"Playing With Lightning" - Prologue

Back in 2010, I didn’t really listen to much music. Outside of what was on the radio, what my parents would play, or playing music games like Rock Band, I didn’t really go out of my way to listen to anything. That was until Tron: Legacy came out, and I was introduced to the two robots that would change my life. Daft Punk was my first love when it came to music. They were like superheroes to me, and still are despite their retirement of the name. I remember my dad described them to me as being like video game music, which hooked eleven year old me in from the jump. I love plenty of music genres now, but electronic dance and house was my gateway. It could still possibly be my favorite.

Cut to fourteen years later, I’ve dug into and admired several genres, artists, and bands. Music has definitely been a major obsession for me. While I’ve really built up my knowledge on music history, there’s still a ton of blind spots for me though. I still have a long way to go. There was one night where I was at a bar, a little drunk, standing on the dance floor by myself in front of a DJ. As I was feeling the bass and the synths hit me, an idea clicked. I’m going back to what hooked me into music in the first place. I want to focus in and finally dig even deeper into electronic music, fill in as many blind spots as possible, and I want to share the journey with other people.

For this project, I’m going to be making a series of mini-retrospectives, focused exclusively on several electronic music artists throughout history. Modern EDM, House, Big-Beat, Industrial, Techno, Acid, Dubstep, Synthpop, and plenty of other electronic sub-genres will be covered. There will be artists that I’ve listened to, as well as ones I’ve discovered recently, and I hope to find even more while doing this series. The only ones I won’t cover in this series are ones that have their histories covered to death already like Daft Punk, Nine Inch Nails, LCD Soundsystem and Justice. I have different plans for them anyway.

So, family and friends, old and new, join me on this electronic odyssey. This is Playing With Lightning. First on the list is someone who dresses from head to toe in black and has been making dirty and cold electro-industrial beats since 2008. The person I’m talking about is French DJ and producer, Gesaffelstein. I hope you can join me on this journey, and I’ll catch you at the starting line with Part One.