With the cold spell and the rain coming back to our shores, now seems a perfect time to showcase a few of the artists that showcase the other, slower, deeper and darker side of electronic music.
Pegase starts of the mix with a track that has soundtracked some of my more personal and introspective moments over the last few months after Bec over at Electrorash picked him up. Slow epic and atmospheric electronic movements demonstrating his skill makes Pegase one of the most exciting electronic artists of the moment.
Shark Speed offer a more positive note, but slower and more precise synth piece, with what sound like reversed drum crescendoing throughout to help the song build. Beautiful.
The Deer Tracks have a more chaotic sound to them that in parts remind me of Meursault, but this is all bedtime story electronic rather than moving in the folk direction.
James Rutledge seems to be getting a good amount of well deserved attention at the moment, as he lends his expansive electric atmospheric soundscapes that meander around its theme
Fever Ray offer a very simple song structure with constant reverberating bass and slow rhythm with that builds itself into your consciousness.
Future Islands here display their softer side in this ballad that could almost be Sigur Ross if it wasn’t for a vocal line that could be from a song from the 50s.
The Thrills have been remixed by the wonderful Sebastien Tellier to turn their pure pop ballad from a year or two ago with smooth sweeping synth gestures which brings a new emotional depth to the song.
Alaska in Winter keep a repetitive drum thump throughout this track in which the vocoded vocals blend into the synth melody which is one of my favourite songs for the 6am comedown shift.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone were previously featured on my summer playlist but here they play a ballad love lost with distorted drums to maintain their disjointed sound and keeping the song relatively upbeat.
James Delay picks up the rhythm a bit, with plenty of brass samples but staying with the slower and more relaxed feel that would be called “chill out” if that hadn’t become such a dirty term over the past couple of years.
Ben Sollee‘s abilities of penning lyrics and vocal melodies with depth and yet catchy are demonstrated to fantastic effect in this Computer v Banjo Remix.
1 Pegase – Tears in the Rain (demo)
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2 Shark Speed – Sea Sick
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3 The Deer Tracks – 127SexFyra
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4 James Rutledge – Out The Magik Window Extract 2
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5 Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart
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6 Future Islands – Little Dreamer
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7 The Thrills – Not For All The Love In The World (Sebastien Tellier remix)
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8 Alaska in Winter – Berlin
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9 Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – Old Panda Days (w/ Nick Krgovich)
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10 James Delay – She’s So Brass
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11 Ben Sollee – Panning for Gold (Computer vs. Banjo remix)
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You can also download the whole mix as a zip file:
The Darker Side of Synths
Listened to this over the weekend on some nice headphones, nice thanks.
not really dark, none of the tunes push any boundaries in terms of music, production, or modernity with regrards to the synths used. most of the songs sound like they were written with a 10 year old casio keyboard. the horn and brass sections are a big NO NO, when it comes to synths, just dont do it, it sounds cheap and cheesy!! if you want to explore the darker side of synths truely, listen to some dubstep, start with this mix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juoRdXKO2go&feature=related (which is actually a mix,and mot just a load of tunes thrown together on a playlist. make sure you have the sub bass tuned on and up!! if you want some chilled out tunes which are much better than this selection, listen to some “boards of canada”, or carbon based lifeforms.
GAY
Ouch. All the compilations we put together on here are just mixtapes/playlists – I don’t claim them to be any more.
As for the music – it is darker in comparison with the disco/electro/pop we normally put on here. Dubstep is great and has its place, but that wasn’t what I was going for here. These are more introverted tunes that in no way want to be dubstep and aren’t. If you’re after a dubstep mixtape, maybe search for “dubstep” next time.
sorry, i didnt mean to be quite as abrasive as that, bad day, etc, my bad, i applogise.
but still, i hold my opinion, which condensed is basically, if its truely dark, only then call it dark, if its light and pop-esq, call it that, a spade is a spade in my book. say it as it is, not in relative terms. the dubstep thing was just an example,i could have mentioned some DnB, techno or electro artists that are producing some really sinister stuff, but the context remains the same, i stumbled here and had no prior knowledge of the site and its content, many more will do the same. they find a mix labeled dark, and are misled, i just had a bad day and needed to vent. again i apologist, there was no need.
allan
No harm done and you do make a fair point – I could have titled it better for sure, but the name just sort of rolled of the tongue… I am at a loss what to call this sound though – you’re right “dark” does imply more sinister undertones which these don’t have, whilst chill out tends to be more blissful so doesn’t cover it either. Hmmm…
As for stumbling…I got quite the traffic spike the last couple of days from SU – slightly curious why, not that I’m complaining by any means of course – the odd person might want to come back which would be a bonus.
[…] featured Baltimore’s Future Islands (Facebook/Twitter) on a couple of mixtapes over the years and for the simple reason – they make beautiful electronic influenced […]
[…] first wrote about Pegase back in 2009 when I fell in love with his dark, brooding demo Tears In The Rain […]
riddle park!