Let's trip
The synthetic dream foundation

Here we have some interesting music for the alternative music lovers out there!(or people who are high as a kite...) 

Listen, this guy does music, paints, makes digital collages and animation! Imagine being capable of doing all that? That probably feels awesome!

Enjoy

Old School
Kraftwerk

The band was created in Dusseldorf

    It’s time for another classic, and another group of weirdoes. Yes, that’s Kraftwerk. They are considered pioneers of electronic music and they deserve that name.

Short history

    The band was originally created back in 1970, in Germany, by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider who met each other in Robert Schumann Hochshule College.        The first few albums contained various traditional instruments (guitars, violins, flutes, bass etc.), and did not really resemble the Kraftwerk sound that everyone one knows today. Basically they were explorations of the musical medium, making instrumental albums only .Only later did the group start using the instruments that made theirs sound known- synthesizers and drum machines. Also, in the album Ralf und Florian they first used the vocoder, which later became an irreplaceable tool in their music.

The custom build vocoder(on top of making great music,
they pushed the limits of music technology)

    Real fame to the fathers of electronic music came from the 1974 album Autobahn, with which they toured in US, Canada and UK. With another album, Radio-Activity being awarded “Gold disc” in France they became a bright star in the music of the day.

Many more studio albums and tours later, Minimum-Maximum was released, which was the bands first live album. It included shows from the tour of 2004 and was praised by critics.

Up to this day, Kraftwerk are actively creating and performing music around the world.

Interesting facts

Just facts

• The band is known for its seclusion from the outer world. For example, the phone in their studio does not make any sound when it rings. Kraftwerk say that they do not like to get interrupted while they work in the studio. This means that in order to call them, you have to do it on a set time, only then will someone answer you
• The band influenced so many musicians, including Depeche Mode, Visage, Ultravox and John Foxx.  Oh, and techno lovers out there, did you know that the famous “Belleville three”, the fathers of Detroit techno (and techno in general) used Kraftwerk samples in their early work
• The name Kraftwerk actually means “power plant” in German

   A quick update for now, but I definitely think that this is worth sharing.
   So here you go, ever got lost in the massive amount of electronic music genres? Well fear no more, this guide has it all, plus, every genre comes with samples, brilliant! The amount of music that you can find in this little website is mind blowing, check it out, you won't regret it!

Old school
 Yello

Yello's logo

   I have decided to make multiple posts about bands that have influenced electronic music. I will start this collection off with Yello, the Swiss electronica band. There is no reason for Yello being the first band overviewed except that I am listening to it at the moment.

Short history

  I think it would be hard to find a person who does not know the famous song “Oh yeah”, but probably only a small part of those people know that this song was created by a band called Yello, a band that was created in the late 70’s by two talented musicians – Boris Blank and Carlos Peron. Dieter Meier joined the band a bit latter, when the duo decided that they need someone who could sing well. However, the trio lasted only for a while, because Carlos Peron decided to start a solo career.

The trio (Boris Blank, Dieter Meier and Carlos Peron)

    Their first single was released in 1979, it was called  “I.T. Splash” and a year later they released their first LP “Solid Pleasure”(which featured the hit “Bostich”). As years have passed they released 11 more studio albums and a bunch of remix and compilation albums. Yello created many singles that were ranked very well in chart positions( Bostich, Jungle Bill, Vicious Games, Oh yeah, Tremendous Pain and much more)

Their music

One of the reasons why Yello stood out of the other electronica bands was the unique sounds used in producing their music, even listening to it today you can feel the originality and creativity flowing from each song. In addition to great music, Dieter Meier has a great, deep and dark voice which fits in great with the music created. The interesting thing is, the music is created first, only then lyrics are written and recorded on top.

  Just facts

• Yello almost never uses samples that were already used and Boris Black created most of them. It is known that his collection of samples is over 100 000 original samples.
• Dieter Meier is not only the vocalist of Yello, he is also a multimillionaire industrialist, a professional poker player and a one time member of the Swiss national golf team. Now THAT’S what I call multitasking!
• Dieter Meier also directed most of the bands music videos.

 The song that everyone knows...