>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.
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.