Electronic Music 5: For Want of More Comedy, Let Us Hit the ELM

We mentioned glitch, which is a pretty significant ELM style already. There are different forms of glitch. Evol Intent sticks more to a basic DNB pattern, and uses a lot of horror themes. Some other forms turn the crank up on the bpm until you get this frenetic modulating percussion pattern, and that style originates with Aphex Twin's Richard D. James album. There is only one track on the RDJ album that is too sick to listen to, and it's called "Milkman," in case you test the waters, but the problem is, I get so mad about that tweaker-freaker and that "Come to Daddy," track that I generally ban Aphex Twin from my hard-drive entirely.

Even if you do choose to listen to some of the better stuff on the RDJ album, and that is not all of AT's good work, remember, "BAD FOR THE MIND!" Even the ambient works by AT are of a style that most people call, "ill-bient," and it's like watching "Amityville Horror," or "The Ring," two horror movies that are actually REALLY FREAKING SCARY! Not funny-scary like Freddy Kreuger or some of the Dawn of the Dead movies, I mean way - way too scary - except for special occasions.

Any true glitch is ill enough that it is a stay-away type of style unless you just really want to hit "The Ring," if you catch what I'm trying to say, and Evol Intent is included. However, there is one particular Evol Intent track called "Dieing Time," that quotes from some crazy UK horror-movie, and I've been off my gourd so bad a few times this year that I've been laughing my hiney off at the track. Not a good place to be, but also, "Dieing Time," is also a very understated anti-war protest, so at least the track has some kind of solid ground.

Ambient is another flavor of ELM. That style starts with Brian Eno and Ambient 1: Music for Airports, (1978?) which remains an incredible ambient album, even after all these years. That album uses some analog synth modulations, and a piano-roll style programmed piano part, and that is all, and it is well-worth a listen. It is incredibly melancholy music, but it is also very bitter-sweet. Eno got started in the first incarnation of Bryan Ferry's Roxy Music, and still produces music today.

Eno's music, including Ambient 1, has a mathematical flavor, but Eno was more concerned with the psychological effect of his music than pure serialism. All of his work is really a form of programmed minimalist composition and some people with true conservatory educations have some reason to be very embarrassed. Music for Airports was conceived as, "There isn't much worse than sitting in an airport, and what kind of music might you pipe into such a place?" As far as I know it has never been played in an airport, but that was the concept that Eno started with.

Eno also did a great track called "The Heavenly Music Corporation," with King Crimson's Robert Fripp. The concept was that Fripp would improvise on guitar in the sound-room, and then Eno would use the mixing board like an instrument and improvise with the material Fripp was playing into the board-room. The title track is the one to listen to, and the sounds coming out of the speakers when the track is playing are something else. The music is a form of ambient, but it is also incredibly lush and intense. Very interesting hypnotic type music.

Another group worth mentioning is the French group, Autechre. Most Autechre is experimental and serial, but they did an "ambient-groove," album, probably just to put money in the bank, and I like it pretty well. "Ambient-groove," takes ambient style music, and puts a very slow House groove underneath it, usually at half-time or maybe 76 or 86 bpm.

Finally, there is a performance artist named Laurie Anderson, a true Soho NYC bohemian, who is really a performance artist, but makes spectacular use of programming in her performance art. "Excellent Birds," (the Mister Heartbreak version is the best one) and "Gravity's Angel," are incredible. Again, some people with conservatory educations are producing worthless garbage and deserve a special place in the proverbial special place of torment.

That about covers ELM. There are plenty of artists to dig through, but that is some of the best of the basic field. My eyelids are now getting heavy, so I'm going to take my first Christmas Eve nap, and likely won't be back until this weekend, or at least not until the 26th sometime. More to come at around those dates.