Electronica/Ambient music

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Smithers-Jones
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Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Smithers-Jones »

I've heard a few bits of ambient/electronic music in recent times that I've quite enjoyed (I'm not sure of the artist or songs) and would like to explore the genre further. As with any unfamiliar genre, it can be daunting not knowing where to start. The top 3 albums on the genre charts on the AM website are;
Electronic
1) Radiohead - Kid A
2) Massive Attack - Blue Lines
3) Portishead - Dummy
Ambient
1) The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
2) Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports
3) The KLF - Chill Out

Are these albums good entry points into the genre? Could anyone recommend some starting points to get into Electronic music?

As I said, I know next to nothing about electronic music but I like to keep an open mind to unfamiliar genres.

Thanks
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StevieFan13
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by StevieFan13 »

Other good entry points would be the Pitchfork lists of the best ambient and industrial albums. Not quite my thing, but they seem worth exploring.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Pierre
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Pierre »

Although the two mentioned trip-hop albums (Massive Attack and Portishead) are awesome, I'm not sure they are the best entry point for electronic music, as trip-hop is a rather specific genre. Not that they're bad by any means, they're just a specific sound that can be different from other electronic music.

I think honestly that it all depends on what you're expecting from electronic music. The problem with this style of music is that it has a different structure and goals from more "pop" styles. Personally, I started liking it by listening to New Order, Underworld and Orbital, but I know people can experience electronic music in vastly different ways.

Personal recommendations:

If you come from a rock background, I believe the best entry points are as follow:
- New Order, Substance (best to start with their most famous songs, their singles, especially "Blue Monday", are basically the founding act of house music)
- Moby, Play (usually the most accessible album to newcomers to electronic music)
- the singles by the Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx and the Prodigy.
- Leftfield, Leftism
- Vitalic, OK Cowboy

If you want to explore the roots of electronic music, then for starters:
- Kraftwerk, Die Mensch Maschine, Komputer Welt, Trans-Europa Express and Autobahn. In the same vein, Tangerine Dream's Phaedra and Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene. And, of course, Brian Eno's ambient albums (his ambient albums series actually starts with Discreet Music).
- Vangelis, Blade Runner.
- Some dub reggae stuff, but I'm not really a specialist.

Otherwise, some points of entry and favourites:

- Underworld, Dubnobasswithmyheadman and their most famous singles like "Born Slippy .NUXX" or "Rez" are essential. Their most recent album, Barbara, Barbara, We Face a Shining Future can be easier to get in though as it is closer to conventional pop structures.
- Orbital, Orbital II (aka the Brown Album)
- LFO, Frequencies
- Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works 85-92 remains probably the easiest point of entry in ambient music.
- In trip-hop, as I said, Massive Attack and Portishead are great. Massive Attack's Mezzanine and DJ Shadow's Endtroducing..... are also essential.
- Goldie, Timeless for the drums'n'bass subgenre. However, drums'n'bass can be tiring to newcomers because of the extremely fast beats.
- A few important old-school singles: 808 State's "Pacific State", The Future Sound of London's "Papua New Guinea", Joey Beltram's "Energy Flash", among others. Also, the album Paradise/Big Fun from Inner City for old school house.
- In French house, Daft Punk's Discovery and Air's Moon Safari are the places to start. After that, St. Germain's Tourist is also essential.
- For 2000s-2010s dance-punk, the singles from LCD Soundsystem, !!! and the Rapture are the points of entry. LCD Soundsystem's albums are all killers though.
- For recent nu disco stuff, Todd Terje's It's Album Time! is excellent. Disclosure's Settle is pretty good too.

Note that all of these are the tip of the iceberg, of course. And I voluntarily kept aside electropop and industrial music, which are something else (although there are crossovers, and in fact 80's electropop was essential to the birth of modern dance music).
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StevieFan13
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by StevieFan13 »

Would Daft Punk count? because I'd consider them the easiest EDM music to ever get into.
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Pierre
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Pierre »

StevieFan13 wrote:Would Daft Punk count? because I'd consider them the easiest EDM music to ever get into.
I mentioned them in my message; I agree they're one of the easiest starting points for electronic music. I believe that with Moby and the Prodigy they were probably most responsible for the crossovers between the electronic and rock scenes at the end of the 1990s.
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by StevieFan13 »

Pierre wrote:
StevieFan13 wrote:Would Daft Punk count? because I'd consider them the easiest EDM music to ever get into.
I mentioned them in my message; I agree they're one of the easiest starting points for electronic music. I believe that with Moby and the Prodigy they were probably most responsible for the crossovers between the electronic and rock scenes at the end of the 1990s.
Plus the song "Music Sounds Better with You."
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
Smithers-Jones
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Smithers-Jones »

Thanks for the suggestions.

Most of the artists mentioned are names I've come across before but just never explored further. I will listen to some of the recommendations over the next few weeks, now I have a few entry points (which hopefully will lead me to explore even deeper into electronic music).
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Pierre
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Pierre »

Throw in Fingers Inc.'s "Can You Feel It" among the old school house singles recommendations.

Also, if Gorillaz are considered trip-hop, then most of what they've released is essential too.
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Dexter
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Dexter »

You might want to consider the selections provided in the link below:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=836&hilit=mixmag

It says "Greatest Dance Tracks" but majority of the songs are Electronic music. I had a blast discovering some very enjoyable tunes.
Smithers-Jones
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Smithers-Jones »

Dexter wrote:You might want to consider the selections provided in the link below:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=836&hilit=mixmag

It says "Greatest Dance Tracks" but majority of the songs are Electronic music. I had a blast discovering some very enjoyable tunes.
Cool list, I know and like quite a few tracks on that list. I'll be working my way through the ones I'm unfamiliar with. Thanks
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Smithers-Jones »

Pierre wrote: If you come from a rock background, I believe the best entry points are as follow:
- New Order, Substance (best to start with their most famous songs, their singles, especially "Blue Monday", are basically the founding act of house music)
I love 'Blue Monday' but I'm not really familiar with New Orders other tracks. I think I'll give the Substance compilation a try tonight and go from there. Again, thanks for the suggestions, plenty to discover :D :D
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notbrianeno
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by notbrianeno »

I would also strongly recommend Björk's work as a good entry point,Homogenic and Vespertine are both heavily influenced by electronica and ambient music. Burial and The Knife are excellent entry points as well. My favorite electronica band (and one of my favorite bands of all time), Autechre, began as a hip-hop influenced electronica band, before evolving into ambient techno, and eventually diving off the deep end into experimental electronics.
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spiritualized
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by spiritualized »

Pierre wrote:Although the two mentioned trip-hop albums (Massive Attack and Portishead) are awesome, I'm not sure they are the best entry point for electronic music, as trip-hop is a rather specific genre. Not that they're bad by any means, they're just a specific sound that can be different from other electronic music.

I think honestly that it all depends on what you're expecting from electronic music. The problem with this style of music is that it has a different structure and goals from more "pop" styles. Personally, I started liking it by listening to New Order, Underworld and Orbital, but I know people can experience electronic music in vastly different ways.

Personal recommendations:

If you come from a rock background, I believe the best entry points are as follow:
- New Order, Substance (best to start with their most famous songs, their singles, especially "Blue Monday", are basically the founding act of house music)
- Moby, Play (usually the most accessible album to newcomers to electronic music)
- the singles by the Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx and the Prodigy.
- Leftfield, Leftism
- Vitalic, OK Cowboy

If you want to explore the roots of electronic music, then for starters:
- Kraftwerk, Die Mensch Maschine, Komputer Welt, Trans-Europa Express and Autobahn. In the same vein, Tangerine Dream's Phaedra and Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene. And, of course, Brian Eno's ambient albums (his ambient albums series actually starts with Discreet Music).
- Vangelis, Blade Runner.
- Some dub reggae stuff, but I'm not really a specialist.

Otherwise, some points of entry and favourites:

- Underworld, Dubnobasswithmyheadman and their most famous singles like "Born Slippy .NUXX" or "Rez" are essential. Their most recent album, Barbara, Barbara, We Face a Shining Future can be easier to get in though as it is closer to conventional pop structures.
- Orbital, Orbital II (aka the Brown Album)
- LFO, Frequencies
- Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works 85-92 remains probably the easiest point of entry in ambient music.
- In trip-hop, as I said, Massive Attack and Portishead are great. Massive Attack's Mezzanine and DJ Shadow's Endtroducing..... are also essential.
- Goldie, Timeless for the drums'n'bass subgenre. However, drums'n'bass can be tiring to newcomers because of the extremely fast beats.
- A few important old-school singles: 808 State's "Pacific State", The Future Sound of London's "Papua New Guinea", Joey Beltram's "Energy Flash", among others. Also, the album Paradise/Big Fun from Inner City for old school house.
- In French house, Daft Punk's Discovery and Air's Moon Safari are the places to start. After that, St. Germain's Tourist is also essential.
- For 2000s-2010s dance-punk, the singles from LCD Soundsystem, !!! and the Rapture are the points of entry. LCD Soundsystem's albums are all killers though.
- For recent nu disco stuff, Todd Terje's It's Album Time! is excellent. Disclosure's Settle is pretty good too.

Note that all of these are the tip of the iceberg, of course. And I voluntarily kept aside electropop and industrial music, which are something else (although there are crossovers, and in fact 80's electropop was essential to the birth of modern dance music).

Excellent recommendations, Pierre, - very impressed :)
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Pierre
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Pierre »

spiritualized wrote: Excellent recommendations, Pierre, - very impressed :)
You're welcome! Although it's mostly a summary of stuff featured on Acclaimed Music - this website has been my main source for discovering several genres of music so far (and I'll never be thankful enough to Henrik for that) :)
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spiritualized
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by spiritualized »

Every single track/album you recommended is a staple for me, the only exception being Vitalic - OK Cowboy, which I don't know. I would add Roni Size's New Forms in the Drum'n'Bass section.
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Pierre
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Pierre »

spiritualized wrote:Every single track/album you recommended is a staple for me, the only exception being Vitalic - OK Cowboy, which I don't know. I would add Roni Size's New Forms in the Drum'n'Bass section.
New Forms is excellent, but I suggested points of entries, and I was afraid this album might be a bit too much for a newcomer to drum'n'bass (even though Timeless is pretty long already). Of course, that's a mandatory next stop ;)
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Lone_Stone »

Maybe you will like something like this? :whistle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhiYFg3-AFc
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Re: Electronica/Ambient music

Post by Jackson »

Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Portishead, Massive Attack, Burial, Caribou, and Four Tet are my suggestions
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