John Cage, Infected Mushroom, and Sounds (John Cage, Electronic)

I realized something recently, in my month long hiatus of packing, vacations, and assorted activities, which is music is fundamentally about something simpler than harmony or rhythm - and that is sound. Music is, of course, the various ways of organizing various sounds, which means that any sound is musical: the sound of a car turning on is musical, the sound of clothes rustling, the sound of a door slamming, or a distant splash of water. This is where a lot of musicians that seem so esoteric and frightfully post-modern seem to draw their some of their brilliance - in the use of sound as an elementary constituent element of their music.

John Cage explicitly believed something similar - his music is all rich with various klings, klangs, beeps, and buzzes. The turning of a dial on an old radio to hear the varieties of static, as well as banging cans together and dropping various instruments into other instruments. Similarly, the Israeli electronica group Infected Mushroom uses all sorts of amazing and specially constructed electronic sounds. They work in a specially designed studio so that there is almost 0 Db of background noise; they put all their computers in soundproofed cabinets and the walls are lined with spiked foam to absorb sound. They infuse a lot of Hebrew and Eastern European melodies into already very solid electronic dance music, and then they really make it their own style by hand crafting each bass kick, lead synth, and stab etc. into a very engaging and trancey musical experience.

It seems to me that the successes of these two, among which I have to cede Cage as the superior, is due to their attention to sounds at the start. And, especially in the case of Cage, how this can be an almost philosophical statement about music. So the next time you hear something you think is pretentious and stupid, think about how those pretentious hipster snobs actually created all those random boings and chongs and you'll perhaps find something worth listening to in that.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/artist/Infected+Mushroom/2590 - Check out anything on Army of Mushrooms
http://grooveshark.com/#!/artist/John+Cage/5422 - Take a look at any of his Constructions