Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.
Dub is an electronic musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style. Generally, dub consists of remixes of existing recordings created by significantly manipulating the original, usually through the removal of vocal parts, emphasis of the rhythm section, the application of studio effects such as echo and reverb, and the occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works.
Laura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. She is known for her folk/alternative country records and live performances as well as her collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang on the case/lang/veirs project. Veirs has written a children's book and hosts a podcast about parenting and performing.
Monotimbral is usually used in reference to electronic synthesizers which can produce a single timbre at a given pitch when pressing one key or multiple keys.
"Cocoon" is a song by Icelandic singer Björk for her fourth studio album, Vespertine (2001). Written and produced by Björk and Thomas Knak, it was released as the album's third single on 11 March 2002 by One Little Indian Records. Inspired by her relationship with artist Matthew Barney, Björk wanted to create a record with a domestic mood. Working with Knak, she wrote "Cocoon", a song which is lyrically about a woman who describes making love with her lover during their post-coital hibernation, and includes frank sexual narrative related both explicitly and through over-sharing and metaphor.
Love/Hate is the debut album by American singer-songwriter The-Dream. It was released on December 11, 2007, by Def Jam Recordings and Radio Killa Records during his emergence as a prominent songwriter-producer in R&B and pop music.
The Spoils is a debut full-length studio album by Nika Roza Danilova, better known as American singer-songwriter Zola Jesus, released in July 2009 on Sacred Bones Records. To the LP version's original 10 tracks the CD adds five songs: two from "Soeur Sewer" and three from the "Poor Sons" 7-inch singles.
"Impressive Instant" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her 2000 studio album Music. Originally intended to be the fourth single of the album, the release was cancelled due to a disagreement between Madonna and her recording company. Finally Warner Bros. released it in the United States as a promotional single on September 18, 2001. Written and produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï, the track is bright and uplifting in its content and composition. It was the first song that Madonna and Ahmadzaï worked on and recorded. Ahmadzaï had to work separately on his laptop to generate the sound elements which Madonna wanted in the song, since it was difficult to generate the music in the recording studio. "Impressive Instant" has been described as a club-savvy acid techno, pop-trance, electropop and electro house stomper containing futuristic keyboard lines, with Madonna's vocals being distorted and robotic. Backed by laser noises and synths, the song's lyrics deal with love at first sight, and contains somewhat absurd, nonsensical lyrics.
Facedown is the debut extended play (EP) by English band the 1975. It was released on 6 August 2012 by Dirty Hit and Interscope. The band produced the EP alongside Jamie Ellis and Ian Grimble. An art rock, indie pop and ambient pop record, it incorporates a diverse range of sounds including indie rock, electronica, dance-pop, gothic and emo.
Z is the third extended play (EP) by American R&B singer SZA. It was released on April 8, 2014, by Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). After amassing two self-released EPs, See.SZA.Run and S, as well as meeting with members of Top Dawg Entertainment, she subsequently signed a recording contract with the indie label. The recording of the EP took place in Carson, California during the summer of 2013 with the help of her TDE labelmate Isaiah Rashad, among others.
New Look is the self-titled debut studio album of husband-and-wife electronic music duo New Look, consisting of singer and former model Sarah Ruba and Adam Pavao. The record was written in Toronto and recorded for two years in Berlin. The album garnered critical acclaim for its production, Ruba's vocals and the distinctiveness of each song, landing in the top 50 on Drowned in Sound's list of the best albums of 2011.
"The Gate" is a song recorded by Icelandic musician Björk. It was released on 15 September 2017 through One Little Indian as the lead single from her ninth studio album, Utopia (2017). The song was written and produced by Björk and Arca. An ambient and electronica song, "The Gate" lyrically meditates on the possibilities of love, from both a speculative and emphatic point of view. The song was also noted to be a direct transition between the imagery included on Björk's previous studio album, Vulnicura (2015), and Utopia.
"Honey" is a mid-tempo house-pop and alternative-pop song with techno influences by Swedish singer-songwriter Robyn, released on 26 September 2018 as the second single from her eighth studio album of the same name. "Honey" is produced by Joseph Mount of Metronomy, co-produced and co-written by Robyn and her frequent collaborators Klas Åhlund and Markus Jägerstedt, and mixed by the late Phillip Zdar of Cassius. The song's premiere on 21 May 2018 during her surprise DJ set at ADVENTURE[s]' Robyn-themed pop-up club series' 'This Party is Killing You' at the Brooklyn Bowl resolved rampant social media speculation surrounding her team's arduous editing of it over a year after an early demo of the song, a drastically divergent version sonically, was partially used on 16 April 2017 on the series finale of HBO comedy-drama Girls (2012-2017) then a recording of that audio was taken off SoundCloud. Robyn's self-described "white whale", the song took over four years in total from its conception to complete, the longest in her career.
Forever Alien is the third studio album by British space rock band Spectrum, a project led by Peter Kember under the pseudonym Sonic Boom. It was released in August 1997 by Space Age Records. After the band's preceding EP Songs for Owsley (1996) moved them away from guitar-oriented music and towards electronic music, Forever Alien furthered this approach considerably, as Kember aimed to create a predominately electronic album that sounded organic and analogue in style. The record is dominated by vintage analogue synthesizers, including the EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS. Kember had become fascinated by the synths as he felt they presented him with more musical possibilities than guitars.
"Salt" is a song by Danish singer and songwriter Oh Land for her fifth studio album, Family Tree (2019). Oh Land wrote the song with Thomas Bartlett, the sole producer. Her boyfriend, Adi Zukanovic, plays piano on it with Bartlett and Hungarian conductor Peter Pejtsik. The song represents a change in style from her previous work and features a string-led production with Oh Land's distinctive breathy vocals. The lyrics to the song are a metaphor, describing the unpredictable nature of life's events. The song was performed by Oh Land during a live show at Koncerthuset in Copenhagen.
"Faith" is a song by Swedish duo Galantis and American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton featuring Dutch singer-songwriter Mr. Probz, from Galantis' third studio album Church, which was released in early 2020. The song was released on 25 October 2019, through Big Beat and Atlantic Records. It is a remake of John Hiatt's 1987 song "Have a Little Faith in Me".
"Breathe" is a song by American singer-songwriter Maria McKee, released in 1991 as the fourth and final single from her debut studio album, Maria McKee. It was written by McKee and Gregg Sutton, and produced by Mitchell Froom. "Breathe" reached No. 59 in the UK Singles Chart and remained in the Top 100 for two weeks. The song's music video was filmed in Carlow, south-east Ireland, and directed by Angela Conway.
Energy is the third studio album by British electronic music duo Disclosure. It was released on 28 August 2020 through Island Records.
