electronic music world
Rumination
One of the things I’ve learned from listening to, and recording, electronic music is that there are RULES. These ‘10 Commandments’ must be adhered to if you’re going to be taken seriously in the genre……and these things are taken VERY seriously!
1. Your name will be without emotion or meaning. An artist’s moniker is all important; it’s a statement of intent to your listener…or not, in the case of electronica. Preferably your artist name will be without any meaning to the average listener at all; it will involve sheer nonsense (a made-up word such as, say, ‘Autechre‘), or the ultimate in geekery (involving the name of a piece of equipment, like ‘Aphex Twin‘), or, even better, it will involve numbers (’Prefuse 73‘). By doing this, you are saying, “Listen to me, my music is technological, it does not stir your emotions, in fact, it is cold and harsh. It does not follow conventions and is difficult to understand.” It can also be read as meaning, “My music is a puzzle. To me, as much as it is to you….in fact, I just recorded a sequence of random noises, fed it through a ring modulator and then got confused…”
You may, of course, use your own name….but only if you have a middle initial to give you extra kudos (Richard H Kirk).
2. You will worship at the alter of…..Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Throbbing Gristle and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
3. You will like dance music, but your own music will involve just ambient noise….or odd time signatures, or incredibly fast tempos (200bpm+).
4. You will have remixed left-field indie bands. However, you will also render their songs unrecognisable/unlistenable as a means of cultural terrorism.
5. You will hardly ever sing……however, you may do occasionally, but only through heavy effects, such as a harmoniser, a vocoder or a pitch-shifter; producing a sound which is either comical, or incredibly sinister (Squarepusher’s “Red Hot Car” for instance).
6. You will also be involved in the visual arts, such as video, painting or digital art. You are a counter-culture renaissance man remember.
7. You will not, on any account, conduct interviews.
8. You will, as much as possible, remain anonymous. The electronica artist rarely has their picture taken….unless they have an agenda…….Aphex Twin’s Richard James, for instance, superimposes his face onto every character in his videos and photos, utilising the “leery grin” (TM). This is inevitably sinister, but is also an expression of the ultimate in narcissism.
9. You will almost certainly be male…….like most of your fan-base. Its the gadgetry, y’see. (Incidentally…….if you are female, you may have been male in a previous existence……70s electronic pioneer Wendy Carlos was previously a man - Walter - until his operation).
10. Ultimately, you will renounce state of the art electronic wizardry and revert to good old guitars. Squarepusher, LFO and Boards of Canada did it, so can you.
1. Your name will be without emotion or meaning. An artist’s moniker is all important; it’s a statement of intent to your listener…or not, in the case of electronica. Preferably your artist name will be without any meaning to the average listener at all; it will involve sheer nonsense (a made-up word such as, say, ‘Autechre‘), or the ultimate in geekery (involving the name of a piece of equipment, like ‘Aphex Twin‘), or, even better, it will involve numbers (’Prefuse 73‘). By doing this, you are saying, “Listen to me, my music is technological, it does not stir your emotions, in fact, it is cold and harsh. It does not follow conventions and is difficult to understand.” It can also be read as meaning, “My music is a puzzle. To me, as much as it is to you….in fact, I just recorded a sequence of random noises, fed it through a ring modulator and then got confused…”
You may, of course, use your own name….but only if you have a middle initial to give you extra kudos (Richard H Kirk).
2. You will worship at the alter of…..Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Throbbing Gristle and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
3. You will like dance music, but your own music will involve just ambient noise….or odd time signatures, or incredibly fast tempos (200bpm+).
4. You will have remixed left-field indie bands. However, you will also render their songs unrecognisable/unlistenable as a means of cultural terrorism.
5. You will hardly ever sing……however, you may do occasionally, but only through heavy effects, such as a harmoniser, a vocoder or a pitch-shifter; producing a sound which is either comical, or incredibly sinister (Squarepusher’s “Red Hot Car” for instance).
6. You will also be involved in the visual arts, such as video, painting or digital art. You are a counter-culture renaissance man remember.
7. You will not, on any account, conduct interviews.
8. You will, as much as possible, remain anonymous. The electronica artist rarely has their picture taken….unless they have an agenda…….Aphex Twin’s Richard James, for instance, superimposes his face onto every character in his videos and photos, utilising the “leery grin” (TM). This is inevitably sinister, but is also an expression of the ultimate in narcissism.
9. You will almost certainly be male…….like most of your fan-base. Its the gadgetry, y’see. (Incidentally…….if you are female, you may have been male in a previous existence……70s electronic pioneer Wendy Carlos was previously a man - Walter - until his operation).
10. Ultimately, you will renounce state of the art electronic wizardry and revert to good old guitars. Squarepusher, LFO and Boards of Canada did it, so can you.
Add a Comment
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Comment by dementio13 on July 25, 2008 at 3:50pm - Gooseskin?! Euuugh!
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Comment by baskyl on July 25, 2008 at 9:47am -
o Father, forgive me: I have sinned against thy commandments. ^^
1. The name Baskyl is taken from the novel "Feersum Endjinn" by Iain Banks. There the character's name is spelled Bascule. The function fo Bascule/Baskyl is that of a teller, communicator, narrator.
2. I do not worship, I am no crusader. I enjoy making soundwaves. And I am happy, when people listen to them and like what I did. btw: what is a Stockhausen? ^^
3. Actually - not. It's some kind of weird popmusic. But, hey, what a jolly good idea. I should try ambient noise next.
4. I don't think of "Erasure" as a leftfield indie band. And I wouldn't remix them. I don't go for cultural terrorism, that's why.
5. I wouldn't sing, because I can't. Recording and publishing that would be a severe act of violating human rights.
6. Ah, really forgotten I'm a counter-culture revolutionary, man! But I still am on the quest for the unique formula of the mechanisms of the heavens. Einstein was quite close, but he missed it by neglecting the cosmic constant.
7. This is an interview, isn't it? *oops*
8. Agree on the first part: it is absolutely unimportant, WHO is behind the soundwaves Baskyl does. And a don't have an agenda. "World domination by leery grins(tm)" is lame.
9. Yes, but - sorry for repeating - this is absolutely unimportant. It just doesn't matter. A soundwave is not male or female. But I do know, that some listeners of Baskyl are female.
10. No, never again. I quit strumming after I enjoyed an outstanding concert of Al di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia in Frankfurt's Old Opera. Thinking of that thrilling gig still gives me gooseskin now. I never touched my six-string again since then. That is 25years ago.
I will repent! But I promise to sin happily again!!
Sincerely yours
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Comment by Pixieguts on July 24, 2008 at 6:12am - eternity rules! lol
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Comment by Reconsiderate on July 21, 2008 at 3:05pm -
Sweet. I got something like 20% - 30%. I rule.
PS--
Nice post. This is a milestone in the formation of an electronica community, in the context of eternity.
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Comment by Titee on July 21, 2008 at 5:24am - Well I tend to agree with these laws of Binary Music Fathomism, I know about the anoniminity. Hardly anyone knows my name is Xenophon Yeshe. I remember when I first got on the net and made a yahoo address and I was too afraid to put my real name and address. I wonder if I will ever come from underneath the binary closet of my fears and tell the internet the truth. Perhaps calling myself Titee is what is stopping me from becoming a super model, hey wait I already am a supermodel. Oh well cheers to that!
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Comment by Pixieguts on July 20, 2008 at 12:14pm
- oh! i've been talking to some of those blezard names as though to different people, maybe for some time now, nice way to trick the pixie sean! lmao ;D
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Comment by Earth Monkey Productions on July 20, 2008 at 10:18am -
cool, I can check most of the boxes so must be doing it right, although I've been playing folk tunes on a mandolin lately, does that still count?? I think having several names for several projects that more or less sound the same should also be in there
cheers
shaun l blezard aka earth monkey aka clutter aka manassas aka good noise bad noise etc
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Comment by Angus Maiden on July 20, 2008 at 9:48am - so awesome after i just got in a stupid fight over at last.fm about tags. still going actually. good to see someone with a sense of irony and who actually knows what's going down.
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Comment by Tim Doyle on July 19, 2008 at 11:36pm - Also, I'm geeky enough to use my generative software (MusiNum) as my USER name!
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Comment by Tim Doyle on July 19, 2008 at 11:34pm
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Oh no!!! I'm doing everything wrong!! I use my own name without the middle initial, some of my stuff is theoretically danceable, although the altered consciousness induced by the hypnotic fractal trance will remove all motivation to dance and body-consciousness, I show my own face...
In my defense, I do worship at the altar of John Cage and Morton Subotnik, altho my music does not remotely resemble theirs, except when it does... I have remixed a few things and screwed them to a faretheewell, including Pixie's beautiful voice, which I pitch-shifted without mercy... My website is full of artwork, I don't conduct interviews, mainly because no one has asked... I've been male all my life and have no current plans to change that... although I have a pretty good balance of the sexes in my fan base... and my Yamaha keyboard and my trusty Ludwig upright aren't going anywhere. So I'd call it a wash in my case...
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