Unleash and the new techno

Unleash was great this year and gave me the chance to try out a few new things. I was asked to provide some upbeat “techno” for the counter music. I typically supply the music, and it typically falls into some sort of broadly electronic musical genre. Not always, my general rule of thumb in music choice is (1) something appropriate for the vibe of the series, something (2) that builds intensity toward the band and the service launch, and (bonus 3) something that is fresh and new.

For Unleash, I realized we’d have a captive audience and with 10 minutes to work with, I decided to make a mix, blending the songs seamlessly from one to another, often with some additional sound design to ease the transition. I take the music seriously, and spent about 3-4 hours choosing, mixing, and finessing these two sections. For the choices this year, we decided to use fresh electronic artists that perform much like rock bands. Some vocals, fresh styles, tight compositions, something to get you moving and feel familiar but oddly new.

The moral? It doesn’t take fancy gear or programs to create an element that moves people, it takes time and creativity (and a bit of digging and research). The lists:

Session 1.
Dj Shadow and the Cut Chemist, Chilled (track 04), from The Hard Sell
Hexstatic, Red Laser Beam, from When Robots Go Bad!
MSTRCRFT, Street Justice, from The Looks

Session 2.
Cut Chemist, The Audience’s Listening Theme Song, from The Audience’s Listening
Justice, DVNO, from Cross
Basement Jaxx, Plug it in, from Kish Kash
Justice, D.A.N.C.E., from Cross
Digitialism, Homezone, from Idealism
Justice, Newjack, from Cross

I’m really excited about the reaction these playlists have drawn. That’s great confirmation that it was the right direction to go, sweating the details. Now, for your future reading, here are some artists I look forward to featuring or have recently featured. (Do note that you often need to carefully filter through non-instrument music before you just put it up there):

Rockell
Dragonette
Volunteer
Moby
Sia
Jazzanova
The Crystal Method
RJD2
DJ Tiesto
Daft Punk (I’d like to say that we played them for Christmas 2005, way before Kanye)
LCD Soundsystem
Black Market Robot