How well do you know your music bible?

When people simplify electronic music to just a 4/4 beat (or “tugs-tugs-tugs-tugs” to the uninitated), they are greatly mistaken. Electronic music includes a vast area of sound innovation that’ll take years to scour through exhaustively. With electronic music, the possibilites are endless.

Electronic dance music alone can be subdivided into house, trance, techno, jungle, breakbeat and hardcore, and that’s not even counting their numerous offshoots. There’s also a different kind of electronic music that’s not meant for flailing your arms and legs about, and its most common catchphrases are ambient, chillout, downtempo and triphop. All those subgenres can further be subdivided into smaller subgenres that all seem to produce new mutations of the form until what you’ve got is a complex spiderweb of genres mixing, mingling, pushing and shying away from one another, with a distinct electronic sound in the middle of it all, benevolently watching its little children run amok and make dozens of adventurous young offpsring of their own.

I couldn’t think of a better analogy to describe the all-encompassing universe that is electronic music, so this’ll do for now. Electronic music is like Pandora’s Box: once opened, it’s impossible to contain what it has brought forth, and to prevent it from spawning more surprises along the way is an exercise in futility.

But enough with the analogies. There’s much to discuss.

The mad, rad world of electronic music

Here in the Philippines, what normally rules on club dance floors and house parties is house music. Among the subgenres of electronic dance music, house is hands-down the most popular because it is the most accessible. With 120 to 135 beats per minute (or bpm), the tempo is fast enough to sway to sexily, but not too fast so that you look like an epileptic when you try to keep up with the beat. Furthermore, house has forays into fun-loving disco (Eric Prydz, Basement Jaxx), pop (Kylie Minogue, Madonna), and cutting-edge electro (D. Ramirez, Starkillers). Many times it features sweet and sexy vocals, such as on tracks by the ever-popular Moony, Bonnie Bailey and Milky. Needless to say, house is a very friendly sound, all-around.

Next up is trance. This subgenre was exceptionally big back in the late ‘90s not only in the Philippines, but around the world, with numerous festivals, raves and pirated CDs dedicated to featuring the music. Trance is so named for its hypnotic quality, made even more moving by the atmospheric moods that seem to engulf your entire being and the lulling female vocals that seem to reach your very core. Trance is laden with relatively quiet tones that slowly but surely build up to a mesmerizing climax, then wind down again to a steady and uneventful lull, before taking it up several notches higher, all the while bringing the helpless listener along in its journey. Trance can make you get up from a catatonic position and dance (with a very accomodating 135-155 bpm), whoop exuberantly with joy, or break down and weep, and you won’t even know exactly why; all you’ll know is that you’ve got the music to blame for it. Heroes of the trance phenomenon are Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, Above and Beyond, and ATB.

Techno is the darker and harsher of its contemporaries, a product of industrial Detroit in the late ‘80s. Contrary to popular belief that techno is a catch-all term for everything electronic-sounding, the name is actually used by electronic music know-it-alls to describe a variant of the genre that leans toward the machinistic, conjuring images of gray steel and cold metal. It counts among its advocates pioneers Derrick May and Juan Atkins, CJ Bolland, Carl Cox, Aphex Twin, and Underworld. On the manstream front, you could add Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers to that list.

Downtempo, with associated terms like ambient, chillout, lounge, and triphop, is the quietest and most unobtrusive of them all. As the name implies, the music is slow and soothing, making it an ideal listening choice for relaxation. Don’t even think of dancing to this music, unless you want to look awkward. What makes downtempo beautiful is its manipulation of soundscapes, textures, moods, instrumentation and vocals to create a highly pleasurable aural experience that will make you feel as if you’re floating amongst thick, fluffy white clouds. Some artists that pride themselves on their downtempo sound are Thievery Corporation, Jose Padilla, Chris Coco, Air, Groove Amada, Dzihan & Kamen, Tosca and The Dining Rooms.

Other variants of electronic music that haven’t achieved as much success in the country are breakbeat, jungle and hardcore. Breakbeat is characterized by an unsteady 4/4 drum pattern, hence the term. With 155–180 bpm, jungle has a rough, aggressive and slightly schizophrenic sound, with the more accessible drum ‘n’ bass as one of its derivatives. Hardcore flaunts distorted beats, industrial samples, and bpms that teeter precariously at 180 and above.

With all the electronic music variants I just presented to you (and believe me, there’s more where that came from), there’s no denying that the world of electronic music is a very vast universe indeed. That’s why I personally don’t get why radio stations here in the Philippines can’t warm up to the form. It’s actually a very accomodating medium, if you think about it. There’s so much you can do with the style, evidenced by the proliferation of techno-, electro-, and dance-infused singles that manage to elbow their way into our popular music fare. Many pop stars such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani and Rihanna have gone the club route. Rock bands like The Killers, Bloc Party and White Stripes have let DJs fiddle with their work. Hallowed new wave rockers like U2, Depeche Mode and New Order give credence to the style with ther occasional electronic flirtations in the studio. Even folksy singer-songwriters like Sarah McLachlan and Feist have remix albums to give their earthy tracks a more dynamic techno feel.

Electronic music is here to stay because of the very nature of its driving force: technology. As we advance further and further in technology, so will greater innovations in electronic music proliferate, as long as there are budding talents in studios, record labels, and even in tiny bedrooms that have nothing but a Mac or a PC to create these new aural gems with.

The electronic music revolution continues right after our Godskitchen Worldwide tour which is happening tonight at A-venue featuring the Trance Duo Super8&Tab. Tickets available at the entrance.

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For comments and suggestions, feel free to e-mail me at bigfish@bigfishmanila.com.