People, we’re approaching the finish line! With only three picks left, now might be the time to make some hard decisions. As always, looking forward to everyone’s entries.
Not the Aphex Twin album fans usually prefer, but it is most definitely my own favorite…
On 19 September 2014, I had been playing with my OP-1 and a few Volcas for a year. I was starting to get used to compose electronic beats and incorporate in my tracks weirder experimentation like retrigs and repitch. It had started to be a part of my musical vocabulary.
So my ear was ready to welcome some pure electronic music, of which this LP was the very first I bought. I listened to it continuously for months.
It was also my door for discovering and appreciate techno, a genre I had put aside for years… Is there a better thing, for a music lover that listen at least one album a day, than falling in love with a new genre of music that is a handful of decades old?
At the end of October 2014, I have bought a second hand Octatrack and registered on Elektronauts.
Which makes Syro so very special to me.
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I remember first listening to MBM’s Satyricon at a friend’s house when this came out. Later that evening we heard it on repeat while talking and then on shuffle. I loved the creative sampling and the blending of genres/styles. Still think it’s a masterpiece.
PSs:
Oh and I forgot, I missed their gig in Hamburg, but my friend did go. Told me it was “marvellous”. Tracks like Mindstream were Depeche-Mode-ish, the guitars where gently weepin and the rest was booming and hypnotic.
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Someone had posted about this album or movie recently, but I can’t recall if it was called out in the 12 albums that define me or a different thread altogether. Regardless, It does influence me and is my October entry, though I determined that only a week ago.
I’m kind of glad I already know what the November and December’s entries will be as I don’t have to worry about any hand wringing as this winds down.
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Manuel Göttsching - e2e4
I doubt I could add anything meaningful to what’s been written about it by others. It’s what I add first to any new device capable of music playback and the chords are what I always play first on any new poly synth.
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Blackalicious — A2G EP
Here’s another formative album for me. I grew up across the street from a large field, where they eventually built a small church with a big parking lot. My friends and I would go there to skateboard almost every day, and once in a while, older kids would hang out and blast music from their cars. I was really afraid of those kids, but one time they were playing “Alphabet Aerobics” and talking about how it was completely improvised. I no longer think they were right, but I believed it at the time, and was very impressed. Flash forward a few months: my friend’s older cousin (the same one that introduced us to Do Make Say Think, Deltron 3030, Sigur Ros, Four Tet, Explosions in the Sky, and many more… I owe that guy a lot) burnt us a copy of A2G EP. It took me a while to connect it back to those kids in the parking lot, but in retrospect, I wish I had been less afraid of them because who knows what other music I could have discovered if I had been more open.
Anyhow, A2G EP is an early album from Blackalicious, and even though it contains their most famous song, it’s far from their best work. But this “12 albums that define me” exercise has helped me articulate one of my fundamental preferences with music: I’m most interested in hearing artists experimenting, exploring, solving problems, and trying to figure themselves out. I still appreciate and admire “master works,” but there’s something about demos / early works / ramshackle records that draws me in more than a fully-formed vision. So even though I love Blazing Arrow and The Craft, I don’t identify with them nearly as much as I do with the A2G EP.
Also, mainstream rap was very “edgy” in the early aughts. I grew up mostly listening to Christian music; even after I started moving towards secular music, I still found explicit lyrics genuinely overwhelming until I was about fifteen. Gift of Gab’s lyrics were pretty clean, but not Christian rap clean, which was exactly what I needed at the time. My friends and I kept A2G EP and Blazing Arrow in regular rotation all through junior high, and I reconnected with the albums at the end of high school because they were clean enough for me to listen to while working the cash register at a gas station.
After discovering MF Doom, I started to find Blackalicious a little corny; I actually didn’t even listen to The Craft until a few years ago. But I reconnected with their music as a full-grown adult, and was able to attend their second-to-last Toronto show before Gift of Gab’s passing. Funny story about that show: my wife agreed to come with me because I burned her a copy of Blazing Arrow in the eighth grade; she didn’t get into it but she remembered how much I loved it.* But that year for Christmas she bought us a whiskey tasting that happened to fall on the same night. Six drams of high-proof bourbon in the middle of January. She tapped out after the third, managed to stay at the bar until the end, barely stayed awake in the Uber home, and went straight to bed at 7 pm. I went to Lee’s Palace solo, nine drams deep before the doors even opened, and had a wonderful time. I remember the setlist and musical performance surprisingly well, but this is one of the rare instances where a blurry concert photo matches my visual memory perfectly:
*Should clarify: we haven’t been together since the eighth grade. We’ve known each other since the sixth grade, were best friends in grade eight and nine, lost touch in high school, and reconnected after university.
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Ylva – LYV 1&2 (2021)
So far, my list has been pretty save. If you go through years end lists of various publications, you should find the albums I’ve picked on many of them. You won’t find @ylva there. On the other hand, this might be the album (or more precisely: set of EPs) that most users here will know and love. Of course, this is mainly because LYV 1 and 2 are live performances with only an OG Digitone – arguably the most popular Elektron centric set on YouTube. That’s also a reason why I picked it for my list: my first months with the Digitone were probably the most defining ones for me as a musician. This text will therefore inevitably be a lot about myself and the Digitone, so be warned. However, ylva’s music transcends the connection to any hardware or the “DAWless jam” genre (if there’s such a thing) and is just some of the best electronic music period. It’s also a great live set – something that’s very important for me as a music lover and musician but has been missing on my list so far.
Let me start with how the Digitone changed my life, which requires me to recap my background as a musician. I’ve been singing in bands since I was a teenager, and I’ve always been interested in composing and arranging the songs that we wrote. However, I didn’t have the proper vocabulary for that and couldn’t just play a riff or a beat, because I lacked the discipline to properly learn an instrument. Naturally, my ability to write songs with others was limited, and doing it all by myself was impossible. I did get my hands on a cracked version of Fruity Loops through my friend and bandmate F. around 2012/13, and bought a cheap ass MIDI keyboard. The only thing I managed to do with that was to play two notes of a piano patch on one of our songs. That was fun and made the song more interesting (our band was drums, bass and one guitar). But it also made me wish I could do more. A few months later, I somehow ended up making a kinda-electronic song using Guitar Tabs Pro (!), then went on to attempt producing songs with Ableton over the next years after I had moved to Cologne and had to quit my band because of this. I managed to compose some interesting sketches, which were oddly defined by marimbas and vibraphones.
That was only a side project for some time, because I had managed to join a punk-ish band that occupied most of my music making time. Until I acknowledged way too late that the band was really just an excuse for some young dads (that I didn’t even like) to drink beer and reminisce about the olden times when they were young. But when I finally left that band and was searching for musicians more interested in electronic music (via cringey platforms like Facebook groups or a Musicstore portal), those Ableton sketches got me in touch with another musician named O. He brought along a friend named T. to play some drums and a bit of Microkorg, and we quickly started to meet almost once a week. T. was actually more interested in recording and producing than playing instruments, and at some point he thought it could be a good idea to give me some simple instrument that I could play when I’m not singing, instead of using my shitty MIDI keyboard with Ableton on my shitty laptop.
He brought along a vintage Korg electric organ and a board full of guitar pedals, some of them built by himself. I was still a bit too lazy/stubborn to study and learn what all of the FX did and how I should use them, but I noticed how great it sounded to route the keys into distortion and delay, sometimes even a looper. I was still only playing relatively simple melodies when I wasn’t singing, but it felt different from when I played those piano notes in a previous band. The music we now made was even more sparse, and so there was more room for me to fill. And sending the Korg into a simple, yet effective, FX chain completely transformed the sound. In fact, I’d argue that this gave us “a sound”. We played a stripped down version of post punk/new wave with modern touches, sometimes O. played guitar or bass, most often he’d tinker with all kinds of Ableton sounds and FX on his Push. But my voice and those weirdly distorted keyboard sounds arguably gave the music its character, and I was very proud of that. Unfortunately, our band was lacking somebody who was good at turning jams with a great vibe into songs. We were good at banging out something that could almost carry a whole song, and our drummer recorded and polished it to a degree that you could have released it. But each sketch was lacking that one additional part that would have made it a great song, and whenever we would revisit it, the magic was gone and we only made it worse. Like with my previous band, I moved away at some point, and all we had was a Google Drive with around ten incredible first takes.
Still, those years had given me hope that I could one day write a song and release it in some fashion. Playing with only two other people also meant that there was suddenly a lot of room for my vocals, and I only really discovered my voice during this Cologne period. Most importantly, I gathered a lot of experience with making somewhat electronic music in a live setting, and playing that organ through some pedals got me interested in trying to make music with hardware. So in 2019, after my relationship ended and I moved to my own apartment, one of the first things I did was to finally buy an OG Microkorg, because I wanted to use my unexpected freedom to make more music, and the Microkorg was what everyone I knew who had a synth was playing. And after our last session as a band in Cologne (which I didn’t know would be the last one at the time), I bought an OG Minilogue on top of that, so I could play two synth lines in parallel at home. I also bought my first audio interface and mic, and I would set all of that up in my tiny living room/bedroom/kitchen/home office. Alas, all that I ended up doing was playing an arp on one of the synths and tweak knobs, then play a bass line or lead on top of that and record everything. I had fun and liked the sound, but it was clear that I was far away from writing a song. I eventually also got a Volca beats, and just a few weeks later a TR8-S, probably thinking some drums where what’s missing to give my music some direction. I tried to record a few clips of beats into Ableton and then sequence my synths from there, but nothing really came of it. Nothing really worked as I wanted it to, and the whole process felt completely uninspiring and not fun at all. At some point, I severely doubted that I had the talent to make music without the help of others.
In July 2021, I bought a used Digitone and everything changed. I was fully immersed in Synthtube by that point and had heard of Elektron machines like the Digitakt a few times, mainly as examples of sequencers. For some reason, I never had the impression that these are for me – I perceived an aura of having to be a cool techno dude or a “pro” to use these almost all black instruments. Luckily, the Digitone looked a bit more approachable with its four colorful track buttons, and the sounds I heard coming out of it in the various demos I listened to were exactly what I loved in electronic music. I’ve tried to reconstruct through photos on my Iphone when exactly I got the Digitone, but couldn’t find a photo of it. What I did find though were photos of all of the other pieces of hardware I’ve mentioned as well as my MIDI keyboards that I took only weeks after I got the Digitone. I watched cuckoo’s tutorial early on and then just started cranking out patterns, exploring presets, manipulating sounds. Within days, I had made more music than ever before. I was initially afraid the Elektron sequencer would be too complex for me, because you read a lot about steep learning curves and complex menu diving online. That could not have been farther from the truth. Live recording melodies or beats into the sequencer was the most natural way of making solo music I had ever experienced. I soon got a used Digitakt to have some more tracks for making beats, and by the end of the year, I had enough material for my first EP.
I’m not sure when exactly I discovered „LYV 1&2“. There’s a chance I already heard these before getting my Digitone, but I feel like I only discovered it soon after. I immediately loved it. Of course, it sets itself apart from all of the other “DAWless live jam” videos on YouTube from the moment those gloved hands are starting to move while displaying visuals. It’s a simple idea, but it gives ylva’s videos a unique aesthetic. It’s also stylish as hell. But what counts is the music, especially since I quickly bought ylva’s discography on Bandcamp and from then on listened to it there (another first). I’ve already mentioned in another text that I started running during the pandemic, and that Todd Terje was my soundtrack. I have to add LYV1 and especially 2 to that list. There were times when all I was doing was working, running while listening to ylva, then booting up my Elektrons at home to make music until I would fall asleep. LYV1&2 was my gold standard for what you can achieve with the Digitone. My music was far from being that good of course, but that didn’t discourage me. In fact, knowing that everything I heard was made with just that little groovebox with its yellow display was an immense motivation. I was convinced: if I only kept making patterns and listening closely, I could get a bit better every day.
I didn’t watch ylva’s videos to study what exactly they were doing and how they managed to squeeze all of the drums and melodies into only four DN tracks. I also didn’t try to mimic their style or recreate their tracks. I never had the discipline to do that with any artist – maybe to my detriment, because that’s how a lot of artists learn their craft before making their own music. But I knew I had two things going for me: a strong urge to write my own songs, and the ability to absorb aspects of music into my own vocabulary by listening to it. The Elektron sequencer finally gave me a tool to write my own songs. And „LYV 1&2“ was the most important inspiration for what my music could sound like. I loved the stripped-down composition of these tracks, showing me how far you can get with only a kick, snare and hat beat plus a bass, lead, maybe a pad, always at least one arp. While I love listening to electronic music, it’s often jarring how many subtle elements there are at play and how complex the sound design can get. Why even bother trying to make something yourself, when this seems to kinda be expected? Music made with hardware had the opposite effect on me, a showcase of effective production that encouraged me to just start recording arps, basses and some drums until I had a song. And ylva is the best at it if you ask me.
I don’t know if I would have ever finished or released any music without the Digitone and „LYV 1&2“. They enabled me to make music all by myself – but maybe even more importantly, would eventually lead me to reach out to other musicians, start new collaborations, make new friends. Like my friend T.’s friend I. who got the Digitone-Digitakt duo after I was raving about this setup at a festival during my honeymoon phase with these instruments. We would go on to form a duo, first meeting in a basement for hire in Zürich, then jamming for whole weekends in his new apartment that had a dedicated space for making music beneath the rooftop. It was these sessions where I learned how to use these devices live and with others. And after I. had to leave Europe for Canada, I reached out to a user who I met on Elektronauts, quickly bonding during a jam session with O. from my former Cologne duo, eventually forming a band and recording an album. I’m forever thankful for ylva and Elektron for helping me make this dream come true, and helping me make new friends along the way.
Now that I’ve established at length why „LYV 1&2“ might be the most defining EPs for me as a musician, we can talk a bit about the actual music. I love both EPs, but “LYV 2” even more so. Let me start by saying that ylva somehow manages to squeeze more interesting drum patterns into a single Digitone track than most people make with a fully featured drum machine or even a DAW. Specifically, the hats stand out on each track, seemingly never looping, but somehow always fitting the rest of the track. Then there’s at least one arp playing on each track, sometimes two. I had fallen in love with arp sounds a few years earlier when I first heard Disasterpeace’s title track for “FEZ”, probably much earlier, since they’re a staple of retro videogame music. “Plantae” and “Of Many”, the first two tracks on „LYV 2“ (as well as “LYV 1” opener “Port”) instantly reminded me of this, so I was hooked from the beginning. Only now do I realize that „LYV 1&2“ at times sound a lot like the soundtrack to a great indie game – if a developer decided to take dynamic adaptation to the next level. Imagine “Beaufort” playing out throughout the last level of a world in a 2D action platformer, where the challenges get increasingly harder until you’re ready to face the final boss. The Digitone sound lends itself to that kind of modern indie game music, but I think it’s really ylva’s lead melodies that make me think it would be a great fit. Because they’re catchy as fuck and evoke different vibes at once. To use “Beaufort” as an example one more time: the lead is spooky, stressful and funny at the same time.
You will find beautiful melodies and great beats on each track, and they’re a staple of ylva’s other releases like “The Then” or “The Era of Imperfect Memories” as well. Likewise, there’s always something changing on every ylva track, because they record live and are constantly riding a filter or changing a delay or LFO tempo. What makes „LYV 1&2“ truly stand out is that they’re gripping, coherent live performances that evolve over the span of almost half an hour. You can pick individual tracks and enjoy them, but only when you listen to the whole EP will you truly appreciate this music. In that sense, „LYV 1&2“ have well earned their spot on a list about albums (we could add the well thought out cover with its shapes in the colors of the four Digitone track buttons as another reason). As with any set, the transitions are what sets it apart. Among my favorite moments are the transitions from track 3 to 4 on both EPs. “Laurel” and “Cerinthe” have a darker groove than the tracks that come before them, and ylva carefully introduces that shift in tone. Even better, when ylva plays a new hat pattern at the end of “Cerinthe” and then slowly increases the tempo before moving into “Molver”. Other tracks end more abruptly – “Zenith Call” in the middle of the track – but the next track always seems like the logical next step, even if the style and mood shifts rapidly. As a result, you trust ylva that whatever they do will be great, and completely succumb to the flow.
It’s this feeling that I love the most when going to a club – if a set has reached these heights, I will pour everything that I have into dancing as hard as possible, pushing the experience to new levels of intensity, along with the DJ and the crowd. I haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy „LYV 1&2“ in such a context, but I’m sure it would work well. I’ve only danced to ylva’s music once, when I had a housewarming party in the winter of 2021. It was at the height of the pandemic, so we had to regularly open the windows for a few minutes, probably annoying my neighbors even more. At around 5 in the morning, it was only me and T. left, and I proposed we could dance to that niche artist I recently discovered. It was one of the last times I felt the urge to crack another bottle of wine at the final stage of a party, and I knew I’d have to pay for it the next day. But it was worth it. T. liked what was playing, and so we did what ylva is asking for in their Bandcamp profile: dance that stupid heart out!
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Korn - ST
This was a pretty big one for me. I first heard Blind on the end credits of Street Fighter II: The animated movie (which also introduced met to KMFDM) and being around 15 years old at the time I already on my way into more extreme metal but this felt like something new altogether. I couldn’t quite place the whole mix of raw downtuned guitars, weird hiphop style squeek sounds and Jonathan Davis turning himself inside out but I found it fascinating, and I even got a pair of Adidas pants at some point 
As much as nu-metal gets a lot of shit for just being eh… shit, (and a lot of it is) there’s a bunch of bands and albums that were hugely influential on my musical development and how I play guitar and I don’t think I’m the only one. If you listen to current bands like Chat Pile or Knocked Loose you can really hear the early Korn influence.
Korn (especially the first two albums) started this thing for me but I would definitely be remiss not mentioning a couple of other albums that really did it for me (and influenced me musically) from that era.
Sevendust - Home
Taproot - Gift
Orgy - Candyass
Deftones - ST
SOAD - ST
Pulse Ultra - Headspace
Nothingface - Skeletons
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