The Rise of Samplers

In the 80s, music was heavily influenced by new technology. Some hated it and could not wait until, in the 90s, Nirvana & Co. brought guitar rock back. But others loved how the limitless possibilities of electronic sound generation pushed music into new and unexpected directions.

One of the most fascinating new instruments was the Emulator II by the Californian company E-mu. The Emulator was an affordable sampler that could be used in the studio and on stage. As opposed to synthesizers, which generate sound with electronic circuitry, samplers play and manipulate recorded sounds.  Synthesizers come with a certain signature sound, but for samplers, the sky is the limit. Arguably the majority of contemporary pop music is based on sampling.

Thanks to the Mellotron, there was already in the 60s kind of an analog sampler available, put to brilliant use by The Beatles in “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Yet flexible and efficient sampling required digital technology, and that was still very expensive in the 80s. To put this into perspective: today, a four-second sample needs about one megabyte of storage, but in the mid-80s, even high-end computers were equipped with memory only half that size. The diskettes the Emulator II used for storing samples had a capacity of 500 kilobytes.

In order to deal with those limitations, Emulator II had a reduced sampling quality. That it still sounds so good is an engineering marvel. Moreover, it had a specific sound quality to it that became a signature for many pop songs.

For example, the Emulator II was instrumental for Depeche Mode in transitioning from purely synthetic music to a more gritty, organic sound in the mid-80s. The former band member Alan Wilder explains it nicely in this video:

There may be some unease at the thought of how much computers can influence art, but music and technology have always been intertwined. Long before electricity was invented, not to mention anything digital, an instrument like the piano could already be considered high-tech. And probably back then also, some people might have scoffed at the idea of generating pitch-perfect notes with just the press of a button.

The lifespan of The Emulator II was very short, with a production time of only three years. After 1987, its heart was hopelessly outdated, consisting of two Z80 8-bit microprocessors. Today, high-quality sampling is available on every cellphone, and even a cheap laptop can do what dozens of synthesizers and samplers did in earlier decades.

However, if you’re looking for that gritty 80s signature sound, you can still or again rely on the Emulator II, which has been emulated in software.

Song Picks of the Day

Listen to all our daily song picks on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.

Liela Moss – Ache in the Middle

British artist Liela Moss announced her new album Internal Working Model out on January 13 via Bella Union. While she previously released the powerful and shimmering “Vanishing Shadows” featuring Gary Numan, she now follows that single with the more melancholic “Ache In The Middle” featuring Jehnny Beth. Both songs promise a fascinating full-length album! Asked about “Ache In The Middle,” Liela says:

I was working with Johnny Hostile on extra instrumentation for this track, when he sent it back with a middle 8 vocal section written and sung by his partner Jehnny Beth. He emailed saying she loved the track and hoped I didn’t mind her spontaneous contribution? This was a real gift, some unexpected beauty. The track crystallizes my thoughts about some of my own childhood, ideas about attachment and my recent work with Children’s Social Care. Jehnny Beth must have somehow understood where I was with this personal process, because she jumped straight in with a complimentary lyrical flow.

“Ache in the Middle” comes with a dreamlike video about which Liela says:

The video reflects some of my glitched and slowly fading childhood memories, and the weird, uncanny aloneness I would experience when regulating my feelings as a little kid. People, spaces and animals take on this huge symbolic value and radiate with security, when you are very young, and searching for that safety.

Listen to “Ache in the Middle,” our Song Pick of the Day, and watch the captivating video:

LP Giobbi – Body Breathe (ft. Monogem)

LP Giobbi is a producer and DJ, but also a pianist in Austin, Texas. For her latest song, “Body Breathe,” she collaborated with LA singer/songwriter Monogem, whom we have already met at several festivals. Highly danceable the song radiates energy and fun. Keep this track ready for a dreary day, especially if you live in a region that has to deal with winter.

LP Giobbi recalls how the song came together:

“I booked Monogem way back in the day to play W Los Angeles after discovering her on a Spotify playlist. I loved her voice and she turned out to be a really kind and wonderful person. We stayed in touch and set up a studio session in my studio in LA. My studio doors were open and I was at the piano playing [Bill Evans’] ‘Peace Piece’ warming up and killing time before Monogem got there. She walked in while I was playing and we started talking about our shared love for jazz. As I continued to tinker around on those chords, she started singing ‘take all the time you need, open up your body breathe…’ Although those chords weren’t right, they got us to her amazing vocals and that vocal got us to the track.”

Listen to our Song Pick of the Day, “Body Breathe,” on your favorite streaming service or below on YouTube:

Jess Kallen – A Garden Bed of Thistle Weeds

From a very early age on, California-based musician Jess Kallen (they/them) wanted to play guitar, to which I can wholeheartedly relate. While Jess started to play acoustic guitar when only five years old, I was already seven, and while they then moved on to play electric guitar, it took me an actual move (to New York) to finally plug my shiny new Les Paul into an amp. Of course, that’s where the parallels end, because Jess Kallen became a gigging artist, touring with the likes of Alex Lahey,  Rosie Tucker, and Olivia Rodrigo, occasionally, and is now releasing their own melodic, introspective songs, which brim with beautiful guitar work.

Think Phoebe Bridgers and you might get the vibe. Or simply listen to “A Garden Bed of Thistle Weeds,” out via New Professor Music,” our Song Pick of the Day:

Geiste – Immortal

Geiste is a French, London-based singer/songwriter who recently became the first signee of Emika Recordings aside from the label founder herself. Her new song, “Immortal,” is a big, sweeping pop song with a mythical vibe, which fits well with the idea of immortality.

Geiste is working on a new EP, Ashes, to be released next year. Listen to “Immortal,” our Song Pick of the Day, on your favorite streaming service or below on YouTube:

Spring & I – Believe Me

Ditte Angelo and Marie Friis are two self-taught electronic producers who started collaborating on music back in 2017. Under the moniker Spring & I, they have released a handful of singles and remixes to date. With their new single “Believe Me,” Spring & I announce an upcoming EP for early 2023. Their debut EP will offer more of their eclectic mix of dry and raw energy with melodic, pensive moments. “Believe Me” opens with hard-hitting drums and intriguing vocal processing, setting the vibe for the track. The song then takes a few surprising, lighter turns but without ever letting go of the brooding mood. I can very well picture “Believe Me” being used in a movie soundtrack to enhance an action or suspense scene.

Asked about their collaboration, the two Copenhagen-based musicians say:

The first tones were created under the pandemic, and despite the many frustrations the lockdown caused, it gave us room to seek deeper in who we are and what we want to create together. “Believe Me” emerged from a strong need to take back some of the control you are suppressed by as a woman when you live in a society with uneven, rigid power structures. The song almost wrote itself and encapsulates a drive to gain redemption, and set the tone for more new tracks to come.

Listen to the atmospheric “Believe Me,” our Song Pick of the Day:

Oropendola – Little Alien

“Little Alien” is not a holiday song but fits well with the season. Brooklyn-based musician Joana Schubert aka Oropendola conceived it as a lullaby and the quiet harpsichord line at the beginning indeed calms you down. But then, like the vivid images that cross one’s mind in a half-sleep state, more elements come in to form a rich and engaging soundscape. The production was not easy, as Joanna recalls.

“Little Alien is a welcome~to~this~realm lullaby-anthem for my now 1-year-old niece, Lucy. It started as a series of sporadic improvisations when she was still floating blissfully in the womb, and the threads all weaved together in one night (at my parents’ house on my childhood piano) after she was born. Months later, I recorded a live harpischord-vocal version at talented pal Landon Peer’s house in rural NJ, and added the rest of the arrangement in my Brooklyn bedroom. The mini “orchestra,” some recorded straight through Macbook speakers, is mostly keyboards (a Casio MT100 [which also provided the drum part, meticulously comped to match the rhythmically erratic nature of the original live take], Microkorg, and Korg SV1) as well as a few Logic sounds, harmonies recorded sans mic, and the great Aidan Cafferty on upright bass. Ryan Weiner mixed and mastered with beautiful nuance, and Katy Pinke created artwork that captures the essence of the song more deeply than words can.”

All in all, the song is a celebration of early childhood. Joanna explains:

“The song is an imagining of little Lucy’s adventure from there to here, a celebration and wide-eyed witnessing of this new weird being. It is an ode to the mysticism, wisdom, and memory of past lives that I suspect are inherent in the baby soul (and then forgotten, little by little), and a plea for some of it to seep back into our fabric. I imagine otherworldly creatures, spirits, and our now-ancestors in raucous celebration with the living, all talking over one another, Lucy’s great-great-aunt Gert pinching her cheeks and saying, “you little mieskeit” (Yiddish, ironic slang for “ugly person” that often adoringly means the opposite), my grandmother Pearl squeezing her granddaughter – Lucy’s mama, my sister – tight, and all of us, past and present, clinking glasses, together, hopeful, here for now.”

Listen to “Little Alien,” our Song Pick of the Day, here:

The Rocket Summer – M4U

“M4U,” the new single by Dallas-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer The Rocket Summer, is one of these songs that are impossible not to love from the spot, because it is beautifully catchy and infectious in the best kind of way. The track enchants with a mesmerizing rhythm and energy that draws you immediately in and doesn’t let go but enhances the joyful listening journey with vibrant vocals and, for good measure, Spanish guitar elements thrown in. The result is spectacular!

When asked about “M4U,” Bryce Avary, better known as The Rocket Summer, says:

“The song is about longing and feeling a sense of belonging somewhere else, sometimes feeling like an alien, but someone or something is what makes this world feel like home. I wrote it from the voice of one person to another, but to me, it was also a metaphor about longing for a dream realized, for a release, a reprieve”

Listen to “M4U,” our Song Pick of the Day, and check out the video, creative directed by Nicky Parks too:

Videos that should have a million views:
Discovery Zone - Blissful Morning Dream Interpretation Melody

Berlin-based musician JJ Weihl aka Discovery Zone, directed and edited this video like a futuristic advertisement for a dream-sharing app. “Blissful Morning Dream Interpretation Melody” is an elegant electronic production that fits perfectly as the soundtrack for the clip, and in the end, you don’t know if you should be scared by or looking forward to this imagined future. Also, check out her 2020 debut album Remote Control.