Can we be a music forum again please

The Lounge General Discussion
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What brought you to electronic music?

Maybe that C64 program that led you fiddle with the SID, maybe borrowing a Poly 800 II that we used in our ridiculous band at school, maybe sharing a flat where we had 101/202/303/606/727/808/909, Mirage, EMAX, AX73, MMT8, and Atari ST, maybe hearing Pump Up The Volume and realising I could admit to myself that I didn’t only like indie music with guitars.

Maybe joining the IDM mailing list, then moving to Sheffield and getting to know the WARP crew a little, meeting Autechre a few times, seeing a very early Squarepusher gig, recording Gescom’s Disengage radio shows on my VHS recorder using a timer each Saturday night at 02:00.

It remained as a discussion point with a particular friend over the years, though I drifted in and out of actually making it, until the free trial of Ableton Suite in 2020, which led to buying a Push 2, and an iPad, and a Mac Mini. A few years later I bought a barely used ST, and now…

What are your ambitions as a musician?

To make music that’s truly mine, and to keep making it.

What are your influences, how do they inform your practice?

John Peel, On The Wire on Radio Lancashire, Mixing It on Radio 3, all the Manchester bands, 80s Industrial music before it went all rockist, the IDM and Ambient mailing lists, FAX, On-U Sound, Factory.

Where do you see your music 10 years from now?

Would be nice to have some physical releases. Have performed live a few times now, more of that would be most welcome.

How do you find time for music making (if it’s not already your main occupation)?

Discarding chaff e.g. TV, sport.

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Can we remove all other threads and categories except for this one? Please?

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Was thinking more about “Electronic Music” and what that means as a genre. At first it was sound effects and Minimoogs in rock bands, then Kraftwerk obviously but they were more of an act, maybe int the US Devo was similar? I agree with a comment above that what was presented to the mainstream in the US in the early 90s was pretty cheesy and it just didn’t make sense to where . Our rave scene wasn’t the summer of love type of this y’all had in the UK, it was just complete debachery and hard drugs, real negative energy around the whole scene. I can only speak for what I experienced in both southern and Northern California at the time. Don’t come at me!

Anyway, in the year of 1996, when the future started to feel like it was coming on too fast a song hit the Alternative radio playlists here and I think changed everything. If there’s one song that really showed casual listeners and sound seekers what was possible its this:

Have you ever not had goosebumps when those chords play? Have you ever not let those drums just bang around in your head, getting all the feels out? If there’s an anthem to “Electronic Music” then this is it

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Tubeway Army, Replicas.

Find a guitarist/vocalist that I can get productive with. Make some epic 4min tracks that will grace the ether.

Late 70’s onward basic synth rock. Keep it simple stupid. Don’t try to be too clever.

Poker machines and mobile devices will be banned from pubs, so I will be bashing out post-punk-synth-therapy to an empty room, but the bar staff will applaud nervously.

I receive a request from the agency owner to make a 1min loop for an AV presentation. I sit down and make it.
Personal stuff, I grab my Bass at least once a day and jam with the AR. Usually around 8pm. The neighbours haven’t complained.

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I was playing keys in an indie folk/rock band, and I was using software - started with Reason 2.5, and over time used Mainstage and then Ableton. I started writing my own stuff which was naturally more piano and synth driven. When we disbanded I formed a duo with our former drummer, and we have been getting progressively more electronic.

To write music that makes me feel something.

Lots of rock and indie stuff obviously, but on the electronic side Four Tet, Makeup and Vanity Set, Beach House, Boards of Canada etc. I wouldn’t say my influences overtly impact my practice - more how I approach mood / emotional tone.

No real plan or clue. Feels like I’ve been operating in perpetual short-termism for a long while now.

I dropped my main work down to 4 days per week, notionally leaving the other day for music. In reality I try and do at least 30 minutes a day, knowing that if I just sit down and play I will then get into a flow (usually). But it does mean that I probably sleep less than I should, and that has been taking a health and mental health toll.

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Lifelong guitar player/singer songwriter. I had not one clue about electronic stuff until 2016-ish where my new best friend would tell me about his MPC and Microkorg. Liking the idea of playing with electronic gear, I came across the Volca fm to which he told me that I was going to probably need a little more than that. I got it anyways, maxed out a sequence and then asked him how I could add more. He told me I was going to need more than that. That started all of it.

Just play the damn thing. Really, I just like playing for my own enjoyment. I saw sprinkled through here that feeling where you can truly erase the world around you and just enjoy for a moment. That’s all I want, addicted to it. Of course showing it off, waiting for that moment where you find out whether the material is complete ass or not once another set of ears are on it is its own form of enjoyment or dismay as well, but no serious ambitions beyond that.

So many people, a lot of you too, it can kinda change everyday. It typically plays out with me hearing something impressive and just wondering how the hell they did that, how that musical moment came to them, and why the hell can’t it come to me like that?? And so I try in practice if it remains on my mind.

Same place. Just playing the damn thing, and building my own little playground piece by piece.

A guitar next to the couch in the living room. There is no better motivator for music than having these things in a place where you typically frequent to do a whole lotta nothing. And the ultimate goal is to spark something there that makes me want to escape away into the little studio or run and grab the MPC.

Yea see I still don’t know electronic music.

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How did I get into electronic music, well making it anyway probably started with a Pink Floyd and Delia Derbyshire obsession as a teen. I then bough a tascam 4 track, a huge organ from goodwill and an Alesis sr16. I tried making stuff like piper at the gates of dawn and Delia stuff and put out a Bandcamp project called Ziwzih Ziwzih when I was 15 and have been releasing music under that name since then I’m 27 now.

I primarily play guitar for an indie rock and a. Noise band but synths is the most fun for me. I love just making shit and not worrying about a band aspect.

https://youtube.com/shorts/o0ihVkzH-wY?is=7oFbn3rYJVgVihSe

I’m pretty new to Elektron and have been using the cycles for about 6mo. Here’s a link to a little techno melodic jam thing I have been working on.

I just signed up for this forum cause the Reddit has turned into a whole other thing. I said some stuff about ai slop sucking and I got my music hated and attacked. Crazy.

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i started off making hip hop beats in the cracked daw around 14, gradually got more into electronic music via the edm trap phase of the mid 2010s. originally got put onto hardstyle but a buddy freshman year of high school, loved hardass tunes and kept going in that direction. went to a bunch of shows and festivals in 2010s, got to dj at one big festival and a few other local ones. i always wanted to make heavy bass music but it never came naturally to me. i made a good number of beats in the daw but eventually lost the interest.

after a few years of experimenting with hardware, ive fallen into what feels like my sound and ive made a ton of tunes. i can listen to my own tracks for a handful of hours and be decently happy with all of them, so i feel like i have kind of reached one of my subconcious goals as a musician.

i used to perform in a rap group with a bunch of buddies in college and it was so fun to do crazy shows, ive wanted to be able to play a heavy bass show with my own music and get the crowd groovin and going crazy. im finally making sounds that are getting into the crazy heavy territory so im gonna keep following this path and hopefully get to a point where i can play that heavy bass show ive dreamed of.

im also way more into the physical circuitry side of things that i ever would have expected, a sub goal is to play live with at least one piece of entirely home made equipment.

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I started in with making music as a kid probably around 10 or so. I got an electric guitar for Christmas the year that our housemate was dating a guy in a band. He showed me some real basics and handed me tapes of cool shit to listen to. Got me started on The Who, Clash, Public Enemy. Fast forward several years and ive switched to mostly playing drums after some encouragement from good friends. Ive been playing drumset ever since, for a bout 32 years. Id dabbled with a cracked copy of Cool Edit Pro and ReBirth on my friends computer back in college days, about 1999 or 2000, made some strange tunes. Played in Obnoxious bands during this pphase, a sort of noise rock meets free jazz improv with a healthy dose of butt rock, and also in a hip hop band (cringe), and lots of my college class mates musical projects and my own. Around this time i found out i was going to be a parent at 22 years old and kinda freaked the fuck out. I had dreams of being a session drummer/audio engineer…
these dreams got laid by the wayside and i buckled down in restaurants as it was fun, i could do it and getting hired in that game was pretty easy after a while.
Music came and went. Bandmate committed suicide and ended that project, among other things…
More time slid by. Sold my drumset to pay a gas bill at one point.
Then i got back into it real good. Met one of my musical soulmates, Paul, and strarted making heavy, psychedlic Doom sorta stuff. Heavily improvised but following a form. We clicked right away, he a true conduit fpor musical energy and i could follow right along, finishing each others musical thoughts.
started having inner ear issues in my left ear. Vertigo spells that disabled me for hours at a time. Loud noises made my head swim, and could make me feel dizzy and disoriented. Drumset and loud music had to take a break, and our band was kinda spinning our wheels real bad anyhow.
I quit smoking and used the mony o would have blown on cigarettes in one year and bout a Digitakt and a Tr-8, as id always wanted to get back into making music with machines. THis was about 2017 or so i believe. Its been a steady evolution since then, and im focusing a great deal on my keys playing now, as id really really love to get a whole lot better at it. a white key wanker, as someone up thread put it so well. I love those black keys! but its such a long way down when youre up there if you dont know how to land yet. Worst case its a wrong note, best case you break someones heart because its so beautiful… Im working at it, considering lessons on fact.
My influences are far and wide. I was heavily influenced by Miles Davis’s electric period back in my late teens. On the Corner broke my little brain, and ive always felt like that stuff, and Can, Tortoise, Dan the Automater, Q-Bert, BoC, Ninja tunes artists circa 2000, DJ Shadow, L.A Underground rap from early 2000’s, cLouddead and the Anticon dudes, Mr. Dibbs, far too many to list off, really…influenced and continue to influence my electronic music path.
Musically id like to be able to just hit flow state as quickly as fucking possible. I can get there very very quickly on drumset, and im getting better at getting there on the machines. Id like to be able to iinvite people into the room, so to speak, with my music. Id like to create a space and communicate what the vibe is in that space and have that point come across. I often like it dreamy yet edgy, with bent reflections. Im trying to get better with negative space and id like to get better at not using drums. i make a lot of music at night, but i can go all day too. My child is 24 and living on their own out there, my wife (not my childs mother) sings opera and is continuously working on her technique and getter better all the time. Our musical approached couldnt be more different: She strives at it like its an olympic sport while im just striving for oblivion/obliteration. If i can find flow state and just exist in the music while im making it, be it bad or amazing, or funny, or grating…then thats what i want. I want that.
So i work towards that. The making of the thing is the thing itself. the process never stops, there is no end. To do it is to do it again and again and again and again. Forever, as long as i can do it i will be doing it, in some way. maybe not music, maybe food, or writing, or organizing the woodpile. Finding the flow state iin all things that you can find it in is the goal i suppose. There are many paths though the destinatoin be the same.
Id love to release something on vinyl, even a 7". Something with my own music on it. I wish i could play music with Paul again but he passed away from cancer. Im gettng along on my own out here for a while now but honestly sometimes i feel kind of lost without him and i feel deeply, deeply sad about that. I cry all the damn time these days over people ive lost, and just the turning of the seasons in life.
Makes for good inspirtaion for music, i guess. How anyone can write convincing music about heartbreak while in their 20’s is beyond me. But, I digress…and i am sounding like some corny old kung fu master anyhow.
Im glad i found this place, here…kept me kinda sane during some ka-razy times. We are lucky to have it. Thanks for the thread @Fin25, youre a fuckin peach. Been a treat reading all these posts.

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https://whythissongisgreat.blogspot.com/2015/02/stevie-wonder-songs-in-key-of-black.html?m=1

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Love just rocking the black keys too (piano, not the band). They’re really forgiving, and it’s so easy coming up with nice sounding progressions. Thats a really interesting article, and I think it has a little bit of merit.

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Hehe, I think I know that drool face from watching the best on stage.

You’re absolutely right about playing with others. It’s one of the main reasons I abandoned the idea of working towards a solo show. Next time I make music with others, I will focus on singing and only play the occasional synth when I know I won’t be singing for a while. I think I feel comfortable enough in that role to drift off. Last time I played live with my band, I still had to handle all of the beats, switching patterns on DT. It’s not like that was a demanding task, but it still meant I could never fully immerse myself in singing, because I was always afraid to fuck up the whole show because I missed something beat wise. Don’t wanna have such a role in the future.

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Hmm, what brought me to Music in the first place? A few Moments I think. Having Guitars in the house helped. When I was young I listened to AC/DC on my uncles stereo loud. It was a blast.
Later, after listening to AC/DC, Metallica, Guns and Roses and the whole 90s Metal and Rock Stuff I got into skateboarding, Punktrock, Hardcore, Hip Hop, Politics and Bands like The Notwist, Radiohead, Boom Boom Satellites, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Aphex Twin…
Over the Years I mostly made Guitar Stuff. Had Bands. But never were eager to let it go somewhere, it was mostly about writing the coolest stuff we could. Always trying to incorporate electronic Ideas as well but that never really went somewhere because we had not figured out how to probably sync everything since most drummers we played with did not want to play to click all the time.
Now in my 40s everything is different. My Body is not well and making Band Music is of the table. So I was going full solo und playing with electronics as much as I can. Of course I fell in the GAS Rabbit Hole and found nothing.
Ambitions I have none really. I never was into applause I am into connecting. Maybe someday I will offer to play on other peoples stuff and help out or collaborate. I think I can offer good guitar playing. But who knows if that goes somewhere. And it will need to be cool stuff. I really dislike a lot of electronic music. Those 4 to the floor kicks with some shitty ambient really upsets me, but I don´t know if I ever make music that has more to offer.
But there is a lot of world pain and anger. But I don´t know if that is anything anyone can still relate to because it´s everywhere. I don´t think personal stuff is really something people want to hear unless you managed to make yourself somekind of Artistic Persona already.
I am confident with whats happeing now. Experimenting, a little gear nerd exploring, writing small songs that get lost on harddiscs, making plans that I never put into existance, playing guitar. We´ll see…

Oh and forgot. More sharing good stuff. Bands at the Moment: Veto, Xiu Xiu, Autechre, Notwist, Thom Yorke, Phoebe Bridgers, Ben Frost, Tim Hecker, Idles, Rival Consoles, Bonobo, Max Cooper

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I’m also playing the black keys most of the time, with some C and F sprinkled in.

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Fuck yeah! All threads are secretly about psytrance, even the shit ones

<thinks>
What would be the “rick roll of psytrance” … probably has to have a Terrance McKenna sample to kick things off.

BTW, a guy who writes about this shit suggested he’s the most sampled voice in electronic music. Fight me (or him) if you disagree.

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I know it’s hard, and not a nice feeling to have(at least it wasn’t for me), i found this time (1 year without a job) to be very good for my music creativity. Now i wish to have it back :sweat_smile:

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I think for me the first year was mostly ‘what am I going to do next?’ after 20 years in ‘the industry’.

The whole games industry in the Netherlands is basically in shambles with companies falling over left right and centre, and all agencies have gone the way of the slop. It feels like there’s nothing there for me anymore, and what is there I don’t want to be part of really.

So what to do you do? You start a YouTube channel making Elektron tutorials :joy:

Smart? No. Fun? Hell yes.

Is it going to work? No idea, but I’m trying :slight_smile:

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I remember being 15, at the cinema, on my first date ever: we had decided to go and watch Trainspotting (maybe a weird choice maybe for a first date, in retrospect, but whatever). She was great and I liked her so much I could hardly believe my luck, the film was amazing, I was so happy… and then the last scene of the movie began and those chords made me feel like I was literally on another planet. I still get gooosebumps every single time I listen to that :_)

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Yesssss: black keys, F and then B or C depending on the mood. That’s about all my music theory knowledge right now.

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I’m so sorry about your mate Paul. I had the exact same experience with my musical (and life, truly like a brother from another mother) soulmate Omar: he passed away from cancer too (he was 33) and I feel, just like you, lost and sad, and I think of him all the time whenever I’m making music.

Fuck cancer, man.

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