The Music Spectrum 2004 Year-End Lists: Electronica – Part 2The 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 Symphonics
Blending Electronica artscapes with symphonic pop, orchestral melodies, and jazz structures, the Symphonics paint with aural colors.

Using the loose definition that Electronica is music which pulls together sounds from many sources to create ambient noise as well as beats, than Mice Parade (Adam Pierce) fits in here. If, however, you mainly focus on the Pierce’s drums, you may also conclude that Mice Parade’s music is free jazz. Either way, there are some very moving pieces on the 2003 album, Obridgado Saudade—meditative, warm, but beguiling at the same time. I used “Mystery Brethren,” “Spain,” and “Gutiars for Plants” for pre-devotion music during Lent last year feeling that these songs created an atmosphere of approaching God, reading His Word, and seeking His forgiveness. Other tracks like “Focus on the Roller Coaster” break away from this meditative air, again with Pierce’s drums beating away that air, creating a sense of stepping ahead with that deeper side still intact. Obrigado Saudade is released by Bubble Core Records. (And OK, I’ll admit that I needed Eclectic Honey’s review to realize this, but Mice Parade is an anagram of Adam Pierce).

Their album, Melody A.M., is from 2001, but the Norweigan duo Royksopp remains ubiquitous on the back of this release. Tracks from the CD are heard on many different TV spots. While possessing dance floor beats, there’s this stretched out symphonic feel to the music. “So Easy” bounces along, but the syllabic vocals are like an updated version of one of those 60’s bubblegum pop-jazz songs. That contrast creates the stretched out feel. If you’re ready to stretch out and wait some more, cue up the Electronica funk of “Sparks,” where you can almost imagine Barry White beginning to sing. Turn the ignition, throw it into gear, and Royksopp takes off on “Poor Leno,” which I think was in a Mitsubishi car commercial. The night groove matches the ticking (a form of break dancing) that is featured in that commercial. There’s also the computer blip popcorn sound of “Eple.” Finally, hit the clubs with the boys on “Royksopp’s Night Out,” which is like going to cruising in a video game/sci-fi movie finding some great nightclubs but then at each turn of the way as the chords drop down the scale you find some lame nightclubs and so you find that even a cool duo like Royksopp don’t always hit the right parties and they too have to keep moving to find the place to be on their night on the town. A bonus disc includes remixes and three videos. Melody A.M. is released by Astralwerks.

Featured Year-End Electronica List Title

The opening guitar riff of Heroes to Zeros sounds like the Edge holding court with U2. The songs on Heroes to Zeros have all of the basic components of rock songs—guitars, bass, drums, vocals. So then what is the Beta Band doing in the Electronica section of the Spectrum? The Beta Band, along with the Polyphonic Spree, fall in the middle of the Electronica section in a subset that you could call Symphonic Pop. Yes, they’ve got the makings of rock bands, but the way they layer the music with eclectic instrumentation, with electronics, and with choir-like vocals, brings them into the family of Electronica. The Beta Band and the Polyphonic Spree use a lot of live/acoustic percussion, but the beats created act like drum tracks used in the more computerized world of Electronica. Therefore, against the norm, the Beta Band is in the Electronica section, and is even a featured title in this Year-End Electronica List. Heroes to Zeros pulses with the marching band drumming which cuts a groove against the rock chorale vocals. Yet, there’s a lot of atmosphere creation in these Symphonics; you can’t just call it a dance record. “Lion Thief” has these low-key harmonized vocals which makes it sound like you’re creeping through the alleys; the song is about creating a whole aura. Then there’s the odd juxtapositions which make artnoise like on “Wonderful”—a very 60’s vocal and sitar melody with ambient noises filling in the spaces. Finally, you’ll also find the tracks like “Troubles” where keys carry you into that Electronica floating space. Back though to that marching band drumming groove, that’s what highlights this record. The U2 riffing “Assessment,” the dog bow-wowing thump of “Out-Side,” the Stevie Wonder funking “Easy,” and the high-stepping hard rocking “Liquid Bird” are where this album really finds its niche and my vote for Featured Year-End Electronica List title. Heroes to Zeros is released by Astralwerks.

Electronica: The Mixers
Either with computers or with old school turntables, these mixers and remixers create the BPM (beats per minute) most often associated with Electronica.

Boom Bip. The name alone qualifies him (Bryan Hollon) for a pace among the Mixers. Truly a mix instrumentalist who has used his talent to remix tracks for Super Furry Animals, Mogwai, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, Mountaineers and many others. On the 2004 release of Corymb, you get six Boom Bip tracks from his previous album, Seed to Sun, except here those tracks are remixed by Boards of Canada, Venetian Snares, Clouddead, Lali Puna, Four Tet, and Mogwai. Added to this are two tracks from John Peel Sessions and two new tracks. Side by side with Seed to Sun, Corymb would be a good study in what happens with a remix. You begin with an electronic mix of a song, and then the remixers spin something else out of that. As an album, Corymb includes standout tracks: “From Left to Right”—a new one with melodic rhythms with run counter to some of the drumming, keeping everything just off balance enough for the right amount of tension; “Morning and a Day”—the other new track with begins with a very computerized sounding serenade but then empties into a guitar-laden nightbeat; and “Third Stream” (Four Tet remix)—the computer clipped percussion that begins the track gradually yields to the funky bass foundations of the song, creating this “Jazz Combo Wants to Go to the Rave” feel. Corymb is released by Lex Records.

If I skip over Miss Kittin’s “Requiem for a Hit” due to the graphic nature of the material (see below), what am I doing spinning a disc called Galactic Gigolo out on the International Deejay Gigolo Records label? Call it a paradox, and move on. Savas Pascalidis cranks out some outstanding mixes on Galactic Gigolo. Right to the top of the list is his treatment of Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me with Science.” A favorite song of mine in its own right, Pascalidis adds a fat keyboard bass line and congo drum beats on this instrumental version to funk it up just enough. Most of the album clicks into groove about midway through each track. The opener, “Space Age Love Song,” bumps with 80’s dance beats like New Order, and then outer space enters the atmosphere with warbling keyboard. You’ve got “Superman” walking down the catwalk. Then there is some of that alone in the house feeling on “Is Anybody There?” with trumpet-like melody line looking around every corner. Overall, Galatic Gigolo is like a revival of 80’s style beats and keys, and if you find yourself reminiscing about 80’s music but are tired of the fact that there’ll never be any new music from 80’s, this album just might be the fix.

I don’t own an iPod, and I’m not really getting caught up in the hype partly because I guess I’m an AOR kind of guy—Album-oriented Rock. The MP3 download craze really goes against my idea that one should find artists who create entire albums of music worthy of hearing. Of course, this AOR focus gets me stuck when I find a CD that only has some songs on it that I appreciate. Miss Kittin’s I Com is just such a disc. And actually I find most of the album enjoyable, but I can’t just spin the disc and leave it go through track 2, “Requiem for a Hit.” It’s either a dark commentary on sexual abuse, a praise of domination and S&M, or a sick metaphor for the music world’s abuse of women. “Meet Sue Be She” is one of the only songs I’ve ever heard dedicated to an musician’s manager, and Miss Kittin does this at a true party pace. The chorus is an extended play on her manager’s name, Sue Zuki. What you get is “Meet Sue Be She Sue Zoo Key/Be Aime Double You” which has the double meaning when heard of “Mitsubishi and BMW. That said, there’s two songs that keep me from getting rid of this CD and Miss Kittin. “Professional Distortion” is an incredible look into the inner life of a DJ like Miss Kittin, putting on a good front every night, a performance, a fake smile, a playful tease because that’s part of the act and expectation. Ah, Miss Kittin, you’ve given me a look into the club scene that I’ll never grace, but your lyrics show how it’s more than a party. Even the clubbers are searching for love and hope. May we non-clubbers never dismiss you as just there for sex, drugs, and dancing. I Com is released by Astralwerks.

Well, might as well go whole hog, and pull out the other International Deejay Gigolo Records release on the shelf, this one from DJ Hell. Remember this CD sat on the floor of my church office today, face up, boldly declaring “Hell” among the books of God. What could be redeeming about such a disc? The beats. N.Y. Muscle has this creepy beginning with “Keep on Waiting,” sinister sounding computer blips and ethereal vocals. From there, you find yourself swaying slowly back and forth to the sad tuba sound as the beats heat up on “Listen to the Hiss” (with Suicide’s Alan Vega). While there’s a nice disco thing going on, “Tragic Picture Show” (DFA’s James Murphy helps out here) features spoken vocals which really make the simple rhyming pop song lyrics sound. . .like simple trite pop song lyrics. Yeah, that’s what I like—a complete self-awareness. Billie Holiday meets today’s clubbing on “I Regret,” with the soulful, bluesy vocals of Billie Ray Martin over keyboard bounce. And that’s where you find the redemption of what on the surface looks like it is so far from God being on a Gigolo label, being named Hell. There on “I Regret” you can hear that search for redemption, forgiveness, and love, as Martin’s soulful voice sings, “Cause I regret everything/And I know it will wipe me away.”

Thanks to all of the labels for the review copies.