Oh, where to begin. Electronic music has been around for ages, making its first prominance in the early days with new-wave music. Up until that point, synthesizers had been used in place of actual instruments, emulating (badly) those well known sounds. Eventually, new sounds and capabilities of synthesized sound came into the mainstream, augmented with the revelation of sampeling. A fabulous technique, until the lawyers and hacks came into the fold. New sounds and ideas began to be explored, until the guitar and other "conventional" instruments lost all relevance. Death by Drowning is the evolution of these practices. Technological advances have greatly aided the world of electronica. The sounds created here are generated by various objects, ranging from random hunks of metal to cardboard boxes to recordings of everyday sounds (trafic,thunder, screaming, static, etc.) These ingredients are then digitally manipulated through effects and filters to strip frequencies, alter the waveprint, and generally fuck the whole thing up. The result is a wide-ranging palate of sounds that are no longer bound by the rules of the twelve-tone system.
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Editing technology has come a long way. We have moved from a world of over-priced, hard to use analog equipment, into a realm of almost universally accessable audio editing hardware and software. For the price of a good analog 4-track, you can now purchace a 256 track editing software suite. Practicioners of traditional styles of music (jazz, blues, classical)have much less use for the cut-and-paste style of off-line musical editing than electronic musicians. But for us, the new found flexibility is truely amazing. And the exploration doesn't end with the desktop. The internet has opened an unprecented collaborative spirit, with the opportunities for far-flung musicians to exchange .wav files, MIDI files, and complete songs. The recording industry is rapidy changing with the starving artist now able to circumvent recording studios and record companies by recording a comparable quality album at home, then release and distribute the album on the internet, taking in 100% of the profits, and spending virtually nothing in production costs. The "underground" is an unknown term in the world of the wired, as long as you can find us, we have equal footing with the big guys.
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One final note, and I want to be very clear about this. Technology does not a musician make. You can have the latest Pro Tools setup, with every plug-in under the sun, but if there isn't music in you, it won't come out of the computer. Electronica tends to get a bad rap just because there are so many soulless hacks out there churning out boring, uninspired crap. Technology is a tool, one that should be used to create ideas that would be too difficult to execute with traditional analog methods. It is not talent in a box, nor a means to rip off other people. It is, and should be, a doorway to the evolution of what we call music. There are so many options and possibilities that if you don't have a vision, you can become lost in a sea of technobabble, and wind up nowhere. If you are ready to begin a journey of your own towards newness, click here.
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