Tag Archives: disco

A Few Albums Not on Spotify

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Using Spotify so much has somehow also increased the number of CDs I buy. Here are a few I’ve bought this month, none of which are available on Spotify.

 

Glass Candy – “Deep Gems” (Genre: discophonic)

A collection of singles, b-sides, and rarities. Glass Candy are one of the best of the new wave of synth-disco bands coming out of the States. Spotify has a few of their tracks (including the superb “Digital Versicolor” as featured on the soundtrack to to the recent hard-man movie Bronson – if you like Moroder, you must listen to this!) but none of the albums. If you like this space discophonica, check out the Milky Disco compilations from Lo Recordings (all on Spotify thankfully).

Desire – “II” (Tour CD) (Genre: discophonic)

A new Glass Candy/Chromatics project, Desire are the perfect mix of the pop glaze of Glass Candy and the synthpop sounds of Chromatics. Both this and the Glass Candy CD are available from the Italians Do It Better store.

VNV Nation – “Of Faith, Power and Glory” (Genre: futurepop)
VNV Nation’s 7th album, and the second to be released on their own Anachron label. I’ve followed this band for a while now and have seen them live a few times too. I think Ronan Harris is the best lyricist alive, so many of his songs have some kind of profound meaning or imagery. If you’ve not seen it, spare 4 minutes and watch this incredibly moving video: Doll Face featuring “Illusion” by VNV Nation. This new album is quite possibly their best yet: it’s certainly the most consistent and distills everything that’s good about this band into one album. It almost works like a greatest hits, but made up of new songs if you know what I mean.

Various Artists – “Electronically Yours Volume 1” (2xCD) (Genre: synthpop)


Three years in the making, but the wait has been worth it: Rob aka Orac’s baby finally see the light of day and he’s not reneged on his promise to showcase the very best in new synthpop (as well as some choice tracks from slightly better know artists such as Client, Marsheaux, and Northern Kind). It’s certainly something special: the care and attention that’s gone into this release shines through from the selection, mixing, sequencing, and gorgeous packaging including two pull-out posters of custom art from Christina Christoforou. Deservedly the number 1 selling album on MusicNonStop on release, this compilation is a great primer to the current state of female-fronted British and European synthpop.

You won’t find many of these artists on Spotify yet, but if you have any interest in electronic music then get yourself a copy of Electronically Yours and enjoy some great electro-pop music!

Pansentient Playlists – My Electronic Elite

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Here’s a one-off special choice selection of my own Spotify playlists. They’re all in the generic genre of electronica, but there’s so many wildly different sub-genres there that I felt at least my favourite seven styles each deserved its own playlist. These can then act as Spotify jump-off points into related tracks and artists, depending on what style you’re in the mood for.

Each playlist provides a sampler for a particular style of electronic music I particularly like. I’ve tried to make sure that if you click on an artist, you’ll find at least a full album or several EPs by that band. I’ve mixed the playlists into some sort of structure: you won’t find twenty albums thrown into a playlist, nor will you find any tracks I don’t thoroughly recommend.

Note: All playlists here were created using Spotify UK: Some tracks may not be available in your territory yet. Spotify’s country restrictions change daily though, so please try again later!

80s Synthpop: “The Golden Hour of Synthpop“

For me, this is where it all started: synthpop was the electronic new-wave and the dawn of modern music as the synthesizer came out of the laboratories and into the hands of the musical pioneers: before this, bands were just tuning up. This playlist features some of the lesser-known classic tracks from the early 80s, when synthpop was being boiled from experimental into ambient, dance, and some kind of pop. You’ll probably recognize some of these bands, but not the songs – there’s no “Don’t You Want Me Baby” here. Artists include: Depeche Mode, Visage, Soft Cell, OMD, Fad Gadget, Pete Shelley, Heaven 17, and of course The Human League.


Synthpop / Electropop: “Synthpop 2000”

I’ve already blogged about this best-of modern synthpop playlist; it’s since been tweaked and updated a little. Featured artists include: Freezepop, Client, Neon Neon, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, Goldfrapp, and The Knife.

Industrial / EBM: “Afront’s Spot Welding“

Starting with “Industrial Introduction” from Throbbing Gristle and ending with the Grendel track “Outro,” this playlist chronicles the evolution of industrial and EBM music. Features: Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, VNV Nation, Rotersand, Hocico, and my latest fave EBMers Container 90.

Psychedelic Trance: “Spotted Mushrooms”

There’s currently not a lot of psychedelic or goa trance on Spotify: what we have here is a short spotted taster from the likes of Infected Mushroom, Fatali, X-Dream, Eat Static and Koxbox. I’ll hopefully be able to grow this playlist in the future as more psy gets added to Spotify.

Progressive Trance: n/a

Spotify has so little progressive trance that there’s not really enough yet to make a decent playlist. Hopefully they will soon add more progressive trance, especially since it’s currently dominated by Swedish bands. Calling: Vibrasphere, Ticon, Tegma, Antix, Atmos, Ace Ventura, Duca, Perfect Stranger, …

Psybient / Psychill: “Pansentient PiHKAL”

Sometimes close to psytrance, sometimes more mininal even ambient, Spotify doesn’t have currently have my favouties (no Entheogenic, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Shpongle or any on the Twisted Records rosta), but there are a few decent artists and vibes to chillout to. Features: Solar Fields, Tripswitch, Kuba, Lemonchill, and Bluetech.

Minimal: “Afront’s Minimal Moves”

I’ve only recently discovered minimal, so please excuse me if some of these tracks are too obvious or don’t quite fit your idea of minimal. Spotify has a wealth of choice here, and there’s some fantastic tunes so it’s taken me a while to filter this down to some favourites. Includes: Lützenkirchen, Trentemøller, Minilogue, Deadmau5, Popof, and Format:B.

Italo Disco / Cosmic Disco: “Discophonic Workshop“

Finally we return to the disco, but things have changed while we were away. J. Saul Kane and his label DC Recordings lead the way with the latest in discophonica, also known as space disco, cosmic disco, or electro disco. Perhaps it started with Giorgio Moroder or John Carpenter’s movie soundtracks, but it’s grown and mutated and now ended up on your game consoles in the ElectroChoc station on Grand Theft Auto IV. Features: Depth Charge, The Emperor Machine, Black Devil Disco Club, Metro Area, Legowelt, and In Flagranti.