At my job that actually pays, we’ve been trying to figure out what relaxing electronic music should be categorized under on our website. It was originally classified as ‘electronica,’ but the name was often confused with electronic, especially with Spanish speakers. Downtempo & trip-hop were other good options, but we decided on chill as it seems to be the most popular term used now.
I thought about naming our Electro Relaxations playlist something similar, but as popular as chill is now I gotta imagine it’ll fall off as fast as it came in. I’m still not too set on Electro Relaxations, but it seems like the best option for now. And who really cares, the music speaks far better than any name could.
Like always, I had no idea what I was getting into with this. All I can remember is listening to this song and thinking how much it sounded like the Coraline soundtrack, the chorus specifically.
What I had no idea on was who this young lady is, Willow Smith (look her up). And despite her young age that’s reflected in her take on The XX’s Your Love, she shows a lot of maturity in how she carries her voice. At least compared to her first hit single.
We haven’t had a single on Silence since Embody’s Make A Stand, which was over two months ago. I guess we’re all about the playlists now and singles are even more selective. But Grynpret has something special with his Airplane Food.
I cannot tell you what this style of electro is going to do for dance, though it’ll take a few years to even have a chance mainstream. This vaporware style I can best refer to it as takes from anime & classic video games, I believe Yoshi is on here, and slaps some solid electro funk in. The sound is penetrating, for better or worse, but is exactly the right formula for the progression of dance music, at least for one style.
The same styles of EDM from last year seemed to dominate Beyond Wonderland this year. Mainly progressive house and various forms of bass music. I like a lot of both, but this mainstream shit sounds so manufactured. It’s like old people buying into infomercials, but at least they have an excuse (they’re old).
I know I sound like the typical music blogger bitchin about the mainstream, but I bring it up so someone will help me understand why people settle for this shit. There are just so many better alternatives. And a few were actually on side stages at Beyond. I guess the lack of awareness is the biggest problem.
So every year, since last year, we’ve put together a list of our favorite EDM tracks for Beyond. Since we’ve already covered house this year with our tropical house & deep house playlists, we decided to go for bass.
It does include deep house & electro funk, but we tried to highlight as much glitch & lazers & shit as possible. Just remember, bass is more for the feeling & dance than for the sound.