Electronica: More than just Noise

Count me in as a listener of electronica. It is within the artistic halls of this genre where the intersection of musical styles from around the world meet. For example, some bands like Mambotur create sounds never before imagined as they mesh German techno and South American rhythms that take fans on a Teutonic-Latino musical tour.

Drawing from a diverse blitzkrieg of the French chanson, Italian film soundtracks, Brazilian samba and bassa nova, Argentinian tango, Jamaican dub, psychedelica, Persian melismas, Arabic sounds all the way to Burt Bacharach, as well as using instruments like the Indian sitar and sensual bhangra-induced percussion, electronica soaks and mixes all this up like a delicious and cool martini. It is a deliberate inter musical breeding that harks back to when Rome and the Germanic tribes collided. Its repercussions were everlasting.

Let me cite one band in particular to move this blog entry. S-Tone Inc. of Italy has a song called Limbe.

Electronia is not just about the sound anymore. It has layers of substance attached to its sound. Electronica is the world's hippest music -which is why Montreal has a blossoming electronica community - and within it we find glimpses of the post modern ethos. Enter the lyrics and for our discussion this is what I will focus on.

In the above song, we find the following words:

"The noise of your steps on the round can't be heard. No destination and no intention. Total absence of joy and pain. You come to what you don't know. One is the direction. You've got no answers and not even questions. You come. The goal is unknown, it's instinct. You don't ask yourself if it's good or if it's bad. Like a gliding ghost, that has no longer a gender. Between reality, unconsciousness and dream."

Good stuff. For some reason, it connected me to Aristotle and St. Thomas, Perhaps it was the stark, well-orchestrated surreal phrases. I see a discrepancy between the joy and sense of purpose electronica finds in discovering new sounds and cultures and the lyrics they write. It's much like a punk band who writes anti-establishment lyrics but are millionaires. It doesn't jive.

So to help me I delved into the 'Nicomachean Ethics' of Aristotle. In short, the Aristotelian principle -originally labeled by John Rawls - posits that "human beings with the potential for excellence will usually try to realize that potential..." according to Charles Murray in his book 'Human Accomplishments.' It's what fills us with purpose and enjoyment. That's why many of us do what we do. For instance, I continue to write despite not yet deriving any monies from it and no matter what various internet rankings say. It's what provides me with joy.

Of course, the 20th century and the arrival of post modernism all this came into question with behaviourists like B.F. Skinner and brought to its heights by Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Suddenly, enjoyment was not a natural ally of the human spirit. The pursuit of excellence as a vehicle to personal happiness was dead.

Electronica clearly defies the concept of behaviourism. It wants to seek new adventures. New ideas are to be found in the environment and all around us. It's Renaissance humanism at its finest. Yet, the lyrics are bleak. It's a classic dilemma of sorts for the modern hipster. The neo-beatniks if you will.

Life does not seem to have any pattern or purpose. It is caught in a relative vortex where right is not wrong and vice versa. Where the personal assertion of 'I do what I like' is confused with true intellectual uniqueness and independence. We are roaming the earth like ghosts with no souls and that pain is all we know. In some cases, and this is true of much of modern musical lyrics, a kind of semi-nihilistic ideal takes over.

There seems to be an impression that an intellectual crisis exists. We are no longer sure what certain structures and roles we have defined for ourselves through the centuries mean anymore. Words like 'racism,' 'freedom,' 'personal independence,' rational observations' and 'critical thought' all have lost their meaning under aggressive secularism and affirmative action. In short, we have lost a sense of ourselves and purpose.

Luckily, it's not all stoic relativism. Thankfully, humour does find its way into electronica and this is where St.Thomas enters. While it is still an intellectual faux pas to even suggest theology has a place in the public sphere when discussion social issues, Aquinas taught that faith and reason are one and the same since they were a gift from God. He also mentioned that a life without joy or humour is not a life. The lyrics do serve a purpose in as much as they describe what confronts us as a world community. While universal themes reminds us that we are all in this together, in many ways we still have a lot to iron out on a personal level.

If it looks like this piece can go off into all sorts of mad directions given the inherent contradictions, you are correct. I will content myself with these thoughts. I singled out electronica because I happened to purchase a CD. However, it's a multi-dimensional issue that permeates into all facets of our existence.