Shows

Merry Christmas everyone! In honor of this wonderful holiday, I have compiled an article chronicling a sort of history of recent electronic music, including such topics as the age of the duo and the rise of progressive. Enjoy!

The Ghost of Electro Past:

The title of this category may be a little misleading – when I say ‘past’ I’m talking in electronic music years. Essentially, this is the period immediately before everything exploded into a flurry of wub wubs and an event with over 50,000 people ensured a child’s death. This was a time when fidget reigned supreme – The Bloody Beetroots, Crookers, and MSTRKRFT ruled the scene, releasing a constant stream of bangers and annihilating festivals like Coachella and Treasure Island on the regular. The energy during this time was absolutely insane, the music was new and fresh, and these three powerhouses constantly remixed and dropped each other’s tracks, giving the whole era a feeling of connectivity. In a way, it was the age of the duo – all three are groups of two DJs. The sound was fidget, with quick builds, sampled vocals, and huge chopped electro synths. However, it wouldn’t be fair to call it the age of duos without the mention of Justice, and more specifically, their debut album ‘Cross’. This, in my opinion, is one of the largest releases thus far in electronic music, not counting of course any Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers albums. It defied genre boundaries in the best kind of way, and begun the generation of electronic music loving teenagers that are so prevalent today. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve heard this album mentioned as a crossover album – a release that changed the minds of many, from hating the genre to absolutely adoring it. Unfortunately, after all this phenomenal success, it had to go downhill at some point.

Knobbers – Crookers

Il Brutto (Bloody Beetroots Il Bruttissimo Remix) – Crookers

Heartbreaker (feat. John Legend) – MSTRKRFT

Fucked From Above 1985 – The Bloody Beetroots

Bounce (The Bloody Beetroots Remix) – MSTRKRFT

The Ghost of Progressive Present:

Then, all of the sudden, all of these groups just dropped off the face of the planet. And, when they resurfaced, not many people liked what they heard. The Bloody Beetroots reincarnated themselves as Death Crew 77, which is essentially electro/metal, creating quite average and very angry tracks that didn’t hold close to a candle to the good ol’ days. Crookers had less of a break, and almost immediately dropped into oblivion starting with ‘No Security’, and continuing with average tracks like ‘Remedy’. MSTRKRFT and Justice just kind of disappeared, until they revived themselves with equally shitty new albums that leave them as ghosts of their formal selves. So what does that leave us with in the new world of popular (so as to leave out the wackiness of some producers like Mr. Oizo, and focus on the big guys for better or for worse) electronic music? Music to match the party – hard electro and melody driven progressive house. The death of the duo era marked an important change in the general youth population’s views on electronic music. Soon after these artists faded out of the spotlight, electro driven producers like Afrojack, while already huge names, really grabbed the opportunity presented to them and created a new kind of party, one not dominated by dirty, shallow, soulless, hip-hop and one driven by hard, pounding bass and stabby synths. ‘Take Over Control’ quickly became the standard model for college party music, and was soon unfortunately copied by EVERYFUCKINGONE. Everyone from LMFAO to goddamn Beyonce wants a piece of the party that electronic music has created. This kind of cookie-cutter electro has infected the Top 40 Charts, and created an entire group of people shouting ‘OMG I LOVE DEAD MAU FIVE’ and trolling around in Tapout T-shirts and talking about how many dudes they fought at the last event they went to. But I digress. Outside of Top 40, great electro is alive and kicking, in my opinion perfectly embodied in the duo Dada Life. Their wonderfully consistent production and huge sound has risen them to a level above what any top 40 producer could ever hope – the ability to eat bananas and pour champagne on themselves for two straight hours. Awesome. Although electro has been the most copied and reproduced genre of the age, another comes out on top, strictly in terms of popularity, and that genre is Avicii, or rather, progressive house. I mention Avicii in such a way because he simply is the genre at the moment, from ‘Seek Bromance’ to the wildly popular ‘Levels’, this single producer may be responsible for the introduction of electronic music to more people that some genres combined. While his shows tend to be less intense than in the times of the Beetroots, the energy is undeniable. I like to think the energy is more focused on the appreciation of music, that is, the appreciation of music that isn’t top 40, isn’t focused on banging as many women as possible, or money, or how many people one has shot or how many shots one has taken, but is simply about the beauty and togetherness that music has the capability of creating. Alesso’s huge remix of ‘Pressure’ is also relevant, and while I personally prefer the harder side of things, there is no denying the positive vibes that these guys are bringing, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Oh, and dubstep. There’s lots of that now.

Drowning (Avicii Remix) – Armin van Buuren

Prutataaa (Original Mix) – Afrojack & R3hab

Who Is Ready To Jump (Dada Life Remix) – Chuckie

Enough Is Enough (Don’t Give Up On Us) – Avicii

The Ghost of House Future:

I cannot say what the future will hold, but I imagine it going something like this – the scene will continue to grow, bangers will be more and more banging, until festivals like EDC and Ultra have become an uncontrollable size and electronic music is the staple of the party world. Then, in many, many years, the scene will hit its breaking point, as all scenes do, and it will die, and be reincarnated to begin the process over again. Warehouse raves will again rise in popularity, and as opposed to being the top 40, electronic music will be the opposite of the top 40. Genre wise, I imagine a return to straight up, funky house, with a bit of electro and progressive thrown in there. But this is all speculation. For now, I see the future as Porter Robinson and The M Machine. I say Porter Robinson for a few reasons, but primarily because of two interconnected factors – A. At 19, he recreated the electro sound without ever having set foot in a club, and B. he is extremely popular and uses a controller. In my opinion, the stigma surrounding controllers is unwarranted, and will slowly drift away in time. While CDJs will remain a club staple, as they should be, events and clubs will likely need to start become more accommodating to controllerists as they start to flood the market and rise in popularity. I mention The M Machine because of their live performance, incorporating live vocals adds a whole new level of performance that keeps the crowd moving but allows huge room for innovation. However, I cannot pretend to know the future of this wonderful and ever-changing genre of music, except that it will continue to be fantastic regardless of its faults, so I’ll leave you with a merry Christmas and happy holidays from the whole team at The Metropolitan Jolt.

Winter Wonderland (The Dirty Tees Remix) – Frank Sinatra