Human machine music
an analysis of creative practices among Australian ‘live electronica’ musicians
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v13i2.161Keywords:
live electronica, electronic dance music, music technology, performance, creative practiceAbstract
This article presents a participant–observer documentation and analysis of creative practices among a group of contemporary Australian musicians working within the field of ‘live electronica’ (LE)—defined as electronic dance music (EDM) performed for an audience in real time by a group of musicians without the aid of machine/computer-controlled sound generation sequences. Australian LE emerged in the 1990s and went through a period of development during the first decade of the twenty-first century, as live performers dealt with challenges and opportunities associated with digital music technology and EDM. The article examines how LE musicians responded to various technological, social and economic changes by developing innovative creative processes and music industry practices, and argues that LE musicians have played a significant role in the ‘humanizing’ of EDM performance.
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Hill, B. 2005. ‘Breaking Down the Trance Background’. Paper presented at Australasian Computer Music Conference 2005. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology.
Homan, S. 2003. The Mayor's A Square: Live Music and Law and Order in Sydney. Sydney: Local Consumption Publications.
Huq, R. 2006. Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Post-Colonial World. New York: Routledge.
Magnusson, T. 2010. ‘Designing Constraints: Composing and Performing with Digital Musical Systems’. Computer Music Journal 34, no. 4 (Winter): 62–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/COMJ_a_00026
Milk. 2006. ‘K-Oscillate: Soul Like Fusion’. Available online at http://www.inthemix.com.au/features/29850/KOscillate_Soul_like_fusion (accessed 11 July 2012).
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Mullen, T., R. Warp and A. Jansch. 2011. ‘Minding the (Transatlantic) Gap: An Internet-enabled Acoustic Brain-Computer Music Interface’. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Intefaces for Musical Expression (Oslo, Norway, May 30–June 1, 2011), 469–72. Oslo: University of Oslo and Norwegian Academy of Music.
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Overholt, D. 2009. ‘The Musical Interface Technology Design Space’. Organised Sound 14, no. 2: 217–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1355771809000326
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Panichi, D. 2008. 'Regulation without Representation: NSW Live Music Policy 1992–2008'. Perfect Beat 9, no. 1: 5–21.
Prendergast, M. 2003. The Ambient Century. New York: Bloomsbury.
Ramkissoon, I. 2010. ‘The Bass Sleeve: A Real-time Multimedia Gestural Controller for Augmented Electric Bass Performance’. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Oslo, Norway, 30 May–1 June 2010, 224–27. http://www.nime2011.org/proceedings/papers/G04-Ramkissoon.pdf.
Rietveld, H. 1998. This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces, and Technologies. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Rouget, G. 1985. Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations between Music and Possession. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sicko, D. 1999. Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk. New York: Billboard Books.
Straw, W. 2004. ‘Cultural Scenes’. Society and Leisure 27, no. 2 (Autumn): 411–22.
Théberge. P. 1997. Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology. Hanover, NH: Weslayan University Press.
Throsby, D., and V. Hollister. 2003. Don't Give up Your Day Job: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia: A Survey of the Economic Circumstances of 1063 Practising Professional Australian Artists. Sydney: Macquarie University/Australia Council.
Toynbee, J. 2003. ‘Music, Culture and Creativity’. In The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, ed. M. Clayton, T. Herbert and R. Middleton, 102–112. New York: Routledge.
Unattributed (a). n.d. ‘Electronica’. Available online at http://www.last.fm/tag/electronica/wiki (accessed 12 May 2012).
Unattributed (b). n.d. Available online at http://www.matadorrecords.com/red_snapper/biography.html (accessed 15 June 2012).
Unattributed (c). n.d. ‘Wild Marmalade’. Available online at http://www.wildmarmalade.com/ (accessed 15 June 2012).
Vickery, L. 2004. ‘Interactive Control of Higher Order Musical Structures’. Available online at http://acma.asn.au/conferences/acmc2004/ (accessed 12 June 2012).
Published
2013-06-06
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Hill, B., & Fitzgerald, J. (2013). Human machine music: an analysis of creative practices among Australian ‘live electronica’ musicians. Perfect Beat, 13(2), 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v13i2.161
