Lesser known musicians that I appreciate, volume 3

Turn back now, all ye who don't like electronic music. There is nothing for you here! You have been warned. Today's selections have a decidedly futuristic bent and bring to mind visions of rainy neon cityscapes, Gibsonian low life hackers and robotic streetwalkers with dubious moral programming.

The first artist I want to celebrate is The Enigma: TNG. Based out of Pennsylvania, this prolific artist has already amassed a shockingly huge discography. Collections of his music on Youtube routinely exceed thirty hours in length. The following is "only" six, but I want to highlight one track in particular (Cyba'space) which I find exceptionally pretty given the genre.

The Enigma's combination of crunchy pixellated sound with ghostly female vocals makes him the quintissential musical representative of the cybergoth genre in my mind. The degree to which you enjoy his work will depend on your suspension of disbelief. Close your eyes, listen, and imagine yourself in a dark rainy future the likes of which you saw in Blade Runner.

By comparison with The Enigma, Module's work is positively tame. But in the best possible sense. I could fall asleep listening to Module, which again sounds disparaging, but I don't at all mean it that way. Module's work is frequently subdued and chill, soft, even marshmallowy. The feeling imparted is often sentimental, nostalgia for a future which hasn't yet happened.

Module is best known for having done the soundtrack to Shatter on PS3. It's a simple enough game that if not for Module's outstanding OST, I'm afraid to say it would have been a forgettable title. Arcadey games like that live or die by their soundtrack, as that's what sets the mood, energizes you, and gets you into the zone.

This track was among the inspirational material for a novel I recently completed about robots. The elegant gynoid vocalist contributed to the design of one of the central characters, also a beautiful machine which does not try to pass for human but instead maximizes the unique appeal of robots. It's impossible to watch this music video and not automatically imagine a backstory for the vocalist and pianist, some sort of scifi romantic epic which culminates in this duet.

Eric Prydz would have belonged more solidly in this article a few months ago. He is becoming less and less unknown by the day, and I expect will soon reach the same heights as Deadmau5. Opus is a slow burn you have to commit to. If you stick with it through the buildup, the climax will make you glad you did. It sounds like liquefied rainbow by that point and is an absolute treat for the ears.

Generate has something of an optimistic, affirming message to it. There are hints of melancholy, about how the world is an unbearable place if not for love and that he couldn't carry on without it, but that supplies the emotional contrast. The backdrop against which the ultimate endorsement of human emotional interconnection shines more brightly than it might've otherwise.

I hope you enjoyed at least some of these. Really, they all deserve a spot on your late night driving playlist, or your workout playlist for that matter. The trouble with highlighting lesser known but fabulously talented artists is that they don't stay unknown for long! But then, that's a good problem to have.