Electronica

My love affair with electronic music began strangely enough the night my mom fell very ill, began throwing up violently, and ended up having to have an ambulance take her to the hospital. My dad was gone on a trip, and when they took her in the terrible, unconsolable state she was in, I was understandably very upset. And it was just going to be me alone at the house all night, not knowing if she was going to be ok. Well me, the dog, and an unlocked cabinet full of alcohol and hydrocodone that I was prescribed for from a past dental surgery. I knew not how my dear mother would turn out. I was really stressed, so I decided to a pop a few pills and listen to some chill music while relaxing on the couch. I decided to download some songs by Kraftwerk, the OG's of electronic pop. I double-clicked a song by them on the playlist, just as the effects of narcotic stupor were kicking in. The up-pace beat suggested liveliness, and induced a certain excited euphoria in me. But it was the sounds that most entranced me, the very carefully planned frequencies of the bleeps and the bloops. They suggested to me something that suggested a great deal of serenity. It's very hard to explain, but just know that at this time, all my fears and qualms were temporarily disposed of, and from that day on I promised myself to delve deeper into the world of electronica. Then one day I stumbled upon the rather limited genre of psychedelic trance. It is a dark-sounding, minimilistic soundscape of drum and bass style "techno," or whatever term the ignorant laymen call it these days. The melody or motif is introduced and drawn out over a large period of time, and the evolution of the song is there, but it's very gradual. The joy of listening to artists such as Infected Mushroom and Hallucinogen is the craftmanship of not only the work as a whole, but also the variety and remarkable contours of the digital sounds. Most of the melodies in this music would sound needlessly boring if it were played on an acoustic instrument such as a guitar or piano. But in the hands of a skilled DJ, even a simple ho-hum melody can become the stuff of psychonautic legends. So everyone, give this music a chance. You'll be surprised at the places it will take you if you just. let. go