Folktronica
It’s surprising how little music has been made in the crossing of acoustic Americana and modern electronics - what some have dubbed folktronica. Given the rising acceptance of the laptop as a bonafide musical instrument, few laptoppers have creatively ventured into the acoustic Americana scene.
What recordings we do have generally fall into the ambient category. Greg Davis’ Curling Pond Woods, is a gorgeous, but not exactly thrilling recording. Frequent collaborators Christian Fennesz and Jim O’Rourke both enjoy combining their guitars and laptops, notably on Fennesz’ breakthrough Endless Summer and O’Rourke’s excellent 1999 Eureka. But, in both cases, the folktronica pieces tend toward ambient rather than gritty folk.
The Books blew a lot of people away in 2002 with their creative “cut-and-paste found sound meets acoustic instruments” sound on Thought for Food. The critical impact of that CD should have ushered in a new era in folktronica. But it hasn’t.
One of the genre’s stars, Kieren Hebden / Four Tet now seems to have abandoned the genre completely. In an interview with Pitchfork he says: “I’d gone as far as I could with that. The whole folktronica thing was kinda making me crazy– it had become so boring and bland.”
What I’m waiting to see is a combination of gritty American old-time music and modern electronics. Modern celtic bands have been fearlessly combining traditional fiddling electronics (with mixed results) for over a decade - Ashley MacIsaac, Slainte Mhath, Simon Thoumire. American bands have introduced electric guitars and drums, but it ends up diluting both the folk roots and the modern aims. Someone needs to do it right: combine undiluted authentic American old-time music with modern electronics. The very old and the very new, with nothing in between.