There are artists that I like to listen to but never trigger my creativity, and there are artists that I listen to that makes me want to turn on my gear and start making beats and loops. BT, The Crystal Method, Bonobo and Tycho all inspire me, but THE artist/album combo that most gets me mood to turn on my gear and create is Sasha: Airdrawndagger. Varying tempo, well constructed, emotional. To me it almost sounds like it could be a soundtrack to a horror movie. Ironically, the only song that I really don’t care for is the first song on the album. After that I am hooked all the way through.
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Barker
he gives some insight into how he uses his Octatrack here:
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Stevie Wonder
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TRENT REZNOR
That is all…
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Plaid. For these reasons and more.
- They didn’t study music theory yet they often create melodies and/or chord progressions with notes/chords outside of the diatonic scale. They just seem to have an instinct for interesting and unusual melodies and chord progressions.
- They very rarely use 4/4 kick drums. I do like a lot of music with these and use them myself, but other types of rhythms can inspire me to do something different.
- They are a great example of why electronic music doesn’t need vocals.
- They always do something different on each new album.
- While many artists seem to lose their mojo as they get older, have kids etc., Plaid are consistently as good or even better for me than they were in the past. I think their latest album Polymer might be their best for me.
- They do a great job of combining acoustic instruments with electronic sounds. For example, on Polymer they even made a clarinet sound almost electronic and totally different from how you would expect to hear it. They also have some beautiful tracks featuring finger style acoustic guitar.
- Their albums can flow seamlessly from light and beautiful to dark and menacing, or just straight up rhythm and sound without melody, and it all makes sense.
- They do film score work without compromising their sound, they just sound like great Plaid albums.
- They sold most of their hardware and work itb in recent years, yet the quality if their sound has not diminished. To me they are the best example of how good itb music can sound (even though I like to work both itb and otb). They also use the stock plugins in Logic.
- Besides their scores for 2 Michael Arias films, they have also done some other great audio-visual collaborations, a short example is below.
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Well, my list could go very, very, long… but i’ll just say :
The Residents
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When I’m in the process of creating an EP/album, I don’t like any outside influence whatsoever, though my girlfriend will still be playing her meditation music and I’ll hear stuff on TV shows and movies. When I’m in between projects, I listen to as much as possible, but not usually anything in the same vein as my own stuff. This is a fairly new process for me but it helps me create things I haven’t heard before and there are obviously (unavoidably) years of different influences in the back of my mind.
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Daniel Avery’s stuff makes me want to stop listening and start playing…(hahahaha, that sounds like a burn, it is not a burn, I like his stuff and often put it on, but for some reason it reminds me I could be making musics.)
Susumu Yokota and Tangerine Dream always make me want to turn on a synth 
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Jeff Mills jamming on a 909 is pure fire for me.
He doesn’t just make me want to turn on my gear and make, it makes me want to practice like nothing else has.
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Sounds lame but updates and things like firmware upgrades always get me intrigued and switching things on.
Music-wise, for me it’s always not what I think. I’ll be on a tip for a certain genre or something and it’ll bend off in another direction before I even know it. Nothing like Shuffle on your music collection to just throw you a curve ball and rinse your palette. You think you’re onto something, and then some other music just completely grabs you totally unawares…
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This might seem like I’m kissing ass but honestly for the past half a year or so the biggest musical inspiration has been the awesome eye/ear-opening thread linked below. In fact, it’s a kind of logical extension to the fact that the biggest inspiration throughout my (creative) life has come from having close friends who are active musicians and/or otherwise creative people (like writers). The whole synth thing is also still so fresh to me (started in spring '19) that I find it inspiring just switching on a synth.
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I can’t fully watch a docu about a certain artist teling why and what their doing, their studio tour and workflow. It’s not about a particular album but the way people talk about their passion.Mosty i got so much inspiration and lust to fire things up my self. Same applies for visiting some festivals or gigs, after a couple of hours i wanne go home to make stuff myself.
List goes on and on
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Digitalism, they way they mix the codes of electronic and rock/pop always impress me.
Honestly, listening to other people’s music almost always puts me off turning on my gear and playing.
I’m much more inspired to make music by visual stuff, I like trying to recreate a feeling that certain images conjure in me with sounds.
If I’m in a particularly creative/productive patch, I will actively avoid listening to other people’s music, as it will inevitably put me off my stroke and make me start questioning/comparing the music I’m making, usually leading to some sort of impostor syndrome, ending my ability to make anything worthwhile for weeks.
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Strangely enough, this guy
Although this type of music is usually not my cup of tea
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Lil B, original, pushing boundaries and not polishing up for no one
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Thinking about it (again) it’s crazy how inspiring music and tools came in play with such impact, in so “little” time, from the moment i decided to try hardware devices with a “shy start” getting the Model:samples, to this day as i’m considering Make Noise or Soma Labs for future gear, because of known artists or Elektronauts.
In summary, these changed everything within a year :
Jupiter 8 Vst
Disasterpeace
@Eaves
The Digitone
FM Synthesis
Hélène Vogelsinger
Bump to @Omar post : Baseck
Bump to @korpinen post : Current Sounds coming from your Gear Thread
…especially @trytykee 's material.
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Skinny Puppy singlehandedly made me save up for my first sampler and start producing. It was like a whole new world of sonic possibility opened up to me and I wanted to be a part of it.
Over the years may other artists have pushed boundaries that made me want to create, like (in no particular order) Autechre, Severed Heads, Massive Attack, Stakka&Skynet, Blush Response, Thom Yorke, Front 242, Burial and so many contributors to this forum.
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