Sherburnin' for new

Interesting 2020s-so-far electronic dance + non-dance overview here at Pitchfork from veteran observer Philip Sherburne. 

Cueing off of that wonderful meme-craze triggered by Drew Daniel's literally dreamed-up genre hit'em and ensuing attempts by musicians to turn dreams into reality, Phil divines greater significance from the fad: an expression of neophiliac longing. 

"....The outpouring of enthusiasm for a made-up genre speaks to a curious nexus of frustration and desire in the air right now, at the midpoint of the 2020s. There’s a nagging feeling that electronic music, for all its former promise, is spinning its wheels. And there’s a yearning for something more—an unspoken wish that things could be more interesting, more daring, more audacious.

"Before you counter with, “Well, what about [insert your envelope-pushing fave]?” I’m well aware that there’s no shortage of great, groundbreaking works of genius being made regularly. But electronic music used to be motivated less by genius than by what Brian Eno once called scenius, the hive-mind buzz of ideas evolving as they rippled across the community. That sense of collective creativity is currently in short supply. In the West, anyway, when’s the last time a fledgling subgenre made a significant impact on the scene? Planet Mu’s Bangs & Works, Vol. 1, the compilation that broke Chicago footwork to the outside world, came out 14 years ago. I suspect the enthusiasm for hit em—even if it is confined to a tiny circle of experimental connoisseurs, Ableton geeks, and online nerds—speaks to a subconscious wish for a radical new style to flip our collective wigs, a sound that might supply the same kind of rush that footwork did, or dubstep, or jungle, the first time you heard it. A sound that you struggle to process. A sound that feels like a dream made real."

 But then later in the piece - after discussing the impact on club culture of covid and lockdown, the ever-growing popularity of ambient versus rising bpm and trashy pop-edits -  Phil kinda contradicts the earlier argument with a spurt of enthused xenomania:

"That explosion of worldwide activity is also good news for hit em fans, and everyone else who is hankering for music that sounds strange, uninhibited, and unexpected. In Asia, a patchwork of scenes and subgenres is yielding new sounds and even allegiances that challenge hegemonic Western perspectives and colonial histories. Brazil’s funk scene is a hotbed of radical sonics, from the spartan, almost gothic minimalism of DJ Anderson do Paraiso to the trebly overload of DJ K and the blown-out industrial sonics of D.Silvestre. In Tanzania, an experimentally minded set of producers is pushing the country’s singeli sound to ever more bewildering limits. Venezuelan club pioneers like DJ Babatr are finally getting their due, buoyed by interest in the diverse array of styles and scenes that’s sometimes called—however erroneously—“Latin club.” Egyptian producers like 3Phaz and ZULI are turning out dazzlingly textured club tracks fusing experimental sound design with intricate rhythms.

"At this month’s Unsound festival, in Kraków, I found myself dancing to spry, swift-moving bass music in a tiny Ukrainian expat club—the dancefloor must have fit 20 people, tops—where the energy was so completely lit, the sound so refreshingly now, that it seemed impossible there was another club on the planet that night that could lay a more authoritative claim to being the center of the dance-music universe. The best thing about electronic music at the midpoint of the 2020s is that there is no center, no norm, no standard; everything is up for grabs."

Judge for yourself with this Spotify playlist