Saturday, February 4, 2012

Electronica 101

Electronica 101 I've written fairly extensively about the label Cleopatra Records. My understanding of the label had been that while they had released a bunch of gothic music in the 90's in particular on compilation format, that the label had jumped the shark towards the end of the 90's and in the 2000's, especially with the number of "tribute" albums. However, I may have spoken to soon on that. They might have a kind of relevancy once again. On Spotify I came across an album that they put out about a year ago. Electronica 101 is put out by a Cleopatra subsidiary called Hypnotic Records and it would seem to be that the only criterion for being on this compilation was a.) the song used synthesizers and/or drum machines and that Cleopatra could get their hands on the licensing. That makes it the only collection that I know of that includes krautrock, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division and early hip-hop. I imagine if you where throwing a party in a stylish urban apartment somewhere this album would be ideal, as something like DJ Spooky's "Songs for a Dead Dreams" was ideal for loft parties in New York in the late 90's. A lot of the songs on this album I'd heard before. A fair few of the songs would feel at home at a goth club or something like that. There's a whole lot of music that you are likely to recall from the 80's if you're my age or older. Other songs are utterly obscure. I know that Cleopatra hold the licensing rights or whatever it's called for a whole lot of hair metal music. Ministry's cover of "Thunderstruck" appears on this collection, but none of the hair metal material they own the rights to pops up on this one, not cohering closely enough to the overall theme of electronics. I'd consider picking up one of their hair metal complications throwing some of the material from that with the songs of Electronica 101. In general this compilation's "everything and the kitchen sink" kind of approach works. It's sort of fun to have it running and not to know or pay attention to any one particular artist on it, and just let the sound flow. In a way it is the labels comeback as far as quality goes. There's a lot of "dub step" music on here, which I have mixed or negative feelings about, but what can you do. You can just skip over those songs. Some of those 80's new wave songs are fun, I like the Krautrock songs on it, the more gothic/material is solid, as should be expected. "Let The Music Play" by Shannon is on this album. LOL! That's worth the price of admission itself. They did a lot of cocaine in the 80's, didn't they?

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