DJs of the Future Don't Spin Records — They Write Code
"Live-coding" parties are the latest phenomenon in underground electronic music culture.
"Live-coding" parties — where revelers show up as much for the if-thens and variables as the beer and snacks — are a recent phenomenon in underground electronic music culture. Yet they're not just more of the tech-meets-techno same. Whereas a traditional EDM show might feature a performer cueing up sounds or samples on a laptop, DJs at live-coding shows use computers to play music in a wholly different way, and to make all new sounds. The code on display is used to control software algorithms. The musician synthesizes individual noises (snare hits, bass blobs) on their computer, then instructs the software to string those instrumental sounds together based on a set of predefined rules. What comes out bears the fingerprint of the artist but is shaped entirely by the algorithms. Run the same routine a second time and the song will sound familiar and contain all the same elements, but the composition will have a different structure. This is the apotheosis of electronic creation — half human, half machine. The events that have sprung up to celebrate this form of generative composition have already been given a delightful portmanteau: algoraves. An algorave (from an algorithm and rave) is an event where people dance to music generated from algorithms, often using live coding techniques. Algorave can also be considered an international music movement with a community of electronic musicians, visual artists and developing technologies.
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