synthesizer
38 tracksAn electronic instrument that generates sound from oscillators and shapes it with filters and envelopes. Synthesizers define the sound of electronic pop, house and techno.
Sound and timbre
distortion
7 tracks.
What it is
Deliberately overdriving a signal so that it clips and gains harmonics: grit on a guitar, a bass or a vocal. It adds aggression and presence.
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Hear it in these tracks
Mount Sims
No Yellow Lines
A night drive with the headlights off: grinding analogue bass, clipped drum machines and Mount Sims' cool, menacing croon from the darker side of electroclash.
David Lynch, Karen O
Pinky's Dream (Trentemøller Remix Instrumental)
Trentemøller strips Karen O away and leaves only the nightmare: a throbbing, sinister synth drive that sounds like a car speeding down a Lynchian highway at night.
Adam Freeland
Do You
Melodic synths crash into live drums and a snarling rock vocal: Do You opens Freeland's Cope with a breakbeat-punk jolt that sounds like a band and a DJ at war.
Louisahhh
Love Is a Punk (Vitalic Remix)
Vitalic reworks the opening track of Louisahhh's techno-punk debut The Practice of Freedom into a five-and-a-half-minute industrial club track, released on the album's 2021 deluxe edition by HE.SHE.THEY.
Louisahhh
Like A Vice
A dark and pulsating techno track that closes Louisahhh's intentionally brutal 2017 EP A Trap I've Built, delving into desire, control and liberation.
Freeland
Under Control
The lead single of Freeland's Cope swaps the guitar riff for a roaring synth and puts Kurt Baumann's deadpan vocal over breakbeat-bred drums: electronic rock with a raw, defiant edge.
Clawfinger
Biggest & The Best
'Biggest & The Best' is the lead single from Clawfinger's 1997 self-titled album: Swedish-Norwegian rap metal with industrial programming, aimed squarely at people who think they are almighty.