Modern EDM Artistry

Modern electronic music artists are incredible tastemakers and curators of the modern form of art that is EDM. Their work is inspiration and has pushed me to explore the world of sound to create vibes that are unique, because like many of the artists, I like the way that certain tracks are composied, the way that certain sounds make you feel. I make music because I love music. My first real exploration into electronic music was through house music and the work of Daft Punk, Cassius, and other French-House artists while I was living in Paris in 2009/10. From there I steadily explored drum and bass, modern dubstep, as well as all sorts of other kinds of bass oriented music.

What tipped me over the edge into production was watching Emoh Instead play live at the Bamboo Stage at Lightning in a Bottle while Flume was a part of What so Not. Ever since then, I’ve been using Ableton Live to come up with sounds and compositions that fit my own tastes.

Now I have a studio setup in my apart, Ableton, Push, Serum, Zebra2, and a ton of other mixing and mastering plugins to hone my sound to highest possible level of quality. But even as I make my own music, I continue to be heavily influenced by my favorite artists.

Here is the list of my favorite electronic music artists below, my favorite albums/tracks from them, and my impressions of their art. Let me know what you think!

Elliot’s List of the Top Electronic Music Artists

The Top

1. Feedme – Consistently pushing the envelope, putting out bangers, and working within two personas, Feedme’s music is nothing short of ecstatic. Make sure you check out his alter-ego Spor, as well as Feedme’s Great Adventure, which is a fantastic album and all of this electronic music artists new work on the Existential Crisis EP on Mau5trap.
2. G Jones – G Jones live shows look spectacular, but the vibe of the modern generation is completely apparent in his work. His latest album visions is a trip, one of the best of all time imo, but also look out for any song produced by him, they are all good. My favorite track is Thunderdome with Minnesota. One of my all time favorite tracks, actually. Composition and sound design are top notch.
3. Proko – Proko’s track are incredibly innovative. Still discovering this artist’s body of work, but he is making some dope ass beats RN. It makes me want to make more trap ha! Listen to When He Drop, the FM frequency modulations are incredible. Time to figure out how he does that sound design…
4. Daft Punk – Daft Punk is where my musical heart began. Human After All was one of the first albums I ever bought! Lots of modern artists also claim huge influence from their homework and Voyager albums. I’m not a big fan of their more recent work, Get Lucky was a terrible joke for me. From the repetition, to the melodies, to the composition, to the electro vibe, Daft Punk set the stage for modern EDM to become what it has become today, whether or not the kids realize it. Try looking into Le Knight Club for some of the duo’s earliest, most unique funky beats.
5. Slow Magic – Slow Magic has a sound that is recognizable instantly from other electronic music artists. His tracks are soul-searching examinations of orchestral soundscapes and the ability to create incredible sounds with vocal manipulations. How to Run Away is a staple for the EDM community and Slow Magic is ripe to come out with some new futuristic Chill-Trap any day now.
6. Flume – Flume is one of my favorite producers, his style is innovation at its core and some of his songs have incredible complexity that very few other electronic music artists can compare to. His music as half of What-so-Not is nothing short of incredible and a lot of his music before his stint with Emoh Instead is a world in and of itself. Pay attention to Harvey as he pushes the envelope with his future bass, future house, and groovy vibe. I’ve heard that his live shows are less than mind-blowing, but have no experience seeing him live. Although, after producing for a while I can totally understand focusing on the quality of music rather than a show that is mind-blowing. Although, it certainly isn’t profitable for Flume, I think it adds to his artistic integrity.
7. Eprom – Eprom is one of the most innovative electronic music artists of all time. I’ve done a remix of one of his tracks, but I recently haven’t really been feeling his vibe. Waiting for him to come out with a solid album of crazy shit with a tiny bit more organization than usual. But whatever, his sound design is up there with the best.
8. Yheti – Yheti’s sound design is also incredible, his unique style of trap dominates the dancefloor. This guy is creating some of my favorite stuff, just waiting for that next banger.
9. DJ Snake – This french producer has taken EDM a step further with his unique style of trap and made his name through a unique style of future bass involving heavy vocal manipulations to make melodies. His songs are incredibly powerful and he is a blast to listen to multiple times. Check out his collab with Justin Beiber, the only song of Justin’s that I’ve ever listened to lol.
10. Bleep Bloop – Bleep is an up and comer, much like G Jones and actually, I think they might be friends. Bleep Bloop is pushing the sounds of Dubstep, Bass, Trap, and Trip-Hop into the future with his innovation in sound design and mixing; he has some of the best mixes I’ve ever heard. Check out 404, Water on Mars, and when Sound was Sound for my favorite tracks. Make sure you explore his huge discography!
11. Deadmau5 – Joel is Canadian. So I think he is pretty cool, but also a bit weird, but definitely one of my favorite electronic music artists. I loved ‘I Remember’ with Kaskade‘, but I am not the biggest fan of his most recent work. I recently did a remix of one of his tracks and thought it turned out pretty great, you can listen to it here
12. Aphex Twin – Aphex Twin, Richard James, is an artist. I thoroughly enjoyed the Come to Daddy music video, most of his work is very strange and completely unique. I mean, look at his website. Can’t say that I have any favorite songs, but am heavily influenced by how he does his live performance and the way that he distributes his message. The lazers are nutzo.
13. Knife Party – is an Australian duo (I’m not sure why, but I like Australian artists the most, Emoh and Flume are both Australian) that I have liked for over 5 years, which is a pretty long time in EDM. With that said, I’m mostly a fan of Rob Swire and love Pendulum and KJ Sawka’s work. Bonfire, Fire Hive, 404, and really the entire Abandon Ship albums were fantastic.
14. Nghtmre – Tyler Marenyi is a fantastic composer and I like nearly all of his productions as Nghtmre. He kinda got me into trap, with DJ Snake.
15. Purity Ring – Another Canadian, saw them live in Sacramento, they were fantastic. I am in love with the vocalist’s silky smooth and also sometimes piercing voice. Also extremely well produced. I’m looking forward to their next album in a big way.
16. Moksi – These guys make smash hits. Dope sound design and mixes.
17. Joyryde – One of my favorite new producer. Still waiting for another track like “the box” though. First time I heard it, I thought my brain was on fire haha.
18. Skrillex – Unique, Versatile, pushes the envelope. Not a gigantic fan, but I appreciate a lot of the older, unique productions.
19. Clozee – This up and comer has caught my ear on several occasions, I want to see her music live; she has infused a phenomenal eastern influence into her bass heavy productions and her sound is very 3 dimensional.
20. Odesza – One of my most played edm artists, their tracks are incredible and never seem to get old
21. Destructo – Beautiful techno-robo-house goodness.
22. Jauz – still producing killer tracks with the latest, ‘the game’. ‘Deeper Love’ is classic.
23. Porter Robinson – amazingly powerful tracks, but has a lot of his tracks ghost produced. Also a lot of re-sampling. Kinda lame in comparison to a lot of the modern artists that smash. But I LOVE his music, so he’s redeemed.
24. Chrome Sparks – Expecting big things from this up and coming artist in the future. Extremely innovative, one of the leaders of the chill scene.
25. Tipper – Not in love, but in awe. Incredibly artist, Gluch is some of the best sound design/mixing I’ve ever heard.
26. Tycho – Tycho has some of my favorite chill songs. Timeless. I expect to like the artist more as time goes on.
27. What so Not – My favorite live act. Emoh Smashes and Flume was one of my favorite producers. Oh well. I hear Flume’s live shows are lame.
28. Griz – Griz is great, love his funk sound and dubstep tracks.
29. Big Gigantic – Sax. Dance. Beautiful compositions.
30. Ghastly – Ready for this dude to create the next level of Composition at all times. Very good story-teller.
31. Diplo – Diplo is at the bottom of the list for a reason. I feel like he just has a lot of ghost produced tracks. He does have a great ear for the future of sound though and some of his tracks are great, even though I don’t feel like he made them.
32. Fawkes – Solid House producer, looking forward to more music from this guy.

Conclusion

This is where a lot of my influence comes from and is definitely the reason why I aspire to be one of the electronic music artists. I have spent hundreds of hours listening to many of these artists. Obviously there is more than this, but these are the people and groups that I look to that push things forward. You can Listen to my (the E.T.’s) discography here.