Electro

Electro - that much maligned term in the categorisation of electronic music - is something thats dear to my heart. My first truly transformative musical experiences involved hearing the newly released seminal Streetsounds Electro Comps, which contained tunes that would re-shape the modern musical landscape - Hashim, Egyptian Lover, Man Parrish, Cybotron, Bambatta. As is now well documented, it had sprouted from the work of Kraftwerk, Silver Apples, YMO, Funkadelic, etc.. but to me, at time, it was new, wierd & amazing… like a lazer straight from Pluto to your brain!

So I started to buy the records when I could. This wasnt easy in Ireland in the 80s.. I didnt live anywhere near a city and didnt even know about mail-order. So I had cousins abroad that I would rely on or maybe you would go to England every couple of years. So my collection was small and well thumbed. Then acid house arrives, and its aftershocks (post 1990) brought a lot of what was sounding just like electro to me. Id hear it on John Peel - LFO, Rephlex, etc + there was still the more purist stuff out there like the Miami stuff (led by Dynamix II) and of course Detroit (Metroplex, UR, etc..) Things started to ramp up post 1995, particularly with Dave Clarkes Electro comp, Global Communications Jedi Knights project, Gescom, Disco B/Gigilo, Weatheralls Emmisions, Viewlexx & the NL crew and a whole slew of micro labels releasing some amazing Electro influenced sounds.

I’d buy as much of this as i could, and play it out…. although it was always a select crowd. Decal/Umack, and later Neuromantek/Electric City were the only places in Dublin supporting Electro in the 90s/00s.

I was thinking about all this a couple of months ago & wondered how much of this ‘second golden era’ of Electro (1995-2005) was available to stream on *youknowwhere. Not that im a fan of streaming, the opposite in fact, but from the perspective of people discovering/hearing it. Of course nearly everything is on Youtube and you can disappear down the Discogs/Youtube rabbit hole for many hours but thats for the real anoraks. So I took a gander through the records, pulling out the ones that arent on *youknowwhere & putting a snip of them daily on my Instagram. Some are well-ish known but not streamable for whatever reason, others hidden gems. There were plenty that I was very surprised to see up on *youknowwhere, considering they may have had micro pressings 30 years ago that go for serious cash on Discogs..

The Electro sub-culture continues today - eg Clone West Coast re~releases, select DJs still play it & theres always good records popping up. Paul FEF recently asked me to do an Electro mix for his excellent radio show. Its got the old & newish and kicks off in the second hour. Hope you enjoy!

Veronica Vasickia - In Silhouette (Regis Mix) [2018]
Unknown DJ - 808 Beats (Club Mix) [1984]
Bleaching Agent - You Know How [2023]
Chris Carrier - Lactarius Indigo Mission [2016]
Monotronique - Big Puncher [2018]
Ultradyne - Suicide Relay [2018]
Zelada - Rebimboca [2019]
Sluts n Strings & 909s - Past The Gates (DJ Hell Mix) [1998]
Plastique De Reve - So Many Things [2005]
Nikki Nair - EXP1 [2019]
Mesak - Hullux Tulo [2016]
Lowfish - The Freezing [2007]
LA-4A - Slackline [2018]
Bolz Bolz - Take A Walk (Paul Daley Mix) [2003]
DJ Deeon - R U Sure? [1996]
DJ Bone - The Funk [1999]
Dez Williams - Grinding To A Halt [2008]
Keith Tucker - Alien Radio [2002]
Exaltics - Its Not What It Seems Like [2020]
Perm - Lukwa [2018]
Privacy - Shove [2017]
Illektrolab - Internal Software [2007]
Fleck E.S.C - OCP [2015]
Antonio - Cyborg [2017]
Litwinenko - Tripping. Roughing, Holding [2007]
Tv.Out - USER3328 [2019]
LA-4A - Creased [2018]
Kraftwerk - Numbers/Computer World 2 (Willow Edit) [2011]
The Slow Engineer - Where Comes The Dark [2017]
The Hacker - Jupiter Skyline [2014]
Weltwirtschaft - Evighet [2011]
Lok44 - Flaix [2003]
Vector Lovers - Futures In Plastic (Claro Intelecto Dub Mix) [2005]
EON - Absorbed [2001]