Electronic

One of the thrills of getting into electronic music is gaining access to an entire history hidden in shadows. All genres have them, of course -- stories of graded evolution, lists of influences from around the way, tales of artists who are giants in context but barely register outside their realm. All of these open up once certain assumptions about electronic music are laid to rest. The main one leads to an important paradox: Electronic music is both more AND less alien than most accounts would have it. Thanks to the...

"Music out of place" is the motto of the Staubgold label, and it couldn't have picked a better one. The Berlin-based imprint has no particular style, certainly nothing like a "sound," and its artists share no particular methodology. In the decade since Staubgold began publishing, it has released (just for starters) Institut Für Feinmotorik's "empty" turntablism, performed on record players prepared with masking tape and rubber bands; Juana Molina collaborator Alejandro Franov's Indian/African/Paraguayan folk fus...