This literally kills complextro
I love the pissing contest vibes in here.
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Just trying to show that complextro is a straight up misnomer. It describes music that isn’t even really complex nor is it even really electro .
You clearly know nothing about composing music and electronic music production.
mad ting
1 BigUp
You’re talking to someone who’s been composing music for 15 years, and producing electronic music for 11.
I think we might just have to disagree then because I know what some of these guys are doing sound design and production wise and it can be crazy.
I’m not saying it isn’t time-consuming to automate a ton of parameters to make things sound the way they do in the examples given thus far, I’m just saying complexity in music isn’t, in my opinion, predicated on parameter automation and more predicated on actual musical complexity. That’s why Autechre is so interesting to me, because they actually create music that, if you wrote it out, would be highly complicated.
This is a good example of what I’m talking about. Melodically, it’s pretty simple. but rhythmically it’s taking a lot of chances and floating nearly to the point of being out of beat, but it still remains in time. To me, that’s complexity.
Another example, this one is from Karlheinz Stockhausen. who was probably one of the most important composers of early electronic music. This to me represents the idea of complexity in a different way.
1 BigUp
Having a bunch of automation going on is sort of like the the definition of complexity don’t you think?
So you don’t feel the the nearly never repeating pattens across a ridiculous number of sound is complicated musically?
Its not just automation. The sound design is some of the most complex of any music. Then there is the way it will normally be processed outside of the synths… and so much other stuff…
On this one I really feel I could write some kind of college level paper on the complexity of Bro and Complextro.
The Autechre tune is ok but… Im sorry but pushing a few drums out of time is common and everyday. not special.
Wow and you said that I clearly know nothing about composing music, but you’re calling Autechre not special. Just wow.
1 BigUp
Well I’m not an expert on the guy but from the stuff you posted nothing stands out to me.
Special is a word save for artists like Burial.
Whatever man.
Honestly if you don’t know who Autechre is, I can’t help you.
no, having a bunch of automation going on is… having a bunch of automation going on…
that may or may not be complex in itself, but that depends where the complexity lies…
1 BigUp
EXACTLY.
a lot of the stuff you’ve posted as examples seem to have complexity on the surface but its really just a lot of fairly standard things going on all at once. This isnt a good thing or a bad thing. Complexity doesnt make something good/enjoyable, and vice versa.
Complexity for the sake of complexity though is almost always less effective for conveying an idea in any artform ranging from architecture to dance. Complexity when it suites the nature of the piece though can be very powerful; the same can be said of very very minimal works.
as for your original question, I dont think ‘complextro’ lends itself well to ‘chill’ music. Its a bit like asking for some laid back Gabber to listen to.
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Pushing a few drums out of time is… pushing a few drums out time.
@cyclopian So music being chilled is a fair emotional concept but complexity is not?
but it’s a controlled, and “complex” rhythm…
a bunch of automation going on is really vague and could sound like anything really
I’ll explain what Autechre is doing for your feeble mind. They’re not “pushing the drums out of time,” in fact they’re hardly using MIDI in the way you or I are familiar with. Much of the album that I posted from is created from generative Max/MSP patches that are manipulating the time and tempo independent of a grid. They then record that and automate it later on. They build and create a lot of their own patches to do things I couldn’t even imagine. It’s far more complex than anything you or I could ever hope to do.
My basic point is really that automation doesn’t make complexity, the construction of the music itself is what make some type of music complex. In my view.
Are you saying that automation as a whole cant be used for anything controlled and complex?
@Cheyne_Taylor_Bush look pushing some drums out of time is a simple and common musical tool.
Doing what they are doing with Max/MSP is more complicated. Why didn’t you mention it before?
Doing one complicated thing is not the same as having nearly every element of the song at the forefront of music production.
no i’m saying that lots of automation does not mean complexity