Electronica is a broad category for electronic music made for listening, clubs or experimental settings, without belonging to one narrowly defined genre. The term became widely used during the 1990s as electronic production moved beyond established categories such as House, Techno, Ambient and Drum and Bass.
Its foundations reach back to early synthesiser music, musique concrète, electro, industrial music, ambient composition and the arrival of affordable samplers and digital recording equipment. Artists increasingly combined programmed rhythms, processed vocals, acoustic instruments and studio manipulation within the same production.
During the 1990s, labels, magazines and record shops used Electronica to describe a wide range of artists reaching larger audiences through albums rather than club singles alone. Acts including The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Orbital, The Prodigy, Björk and Aphex Twin represented very different sounds but were often grouped under the same umbrella.
Electronica can include beat-driven music, ambient pieces, experimental pop, downtempo, glitch, IDM and hybrid productions shaped by several electronic styles at once. The category is useful precisely for releases that don't fit comfortably within a more specific genre, or that deliberately move between several classifications.
The term has become less precise as electronic production has spread across popular music, film, games and independent composition. Electronica is best understood as a flexible umbrella for artist-led electronic music whose structure, mood or production approach reaches beyond one established dance genre.
At Scientific Sound Asia, electronica spans nearly the whole schedule, with the heaviest presence on After Hours, Electronic Roots, Roots and Foundations.