The enduring popularity of Electrofunk, which for the purposes of this post will be termed Electro, has not always been a constant in the ever changing world of music genres. Let’s get this straight…. I’m ntalking about machine funk, I’m talking through a vocoder about that syncopated drum pattern (wtf does syncopated mean in this context??). Without a doubt, it’s from the first part of the 80’s, but already existing documents blur the actual dates and it can get very confusing, we are talking post 81, post the birth from a track called Numbers by Kraftwerk from their Computer World album.
So, before you read on, why don’t you click on the mix below and get the audio experience (it’s also on mix cloud for future reference. Part two will be considered.
So, is this an article on a drum program or an in depth review of a whole music genre? Good point….it would be a lot easier to just make a never ending list of who’s used the rhythm pattern, whether it be on a Roland TR808 or an Oberheim DMX or DAW, this would then become as dull as listing how many people have sampled Graham Central Station’s, The Jam drum loop or that Orch 5 Fairlight stab. I am basing the idea around that “syncopated” Numbers pattern.
Having briefly discussed the concept with Alexei Monroe, who’s vast knowledge and obsession with Kraftwerk’s Computer World Album and informative article “Beamed Into the Future, ComputerWelt Now and Then” which appeared in Trebuchet Magazine Vol 3 in September 2019I I thoroughly recommend reading this article here: https://issuu.com/trebuchet-magazine/docs/trebuchet_issue_3_issuu
We both agreed that there must be some Italo Disco single with a forgotten experimental B Side that utilises the Syncopate……. I hereby set a challenge to all readers to find the illusive pre-Numbers syncopate track…….
Ofcourse, plucking one track from an album and fetishising it, diminishes the importance of the album, but without a doubt, Numbers creates the backbone, the kick, the snare and the mechanised funk of Electro. Vocoders, and supplementing those HiHats for clicktrax. That doesn’t mean to say that all Electro is mechanised, robotic and soulless. Funk is the space in-between, it’s what you don’t play according to Uwe Schmidt aka Atom TM on the 1st track of the Stereonerds album HD Endless and probably every R&B&Funk artist ever to lay down a groove.
Whilst I’ll be the first to admit to a fascination with Drum Machines and Vocoders, I plan to prove in a mix that there can be soul and groove. I don’t intend to break dance too far into the evolving genes that came out of Electro. (do I have to say Old School??)……..Boogie Funk…I’m sure had come out the year before Bambaataa’s Planet Rock in 1980, funky fat synth basslines with Soul Vocals and a Linn Drum……. I recall being into the innovators of Electrofunk, the referenced New Romantic, Futurist, Synthpop, New Wave and unfairly pushed Electrofunk away as it was always a Soulboy in his Pringle Top and choker-chain that was asking for Bambaataa or Mtumbe, sucking on his Juicy Fruit. Ofcourse, I was young and so were they and whatever youth culture we were subscribing to at the time wasn’t going to be accepting of each others tastes. My fringe and scarves were too flamboyant and individual to be as Street as a DelBoy’s fringe and as I can’t be held by a fringe anymore, my confession is that I loved those grooves then and I do now.
Whilst researching Electro, it became clear that whilst the genre moved out of fashion just as faceless Tech took over for the main part of the 90’s. Electro was a dirty word, but I think this could be depending on what you’re listening too and the all too common error of tagging Electro onto any other potential genre. How many Electro genres can you count? ….. and this is where confusion and the potential to overlook for the less inquisitive or lazy occurs. Alexei Monroe, in his article “Thinking About Mutation Genres in 1990’s Electronica” states that “No genre or subgenre is safe from reconstruction or even usurpation by it’s bastard and other offspring, and the ultra-accelerated pace of these mutations within electronica means tht the period in in which a genre is simply itself (before any of the potential sub-genres it bears within it emerge) diminishes ever more rapidly.
It's easy.... too easy according to ED (Upton) DMX KREW , who admits to being able to bang out an Electro track in a few hours, who then announced that he would embark on a slightly different genre of Electronic Music. Well that didn't last long, he's back to pumping the Electro out...it has that Electro-addiction
Re-occuring themes in Electro are blatantly obvious, which are to be attributed to the era in which Electro was built….Space is the place
Michael Jonzun states in an interview by Jayquan (here), he had no idea about Pac Man as a game, fair enough, ….but The Packman did and they were lumped together for all cybernetic history….. grab George Clintons pants and a massive rod….I mean nod, to Parliament never goes amiss. Space Invaders and anything space…we were in Space Shuttle mode, we were post Skylab……..we were post Robot and more Computer World….. but those pesky little cybercreations kept creeping in didn’t they…..Reagans….. I mean Ray Guns……and cycling…. did I say cycling??? No…. but Kraftwerk did with their obsession with Tour de France…..and their last real album was a massive electro derailleur tribute to keeping fit whilst sitting infront of your home computer.
If Hip Hop came out of the Bronx in 79, largely acredited to The Sugarhill Gangs “Rappers Delight” as the 1st commercially available Hip Hop release, then it was going to take just over another year for Rap to turn into Electro. Man Parrish in his continuing stories of his NSFW life on youtube HERE mentions that Rap came out of Electro and Hip Hop was separate, I wouldn’t like to put the price of admittance to one of his Sperm Parties on this statement, but the making of Hip Hop (Don’t Stop) and Boogie Down Bronx are an entertaining read. (check out the potential adventure of Ring Modulator and Man Parrish at some point on this blog about Fuck The Pain Away)
Electro-Cheese (two things with high ratings as far as I’m concerned). But as with all genres, there is always a commercial element that raises an element of mainstream cheesiness. In the UK, the Electro trend of B Boys breaking on Top of The Pops couldn’t be topped by Hot Streaks Bodywork, next day at school, every little kid is breaking and popping all over any slipperry floor they can find, next up comes Paul Hardcastle, who it had not taken long to release on the Zero One compilation and Rain Forest in 84 to a number one hit for five weeks with “19”. Now to my ears, I was hearing Cabaret Voltaire and blatantly accused Hardcastle of no originality whatsoever. Yeah, ok, I went out and bought it, along with his album, but I still feel this was a rich kid who was jumping on a bandwagon far too successfully . But surely Tyrone Brunson’s Smurf and Newcleus’ Wikki Wikki chants on Jam on Revenge are a childish novelty…potentially yes, but they weren’t jumping on the Electro Jamwagon were they……..there’s a degree of coolness which is missing from from poor old Paul Hardcastle and it’s not a UK/American thing because I rate Freeze IOU, yet prefer the instrumental of New Edition’s Candy Girl.
Whilst researching Electro, I only found two dedicated blog posts which were Genre orientated worth mentioning, Greg Wilson’s Electrofunkroots and Steve Mizek’s Not So Brief History of Electro which seems to have been taken down from Reverb.com at present. I contacted Steve via social networking and he was kind enough to send me copies. The Not So Brief Guide really is the ultimate referal Blog for this genre, past, present and future, covering the geographical and spread and emerging sub-genres.
Ofcourse, I can’t forget Dave Tompkin’s How to Wreck A Nice Beach, the ultimate book on the Vocoder
He WAS a Space Cowboy
Bandcamp bought me round to some important Labels from the past 20 years, it's taken ages, and it doesn't help that the Genre is being called Techno and /or Electro bass, but maybe I'm missing a difference in a sub genre...maybe I'm not.....maybe I've got to the stage ...there are too many Labels to check out that may be Electro and not Electro House or Electro Swing ffs, let’s not go there, remember I have been a casualty of Electro Genre. E.L.E.C.T.R.O. IS. NOT. DEAD….. most certainly not….
Robotmachine Records, set up by Dynamik Bass System who DJ Hell put out their Seminal Arabian Dreams on Gigolo back in 98. Their album, The Mighty Machne is class Electro and it’s very best and not surprisingly just by listening to the output of Robotmachine Records, you’ll understand why their slogan is “Quality instead of Quantity”.
……another German Label Electro Empire continues to Manufacture Quality Electro.
From Dusseldorf to New York City to Sheffield to LA to Miami to Detroit....yeah that's a bit retro geographical it goes without saying, that if the originators came from Germany, then germany should have a healthy current output……
Hamburg’s Bratwurst B Boy, Flashmaster Ray produces top notch Electro and maintains a tongue in electro CPU cheek in imagery, although I probably wouldn’t say that to his face. (Nice shades btw).
UK based…..Bass Agenda Recordings has a massive catalogue …. that’s a massive humongous understatement …. so CHECK THIS OUT
How can anyone forget the wrath of Morgan Khan’s UK seminal label, who compiled and mixed an iconic selection of albums from 1982 to the present…yes the present…….in 2009 to 2012 Khan managed to present the world four compilations going by the title of Nu Electro. Old school artists and Nu……as compelling as the original Street Sounds Electro Series.
Lloyd da Zoid and Diplomat’s Electro Avenue records from errrr….. Thetford in the UK….some great stuff on here with some ED DMX collaborations…what can go wrong???? Nothing
Sheffields Central Processing unit set up by Chris Smith brings an international selection of artists supplying Electro Tech with known artists like ED DMX and Paul Blackford…. what more would you want from Sheffield? Sharp as a knife……
Binalog Productions are based in Greece and have been producing work since 2012. The brainchild of Evangelos Zacharopoulos, I don’t want to speculate that this is the work of just one man machine, it doesn’t matter either way…….
Without a doubt……..there’s got to be tons more Electro lables out there…….Automation Overload
My own personal digging caused me a degree of unexpected financial output, when finding that Electro is most certainly not dead or even out of fashion. Luckily I haven't tired of that syncopated beat or the Vocoders. but one thing that is quite relevant is the quality of audio/recording. The higher the quality of production, the heavier the bass and beat, the lushness of the pads, the boom...the more addictive the music. The subject matter may well be the same .... future technology, Dystopia, space is still the place awaiting colonisation.
RIP - Florian Schneider
Thankyou to Florian, Ralf, Karl and Wolfgang. Alexei Monroe, Steve Mizek, Greg Wilson, Dave Tompkins.