Go, Monkey, Go

[kingandy]

Following yesterday's SHOCK REVELATION, I am looking for more music.

I'm interested in broadening my musical horizons a little, because I have something of a contradiction in my head. I have always rubbished Techno and Dance music (the former moreso than the latter) as uninspired and repetetetetetive. Listening to the same thumping bass line sixteen times in a row may be entertaining when you are out of your face on drugs (something of which I have no experience), but that is not a selling point for me. Quite the opposite.

However, I have come to the worrying conclusion that some of the music I like may in fact be techno of a sort. I'm talking about the music of Mr James Venable, in his work the Powerpuff Girls TV series (and movie). There's a specific style, a light, rapid, varied drumbeat accompanied by a variety of orchestral and electronic melodies that I really enjoy. Good examples of it on Venables' Listen page are Monkey On The Loose and Mojo & Girls Build. If somebody could tell me if there's a name for that particular genre, or link me to a band that plays it, I'd be much obliged.

Comments

[kermix.livejournal.com]

I'm presuming that you are already familiar with Heroes and Villains, the "music inspired by" album? If you haven't, IM me and I'll hook you up.

Since music is one of my hobbies, I really ought to take a stab at this one, but I'm not sure where to start. I dig it too, though, so I'll try and find out with ya at some point (if nobody else beats me to it).

Incidental music, bordering some sort of power-tech-bubblegum-j-pop? Or something?...

[kingandy]

Yeah, I actually went out and bought that album when I noticed that I'd downloaded about 80% of the tracks already. That and the City of Soundsville album, which is actually closer to what I'm looking for - incidental music from the show expanded into full-on tracks. Some of it's not so hot (the Amoeba Boys track is very slow) but others are just fantastic (Hearts and Stars, which weaves the girls' individual themes into a single track).

Mmm, power-tech-bubblegum-j-pop... I don't know about bubblegum, but power-tech sounds about right. It's definitely got to have an energy to it. J-pop ... well, I object to the genre. Not because I don't like the music (I haven't heard enough to judge) but I think it's an inaccurate term. The "J" stands for Japan, but does all pop music that comes from Japan really fall into the J-pop category?

I've heard some J-pop that I really liked (there's one called "Angel", which probably doesn't narrow it down, and another which I think is the theme tune to an anime called Gravitation?). I've heard some others that I don't like at all - actually I think that stuff was too frenetic. It was just full-on, 240bpm musical diarrhoea (sp?).