Toro Y Moi and 'ChillWave'....

[ignatius]

Originally Posted by DGBX

love that vid. a little glimpse into squarepusher's working. pretty squalid though eh?

i'm sure now it's a bit different. that was 14 years ago! from what i've read he moved to the country and bought a house and has his studio in the living room. eventides, rack mount computer, yamaha hard ware sequencer, mixer... think it's mostly the same type of set up just upgraded. small and focused.

[Pale Pyramid]

Originally Posted by grantlandau

ah, some good examples. alas, I was like in 6th grade so not up on the mid 90's lofi scene let's just call this a very big revival then.

was it as far reaching in electronic music? mid 90's is largely characterized as the age when digital clarity was affordable and largely embraced, in my youngin perception (maybe even naive perception?)

yeah , i was in college when you were in 6 grade Grant!lol. anyhoo , I'm giving these new bands props. i think they really feel what their in to and put it out with a refreshing immediacy . the lo-fi of yesteryear i described had more in common with bands like Wavve's "sh*tcore" scene of today then the more electronic elements of Toro and neon indian etc. you young bucks grew up on 80's pop stuff and appreciated it in an innocent way that us folks of advanced years were a bit more cynical of. That's how i hear it anyways. i'm sure that had something to do with the politics of the day , us with hangovers from Reagan-nomics and the Brits with Thatcherism, which you luckily missed by a couple years. far be it for me to say the 80's electronic revival is faddish and played out , that's us old folks grumbling . It's your time and your scene now my brother. obviously goofy metal like Kiss, thin lizzy, Iron Maiden, Post punk like Gang of four , Wire, The Fall, even The Smiths , hardcore and post hardcore like Bad Brains , Fugazi and 70's obscure pop like Big Star and Scott Walker - whatever bands influenced the American scene of the early to mid 90's isn't going to be an apparent reference in the indie music of today. it was cool to be political then and we seemed more Angry as well!

Ignatius , he sounds wayyy more knowledgeable about the 90's electronic / tech side of things . i was pretty middle of the road - a huge fan of Chicago and SF House music ,all things Factory like The Mondays and Warp, squarepusher, The Boards ,Sir James Aphex, as well as daft punk , the chemical bros and massive attack but their production prowess intimidated me to be honest. my area of expierence was shoegazey creation records gtr type music and i admired akai MPC's , step sequencers and midi anything from afar. That gear was mad expensive then, it seemed like we never had extra scratch for gear over a few $100 and a lot of muzik making people were not as computer savvy. there was much more a seperation of church and state in terms of electronic music and indie rock being very different things , here in the USA as i recall. that's changed a bit as us indie rockerz have become more tech savvy , softwares become affordable and you young folks of course have a microchip implanted in your brain so you can interface matrix style with all things digital .

[Pale Pyramid]

Originally Posted by DGBX

love that vid. a little glimpse into squarepusher's working. pretty squalid though eh?

square pusher vid was awesome , dude can play some mean sped up 'level 42' bass! do they let you by music equipment on the dole in Britain ?!

[kreeper_6]

Sounds like that french crap we've had for years, except for the added "ADHD" elements to make it truly American.

[Ol' Betsey]

Originally Posted by kasprouch

Phoenix for one... The whole sound isnt so far from the Happy Monday's either, and thats a good 30 yrs ago.

30 years ago? I think Pills came out around 1990?

(Jesus. Making me feel old now)

R.

[Pale Pyramid]

The Happy Mondays aren't form the 70's . G-Man and 24 hour party people came out in 1987 and Bummer in 1988. so no not 30 years ago. Man the Mondays were scuzzy and dirty and poppin' . No band today sounds close (or acts) even close. Neon Indian needs to borrow Shaun Ryder's pistol and smuggle drugs internationally first. babies steps you new bands , baby steps.

[lolalola]

Originally Posted by kasprouch

Phoenix for one... The whole sound isnt so far from the Happy Monday's either, and thats a good 30 yrs ago.

I don't see how any of this sounds like The Happy Mondays! And THIRTY years ago....??

[Umami Uni]

toro y moi is the shit. I met chaz at the chicago show this week, thought it was cool he was singing through a 57, and creating sample loops of his voice on the fly.

Fun & entertaining.

Neon Indian has a good tune or two, "should've taken acid with you" comes to mind.

[watermelons]

Hey there,

I've been following some of the threads on this forum as well as some others about this style of lo-fi production.

Thought I'd give some feedback about what worked and what didn't.

Water Graves's sounds on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (Our first song is here)

We used a combination of VST synths and physical instruments with a distinct focus on achieving a washed out / dreamy kind of sound.

I've seen alot of posts suggesting running things through tape and VHS, I've tried both... I found these tended to crush the sound either too much, or just introduce distortion to parts of the recording that I wasn't entirely happy with. The best method in getting that "lo fi" sound which everybody is wanting is to increase the mids in your EQ (Especially on your drum samples).

[joostoftoday]

Originally Posted by watermelons

Hey there,

I've been following some of the threads on this forum as well as some others about this style of lo-fi production.

Thought I'd give some feedback about what worked and what didn't.

Water Graves's sounds on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (Our first song is here)

We used a combination of VST synths and physical instruments with a distinct focus on achieving a washed out / dreamy kind of sound.

I've seen alot of posts suggesting running things through tape and VHS, I've tried both... I found these tended to crush the sound either too much, or just introduce distortion to parts of the recording that I wasn't entirely happy with. The best method in getting that "lo fi" sound which everybody is wanting is to increase the mids in your EQ (Especially on your drum samples).

cool track!
but the bass could be a little bit more funky in my ears its sounds more like shoegaze with synthesizers than chillwave maybe a shorter reverb ? but what are genres?! its still a great song.

[donaldcrunk]

Originally Posted by watermelons

Hey there,

I've been following some of the threads on this forum as well as some others about this style of lo-fi production.

Thought I'd give some feedback about what worked and what didn't.

Water Graves's sounds on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free (Our first song is here)

We used a combination of VST synths and physical instruments with a distinct focus on achieving a washed out / dreamy kind of sound.

I've seen alot of posts suggesting running things through tape and VHS, I've tried both... I found these tended to crush the sound either too much, or just introduce distortion to parts of the recording that I wasn't entirely happy with. The best method in getting that "lo fi" sound which everybody is wanting is to increase the mids in your EQ (Especially on your drum samples).

cool stuff!

[MJS7]

Originally Posted by SWAN808

yeah - I think its more the blog scene which is propelled by younger generations who perhaps see things as 'new' rather than syntheses of previous sound/styles...

Probably true. For some of the really young hipsters, it IS new (to them) so they rave about it.

The sound has totally been done before and I'm sure the artists know that (they didn't just make it up on their own) ...BUT it's a good sound so it's refreshing to have around again and mixed with more modern production styles. I've always loved shoegaze, echos, fuzz, dissonance, so I can't hate on this new stuff, even if it doesn't blow my socks off.

Although... some of it sounds a bit too... light in the loafers (ish) for me. Definitely have to be in the right mood for it.

Whereas many of the originals (MBV, Slowdive, etc.) came to that sound more out of drugs, depression, frustration, and experimentation.... the newer guys are more just copying a certain sound and style. That doesn't mean they can't make good songs (and they do) ... but it definitely comes off as the cleaner, wimpier, dancier version.

[Pip]

I'm a little underwhelmed but then I've been making music for 30 years - sure if your 14 it's new but to me well, heard it all before.

[natrixgli]

I've been a huge Cut Copy fan, his stuff I guess would kind of fit the whole "Chillwave" genre. Another great one I recently discovered on Soundcloud is Kites with Lights.



And Blouse:



Recently I got to work with my pal Jeremy on some of his stuff which I think can squeeze into that Chillwave category. I managed to get one song to get all kinds of synthy.

[MJS7]

Originally Posted by natrixgli

Recently I got to work with my pal Jeremy on some of his stuff which I think can squeeze into that Chillwave category. I managed to get one song to get all kinds of synthy.

Nice! especially the chorus... thumbs up