The other day I realized that I had been tagging some posts on this blog as electronic, and others as electronica.
“What’s the difference?” I asked myself.
“Well,” I replied, “it’s a subtle stylistic difference. Very complicated.”
There was a long pause, followed by an eyebrow raised in suspicion. “Explain,” I insisted.
“Okay,” I answered, shifting nervously in my seat, “electronic music is, you know, dance music. Electronica is, kind of, not dance music, but…the instruments…because the…and music.”
“That’s not even a sentence,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “You don’t know, do you?”
I was forced to admit that no, I do not know the difference. But in my defence, neither does anybody. The internet had all kinds of answers, all very sure of themselves, all entirely different, and often completely contradictory of one another.
Some people assert that electronica was a label applied by the media in the 1990s when previously underground electronic acts like Prodigy and Chemical Brothers suddenly became mainstream. Others claim that electronic is the main genre, while electronica is a sub-genre. But still others claim it’s the opposite.
In the end, the most convincing answer I could find was also the shortest. The main difference between the two appears to be…the letter ‘a’. So, in the interest of keeping things simple and saving myself a spare letter ‘a’ I have decided to re-tag all songs of this genre under the marginally shorter “electronic.”
However you tag it, this track (the whole album, actually) by Kiasmos is a beauty. It’s got the three things I love most about electronic music. Which are…
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. A simple chord structure, upon which layers and layers of subtle detail are added, so that it reaches sonic and rhythmic complexity without you even noticing.
2. A combination of electronic and acoustic instruments, so that you get the precision and drive of digital music with the organic touch of the human hand.
3. A clear musical intelligence behind it all. This isn’t some doofus pressing buttons; it’s two very musical people (one of whom is the previously-featured Olafur Arnalds) producing a first-rate piece of music that honours the genre of electronic(a).
Recommended listening activity:
Rebelliously cutting the tag off your mattress.