2011-A good or bad year for (electronic) music

I remember last year being better and the Rephlex Christmas year (fingers crossed for this one) being better too.

Some good stuff but clearly not a good year, at least that's the impression I have.

Duh, I forgot about Severant and that Oneohtrix. Promptly ordered those last night. Thanks for the other recs & sorry for requesting jazz.

Let's not forget the new mitch murder album, that shit is wicked awesome.

A crazy amount of great stuff happened this year. Lots and lots of great releases. WATMM's own artists making brilliant works and mixes. New genres morphing out of the old.

I am actually quite happy with the direction amateur/hobbiest electronic music is going. At least on the sites I frequent, it seems to be getting less derivative of analog stuff from the 90s or fast shit from 2001 & instead embracing the tonal potential of computer manipulated noises.

Of course I've mostly been following non-electronic music the last couple of years so maybe people are just ripping off stuff I haven't heard, but I prefer believing the former.

i see no point separating electronic music from other music, there have been many good records (electronic included) this year, just like in any other year.

i personally think electrnic is a stupid genre because mostly all the music i listen to has big amounts of electronicness in it even if its named something else

come on ppl find beter names or just number them or color code them because the genres u guys have so far are megadumb

Instead of "music with lots of electronic stuff in it", I think a better description for the kind of stuff popular on this forum would be "music that puts an equal or greater focus on atmospherics & tonality than on melody/rhythm/lyrics". Though obviously there's a lot of atmospheric stuff with a memorable tune in it & a lot of melodic stuff with a distinct sonic character.

I could see whether or not you thought 2011 was a good year depending entirely on how many singles you listen to. As someone who primarily gets his new music through short EPs and two-track singles, 2011 has had some of the most amazing electronic music I've ever heard. If my listening habits were largely only full-length releases, then I would probably be very bored with how few interesting full lengths came out this year. The only good ones I can think of at this moment are Pinch & Shackleton, and the new Radiohead. All the amazing singles & EPs however, too numerous to count.

I have just recently discovered the whole future-garage/bass music/post-dubstep thing, so for me this year is awesome.

  On 12/19/2011 at 1:01 AM, MAXIMUS MISCHIEF said:

i personally think electrnic is a stupid genre because mostly all the music i listen to has big amounts of electronicness in it even if its named something else

come on ppl find beter names or just number them or color code them because the genres u guys have so far are megadumb

Why the fuck can't you type?

  On 12/19/2011 at 4:25 AM, autopilot said:

I could see whether or not you thought 2011 was a good year depending entirely on how many singles you listen to. As someone who primarily gets his new music through short EPs and two-track singles, 2011 has had some of the most amazing electronic music I've ever heard. If my listening habits were largely only full-length releases, then I would probably be very bored with how few interesting full lengths came out this year. The only good ones I can think of at this moment are Pinch & Shackleton, and the new Radiohead. All the amazing singles & EPs however, too numerous to count.

You sound like a true DJ. In that sense, it was probably an awesome year for you.

  On 12/19/2011 at 11:54 AM, Xyrofen said:

  On 12/19/2011 at 1:01 AM, MAXIMUS MISCHIEF said:

i personally think electrnic is a stupid genre because mostly all the music i listen to has big amounts of electronicness in it even if its named something else

come on ppl find beter names or just number them or color code them because the genres u guys have so far are megadumb

 

Why the fuck can't you type?

thats not nice

i type better than u probly

You type like a twelve year old.

whatever

  On 12/19/2011 at 1:49 PM, Backson said:

  On 12/19/2011 at 4:25 AM, autopilot said:

I could see whether or not you thought 2011 was a good year depending entirely on how many singles you listen to. As someone who primarily gets his new music through short EPs and two-track singles, 2011 has had some of the most amazing electronic music I've ever heard. If my listening habits were largely only full-length releases, then I would probably be very bored with how few interesting full lengths came out this year. The only good ones I can think of at this moment are Pinch & Shackleton, and the new Radiohead. All the amazing singles & EPs however, too numerous to count.

 

You sound like a true DJ. In that sense, it was probably an awesome year for you.

  On 12/19/2011 at 11:44 AM, zkreso said:

I have just recently discovered the whole future-garage/bass music/post-dubstep thing, so for me this year is awesome.

^ditto

Probably the only legitimate, non-"skrillex sux!" gripe I can get behind on WATMM is the perceived lack of truly new and novel music being embraced; i.e. releases that are really avoiding the use of familiar breakbeats, samples, synths, etc. we've all heard before. 2011 was a big year for "revival" and "retro" sounds in a lot of productions, and with the exception of hauntology oriented releases, much of it won't age well.

Im not an ''idm'' fan whatsoever, i like dark, bassy, groovy, danceable as shit techno and house music, and 2011 has been reasonably phenomonal for me. ive heard at least 70-80 outstanding new records this year

  On 12/19/2011 at 5:51 PM, messiaen said:

Im not an ''idm'' fan whatsoever, i like dark, bassy, groovy, danceable as shit techno and house music, and 2011 has been reasonably phenomonal for me. ive heard at least 70-80 outstanding new records this year

I've personally heard more "IDM" and "braindance" inspired stuff in 12" dance releases than I had in the decade before. Even with all the retro trends going on, there's still a lot of great production to be heard from this year, especially in many of the future bass/garage records. I dunno, I just remember electrohouse dominating a few years ago and dubstep back then being excellent but still very dark and sparse...whereas 2011 was an extremely diverse year imo