AnyBlogDotCom: Folktronica

What is folktronica? Who plays it? What are the best albums and recordings?

Folktronica is a genre of music comprising various elements of folk music and electronica, often featuring uses of acoustic instruments – especially stringed instruments – and incorporating hip hop, electronic or dance rhythms, although it varies based on influences and choice of sounds. The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology describes folktronica as "a catch-all [term] for all manner of artists who have combined mechanical dance beats with elements of acoustic rock or folk."

The 1993 album Every Man and Woman is a Star by Ultramarine is credited as a progenitor of the genre; it featured a pastoral sound and incorporated traditional instruments such as violin and harmonica with techno and house elements. According to The Sunday Times Culture's Encyclopedia of Modern Music, essential albums of the genre are Four Tet's Pause (2001), Tunng's Mother's Daughter and Other Songs (2005), and Caribou's The Milk of Human Kindness (2005). American singer Madonna's ninth studio album American Life was heavily influenced by the genre and it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

The 2010s saw folktronica artists such as alt-J and Bon Iver reach the mainstream.

Fandom:

Folktronica, a style combining folk and electronica music, is one of the few new genres to come to life in recent years. The name itself is said to be dubbed by the British press in 2001 while trying to describe a new breed of producer that utilizes elements of ambient electronica, acoustic folk, jazz, psychedelia and even instrumental hip-hop. Because most of the music is created by sampling and looping acoustic instrumentation and rearranging it using non-linear editing programs usually found on the new generations of high-end laptops, the style is also referred to as laptop folk. Songs tend to be lengthy (as far as popular music is concerned), as artists are able to let the song mature naturally in the same way a post-bop jazz song might. Also along the lines of jazz is the song structure of a typical folktronica song, which reminisces of free jazz where a theme is introduced, but soloists are not constrained to stay within that melody and are allowed to progress on their own. Also prominent is heavy layering which usually builds as the song does, culminating in a climax of what would seem a combination of unrelated loops. The mood tends to sway more towards solemnly moody folk, demanding the listeners attention to detail while evoking emotion. With the recent popular interest in more complex music as well as the somewhat misleading notion that anyone with a laptop could create similar songs, the folktronica movement exploded upon formation with a slew of very good albums. Four Tet's Rounds is sometimes heralded as being the focal point of the genre, even to the extent of saying that it is responsible for creating it. The statement is somewhat misleading, though Rounds is probably the most popular folktronica album, as well as being somewhat of a template for interested artists. Styles do vary within the structure and reach everywhere from the upbeat psychedelia of Manitoba/Caribou, the cut-up collages of The Books, the minimalism of Matmos and the tenderness of Colleen.

RateYourMusic:

Folktronica is a style of Electronic music which incorporates the sounds of acoustic instrumentation, with elements of Contemporary Folk or various Traditional Folk Music traditions and particularly the acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments central to these folk styles. These are commonly blended with the compositional sensibilities of IDM and Glitch-inspired editing and manipulation, as well as the tempo and atmosphere of Downtempo. Although electronic producers had experimented with using acoustic elements through the 1990s, the style would become prominent in the early 2000s as the term was coined to describe the early works of Four Tet and Manitoba, as well as groups like The Books and Tunng. Despite remaining underground, folktronica is stylistically diverse, with some artists using more traditional song structures or live instrumentation whereas others work exclusively with samples in a more experimental direction. However, folktronica in all its forms is unified by this blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation and the textures that contrast provides.

1977 John Martyn One World

This album is not folktronica because it is out of time - it was recorded long before the genre was created. However, it contains the same elements, and would blend in quite happily on any folktronica playlist.

Artists