Musings: Are My Musical Tastes Maturing? Or, Alternatively, My Thoughts On The New Bonobo

Though I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one, the (relatively) new Bonobo album, The North Borders, is amazing. It's just under an hour of dizzy, soulful trip-hop brilliance which dips just far enough into garage and formless downtempo to be interesting the whole way through. It's also something I doubt I would have listened to at all, much less enjoyed as much as I did, if I'd found it six months ago. The album's quality would probably have been lost on me if it had come out then, as at that point I mostly listened to music for the raw entertainment value. It's the classic case of an American teenager, recently recovered from being blindsided by the likes of Skrillex and Flux Pavilion, figuring out what exactly "serious" music means, why people enjoy it when there's far more interesting music out there, and whether he'd ever be like everyone else in liking it.

Musings: Is EDM dead?

I'm usually a fervent supporter of EDM. I think there's a large amount of good electronic out there that's fun, danceable, poppy, and catchy, and a lot of music within the blanket term should be treated with the respect it deserves. I'm willing to defend my opinion most of the time, too. I remember a discussion I had with Sputnikmusic mod and electronic music whiz Deviant about this topic, where he referred to EDM as "a term being used to sell a trend, nothing more...It's just more bandwagonning of a sound that's been dumbed down and mass produced. In the words of Deadmau5, it's 'minimal effort for maximum return.'" At the time, I was peeved that someone would think of a general blanket term I identified with as "dumbed-down." How was that possible, I wondered? After all, I enjoy big, earth-shaking wobbles and snarls for the most part. Plus, even as promotion channels like UKFDubstep and labels like Play Me and OWSLA began to lose their savor, I still found many positives in the scene which so many find so abhorrent.