April 30, 2014

Above & Beyond | “Sticky Fingers”

by chasgoudie EDM, Happy • Tags: Above & Beyond, Anjunabeats, Chas Goudie, EDM, EDM Blogs, Sticky Fingers

I know you want to ask the question, so just ask it.

How does Above & Beyond continue to produce stellar track after stellar track without keeling over and dying?

It’s called hard work. Write that down. Or type it, since the physical act of putting a pen to paper seems to be loosing it’s appeal. What ever happened to cursive handwriting anyways? I spent my entire childhood being told that cursive would be a learned skill in the professional world. Then this invention came along called the typewriter that kind of through a kink in those plans. Not to mention that thing called a computer.

Sorry 4th grade teachers, you may have won the battle but you lost the war. And speaking of 4th grade teachers, here’s some “Sticky Fingers” to deal with.

January 29, 2014

Above & Beyond Releases Acoustic Album [Study/Work Music]

by chasgoudie EDM, Happy • Tags: Above & Beyond, Acoustic, Anjunabeats, Chas Goudie, EDM, EDM Blogs, mp3, music, radio, Trance

Back in the spring/summer of 2013, Above and Beyond recorded an acoustic studio album featuring a 24-piece live orchestra. The album features some of their most memorable productions to date: “Thing Called Love”, “Sun & Moon” and “Love Is Not Enough”, to name a few.

A & B’s Tony McGuinness had this to say when speaking of the journey to completion:

“The acoustic project is a reconnection with the musicians that we were before we met. The songs have been on an interesting journey to get here because we tend to write in a fairly acoustic way anyway. We don’t just stick a bit of vocal over a dance track – that’s not how we work. We try to start with a song and it’s usually only later down the line that we take certain elements from that song and progress them into a more dance-floor friendly version“.

For all you musical theory nay-sayers out there, let this be a lesson. Classical training and song-writing go a long way in electronic music, and your musicianship cannot fully evolve until you allow yourself to understand the historical development of the world’s greatest remedy.

Here’s proof that “EDM” acts as just another useless acronym in the vast frontier that is music production.