This shows how subjective things are. I'm really into electronic music, or at least was. Some of your links are absolute masterpieces like autechre or aphex twin. Some of the the other trance stuff is so far below in my opinion that don't belong together.
>Some of the the other trance stuff is so far below in my opinion that don't belong together.
The trance stuff is not that "below" in quality, it's more of the "subjective opinion" thing that's not to taste, if not a reaction to automatically associate "trance == bad".
It's not like I linked to some cheesy GOA stuff. If you look at those "trance" pieces, the craftmanship and complexity is obvious, sometimes to the point that some "higher-quality" Aphex Twin part is just quick farting around with the equipment.
In any case, not knowing what the parent would be interested in, I tried to go for a wider variety. If they were for 70s prog rock for example and "epic" stuff, they might appreciate the Infected Mushroom stuff more.
Again, that's what I said, it's subjective. To me infected mushroom and splonge (or however it's spelled) is nice sounding gym music, very little complexity or depth. It sounds like 1000 other trance or rave songs and little else than overlying the same synth patterns over and over. Honestly first time I played with a synth and turned on the arpeggiator I suddenly lost a bit of respect to most dance music out there. Nice production, little art. Autechre for example if a completely different thing, people who have created a completely unique and risky musical vocabulary and have been defiantly experimental all their careers.
>Honestly first time I played with a synth and turned on the arpeggiator I suddenly lost a bit of respect to most dance music out there.
I can assure you that Shpongle, for one, are nothing like "gym music" or "1000 other trance or rave songs", and have very much complexity and depth (not to mention compositional chops). And it was my younger brother (a conservatory artist and professional orchestra player) that pointed me at them, and he very much admires their rhythmic, melodic and harmonic complexity. It's nothing like assorted arpeggiator patterns above a kick drum, and I think most of your reservations is because of some response against cheesy trance which is totally misapplied here.
(In fact even when most people legitimately identify cheesy trance -- which most of it is anyway -- they are still totally fine for "serious" techno works that have 1/10th the complexity and depth. Because, supposedely, one is "party music" and the other is somber "cerebral" stuff that's Pitchfork friendly).
Autechre definitely have a unique aesthetic but all of their music is mostly tinkering and happy accidents (they are non-musicians in the traditional sense), and all the complexity is "accidental" complexity triggered from merging layers of experiments.
Again, this is opinions but I just disagree. I listened to the links you pointed and bit more about spongle. They sound nice, I don't dislike it I will probably listen to them again some time when I want some groove going on, they are definitely on the upper tier of trance/rave stuff. But they are straightforward, low brow stuff to me. Nothing against that, just not in the same league as things like Autechre, Orbital, Aphex Twin, Massive Attack, Mouse on Mars, etc.
Autechre have moved into very experimental stuff lately, which I don't dig as much as their early stuff even though one has to admire their coherence and attitude. They are very serious and spend a lot of time trying new stuff. Their early stuff had the perfect amount of glitchy noises and melody for me. Nothing accidental about those records, they were perfectly planned and executed. Even the stuff they do know I think it's very deliberate even if it's a lot more abstract and difficult to listen to.
Talking about musicians in the traditional sense is usually nonsensical in modern music. What's a musician in the traditional sense? a classical pianist? half of the best punk bands could barely play, still made good songs. Many electronic musicians can't play a traditional instrument, is that what you mean "not in the traditional sense"? Their instrument is the computer. If you claim that they don't know music because they don't have a classical degree or can do guitar solos, it's nonsense at this point.
Maybe he tried to give a broad panel of electronic music. Autechre does have its own universe, I didn't listen more than 2 minutes in because the link loaded slowly and 2h made me skip.
It's the whole record that's why it's 2h. If you have Spotify you can listen to them piecemeal. I recommend Tri Repetae. It's my favorite record of them. It's not for everyone, and it's definitely not dance music. To me, they managed to make music that is a strange and poignant mixture of the cold and robotic and warm and human. It's electronic music at its best, something that can't really be achieved in other genres.
