@UNTILTED: Well, your speech shows that you're deep into these things, and chatting with another electronics enthusiast is always a pleasure, even though I still don't agree with the innovation-recycling discourse. You listed 400 links that probably wouldn’t have existed without Kraftwerk (or they would have been different links), which shows that even what we define as "innovation" doesn’t necessarily have to create everything from scratch! In fact, I disagree! An innovative concept can be created by drawing inspiration from things made or experimented with before. You also mentioned that it's hard to label that type of music with a genre, maybe because these results blend and amalgamate so many genres that they in turn become innovation, do you get what I mean? (emmm I guess not, but try to understand, I don't express myself as well as Vendola). Can I give you a cinematic example? TARANTINO! (here we go... now an off-topic discussion begins), Kill Bill is a collage of scenes taken from other films, but damn... after watching it in the cinema I thought, "I've never seen anything like this"! Even though I was familiar with many of the films he borrowed from. Or... when I see Michael Jackson dance, to me it's something monstrously original! Yet the moonwalk is recycled from a tap dance step from the 30s. For me, as Fred Astaire said, "an artist takes from another artist," and that's always been the case. Innovation from nothing, as you say... in my opinion, it doesn't (anymore), it always derives from something. Take Derrick May as an example! A great "innovator" (note the quotation marks), but in my opinion similar to sounds heard before (Kraftwerk-like sounds and something else), even Daft Punk, despite the copy and paste of their samples taken from old records, can be considered pioneers of a new genre in some way. I consider the blend in Homework to be quite original, even though it draws inspiration from the world before them. The concept of re-manipulation encompasses 70% of electronic music; you rightly got me for the remaining 30% to tell me I'm wrong hehe. Many major bands, most of them, create their own tracks using others' samples, and yet the concept of creativity for me reaches the stratosphere ("Discovery" by Daft is mammoth). I listen to a lot of electronic music (I'm not going to brag by making a list, but I admit that you know more bands than I do hehe) and personally, I consider the Chemical Brothers to be number one in the scene. Yes... they were fortunate to be thrust into the mainstream, but they came from the world of rave party kids, and even today they aren't as accessible as one might think; they are commercial but still for lovers of chaotic music, don't tell me they are POP like Lady Gaga! Psychedelic and pounding dance is not for everyone (the neighbors call the cops when I play it at home hehe). They were lucky, intuitive, but also a bit cunning (Push The Button), yet they possess a production quality that’s terrifying!!!! The link to tell me that Swoon is similar to other tracks is useless. Boring as hell with those links! They seem flat, lacking the magic, there’s no "journey" (even though, of course, creatively valid), Swoon overthrows it, Block Rockin' Beats is a smoothie of absolute perfection. If these guys have made a difference, they owe it not just to VIRGIN, but also to a special talent in sound manipulation, which may become repetitive over the years, but makes them truly unique in the psychedelic dance scene. For me, they are number one, but take it as personal taste. I enjoy the brain journey, without using drugs! The Chemicals help me more than others! (But that crazy guy Twin doesn't joke around either!!!!!). Going back to "Hanna," yes... I felt the style of the early albums, less pounding but along the same psychedelic trail.
