About this episode
The episode explores the concept of Algorave and its lack of popularity despite its innovative approach to electronic music.
“Algorave” is a portmanteau of “algorithm” and “rave” that describes an electronic music event where people watch live coding performances. The term was originally coined by Alex McLean, a musician and software developer who created the live coding environment TidalCycles and its offshoot Strudel, the most popular tools used by live coders. Despite spreading internationally in the early 2010s, Algorave and live coding have remained relatively unknown. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Nathan and Sebastien try to answer the question of why Algorave has not become more popular. The two begin by highlighting the contributions of Brian Eno and Alex McLean before examining the work of the first Algorave musician to experience mainstream success: DJ_Dave. They reflect on her recent performance in Chicago and argue that she has appealed to a wider audience by incorporating pop music fundamentals. They then discuss the music of Switch Angel, a regular DJ_Dave collaborator who recently started a record label for live code music called Polymaters. The episode concludes with an examination of how Algorave is a vestige of the “social computing” ethos of the 1960s. Links: Nathan's…
People in this episode
Hosts: Nathan, Sebastien
Topics covered
- Algorave
- live coding
- electronic music
- music performance
- cultural history
Keywords
- Algorave
- live coding
- DJ_Dave
- Brian Eno
- Alex McLean
- electronic music
- TidalCycles
- Strudel
- Polymaters
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Polymaters
Books & works: TidalCycles, Strudel
Places: Chicago
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