HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Yep, seems to be fairly electronic there. Classification is difficult for any genre: an emphasis on synthesized sounds over acoustic and with little or no vocals might cover it.

Woke up in the middle of the night and thought, 'what about Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis' who represent a more melodic approach. I also realised that my standard Hifi test tracks these days are also almost exclusively EM:

JMJ - Oxygene part 2
TD - No Man's Land (from 'Hyperborea')
TD - Poland (from 'Poland') brilliant percussive bit about 5 minutes in.
Vangelis - Movement 1 (from 'Soil Festivities') the thunderstorm at the beginning is a killer
John Lakveet - Leibniz and contingency ( from 'The force of reason') new(er) EM with great sequencer effects

And there are other less-known classics like:
Ashra - 'Blackouts' (synths and great guitar solos)
Michael Hoenig - 'Departure from the northern wasteland' (played in TD and Agitation Free)
Tim Blake - 'Crystal Machine' UK synth-maestro, played with Gong
Radio Massacre International - 'Frozen North' sooo retro with mellotrons and guitar.

I could go on (and probably will ...)

Can't believe that Kraftwerk haven't had a mention, even I've got Man Machine.

Music, non stop - Techno-pop.........

Computer World by Kraftwerk should be added..

Some great stuff mentioned above - Ashra, M Hoenig, Tim Blake's New Jerusalem

John Lakveet? One to check methinks..

Electronic shit is so diverse - It flows through a heck of a lot of albums we would never have thought of - Or for that matter, Simply would never have noticed.

One example is "Nirvana - Unplugged" - Yep go figure.

But I LUV it...

And Neil Young's 'Trans' album - vocoder rock (and the somewhat less briliant 'Landing on Water')

Fretless......"Neil Young's - Trans".......Rock's.



So Under Rated.......

Anyone wanting an introduction to the strange universe of Klaus Schulze might like to begin here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWRbXbWqjow

This is one of his more accessible collections called 'Vanity of Sounds' recorded in 2000. Especially the section 'The Wings of Strings' that begins at 41:00 and runs for 15 minutes. KS's music is often very drone-like, lengthy chord washes that slide in layers over each other - or he goes for fast repetitive interlinked sequencer patterns that build up to a climax over 30 minutes or so.
He started out as the drummer in Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream, so he often also puts plenty of percussion in to drive things along.

For the more adventurous, try Blackdance (1974) or Moondawn (1976) (his 'rock' album)

Adam Certamen Bownik. He's on WWW.jamendo.com. He's done over 40 albums so there's probably something you'll like. I started with dark side of the code.

howardc1951 wrote:Adam Certamen Bownik. He's on http://WWW.jamendo.com. He's done over 40 albums so there's probably something you'll like. I started with dark side of the code.

I had a quick look at Certamen, a lot of albums with varied styles, plenty to investigate. Thanks for the tip, Howard.

Mirage by Klaus Schulze is a personal favourite, especially the second piece 'Crystal Lake.' You can imagine my delight when I heard his fairly recent album 'Big In Japan,' where the European edition features a piece called (The Crystal Returns). Since I love sequencers in electronically derived music, it's been a delight to hear how 'Zylotones' was created and added to, without the extra pads and leads added on the rather wonderful original.

It's on Youtube if anyone's interested...