Eyen-Plaid

I was recently joking that I’d love to have my own radio station that played nothing but electronic music from disco to house to idm to electro clash and everything else in between. IDM, Intelligent Dance Music was a term used around the turn of the century (2000) to describe a kinda of music that was less shlocky and more refined than the techno being produced at this time. Some IDM moved into a sub genre called “glitch.” Glitch is the kinda music you play if you really want to irritate your parents. Guitar rock doesn’t work anymore cause that’s what they listen to. Glitch would drive them crazy! Anyways, Plaid is one of the better bands that emerged from the IDM scene but Boards of Canada are still my favorite. When I first heard the song Eyen, I must’ve listened to it a hundred times in a row, I was so infatuated with it. It’s nice to hear it again after all these years.

Smack My Glitch Up-Kid 606

This is a very tame and listenable glitch track by master Kid 606. Even I can’t really listen to his albums all the way through. I admit I really loved the track sampled in this song as well – I don’t care if Kylie Mynogue is a pop princess. Here’s Kid 606’s excellent glitch version of Straight Outta Compton.

My Red Hot Car-Squarepusher

Squarepusher also experimented a bit with glitch elements in this favorite track of mine. More Squarepusher beats to rattle your nerves here.

Tricky Disco-Tricky Disco

A long time ago when I was still a teenager, back after I stopped being a punk rocker (a good chunk of my friends turned into nazi skinheads) and gave up on cholos (two of my boyfriends ended up in jail), I took a job at the now defunct Robinson’s department store downtown on 5th street where I met all these super friendly gay Latino guys. They started taking me to clubs and what they called “underground parties” which were the precursors to the rave scene here in Los Angeles. These parties were usually put on by groups of British DJs and attended by a subculture art crowd. It really was an anything go type of scene and reminded me of the early experimentations of punk. The original parties were set up in abandoned downtown warehouses and you needed to go to the map location to get the directions and address. The parties usually started around midnight would go till dawn and sometimes longer. There were never any adequate bathroom facilities but the $5-$10 entrance usually came with free booze. Tracks like Tricky Disco and LFO were some of my favorite songs from this era. I corresponded with DJs in London who’d send me these awesome mix tapes (some live radio recordings from offshore illegal pirate stations out at sea) that my mom would call “alarm clock music.” It was a fun time in my life. Eventually, straight guys and normal people started discovering raves and it turned into a whole different scene with the usual crap that goes along with it. I moved on too.

Alexander Robotnick – Obsession for the disco freaks

I’m including this video for a few reasons. One, Alexander was nice enough to put the video up on my chimatli mix myspace page. But also, because he was one of the innovators of Italo Disco and it’s amazing to see him still making music. Like him, I’ve spent many hours at record shops flipping through vinyl, looking for that elusive album. It’s a nice tribute to DJs and vinyl junkies.