What can I not miss in the world of electronica?
May 15, 2012 11:21 PM   Subscribe

I've spent years focused on studio electronica albums and am realizing that was a mistake. Having recently discovered Daft Punk's 2006 set from Coachella and deadmau5' 2009 set from The Roundhouse and been utterly, totally, completely blown away by both of them, I've decided that I need more live-recorded big beat in my life. What high-quality live recordings are considered "essential listening" for someone who wants to hear a legendary artist along these lines at their best?

My tastes trend toward modern big beat, inasmuch as that can be defined, with acid house, drum and bass, and yes, even dubstep included. I tend to prefer artists who draft/assemble/create their own music; e.g. Daft Punk, Pretty Lights, The Crystal Method, etc. as opposed to DJs. Tiesto at Innercity was amazing, yes, but he was spinning other peoples' work. My main goal, though, is to learn about sets where the artist just nails the apex of their skill and sound. As a counterexample, Daft Punk's 1997 BBC Radio One session where, in my exceedingly humble opinion, they are limited by the technology of the day. I want the equivalent of Abbey Road, not Rubber Soul... if that makes sense.
posted by TheNewWazoo to Media & Arts (8 answers total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Don't know if this would be up your alley, but I've been listening to a 75 minute live track from Armin van Buuren called Live at Club Eau for about 12 years and it never gets old. It is so, so good.

Not sure where you would find it--my roommate gave me the file back in the day. I know it's out there tho because others have downloaded it relatively recently.
posted by Kimberly at 4:09 AM on May 16, 2012


Best answer: There's Orbital's last (at the time) performance, which was on the John Peel Show, with a small studio audience.
posted by carter at 4:49 AM on May 16, 2012


Fatboy Slim vs Armand Van Helden, live in 1999 (the meat of the set starts about 20 minutes into the mp3)

Here's almost every essential mix. There are dozens of amazin live mixes in there -- i'd recommend almost every single Paul Oakenfold mix from 1994-2001 or so. My favorite recent essential mix was probably the Magnetic Man one from a couple of years ago.
posted by empath at 6:19 AM on May 16, 2012 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Underworld's Everything Everything DVD is amazing. It's a compilation of five or six shows cut into one mega-show, AND there's an alternative video track of just the Tomato graphics that they displayed in the background in case the jump-cuts get to be too annoying.

Speaking of Underworld, while it looks like dirty.org is gone now, there was a fan-made set called Bootleg Babies--the best live show that never existed in one place. Fans collected different takes from different shows, voted on the best performances, and remixed it into two CDs of awesome. It looks like it's on last.fm at least (Disc 1 | Disc 2), and can probably be found elsewhere.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:11 AM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


Birdy Nam Nam and Justice both have a lot of live material available as bootlegs but I'm not aware of licensed download sources for them.
posted by Nelson at 10:34 AM on May 16, 2012


Deep Forest Made in Japan is much more kick-ass than their studio mixes, just sayin'.
posted by Lynsey at 2:12 PM on May 16, 2012


Response by poster: fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit has perfectly nailed what I'm looking for - and while I've got a copy of Everything Everything, I'd totally forgotten about it.

Please do keep the suggestions coming - I'm going to listen to everything in this thread I can get my hands on!
posted by TheNewWazoo at 2:31 PM on May 16, 2012


There's an Orbital Live at Glastonbury set, though nothing can ever top the 2010 performance with special guest appearance.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:42 PM on May 22, 2012


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