When your grandma is regaling you with stories from when the world was a simpler, snazzier place, does she slip into a mysterious musical time portal and begin to sing snippets of old songs her grandma used to sing? Well, the good news for Grandma (and great-great grandma if she’s still around) is that the elements of older Folk songs have been revived in the form of Folktronica, a sub-genre of Electronic music.
Folktronica is a sublime swirl of antique and cutting-edge with its seemingly contradictory combination of classic Folk tunes with modern Electronica. Said to have originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the music of this genre blends the elements of acoustic Folk, Jazz, ambient Electronica, instrumental Hip-Hop, and even Classical music to create a mishmash of music both the technophile and technophobe can appreciate.
You may also hear this genre referred to as Laptop Folk, since much of the music is created using the nifty non-linear editing programs found in newer generations of laptops. Artists, or anyone else who knows how, produce such music by sampling and looping acoustic instrumentation, and then rearranging it to create the desired effect. It’s kind of like cutting and pasting with sound clips.
If you’re curious to hear some Folktronica yourself, artists Four Tet, Caribou (aka Manitoba), and Colleen are some of the most prominent in this growing genre. A number of variations exist within the genre, so if one artist is not to your liking, you might not have to write the whole genre off. While the smooth sounds of Four Tet might make you feel like you’re schmoozing in a high-class bar, Caribou is more ethereal and good for swaying in a coffee house.
While Grandma might not see much resemblance between her old-time ditties and the sounds of Folktronica, she may rest assured that the banjoes and bagpipes of yore are being technologically upgraded and preserved through this genre.