I'm sure you're aware that The Bad Plus cover version of Aphex Twin's "Flim" has become something of a modern jazz standard, but for those that hadn't made the connection, maybe you're already unwittingly enjoying electronic music - or this may be a gateway drug track :
Original
Cover version
I remember being really surprised back when Pablo Honey was released, and Thom Yorke was saying how much he loved Sheffield Techno, and anything released on Warp records, particularly LFO, and Autechre.
I was equally smitten by Warps output, but was surprised to hear that from anyone in Radiohead - the influence didn't really show itself until Kid-A was released.
It's been quite a while since I listened to Autechre (early stuff was him using a police scanner to listen in on people's mobile phone calls, set to haunting ambient meanderings, and the odd scary noise) but I had a feeling he ended up going in a more conventional i.e. listenable direction, more along the lines of some of Aphex Twin's more danceable tracks.
I absolutely loved LFO. The first album, Frequencies, is so beautifully sparse - minimalist house / techno - that it really allows the melodies to burrow into your brain, like nursery rhymes.
The second album, Advance, is a maximalist magnum opus - a totally different direction, but with some incredible sound design, and intricate compositions.
(this track is closest to the previous example, but could clearly be given a live jazz quartet reworking)
The third album, Sheath, is a solo effort, the duo having split, and for the most part is bordering on Drill & Bass, in a similar vein to the aggressive tracks on Aphex Twin's drukqs album, and some of Squarepusher's stuff.
Opening track Blown is a beauty
The Artificial Intelligence compilation albums Warp used to put out, we're always treasure troves.
It's great to hear how those old influences crept into Radiohead's music, and how they've kept up with, and ahead of the advanced in technology, and changes in tastes / trends etc within electronic music (and as much as I liked Thom's original version of The Eraser, the fully fledged band reworking by Atoms For Peace is breathtaking).
Interestingly, I've hung out with Steve Reich on a few occasions, and talked to him about his working methods, among other things, and he has built his own custom library of samples, which he uses in Reason (DAW) to demo compositions - during the composition of 2x5, it turned out there was a MIDI snafu, where the software failed to correctly transpose the guitar staff, and the guitar samples played an octave higher than intended.
He was surprised by the result, and really liked it, so had the guitarist reading the sheet music play through an octave up pedal.
In spite of his history of using technology such as tape machines, and samplers throughout his career, I always think of him as fundamentally a traditional / classical composer - I hadn't really considered that there is very definitely an electronic music aspect to his work.
Original Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, Cliff Martinez has been putting out sublime electronic music, using real instruments, in the many film scores he's done for Steve Soderbergh.
The score for Traffic had some lovely ambient tracks, underpinned by Flea playing some kind of DIY sampled bass synth.
But the masterpiece, for my money, is the remake of Solaris
I also really liked the way Elliot Goldenthal used electronic music in the soundtrack for Alien3, by basically having jam sessions with the orchestra, which he sampled elements of, and mangled up ahead of the final scoring session. Then when it came time to record the full orchestra, he was playing the samples live with them - it's a really interesting score.
By the way, if it's the more melancholy Aphex Twin tracks that really speak to you, I'd definitely recommend checking out the Ghosts albums by Nine Inch Nails - whilst the specifics are very different, the mood / feel, I've all effect is quite similar (and as artists they overlap in many ways, beyond just various remixes).
The second volume of Ghosts was released as a free double album, during lockdown. You'll recognise tracks from all the volumes, as they've been used in a lot of shows etc - which was kind of the intent, as they were basically dipping their toe in the water prior to agreeing to score The Social Network (pretty much the entire underscore for The Bear is lifted from the Ghosts albums)
Volumes V - VI official free download available here :
Read more on NIN.com
www.nin.com
Original volumes I - IV available to stream / download here :
