fit together to make an album? So I can learn to pan my drums, get the kick to sit with the bassline, learn to create tension, modulate reverb and delay, create pad transitionsā¦
But also thinking about how I would move my body on the dance floor. Are there enough different rhythms for different parts of my body. Can I get some vocals in there so my emotions can get washed, etc., etc.
I have been working on broken/electro themes a bit. But I think I fall a little short there. I have much more work to do. I made a specific electro track. It took 40 takes to master it. Then I spent months collecting electro tracks so I could debut my own track in a mix of what I like from the past and what is fresh. When I did the mix it fell flat toward the end, so I didnāt release it. Then I couldnāt get back to it quick enough and that opportunity went by the boards. So there is a ton of work involved and I think it takes discipline not to put something out incorrectly.
Now I am am just doing a Lab Files series that is fairly freeform but with clear goals.
this oneā¦
I was listening to the album this is from today. Sometimes I forget how awesome Throbbing Gristle are
I made a point of getting the gristleizer VCA in my eurorack case because of how crazy their distortion is. Chris Carter is a Genius, Cosi is a treasure, Genesis is a madman, and Sleazy ā¦ well he shone more brightly in Coil but I liked his attitude.
The new of Alessandro Cortini
Sleazy always had the appearance of being less of a contributor than the others in album credits, but I think his input was very much about how the audience heard the overall sound. Looking at some of the live video theyāve produced over the years, heās mostly static on stage but heās constantly busy tweaking something or another.
Chris was of course the genius as far as the electronic sounds were concerned, and interviews with Sleazy always have a sentence something like āwell there was this box that Chris builtā¦ā, which always makes me chuckle.
I canāt imagine the band sounding like Throbbing Gristle without all four of them though, particularly their output before the 1981 breakup.
I think the first few Chris and Cosey albums feel like an extension of the TG sound but a little more straightforward. I really like Heartbeat (especially), Trance, and Techno Primitiv.
Psychic TV isnāt really my cup of tea but I certainly see itās over the top appeal.
Coil was always my favorite spin off of TG. I heard it on the local college radio as a youth and it left a lasting impression before I even knew about TG. How to Destroy Angels is the gold standard for ambient drone music and Horse Rotorvator is right up there with Front 242ās Front by Front in terms of great vintage industrial music.
speaking of which:
That guy has an amazing fashion sense.
I agree about Psychic TV - to me they didnāt sound like a TG derived band at all, and they very quickly added a pop music flavor to the music (to my ears anyway). I tried, but could never find anything appealing about them.
Chris and Casey changed from the TG sound too, but after the first two albums they started to tighten things up too much for me, and I think they quickly drifted into alignment with more conventional music (although they certainly kept the sound more lo-fi than most).
But Coilā¦yeah, straight to good production values, but uncompromising and uncomfortable music which never targeted popular music trends. I think Scatology and Horse Rotorvator are amazing, and equal in stature to the early TG albums. While they may have had some ups and downs in album quality after the first two, they always surprised me with each new release.
My first effort using my new Behringer synths. The keyboard work is pretty rough (I donāt do well in A), but the sound is pretty good. The drone is the Neutron and the melody is the model D (natch). Single take.
Sweet! That is a robust sounding synth.
Iāve got a lot to learn about knob twiddling. The melodic line was pretty lame but I was really trying to capture the sound rather than produce a finished piece. I may have to re-do it with something a bit more interesting once Iāve got a better feel for things. One thing Iāve noticed about the filter on the Neutron is, although it doesnāt have quite the character of the ladder on the model D, it doesnāt seem to kill the bottom end when you raise the resonance. I spent quite a while just playing a single note and tweaking. One thing thatās immediately apparent, āYou can never go back home againā, or at least re-creating a patch is pretty tough. I printed out some patch diagrams but it seems like a whole lot of work to record a patch. Of course, as bad as my memory is getting, I could come up with the same patch twice and not realize it anyway.