The Music Spectrum 2004 Year-End Lists: Electronica – Part 1The CDs That Didn’t Get Reviewed This Year

You can find the best-of year-end lists in most music publications. Rather than rehashing what was already reviewed and discussed this year, Music Spectrum is going deep into the stacks of CDs received this year to take a look at some of the ones that got missed.

Electronica: The Songsters
These artists uses Electronica elements while creating music which retains song-like structures.

Featured Year-End Electronica List Title

Already defended in this space for the oversight during NBC-TV’s coverage of the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, Bjork’s 2004 album, Medulla, further convinces me that she deserves more than a cursory treatment. Bjork lands in the Electronica category, because she pulls so many electronic, dance, sampled, and noiseart elements into her music. On Medulla, she uses the human voice—sampled, synthesized, and in full choral arrangements—to create her Electronica songs. “Oceania,” the song performed at the Olympics, begins with haunting charm, growing to a haunting, charming beat. Spiritual themes find such expression that many church choirs could only hope to achieve, showing the very great divide between the divine and the sinner. “Show Me Forgiveness,” performed by Bjork alone, is a heart-aching, honest cry to be free from shame. While certainly having the format of a love song, “Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)” is just such an intriguing idea of exploring how God could carry our joy and pain. The song comes to some difficult conclusions when applied to the message of Christ (“We all have earned a lightness” seems to cut in contrast with salvation being a gift of God. However, a SongDevotion in the future may be able to see that this song could point to how God gives us the righteousness of Jesus, thereby earning our salvation not by our works but by the merits of Jesus). “Triumph of a Heart” speeds the album to a close, carried on some great vocals beats from Rahzel and Dokaka, along with human trombone from Gregory Purnhagen. That’s the kind of art that most people will miss when they don’t take the time to really listen to Bjork. Medulla is released by One Little Indian.

Her hair goes every which direction in the coolest artwork atop a head I’ve seen in awhile. Not a bad visual for Volente’s music. She’s got Bjork’s vocal calisthenics. The first track, “Twists & Turns,” on her album, Cold Clean, starts with those haunting vocals often found in Bjork’s work, but then emerges halfway through with a tribal-like snare/tom beat. Track 3, “Dancing by the Sea” turns the album on its head with a sweet pop melody like something from Kylie Minogue. “Bag of Chips,” with its acoustic guitar overlaid with electronic swoops, was one of my favorites tracks from the Dockrad Records sampler. That same combination of Electronica and acoustic rock comes also on “No Time,” “Ups & Downs,” and “Out the Window.” There’s a jazzy quality to “Taxi” which sounds like an Arabian rhythm for a number from a stage musical that also uses sampled beats/vocals. Here’s where music can be still pushing the edges of whatever box that rock music has got you in. The Cold Clean is released by Recordiau Dockrad Records.

Electronica: The Soundtrackers
Using multiple Electronica elements to go beyond simple song structure, creating soundtracks for life. Think audio for the visuals around you.

My college roommate Todd Hyman’s Carpark Records in 2003 put together a compilation of their artists. The CD, Wanna Buy a Craprak?, showcases the diverse directions that electronic/laptop/computer artists are taking. Pick up this CD to discover: tender melodies from Marumari on “Saka,” acoustic guitar with a light flavoring of blips and beats for Ogurusu Norihide’s “5:00,” the beauty of Electronica-jazz-combo Greg Davis on “Brocade,” and dance club meets tribal chants and mellowed raps on Dinky’s “No Love.” The CD also includes four videos.

Just Music gives us planetarium/IMAX movie soundtrack-like sounds and beats from Jon Hopkins. His 2004 release, Contact Note, brings in light piano sounds on “Circle,” just above swirling synths, trance beats, and a low-key funk bass. “Second Sense” could find a happy home on Bjork’s Medulla for its layering of female vocals. Where Windham Hill artists pluck, lounge, and float their way through piano pieces, Hopkins and others don’t let you drift too long. Hopkins adds back the beats to the Windham Hill wasteland, making sure the piano explorations never become aimless. Going back to 2001’s debut, Opalescent, there’s much more of a guitar-centered feel to the album, reminiscent of Tim Pierce’s work. Hopkins work as a soundtracker on the album actually begins to present a much clearer picture in the mind as the music moves forward.

Also from Just Music, Honeyroot’s 2003 album, Sound Echo Location ranges much farther into Hip Hop territory, the dance side of Electronica, than label mate Jon Hopkins. R&B grooves welcome you on the opening track, “Losing My Mind.” Reversed keyboard loops keep you on the edge for “Sunrise Sunset.” “State of Mind” hips and hops with funk like what I’ve heard from Rob Smith, Naked Funk, and Jon Kennedy. This is a very listenable Electronica album, never straying so far off the course as to make it become obtrusively spinning in your CD player. I could easily imagine either standing in a room full of people with “Sweet as Honey” grooving for the conversations or standing alone in an apartment with “Sweet as Honey” spinning while watching the nighttime traffic flash past on the street below. Take your pick—party people or a night on your own—Honeyroot can provide the soundtrack.

Thanks to all of the labels for the review copies.