New Lifeforms

It came to me as I was going through Future Sound of London's vast archives of electronic goodness that I wouldn't mind putting down my thoughts and ideas on the world of electronic music to digital paper and seeing if such actions will result in the gain some amount of audience to connect with and exchange ideas with.

Many years ago I thought about my introduction to techno and from a broad definition I have always been surround by it. The older I get the more it seems I surround myself with it, ever increasing my exposure to electronic music in a variety of forms. The growth and depth of the Internet has increased my ability to find new electronic music to such a degree that it is hard for me now, listening to music on average of 10 hours a day, to keep track of it all or honestly give all of it the attention I would like to. That and my fickleness in moods/styles and flavors tends to have me dismissing some artists or songs at one point and singing their praises the next. Realizing this had put a minor hold on my culling my vast and ever pulsating collection for fear of removing something that I may actually find value in further down the road. I guess I am a music hoarder.

Through the advent of expanded connectivity and the quality and price of computer based synthesis we are seeing a massive expansion of the genre as a whole, for better or worse, to the point where one can not honestly listen to everything that is out there. But I continue to search out new artists and styles while continuing to worship the past.

Long ago I joked that Germany does not have anything other than electronic music. Every form of conventional musical style can be reflected in a form of electronic music. So the theory was that Germans, in their industrial nature, gave up conventional instruments and instead embraced technological means to recreate their feelings and urges. I know this isn't true but all of the rumors I had heard about Germany was that techno was everywhere and has been for a long time. Which makes sense if you look at what has come out of that nation in the history of sound synthesis.

I will fight anyone who says that Kraftwerk did not create electronic dance music. We are all slaves to their drum machines. Then on the other end of the spectrum you have Tangerine Dream. I rest my case, everything else is just a copy cat. So in my mind and unless someone has a better argument, Germany is the birthing grounds of electronic music and I took that to mean the German people, like the Borg, are doing everything they can to make it as natural and a part of them as possible.

While this is not the case in reality electronic music encompasses so many music styles in general that the vast majority of humanity enjoys some part of it. Around the same time and because of the German theory, I came up with a response to people when they ask me why i listen to so much techno. Simply put, I see it as the next evolution in music, one of the most basic and important human characteristics. it is merging our animistic nature with our technological ingenuity. Its a celebration and a merging of the past and future of the human experiment.

So this is the beginning of me publicly delving into this enourmous world of expression, for better or worse. To start off I leave you with this as it signals nothing other than what I am listening to at this moment.