Ellen Allien + Modeselektor

Now that the DFA has lost its initial fire, everyone is left trying to figure out where dance punk or disco funk is going, and whoever figures it out will make jealous more than a few music lovers. But in the meantime, techno and electro are already moving forward with some new combinations of their own, that is if anything can be considered genre specific anymore given that this whole process of synthesis seems to problematize the idea of ownership.

Nonetheless, one of these new areas of fusion is somewhere between more emotive techno, or electro, and hip hop. Although, to be honest, it”™s not even clear if it”™s intentional. But either way, on a recent trip home I was shocked when djing for a few hundred indie rock kids who danced to an Ellen Allien track right between M.I.A. and Missy Elliott. The weird part was that they loved it. They just thought it was an electro-hip-hop track.

Listen: Ellen Allien – “Down” (mp3)

Purchase: Amazon | Insound

Also released on Bpitch Control, Modeselektor”™s hip-hop electro adventure is two fold. Once on the opening track “Dancingbox (feat. TTC),” and again on “Silikon (feat. Sacha Perera).” It sounds like a detraction from her efforts to simply compare Perera”™s vocals to M.I.A., and perhaps giving too much credit to the Sri Lankan princess to isolate her like that, but Perera”™s vocals do sound a lil”™ galang-alang-ishly close to Maya Arulpragasam”™s. However, the music carries a beat that is more electronic than anything on Arular. This is definitely a club worthy moment.

Listen: Modeselektor – "Silikon (feat. Sacha Perera)" (mp3)

Purchase: Amazon

Techno, grime, hip hop, jungle, indie rock “¦ can someone remind me of some differences again?