Playlist Anatomy 101

As a follow-up to our chat on playlists last time, I'd like to take look at the subject in more detail. Specifically, I'd like to show you how much obsessive thought goes into making one of my playlists. So maybe this blog won't be the most amusing or embarrassing (don't worry I have more teenage confessions planned for the future!). But who knows, you just might learn something.

Now shut up, class is in session.

I made the playlist we're going to analyse about 4 years ago. If I remember, I made it for my dad in order to try and get across the sheer wealth and diversity of sound possible through electronic music and also to celebrate my favourite muiscal instrument; the humble computer. I'm going to closely examine 5 key areas of this 22 track playlist. The full tracklist is at the end of this post and I've also tried to re-create it as much as possible in Spotify here.

1) Track 1: Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier - Psyche Rock
Instantly recognizable to Futurama fans, the playlist begins with this upbeat psychedelic prologue. This song encapsulates the most prevalent theme in the playlist that of the combination of electronics with traditional instruments. It also sits in the space between academic/experimental (Pierre Henry being one of the pioneers of musique concrète) and popular music, in this case 60's rock, which in my opinion is the space where the most interesting and vital music is produced. But most importantly it just rocks!

2) Track 2: Stockhausen - Studie II & Track 21: Pierre Schaeffer - Etude Violette
Acting as bookends to the almost entirely 21st century meat of the playlist are pieces by two of the most important composers in the development of electronic music. Each represents two of the most prominent approaches to using electronic machinery in the creation of music. Schaeffer and musique concrète in France made music by processing the sounds of everyday objects while Stockhausen in Germany favoured purely electronically generated material. (And their positions in the running order are clustered around modern artists with similar ideologies). While it would be hideously inaccurate to state that Schaeffer and  Stockhausen were the founders of all electronic music, their influence cannot be ignored and I thought it'd be quite neat to give any listening ears some historic context

3) Track 5: Autechre - Tankakern & Track 6: Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn
Oh how far we've come in the years since old Karlheniz's Studie II, where a mere 3 minutes of music took months of cutting and splicing magnetic tape by hand. Now I can make something just as complex on my phone on the way to work! Yes I'm talking about music software and the vast amounts of producers/musicians/DJs of the current age. I only had so much room in this playlist and my prediliction for IDM at the time meant that most popular electronic music had to be represented by just a few tracks in this sub-genre. No doubt if I made this playlist again there would be a Burial track in there somewhere. Anyway these 2 tracks sit nicely between some of the more academic and experimental stuff, if nothing else just to up the tempo a bit! And the fact that Stockhausen famously could not appreciate the music of Aphex Twin makes it all the sweeter that I've stuck them on a playlist together.

4) Track 9: Biosphere - Spring Fever
Under represented in this playlist, but important in highlighting the diversity of the computer in modern music, is the genre of field recording. While predominantly working in the genre of ambient music, here Biosphere's Geir Jenssen captures the sounds of a pack arctic wolves. Their mournful, sonorous cries in Spring Fever are just as powerful as any man-synthed tones. Here we see the computer not as creator or destroyer but as editor. Its ironic that the music of the natural world is only brought to us through these most synthetic means.

5) Track 11: Four Tet - Spirit Fingers; Track 19: John Wall - Construction I & Track 20: Bernard Parmegiani - Accidents/Harmoniques
Briefly discussed earlier, the relation of traditional acoustic instruments with the computer is one of my favourite topics. These 3 tracks approach that relationship from popular, experimental and academic standpoints. Four Tet's sampling retains some of the original acoustic character and creates a piece that is far more energetic and detailed than any acoustic arrangement could ever be. Equally detailed is Wall's composition which is much more destructive with its material to the point where a symphony orchestra sounds like its been ground down into sand. Finally, Parmegiani seeks to blur the lines between instrument and computer by mixing real instruments with carefully synthesised facsimiles.

6) Track 22: Peter Rehberg - Black Holes
An epilogue rounds the playlist out into a neat 2 hours (yes mild OCD helps when making playlists) which is mainly here just because I love the album this track came from. Written for performance to the theatre work of Viennese puppeteer Gisèle Viene, the words denote distressing scenes of psychological trauma and domestic violence. As our sojourn through electronic music ends we see computer music as high-drama competing on the same level as operatic and film scores.

There is even more I didn't get to talk about. Like improvised music created by the interplay between acoustic instruments and live electronics vs the powerbook scene or the joys of putting "high" academic acousmatic music next to drum and bass. Subjects for another day perhaps...

Although I probably imposed all these themes onto this playlist after the fact, its a lot of fun to draw these kinds of connections. Anyway I hear the bell ringing. I hope you've all been taking notes. There'll be a test next week.

Full Tracklist:
1) Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier - Psyche Rock
2) Stockhausen - Studie II
3) Pita - Resog 45
4) Pan Sonic - Mayhem I
5) Autechre - Tankakern
6) Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn
7) Satanicpornocultshop - Some Velvet Morning
8) Matmos - For Felix (and all the rats)
9) Biosphere - Spring Fever
10) Colleen - Everyone Alive Wants Answers
11) Four Tet - Spirit Fingers
12) Tanja Orning & Natasha Barrett - Anchor Synthesis
13) a_dontigny - Tatline
14) Marcelle Deschenes - Big Bang II
15) Fenn O'Berg - Fenn O'Berg Theme
16) Fennesz - Endless Summer
17) Amon Tobin - Triple Science
18) Asa-Chang & Junray - Tsuginepu To Ittemita
19) John Wall - Construction I: Stat/Unt/Dist
20) Bernard Pamegiani - Accidents/Harmoniques
21) Pierre Schaeffer - Etude Violette
22) Peter Rehberg - Black Holes