Before I decided to publish my review of Electro City Ljubljana compilation, I already had a couple versions of review, and my problem with that was: Yugonostalgic values of our former state. I didn't like it, at all, cause Electro as a genre has it's ideological roots in future.
How ever I would always wrote that, cause it's true all of these artists lived in ex-YU, and now in their own separated countries. I didn't want another nostalgic talk about it, cause on one of the most popular Electro mix CD Dave Clarke - X-MIX: Electro Boogie there is note, a words that stuck in my mind: "This is how the future was always supposed to sounds."
And after cca. 10 reviews deleted, I decide that: who cares. I will write what ever comes out of my mind - Electro is combination of past-present-future, it will survive governments and generations of bureaucrats. Electro is one of those dance music "angry uncle", if you imagine whole electronic dance music genres and subgenres, as a family. Uncle, and his brother Techno and sister House do not like, when he gets drunk, he always talk about politics, and technology. Even his twin brother Hip Hop, in mid 80's went separated ways. Also he is in good relations with little cousins like Breakbeat, Jungle and Drum'n'Bass, Speed Garage, Grime, and Dubstep which came from overseas (subgenres parts of bigger equation called Hardcore Continuum, but about that in some other articles).
And that is maybe the reason why Electro never get trully recognition in dance circles - not only it sounds more darker, violent, or have dystopian aestetic. Some tracks have direct political message - most of the times with vocoded voice. But also Electro is not always political, it can be sexy and emotional.
But you all know history of Electro and his other children (subgenres and evolutions, and amalgation with other genres). I will leave history of "the sound of the future" to you.
But there is another thing I have to say about Electro... it is the most-pronounced-dead genre of the all other genres. And this is important: music media (yes, that's right, controled by sponsors, music industry and promoters) killed Electro so many times... but remember, this is general fact, genres do not die, or people stop listen that-specific-genre...
No, people still and always listen, buy new records, producers still produce, but the focus of the media is somewhere else. And YES you heard it thousand times, but when it start to making bigger money, they will celebrate it, and giving it those "neo" "retro" "n-th wave" attributes. P(h)unk is not dead!
So now we know the signal sent from original Electro stations (Underground Resistance, Drexciya,etc...) was sent to other places and hubs around the Globe, creating diasporas, even in places like ex-YU, like "seeds". Elektroliza, electronic music enthusiasts from Ljubljana, Slovenia, decide to crop all those flowers across this territory, and to make a compilation, actually a statement, or a document, of that great music, in this case Electro Funk/Boogie - what ever you want to call it. We Call It Electro.
Together with their friends/electronic "warriors" they created Ljubljana Electro City, released on vinyl as DJ-tool. On compilation you can find Xed, one of the creators of Crobot Music and Crobot Crew who throw parties in Zagreb. His track Inner Contact sounds like you are calling your nanobots to do certain modification on your brain nerves. His co-conspirator
N-TER with track Corals of Pannonia delivers float melody, like waves on pre-historic Pannonian Sea, and with that Italo bassline is warm dancefloor killer.On compilation you can find our old friend Alavux, with his podcast, and few reviews of his art. As always his take-no-prisoners modus operandi is hearable track Planet is burst of energy and dancefloor destroyer. My two favorites are Microslav's MT3 with kind of The Orb-ish kind a feel, but pretty nice track. And second one is Kalson with pure beauty, perfect starter of this compilation.
My final word is: I am Proud!!! People from Elektroliza did perfect Electro compilation, even for beginners who are getting into Electro, and those who are infected already, plus to put this compilation on vinyl!? So if you still can find it on 180g vinyl - go for it, cause it was pressed only in 300 copies, but you can find it digital everywhere. You girls and boys have our massive support, and now I do not care about our past.
We Are All Looking Into the Future!!!
Check the compilation here
Tracklist
1. Kalson - Ocean 808
2. Dj Xed - Inner Contact
3. N-TER - Corals of Pannonia
4. Wichiwaka - Chasing UFOs with Danny
5. Le Chocolat Noir - Futureworld
6. EB King - Mucek
7. Quasar - Luminosity
8. Alavux - Planet
9. Christian Kroupa - Transhumanism
10. Barion - Matter
11. Bramor - Rov
12. 1983 - Zero compromise
13. Microslav - MT3
And for the end, I recommend you enjoy compilation in the mix, mixed by Dj XED:
Damir Plićanić
