I love seeing all the Sophie fans coming out of the wood work. I knew that she was/is important to many but I didn’t often see conversations about her out in the wild. I thought maybe a new thread would be a nice place to pivot the conversation away from her passing to discussions about her art.
I think it’d be interesting to talk about the monomachine and how she was able to exploit that tool to do new things with sound. I’m interested to see what others think about her whole project, things she’s said in interviews, and what she’s been working to accomplish.
more than any of her other music I keep coming back to “immaterial”. I think it’s a really good example of her exploiting the pleasures and tropes of pop music, the direct impact of the sound, the irresistible catchiness, she exaggerates those parts of the music that people can’t help but surrender to, and makes us vulnerable to the message of the music, which is all about how arbitrary the perceived constraints of reality are, she’s showing us what else is possible when we can see passed the binary lens we tend to see the world through. And I think this is what she’s talking about when she talks about “trans ness” (paper journal interview). She’s talking about changing the world around you to align with what’s true inside of you, not to give in the the “truth” of the world and forcing your reality to find a place to fit inside it.
The other one I think about is Blipp, and this became more clear to me when I heard the Autechre remix. First in that remix it becomes apparent how far she went beyond AE. She’s a big fan of their work, they’re the only artist she wanted to remix her work. She primarily used a machine AE is famous for using (I’m assuming that’s where she became aware of the MnM) but the AE remix sounds so dirty and warm, has a very “old school” vibe in comparison to the shiny futurism of Sophie’s track. This was one of her first releases, one that really put her on the radar. At first the lyrics can be perceived as like the promises of a lover or some relationship, “I can make you feel better” “I can make it all clearer” but I think she’s also referring to the power of pop music, “you must be crazy to think you can resist” “tastes so good sweet like whipped cream”. I think that just shows how fundamental this idea is to her whole project and ambitions.
What are some of your thoughts about her music? What are some of your favorite tracks and why? What are the things that she’s said that you think are important to art or life?
She brought Pop + Avantgarde, playfullness and Emotion together in a great and innovative way. Great unique sound design. I also like it that the electronic music scene gets to become more divers and queer, she was part of that movement. So sad to speak about Sophie in past tense. So sad and horrible. My favourite Sophie productions are on the “Product” Album and the “Vroom Vroom” EP of Charli XCX
I discovered her music through the remix she did of Yelle’s « Moteur Action » with A.G Cook. It really helped me broaden my definition of what music can be and how it can be made. There’s no doubt her influence on pop music will be felt for a long while. I sure hope so!
Absolutely. Her work goes beyond music in my opinion, and is inspiring on many levels. I believe people who appreciate her work can become happier artists and happier humans by exploring beyond the doors she blew open.
SOPHIE made weird sounds cool, really no other artist has managed to do that before or since. I saw a post on twitter yesterday that said something like “SOPHIE single handedly stopped a generation of pop artists from sounding like Katy Perry” and I don’t think there is a better description of her legacy. Hell, she got Rihanna to play on a Monomachine, from a gear standpoint alone that should rise her above all others.
She took a sound reserved for 90s/early 00s music bro culture and queer-ified them, turning what was just thinking music into something accessible, loving, and most importantly, radically welcoming to all. Pop has forever changed because of her, embracing sound design more than just what is easiest, and creating a love of textural tension that will be with us forever. She opened the door for people who felt left out of electronic music, pop, and rap to embrace a less serious, but ultimately just as full of emotion and care, sound. Even growing up on the “warp” sound, I would not be approaching music the way I do today without SOPHIE showing me it was ok to skirt all the lines if in the end you make something that sounds good. I definitely wouldn’t own any elektron gear without her!
Could go on forever about what her presence in both the underground and mainstream did for young queer people growing up in the 2010s. She never hid who she was or what her music was about even when working with the biggest names around. SOPHIE is one of the most mentioned inspirations in my circle of the music world, and the outpouring of love yesterday from all corners of the music world shows that even the act of her taking up space alongside megastars both above and under the radar tells me that she will never die, her legacy is forever.
I think this is especially interesting, taking what was interesting about this music that was, at a time and at a place, bro-y and tough and cynical and intellectual, and fused it with the best parts of what some people would call “vapid” or even silly pop/dance music to create something that surpassed both schools of music in intensity and directness and just like, unabashedly exuberant joy. I think that’s a very powerful thing she accomplished
There’s this almost mythical reverence now of what she was capable of in terms of shaping new and engaging sounds. I think a lot of us might be left wondering what we might have missed out on by her passing, but I hope instead we can be inspired to take on that project that she starting and see where the new generation of artists will take it. She really was uniquely ambitious about what sound and music can do and a real champion for people to be what they really want to/need to be.
One of the most amazing things to me about SOPHIE’s art (and her music is indeed TRUE art in every sense), is that in listening, how often I have said to myself, “Holy crap, I’ve never heard anything like THAT.”
To be a true, trail-blazing original, creating unique and surprising art (even art as pop) in today’s over-saturated jaded world where it all kind of seems like it has been done before, well, that’s the mark of a legend. I would not be surprised if her work is influential for decades to come.
…also pretty sure, her appreciation for the good old monomachine originated to autechre…
and i also agree on the same impression i had, how oldschool their sophie remix sounded in comparison…oops.
but even given the fact, that elektron gear remains timeless, sophies sonic workflow “only” started in sketching with the mnm…while always ended up, let’s be honest, in a daw of course…no matter who was up to be produced next or on own behalf…
still asking myself which one was her tool of choice…apart from sketching a lot on a mnm…
i know since day one how to treat sound from all kind of sources to become one sonic thing…
but her mixing skills, the way she knew how to treat compressors and create the space inbetween will always leave me breathless…and clueless.
only other artist that’s same level, when it comes down to this is eprom…speaking only sonic wise, of course…
My impression was always that her music is almost fully formed, synthesized and sequenced, inside the MnM. I think that really was where her music was created. Then ofc she tracked it into Ableton to polish off the mixing. I mostly think this just because of how much of her live performances seemed to come straight out of that one box. I would be interested to know where the line was drawn though, what did she manage to do just with the box and what had to be brought out during recording/mixing. I’ve also seen, in the same video that shows her on Ableton, a Rtym off to the side. I wonder how much she actually used that. Ive never seen it on stage.
Anyone think they can get Jimmy Edgar on here to answer some questions
there’s this old NYT interview with Sophie in 2015 that really hits on a lot of the main points of her work. It’s a little cringe reading an article about her that uses he/him pronouns but, it was well before she came out.
sorry to spam but here’s another interview I’m seeing for the first time from May 2020. In the section where she talks about the Yeah Right beat, she mentions that “I’m developing a system that’s a bit like the Monomachine but on the computer. I can basically be playing live, like an instrument, trying to make something that feels natural without stopping the beat at any time.” interesting that her workflow was moving toward the computer. Reminds me of a bit I saw (I think on the PC music reddit) of Sophie playing with a laser harp, probably into a computer.
I remembered that I thought this beat sounded like another beat that she made but I couldn’t remember which one. in this interview from The Face she talks about the Yeah Right beat and how she was working on Faceshopping at the same time, and she kind of made two versions of the same beat.
RIP to a true visionary who was only getting started despite having already changed everything…
Her art affected art galleries just as much as it did ballroom drag shows. True art doesn’t care for distinctions between hi and lo art, for such distinctions are childish. Her work was a perfect demonstration of this. The definition of a pop modernist.
Like someone else said, Sophie’s the reason I own any elektron gear. Glad to see her getting big ups on here. LOVE that heaven livestream. She was about to open a new chapter in her sound… so tragic.
Welcome to the forum! I keep thinking about that, she already changed everything and according to some of the producers closest to her, she was about to blow it up all over again… at least I can allow myself to listen to some of the leaks now
