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Khushrenada's Song of the Day.

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Khushrenada:
As I threatened to Silenced in his attempt to keep the Music thread going in General Chat, I'd be willing to list all manner of various things I like musically. There's a good chance you may have come across them already but, even if you have, you may find it of interest to note what I like and provide your opinion on what you think of a particular piece of music or album. And maybe by having an idea of what appeals to me musically, you might even have some suggestions of new things I'm unaware of and could try.

I listen to a wide gamut of things but there are a couple genres I don't dabble in much. Heavy Metal is pretty much out, I've found Rap to have very little appeal to me aside from a few rare exceptions and the same goes for Country. Of greater appeal to me and what makes up bigger chunks of my music library in CDs or iTunes is Classical/Soundtracks particularly movie then musical or broadway, various Pop and Rock through the 60s - this current decade though with a greater love of 80s Pop and sound, Standards and Crooners like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin or Nat King Cole and Electronica of various kinds.

It is on that last one that I would like to open this thread on. For me, Electronic Music is the genre that is putting out the most interesting and best things I've been listening to and hearing for the past decade or two even as I find older works I was unfamiliar with. Much like how groups like The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Pink Floyd were willing to experiment with sound and finding new ways to create music and audio sensations, Electronic Music seems to be the most creative genre happening right now. There can be a real inventiveness and craziness with some of the ideas and songs by made by different artists in it. That's not to say everything about it is great. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't work or can sound annoying, repetitive or uninspired. But I'm more likely to find stuff I like there than anywhere else in the current music scene with the exception of soundtracks.

I do like EDM, Chill, Trance, Deep House, Tropical, Progressive, some Trap, and very sparingly a bit of Dupstep but EDM and Trance are probably the subsections I pursue more. When it comes to EDM, I like to pull a Tom Haverford and ask, is it a banger? (Parks and Recreation reference. Hope you got. DJ Roomba says hi!) But I do like a song with a strong beat that gets fired up. That said, a song with a strong beat isn't enough. For instance, Deadmau5 will put out albums with a lot of rhythmic beats that people like but I've listened to a few of his albums and they just don't catch my fancy. His stuff just sounds kind of plain. There's nothing inventive about it. It's lacking something and I just don't know how to describe or put into words what it is but, compared to other things I've heard and like, I know that it just doesn't quite reach a special level of genius that other artists and songs were somehow able to reach.

So, allow me to get into some of what I mean by that and what I've found to be worth adding to the soundtrack in my life.

Khushrenada:
For me, I'd say a baseline of what I like in EDM can be found in the classic Sandstorm by Darude.


It gets your attention right away by announcing its arrival and begins a build up until it unleashes its main energetic beat. When that beat hits, you get this weird doo-doo sound which on its own probably wouldn't seem to be that appealing or something you could make a song around and yet it works. It's got a unique sound to. After a bit of the main high energy, I guess you could say, thesis the song basically stops and goes to a slow down mode where it builds up again to the main energy portion and then just lets that portion play out a bit longer than the first time to conclude. It's a common method of a lot of EDM songs but it works. The trick is to find ways to be different and unique within that structure.

Khushrenada:
For instance, another song that follows that pattern is Perfect Storm by Pink Is Punk & Benny Benassi. It's all about framing and building up that high energy explosion and I love when it hits every time yet it sounds quite different than Darude's Sandstorm with a bit more of a harder edge to it. Again, it's some different sounds but I like them.

Khushrenada:
Again, that pattern can be seen in Pillz by Flosstradamus & Yellow Claw. This time there are a little bit of lyrics that repeat in the song. On the subject of lyrics, I'm don't find them as necessary in music. Some people have a hard time listening to stuff without lyrics but I've always found that as long as the music is good that's all I need. Sure it's great when you can get a good lyrics and music blended together but I've never found great lyrics be able to save or redeem poor music whereas bad lyrics can make it hard to listen to any music no matter how good.


I also wanted to link to this song early to bring up of how music can bring up images in your head. As I've listened to this song a few times over, I've though of a couple things. One would be a sort of music video with news images and pictures of the War on Drugs. Police showing the results of busts and drugs seized, news articles of Mexico and its drug cartels, the effects of drugs on people and being unable to break their addictions and yet in the face of that seemingly endless cycle, just standing up and dancing to the music in the face of that dreary situation.

The other image is a bit more wild. It got me thinking of a musical western except one with modern electronic music in it. I have no real plot or concept of how I would make the film work but this song gives me an idea of the main hero or cowboy of some sort who's been in battle against the Indians and brought into their camp. It's nighttime but the camp is aglow in various neon. The headpieces and outfits of the Indians have purple and yellow neon lines through them. When the main beat drops at 1:18, for instance, makes me envision these, I suppose, Rave Native Americans dancing around the campfire in a bit of a traditional dance or swinging a neon Tomahawk in the air along with the beat. Maybe the Cowboy is drugged or in a haze, I'm not sure but I do get this wild image in my head that comes up now whenever I listen to this song. It's one of the funny things about music. Sometimes I'm envisioning it playing in a story moment of some sort I invent around the song or music. Sometimes I'm choreographing this awesome dance routine I'd love to film around a song or perform live to a crowd but its all just stuck in my head.

Khushrenada:
One last song I'll link to for now to finish this opening salvo of select "bangers" is Layers by Pryda. I heard this song through a mix by a different artist I want to get to later but it got me excited to find out more stuff by Eric Prydz or Pryda reminds me a bit more of Deadmau5 and the other stuff I've listened to by him just hasn't equaled this one piece for me. I think he hit a bit of a home run with this one. Not sure what makes it more special than his other stuff but it's just got a great groove and energy to it. In a way, it also follows the classic pattern I've mentioned but unlike the others listed, it stays a bit more even and doesn't have as long of a dramatic pause or buildup nor does the main beat really go that fast or wild. Yet, it still works without needing those great extremes showing the variances and creativity that can still be found in this song construction framework.


If I had to give the song an image, I'd say I think a little bit of Russians dancing like the Cossacks or maybe Soviet soldiers. It seems to trigger a bit of that thought even though it doesn't necessarily sound Russian. I guess it's just the beat and what ever that lighter sound is that comes in around the 0:39 part for a bit. I want to call it pseudo-violin even though that probably makes no sense but it feels right to me.

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