What are some of your favorite songs that start modest and turns out to be an absolute monster of tune!
Here are a few of mine:
Leftfield - Song of Life
Mildly interesting tribal chanting building into some drums. Doesn't seem to be going anywhere until the 2:15 mark but still leaves you scratching your head why they bothered to so boldly title it "Song of Life". And then at 3:28 a thumping acid masterpiece unfolds. The beginning makes perfect sense now, because it's the ritual to summon this absolute beast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCoAndSOF7I
Ratatat - Nightclub Amnesia
A non-polished grinding synth beat is not exactly an exciting or inviting way to start any track, but you stick around because Ratatat is known to take nothing into something (incredible!). The proverbial, "hold it, let 'em cook" track. A great example that a song doesn't have to end in the same area where it started. Man I love this fucking album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RphNk7FyNwQ
Daft Punk - Digital Love
So to be fair, Digital Love sounds incredibly great from the get-go. But, it does have a perky pop radio sound that can turn the less tolerant away. For a great deal of the track, it disguises itself from being this epic progressive piece of electropop that it is. One the greatest sound achievements in all of music is the guitar (synth) solo peeking with the bridge at 3:48. I get chills every time the guitar kicks in. Probably my favorite track from them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4whD6uAryMs
Here's one that immediately comes to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji1inpBFTqg
NB: THE DAILY MOTION VIDEO I ACCIDENTALLY-ISH EMBEDDED FOR LEFTFIELD
MIGHT START PLAYING AUTOMATICALLY AFTER A FEW SECONDS, SO YOU MAY WANT TO PAUSE THAT IF YOU'RE PLAYING ANOTHER VIDEO.
Quote from: Bosco on Jul 13, 2025, 03:42songs that start modest and turns out to be an absolute monster of a lovely tune!
Now that you've changed the perameters a bit, this one springs to mind. Though you could argue that the intro isn't
that boring.
Lemon Jelly - The Staunton Lickhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ls_XYQuGJU
Going more commercial -it's Faithless. Who fancies some Opera? Don't stop listening before 4:49.
Faithless - Salva Mea (Floating mix)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C5NMPLRJUw
Even the main Epic mix has 1:24 worth of 'meh' intro before it suddenly takes off
Faithless - Salva Mea (Epic Mix) 1995https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hshi4T2wqwQ
I'm sure there are better examples in my personal music collection, but I might have to spend some time mentally or physically going through all that...
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Quote from: Bosco on Jul 13, 2025, 03:42Leftfield - Song of Life
Mildly interesting tribal chanting building into some drums. Doesn't seem to be going anywhere until the 2:15 mark but still leaves you scratching your head why they bothered to so boldly title it "Song of Life". And then at 3:28 a thumping acid masterpiece unfolds.
The album version isn't the original version, of course. It came out on 12" (https://www.discogs.com/master/100022-Leftfield-Song-Of-Life) with a very different intro a couple of years earlier. I understand why they re-worked it for the album. If they hadn't, it probably wouldn't have fit in with the sumptuous level of production on the rest of Leftism. But perhaps they could have re-worked it with a bit more of the original intro riff.
It's almost impossible to find that original A-side 12" version on YouTube etc. It's not in the embedded vids on the Discogs page. The only place I can find it is on Daily Motion (this has embedded which I didn't expect. You may have to unmute it, top left of vid). Daily Motion (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx6565)
In 2022 I had a brief twitter chat with Neil Barnes about this.
He posted a clip of the 12" on his turntable and wrote: "Found this. Promo self Stamped first version of Song Of Life from 1992. Nice memories. ..."
I commented: "It's really hard to find this version on YouTube etc. Any idea why Neil?"
Neil replied: "It's probably because people don't know of it's existence. It's not the album version."
<<Yeah, no shit Neil, but you're expecting other people to upload it? You have your own official channel Neil!>> - Is NOT what I said, but what I thought!
By the time I had seen Neil's reply to me, Hervé had jumped into the convo (THE Hervé (https://www.discogs.com/artist/415964-Herv%C3%A9)) with: "Reminded of the Underworld mix of it you got done, loved that too".
Well Underworld did TWO remixes, but I'm not sure I really agree with the comment. Neil didn't reply to Hervé.
So yeah, I do agree with Mr Barnes that "people don't know of its existence", but I wish they did!
Incidentally somewhere on this forum I posted a YT video of How It Was Made by YouTuber Gyu Beats (-the album version, that is).
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk8MkRKj52Q
And we know(!) that Gyu Beats is good at his deconstructions because in his video for Fatboy's Right Here Right Now, Fatboy himself jumped into the comments to say "very interesting tutorial, my friend. i wish i'd had Ableton when i did it! . DM me you email address and i'll fill you in the bits you couldn't work out...."
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKvWlj5R-Aw
But yeah, I'm going off topic now...
Little Simz - Lotus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BplWSCZpY
Royksopp - Royksopp Forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rSpas1OZ48
Air - The Vagabond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j91DVdC6LT8
M83 - Solitude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HA6kS5WeYw
Did I understand the assignment ?
Quote from: Ben_j on Jul 16, 2025, 06:45Did I understand the assignment ?
I'm completely open to individual interpretation. The goal is mainly to remember, and perhaps, re-discuss tracks we haven't talked about in a while. I appreciate all the quality tracks everyone has shared thus far.
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Does everybody remember when they first heard this? I imagine majority of us were introduced to it alongside the music video. Thing is, without the music video, I have to believe the magic of this cult classic is largely forgotten. Even when I first saw it, it wasn't the music that was intriguing (at first) but the eerie nature of events unfolding through the music video that kept me hanging on. This was my first introduction to Aphex Twin and my first exposure to the IDM genre, so this was immensely experimental for my 13-or-so year old brain. I can't imagine the average viewer (speaking for Americans here) who stumbled across this unsolicited, got past 30 seconds of any part of this video/song. It wasn't later until the internet started championing it as some "fucked-up shit" where people actually payed attention. Point is, Windowlicker is a multipart hyper head-fuck (or was, for it's time). 4:53 is a blazing sound of violence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FATTzbm78cc
Quote from: Ben_j on Jul 16, 2025, 06:45Royksopp - Royksopp Forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rSpas1OZ48
Oh I think this is a great example!
Another Röyksopp track fits here, I think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNyrRfuu9X4
And another one, this one really isn't in any rush to unfold, but then it always draws me in completely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSQmvMP4vk
Quote from: Stefan on Jul 18, 2025, 22:17Oh I think this is a great example!
Another Röyksopp track fits here, I think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNyrRfuu9X4
Royksopp have a good share of tracks that would fit the bill, here are a couple more :
Royksopp - Shores of Easy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iye7cJhSRk
Royksopp - Speed King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADhyBXyItwg
Royksopp - There, Beyond The Trees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRtVZzR0xg
Royksopp - This Time, This Place...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UXQd8ExjEg
What a great topic! Here are a few songs I never get tired of listening to:
Kraftwerk – Elektro KardiogrammI was torn between this track and
Tour de France Etape 2. I went with the "3D" version because, to me, it feels a bit more intense and raw — the bass sounds amazing. I love the minimalist vocoder and the effects throughout. My dream is to one day experience this incredible song live... pretty unlikely, but I haven't lost hope.
Underworld – Low BurnEvery time I hear this track, I get goosebumps. It's absolutely everything that's right with electronic music.
Justice – GeneratorChoosing the third one was tough — I was considering Aphex Twin, Metronomy, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip... but I had to go with this beast. According to Spotify, it was my most-played song last year. This year, I was lucky enough to see Justice live for the first time, and when they played this track, it was pure madness. I'm attaching the video I recorded.
Futureshock - Frequency
I must have heard this track for the first time on the radio during one of their festival sets in about 2001 , 2002.
I've revisited this track so many times over the years and i still really like it , plus it's great for testing new audio kit.
It's one of those tracks that's like an engine trying to sync itself to run perfectly , which it achieves towards the end.
It's got a couple of breakdowns , ethereal synths , increasing motion , and vocal telling us to ' stay on the frequency ' . . . .
https://youtu.be/ugcOh4-0yrE
Quote from: nekoland on Jul 28, 2025, 22:18Justice – Generator
It's an awesome track, but I wouldn't call it deceptive. It is pretty much "In your face" right from the beginning
Quote from: Stefan on Aug 01, 2025, 18:46It's an awesome track, but I wouldn't call it deceptive. It is pretty much "In your face" right from the beginning
Oh, you're absolutely right. For a moment, I completely forgot about the topic, haha. Then I switch to this great song I discovered thanks to Tom's mix.
John Bender - 33a1I love this song. I love that it's so minimalist. So futuristic and "homey"
Quote from: nekoland on Jul 28, 2025, 22:18What a great topic! Here are a few songs I never get tired of listening to:
Kraftwerk – Elektro KardiogrammI was torn between this track and
Tour de France Etape 2. I went with the "3D" version because, to me, it feels a bit more intense and raw — the bass sounds amazing. I love the minimalist vocoder and the effects throughout. My dream is to one day experience this incredible song live... pretty unlikely, but I haven't lost hope.
I used to frequently run to the 'Tour de France' album, and Elektro Kardiogramm was always the song I concluded on to complete my ~7km runs. On the final leg of these runs I'd have to face a fairly long incline, so the accentuated breathing during the song is miracle worker to control my breathing through the toughest part. Hopefully, I can back to that stamina again.
Radiohead - Exit Music (For a Film)
Radiohead is stereotyped for being a glum listening experience, and this particular track does nothing to change that. I have my favorites from by them, but NOTHING will be more powerful than this very unassuming track.
Anyone who has experienced depression or despair (which is just about all of us), I DARE you to lay down in your bed alone, turn the lights off, and put this track on your headphones. If your not shook by the end of this track, I'm not sure you're human.
Vitalic - Eternity
An ominous, elongated Philip Glass-like intro, dropping into an absolute electro powerhouse. Perhaps Vitalic genius isn't talked about enough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plOms53eEhE
Was listening to Jamie XX earlier and I thought a couple of tracks were spot on for this topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjNssEVlB6M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSRTHbtlLFc