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Michael Tharrington for #music discussions

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Music Monday — What are you listening to? (Electronic Edition)

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Last week, we went to the past and talked classically-influenced rock... this week, I'd like to take a left turn and hear y'all's favorite futuristic sounds — I'm talking about electronic music. I see electronic music as being a very broad genre, loosely meaning music made with electronic instruments. This timeline of electronic music genres on Wikipedia is a pretty awesome resource for encapsulating what I have in mind. But as always, we're loose here... interpret the theme however ya wanna, and if nothing is coming to mind that fits the theme, just share what ya like. 😀

A man wearing a white jacket and red headband excitedly jumps up and down, dancing as he is playing a big stack of synthesizers in the 80's


How we do

In this weekly series, folks can chime in and drop links to whatever it is they've been listening to recently + browse others suggestions.

If you like talking about music, consider following the org #music discussions for more conversations about music!


Alright, lemme hear y'all's favorite electronic tunes! Note: you can embed a link to your song using the following syntax {% embed https://... %}. This should work for most common platforms!

Looking forward to listening to y'all's suggestions! 🎶

Top comments (42)

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chrisgreening profile image
Chris Greening

Yessssssss my absolute favorite 😎 prepare for many links lol

Some v significant tracks to the trajectory of my life (discovered as a teenager and fell down electronic rabbithole):

Also some playlists:

Mostly synthpoppy 80s music:

Modern synth with soft vocals (perhaps my favorite playlist out of all my playlists):

Synthwavey music, good for keeping motivated:

Very chill synth, mindless music for relaxing/focusing:

House or house inspired:

Loud and fast crunchy rhythms

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

Oh this one is cool! Thanks!

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Heck yeah! I'm tuning into this one today.

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington • Edited

Alright! I've explored around a little bit and I'm really liking what I hear. The Depeche Mode and New Order tunes are really doing it for me. I wanna try and figure out how to cover "Blue Monday" haha — gonna have to bust out my drum machine later on and see if I can sync it to my Moog Grandmother, then gotta get that cool bass sequence going, haha!

I'm curious if you're an LCD Soundsystem fan at all! Cause I can definitely hear how these tunes have influenced them.

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chrisgreening profile image
Chris Greening

ugh yk LCD Soundsystem is one of those groups that I have only ever listened to in passing and really need to give a dedicated listen to

I was heavily involved at a college radio station when I was in uni and Dance Yrself Clean was one of those tracks that defined my freshman year, so many good memories tied to that song lol the first time I ever heard it I was like "yeah this is p good" and then the drop halfway through the song? completely blew my mind haha instantly catapulted itself as a favorite track in my rotation at the time

I'm gonna give them a deeper listen rn 😎

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Awwwwww yayeah! I got a lotta listening to do here. Will pop in to share my thoughts as I have 'em. 😁

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕ • Edited

ELECTRONIIIIC 🎧
There are some cool musics I liked from this playlist (Electronic Focus from Spotify)


and also

But if we want more electronic without chill vibes, the latest music from David Guetta :

And of course, Calvin Harris aaand Ellie Goulding (love this music)😍 :

💃🏼🕺🏼

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chrisgreening profile image
Chris Greening

Awww yeah loving that Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding track - thank you for sharing!

And speaking of David Guetta I LOVE the collab he released with Oliver Tree a couple weeks ago

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Haha I love the dance crew + hype clown here. Def got me smilin'. 😀

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chrisgreening profile image
Chris Greening

ikr! reminds me of this youtube classic:

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

Oh woaaah !

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Oh wow! I hadn't seen this before... just sent me down a rabbithole to figure out the story here, haha. 😄

I learned that the cybergoth community has been the butt of a lotta jokes and I honestly feel for 'em. I mean hey, this is pretty silly, but it's also pretty damn fun. I could get down with some cybergothery.

At least the dude squeaking the horn doesn't seem to be taking it too seriously, haha!

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

yaaaaaaaaaaaaah 🔥🕺🏼🎧

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

OOoo I like the separation of with chill and without chill vibes. As I get my day started, the chill vibes are def what I'm after, haha. I'm really enjoying "Slow Rain" by Sun Mirage right now, it's so peaceful. 😌

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

Morning Chill, and playing electro in the afternoon ☕😍

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Rithika • Edited

This is my "girl-boss-coder" BG music. I'm still an amateur on low self-confidence, so I play this to get myself hyped up about doing this whole thing.

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Michael Tharrington • Edited

Everybody who lands on this post needs to check out Lisa Bella Donna. If you wanna be taken to the 80's retro-future through analog synthesizers, just search "Lisa Bella Donna Moog" on YouTube and you'll end up with all sorts of awesome stuff.

Here's a couple for y'all:

And if you dig the sound of Moog synthesizers, I highly recommend exploring their Moog Sound Lab playlist for some really cool performances from artists like Jack Antonoff (of Bleachers), Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso, CHVRCHES, Deltron 3030, and more.

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chrisgreening profile image
Chris Greening

Yessss followup check out LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER - the analog synth space is one of the coolest things in existence

The sounds he hacks here out of a Sega Genesis are unreal:

Sega MegaDrive Synthesizer, Made From A Sega Mega Drive And GEN MDM - YouTube

A #Synthesizer made from a #retro #sega #megadrive? / Genesis. All useful links in pinned comment, I've been talking about this project for a while now as we...

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Michael Tharrington

Oh helll yeah! I love freaking love LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER. This video with SEGA is 🔥!

And you're absolutely right... the online synth community is incredible: Hainbach, Cuckoo, The Midlife Synthesist, Jorb, the list goes on and on! 😀

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dendihandian profile image
Dendi Handian

awesome setup!

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

Oooh that is cool! 🔥🎧

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

So, recently I was on vacation watching Mortal Kombat, the 90's version — yes, I know... I have questionable taste in movies, but it was on tv. Anywho, aside from the amazing theme song here, the ending of the movie featured one of my faves, Orbital's Halycon + On + On:

A year before the release of Halycon + On + On, Aphex Twin released Selected Ambient Works 85-92, which included a song called Xtal, that I absolutely love. Everybody should explore some Aphex!

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Bobby Iliev

🎧 lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to 🎧

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

☕📚

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chrisgreening profile image
Chris Greening

an absolute classic 😎

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Oh yeah, Lofi Girl is def worth a mention here! When I really need to focus, this is one of my gotos. It's also really relaxing... a good thing to chill ya out while working.

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dendihandian profile image
Dendi Handian • Edited

I'm basically expanding my suggestion on 'Dance' edition

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Awwww yeah! Loving these, Dendi.

I think we've talked about this previously, but I freaking love The Midnight.

I'll def be tuning into these others — listening to Magdalena Bay right now and already loving it.

Thanks for always weighing in with such excellent tunage. 🙌

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kovarpavel profile image
Pavel Kovar
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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Oooo this is really nice and chill! Just to clarify, are you the creator here? Cause if so, major props!! But regardless of whether you created it or not, thanks for chiming in and sharing this. I really dig it.

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Pavel Kovar

Hello, I am author of this music, you can check my whole profile. Thank you very much for your positive feedback.

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Oh fasho! And seriously awesome that ya made this. Ya got my follow. 😀

I make a bit of music myself, mostly bluesy covers with my band though we're also starting to get into funk. Here we are from a few years ago doing Gimme One Reason.

But, I also love electronic music and got into making beats over COVID. Here's one that actually samples the drums from that same version of Gimme One Reason above... I call it Hal's You Doing? (it also samples Hal 9000 from Space Odyssey, hence the name). To be honest, I think you might have to download it to listen to it. It's a .aif and I should really put it in another form. I made it using a Teenage Engineering OP-1.

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kovarpavel profile image
Pavel Kovar

Man, I have full respect to live musician. Your band is cool. Regarding to your electronic track, honestly, I will not download it, hope you understand that still could be risk for me :)
If you have any vocal samples, I can try to make some house-like music with it, it will fit nicely.

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington • Edited

Thanks a bunch, Pavel! 😁

And hey, that was during my first year of singing, so hopefully my vocals have improved, haha. We have mostly the same band with a few changes here and there. If I get some other good recordings, I'll be happy to share.

No worries at all about the electronic track. I def understand! Good to play it safe. To be honest, you're not missing too much. My producer skills still have a ways to go.

I love the idea of making a house track with ya! I like singing soulful stuff, so a house tune would be really fitting. I might see if I can get a good vocal for something like that and send it your way. If I do, I'll be sure to sing to a click or some basic beat that I make so that I stay in time, haha.

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klardotsh profile image
Josh Klar

Howdy folks! I'm finally settled in just a bit here on Forem's engineering team, so it sounds like just about time to contribute to the music threads - the important stuff! Thankfully I picked a perfect week to jump in: electronic makes up probably the second or third biggest chunk of my library. Here's a spattering of electronic stuff (of all sorts!) that I routinely give some airtime, but I could truly go on and on for pages about this stuff, so this is a Cliff's Notes and Greatest Hits fly-by!

I'll start with XXYYXX - Witching Hour (from the 2012 self-titled album produced in their bedroom when they were like 16, so the story goes). I hope you like deep and sub bass, because this track has plenty of it, and is otherwise a not-too-chaotic-but-not-too-sleepy experience!

Next up is for all the modular synthesis fans in the audience: JakoJako - Kogn. Dissonanz (from the 2019 EP Aequilibration) was, as far as I recall from catching a behind-the-scenes YouTube interview years back, fully written off of modular patches. It's a simple but catchy sound, and yet again: a sub-bass workout for your headphones - or your subwoofer for those of you without neighbors, or perhaps disdain for them :)

Kogn. Dissonanz | JakoJako | Leisure System

from the album Aequilibration

favicon leisuresystem.bandcamp.com

If you like to keep to a simpler four-to-the-floor house sound, the entire discography of these folks is incredible, but for a sampling, I'll share Silicone Soul - Under a Werewolf Moon (from the 2005 album Staring Into Space). It's exactly what I'd imagine dancing to in a moody, dim club that banishes all music with lyrics and allows you to disappear into the embrace of an array of synths for the night, instead. (Whenever someone opens such a club here in the PNW, please let me know!)

I have to give a shoutout to one of the first electronic artists I ever listened to: Pendulum - Propane Nightmares (from the 2008 album In Silico). Take D&B, add a bit more melody funsies courtesy of Rob Swire (yes, Knife Party and/or collabs-with-deadmau5-a-lot Rob Swire), and a drummer who you'd swear was a drum machine, and you get this work of art. For more "pure D&B roots", see their 2005 album Hold Your Colour (or earlier), and for more melodic stuff (plus a crossover into metal, briefly?), see their 2010 album Immersion.

... and no list would be complete without my all-time favorite electronic artist, and one of their most fun songs to experience live when I caught them in Seattle in 2022: Purity Ring - Bodyache (from the 2015 album Another Eternity, though I'm intentionally picking the KEXP live cut here). It's a brighter take on their witchy poppy vaguely-house-inspired sound (for the darker stuff, head to their first album, Shrines).

But wait, there's more! Bonus track because I last-second remembered they're from very nearby (their origins were in a dorm room in Bellingham, WA, about 30 miles away from here): enjoy Odesza - Show Me, for some significantly more upbeat and bright-and-happy dance music!

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Michael Tharrington

Awwww yeah! 🙌

Great to have ya in the thread here, Josh, and these suggestions look awesome! Gonna dig in today and will share my thoughts as I listen through these tunes.

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Magnus Pladsen

I have recently been building up my own electro playlist for when I'm at work coding. This is a collection of different electro songs that keeps me entertained and focused at the same time. Enjoy!

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volfcan profile image
volfcan

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Michael Tharrington

Ooooo, this is starting off awesome — bassiness, crackling watery sounds breaking through, echoes... this is a super cool vibe. 😎

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Kevin Morales • Edited

The new lofi boy is awesome. Synthwave radio

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Tomas Pereira

i'm listening to depeche mode, violator is a really cool album

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NerdsForGaming

Is good for workouts