Electronic music

Listened to this last night. A RSD purchase. When TD were transitioning from weird to commercial, and it stands the test of time.

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Then this, which is a another transitional album, but very techno.

Björk-Debut-1993

I then listened to the first few tracks of Vespertine, which I’ve always thought stunningly beautiful.

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Like the appropriate vinyl color. :slight_smile:

Been a fan of theirs for decades and have many of their CDs including this released in 1985 which was my first:

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You are all so sophisticated…
Let’s loosen up a bit and get the fonk out…

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And then there is this, a first listen on Tidal. New to me and worth repeated listenings. I shall pick-up an LP version at my local record shop.

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An old favorite.

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A bit of a classic

Also added another electro to the audiophile thread

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I believe Zero Time is an earlier version of what I have. Classic!

Yes, these 3 are fabulous. Intelligent, subtle and varied - perfect headphone drifting music.
Dub? yea, probably but, as you say - gets hard to classify in the end.

Then there’s people like Alva Noto and Ryuchi Sakamoto…often just abstracted noises (with rhythm and beat, but not always) but not the usual definition of ‘music’. On a good system this stuff opens a corner of my brain I didn’t know existed.

Alvo Noto - Univers

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My own tastes vary enormously in regards to ‘electronic’ music these days, in fact ‘most’ of my listening would be that in one form or another (bearing in mind the thorny question of ‘what’ is should be defined as, but I digress.
The very first truly electronic sound I heard that grabbed my attention and blew me away was the last few minutes of ‘Lucky Man’ by ELP.

Folder

I was 14, it was 1970 and I had NEVER heard anything like it - stood my hairs on end. Emerson’s Moog just screamed amazing possibilities at me - wierd, brash and beautifully melodic all at the same time. I had of course heard the music for Dr Who before this, but coming from a crappy B/W tv it didn’t really register in the same way as this did. For one it was first heard through my friend’s father’s BIG hi-fi system which my poor household could never have afforded and 2nd, I was stoned (yes, at 14 but hey, it was 1970!) Anyway, I did of course become a Prog Rock tragic for many years after that (plus jazz and funk). That synth sound led me to Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind and other genres as they developed - including a bit of Trance, I dabble in all. So, in light of that:
Eat Static - a duo who’ve been around for a few decades. Dub, psy trance - whatever…
Sometimes tame, sometimes mad. Often nice, infectious rhythms with subtle sounds, especially through a nice pair of cans. This from 2008. PS. I no longer get stoned on weed - just music :innocent:

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I have the In Search of Hades Boxed set and the 5.1 Steven Wilson MIx is brilliant as is his 2.0 mix.

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Haven’t heard that mix - will look it up :+1:

I adore digital music. I have a very eclectic taste in genres, and really love any genre, but digital really is where my love lies, primarily trance music, but anything from Tubular Bells and Oxygen through to Future Sound Of London, through to hard dance.

I am rather obsessed with one Trio of Trance DJ’s / Producers and pretty much all their works, although focussing on their first 4 albums moreso.

They’re called Above & Beyond.

Their early singles that were all on vinyl have become collectors items, hard to find good quality copies that haven’t been destroyed by DJ’s and when you do, they’re rather expensive. I spent 4 years collecting as many of their significant 12" singles as I could get my hands on. Then they pressed the first 4 albums to vinyl for the first time a couple of years ago and I was lucky enough to pick them all up on pre order.

I now have quite a healthy collection that I’m extremely proud of, and the music is so very varied in both genre, pace, and emotion.

In 2014 (being classically trained musicians), they reworked all their most famous tracks into live big band pieces with full orchestra and performed it live on stage. I think about 100 people were in the audience. They had absolutely no idea how successful it would be! The second Acoustic concert was held at a sold out Hollywood Bown with 17,500 people! Now they’re working on their 3rd “Acoustic” album. The first 2 are simply sublime and I’m very lucky to own both on vinyl.

This is their first Acoustic set:

Above & Beyond Acoustic - Full Concert Film Live from Porchester Hall (Official) - YouTube

The main short blonde haired singer in the video is Zoe Johnston who originally sang for early Faithless songs, she’s incredible. Their other main featured singer is Justine Suissa who features on the second Acoustic album and in most of their other works, she has one of the most beautiful and pure voices I’ve ever heard.

For an intro into Justine Suissa, check out Sirens Of The Sea which was done by OceanLab, a band with the Above & Beyond Trio writing the music and with Justine singing, it’s quite a varied, more poppy album. But Justine really is quite truly remarkable:

Above & Beyond pres. Oceanlab - Sirens Of The Sea (Full Continuous 432 Hz Mix) - YouTube

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Nice! love POLE’s material. I used to co-host an electronic music radio show called Auditory Spiral in Perth for about 8 years in the mid nineties, ohh yes those were the days. We mixed live on-air and played a lot of styles within the electronic music genre including POLE, Monolake, Moritz Von Oswald and many many more…
We had a fairly select audience as this sort of music was still largely unknow here in those days. Some of the listeners phone calls used to crack me up; “umm is there is something wrong with your radio!?” or “is the needle skipping!?” yep some people had no clue what was going on with this music… :laughing:
I have always been into good quality hi-fi gear as it really goes hand in hand with some of these amazingly detailed and holographic productions. Having left DJ’ing behind long ago and since diversifying my music genre’s a lot, I still like to submerge myself in the deep sounds of intelligent well produced electronic music when the mood strikes, it’s magic on a good system for sure :star_struck:
It’s also nice to see Youtube presenter John Darko breaking the audiophile stereotype even showcasing some old classic albums and artist like Mix Master Morris, Chill out or Die for example… I never thought I’d see the day to be honest. I like your post as it’s such an outdated and somewhat ignorant concept that Audiophiles only listen to Classical music or Jazz… they are not mutually exclusive either, I for one love a lot of Jazz too

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You’ve shared some fantastic ambient noodlings and I thank you sir!

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Yes, I too appreciate John D’s efforts. To me the whole audiophile idea of ‘The absolute sound’ is if anything, obsolete! I have little interest in replicating ‘acoustic’ instruments live in space - 90% of the music I listen to was never conceived or recorded ‘live in space’, it’s irrelevant for my consumption.
I want high sample rate, high dynamic range, distortion-free music files delivered with punch and ‘air’ (audiophile term that I rather like but still feel is a bit precious :sweat_smile:) and perhaps some form of holographic presence. The hi fi system itself needs to be good enough to deliver those tracks in a way that grabs me emotionally in some way or another - has to be able to transport me somewhere else and let me forget the system completely.

The absolute sound based on replicating acoustic instruments in a performance space is far from obsolete, merely not of interest to you.

But do you care if your system accurate recreates the sound of electronic instruments as recorded by the artist? Or does this not matter as long as you find the sound coming out of your speakers compelling?

OK, well, I thought I was pretty clear Elk. Yes, I agree, it’s merely not of interest to me.
As very clearly stated in my post, 'To me the whole audiophile idea of ‘The absolute sound’ is if anything, obsolete!
Also, 'it’s irrelevant for my consumption.
I tried to be very careful about my subjectivity on this…please do not take this as a personal slight.
Re part 2 of your post - no, I don’t care if my system accurately recreates the sound of electronic instruments as recorded by the artist or not. I have no real way of ascertaining what that sound was without being present during the recording, and even then their would be too many variables to matter. i.e. what sound card is used if recorded/played on a pc - what software - what monitors they used, if any - what is ‘electronic’ music anyway? A synth only? An electric guitar recorded straight into a desk? Pro Tools? I have no idea what the artist intended and so am chasing chimeras with that one.
Hi - fi means high fidelity - fidelity meaning the state of being faithful, presuming here meaning faithful to source. Can’t guarantee to be able to do it with electronic music with any surety, and so to ME it doesn’t matter (am NOT speaking for other people).
Re the ‘compelling’ part - that’s part of it, along with ‘satisfying’, ‘transcendent’, ‘uplifting’, ‘toe-tapping’, ‘emotional’…etc, etc. Thanks’

Is then a “better” system simply one you respond to more?

How do you determine what will be better? Is it a lot of trial and error through auditioning? Are equipment reviews of any help?

Can you obtain the same level of satisfaction with less expensive components, or are more expensive components typically “better?”

I am intrigued. I am also curious as to what such a system would sound like playing physical acoustic instruments.

I did a good deal of work with early synthesizers and recorded a good deal. On playback, I wanted the recording to sound the same as the synths. I find it difficult to imagine giving this up but, of course, doing so is perfectly OK if it is not important to a given listener.