Genres for Genres

I got to thinking this morning about how ironic it is that people are so discerning about their taste in films, yet when it comes to music, some people are content to dance the night away to Fedde Le Grand.

I draw a lot of parallels between movie and music - not least because seeing a B-grade movie is just like listening to bad music - there's nothing wrong with enjoying it once in a while, as long as you realise that what you're listening to is absolute tripe.

This chain of reasoning led me onto wondering how each genre of music could be represented as a film. So, without further introduction:

House

Regardless of what kind of house music you listen to; deep, funky, jackin', soulful or gospel, it's all feel good. Excluding that of the acid variety, house music is almost always happy. Common lyrical hooks can include such inspiring, well written gems as:

"you gotta be strong!"

"keep on moving!"

"higher! higher!"

"feel the love!"

"I'm so overwhelmingly gay it hurts!"

As such, the logical movie partner for house music is the romantic comedy; effortlessly happy, relentlessly optimistic, and often very annoying. The two are such an uncanny match I hardly believed it myself. Romantic comedies always seem to follow the same pattern: guy meets girl, falls in love, messes it up big time, then triumphs in the end with a grandiose gesture that wins her back. House music is the same - vocalist falls from grace, finds God, then returns to "see the light!".

Colin Firth & Hugh Grant. Yuck.

The last nail in the coffin is a convincing one. What kind of people willingly watch a romantic comedy? Women and gay guys.

What kind of people enjoy house music? Women and gay guys!

Love Actually, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary, You've Got Mail, What Women Want

Techno

This is a tough one, because, like house, techno can encompass a wide range of different feelings and styles, from Detroit to Schranz - though I'd say one feeling is more ubiquitous than any other, which is "my music is much cooler than yours".

Yes, tech-heads see themselves as a cut above the rest, better than those glowstick-loving ravers, anyway. The sheer amount of snobbery commanded by techno purists is enough to make even Lord Thistlethwaite the III drop his monocle in fright.

Of course, techno is often passed off as "intelligent music", but I don't think there's much intelligence about it at all - it's simply less fluffy than trance and house, and less twisted than the harder genres. The word "conservative" comes to mind.

So? What kind of film correlates? One that thinks it's smarter than it really is? Well, if we're talking about slower techno and tech-house, it's surely "the heist" or "thriller" film. You know, the one where the clever thief and the lead investigator play the sophisticated cat and mouse game, each trying to appear more at ease than the other?

"I know you stole that painting, Pierce"
"You think you know, so what are you going to do about it? "
...and so on and so forth.

If it's the harder type of tech we're talking about (Adam Beyer or Chris Liebing), then you've got yourself a murder mystery of course - same kind of thing, two characters jostling for position, each trying to outsmart the other - a sheer battle of wills, much like trying to explain to tech-heads that their music isn't the best thing ever, really.

The Thomas Crown Affair, Seven, Ocean's Eleven, Entrapment

Trance

Did I just say a dirty word?

Trance, you either love it or hate it. If you hate it, it's generally for one of two reasons:

1. You don't like flying over rainbows to magical happy land on the back of a unicorn.

2. You think trance is too fast, too hard, and pretty much the same as Gabba, in which case you've never really listened to it in the first place.

Trance is a music composed of WONDROUS melodies, overblown euphoria enough to make Willy Wonka cringe. Most of the people who listen to it are living in dreamland, riding on cloud 9, entranced by those shiny lasers and ascending arepggios. What fun!

Thus, trance can only be one thing: a fantasy movie.

Trance crackers are a lot like your average fantasy movie fan; they're lost in their own little world, oblivious to the aspersions being cast on them by others, and they like to dress up in stupid clothes too. Whether you're an Elf Mage dressed in a goblin-repelling green tunic, or a dirty raver wearing female-repelling phat pants, your head is in the same space - not on this planet.

Nice ears.

Tech and hard trance are a little more grounded, with a repertoire of harder beats and less of that namby-pamby, 20 minute breakdown, hands-in-the-air crap. As such, they embody darker tones and arguably cooler themes, which is why they are a Sci-Fi movie.

Bigger kick drums, harsher percussion, faster beats = robots, spaceships, aliens and lasers (of the destructive, killing kind of course, not the kind you reach for at 3am). Duh. Still, though Sci-Fi is generally pretty cool (think Arnie in Terminator), just like hard trance, it's also kind of gay - ala Star Trek.

Lord Of The Rings, Beowulf, The Matrix, Aliens, Merlin, Harry Potter

Hardstyle/Hardcore/Gabba/Hard NRG/Happy Hardcore/Hard House

Don't try and tell me there's significant differences between the genres, because there's not. They're all as stupid as one another - ear wrenching synth stabs, melodies that sound like they were composed by a monkey dancing on a synthesizer, and that blistering BPM. Music for infantile minds, really.

The movie choice is so easy I shouldn't even need to spell it out - schlock horror.

Like horror movies, the "hardcore" genres are meant to be scary, enjoyable purely for shock value. The people who consume both these types of media pride themselves on their "harder than thou" attitude, but don't realise that everyone is laughing at them.

Hockey mask: an effective cure for low self-esteem stemming from one's aesthetic deficiencies.

Paper thin plots, shonky acting, unconvincing scariness and questionable entertainment value, they all translate perfectly to hardcore. Paper thin melodies comprised of shonky sounds coupled with stupidity rather than scariness, and so on and so forth.

Resident Evil, Nightmare On Elm St, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer

Psy/Goa Trance

To the amateur ear, psy-trance sounds a hell of a lot like hardcore. Fast tempo, big, scary bass lines, twisted, random noises and plenty of stupid vocal samples about drugs. Right?

WRONG.

Yes, Psy-Trance is still like a horror movie, but it's one with good acting, genuine moments of fright, and a believable plot.

Saw: twisted shit.

Still - you have to wonder about the minds of these people. House heads might be gay, tech heads pretentious, trance crackers off in la-la land, and hardcore aficionados missing two or three chromosomes, but what kind of sick mind enjoys this deranged, scary music, or spending three days listening to it out in the wilderness without a shower for that matter?

Saw, Identity, Psycho, Silence Of the Lambs, A Clockwork Orange, The Ring

Indie/New Wave/Electro House

Where house is outright flamboyant, indie considers itself playful, with such awe-inspiring vocals as: "disco, disco, disco, disco, disco, disco, need to disco!", and quirky themes about girls who like to go ten pin bowling.

Really, the genre is pretty much as stupid as hardcore, though it's lacking the "scary" element, and doesn't take itself nearly so seriously either, thus making it the brainless comedy. See here for more detail.

Dumb & Dumber, Night At The Roxbury, Anchorman, Billy Madison

Jungle/Drum 'n' Bass

Drum 'n' Bass is a very closed scene (at least where round these parts), with people outside of it largely clueless as to the kind of people who attend and where the parties are held.

Like trance, it's listeners are very much wrapped up in their encapsulating world, but much more aware of what the hell's going on around them. Their dark, fast music scares others away, making entry to the scene relatively difficult for most.

Thus, DnB's dark tones, fast pace, and strange sounds are much like that cult sci-fi movie which you've never even heard of. The background is impossible to grasp unless you've read up on the internet, the story too intense and long-winded to bother with, and plenty of stuff about futuristic vampires, clones and espionage. Definitely entertaining if you know what's going on, but otherwise just a crock of shit.

No examples here: they're all too underground for me (maybe Blade).

Dubstep & Grime

A close relation to DnB, Dubstep is a gritty, underground genre which fuses many elements, often using them to good effect, but sometimes missing the mark. It's accessible to the masses, due to recognisable elements such as MCing, or it's deep bassy synths. When done well, it's not too bad. 99% of the the time, I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a rusty fork instead.

Snatch, Lockstock & Two Smoking Barrels, Fight Club, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction

Leftfield/Trip-Hop

Now, here's a genre which you won't hear me slagging off. Surprisingly, this is a style I admire massively for it's innovative approach, artist integrity and emotional feel, yet rarely listen to. Why?

It's boring as hell, that's why. Where's the energy lads?

The best thing about the genre is the fact that by it's very nature, it can't be bastardized. In EVERY genre, there is good and bad music, and a selection of tracks made by talentless producers simply for fame or money. Left-field strives to be different from anything else, and thus doesn't seem to suffer so much from "cookie cutter" generic elements that other fields do.

It's unique, clever, and emotional all at the same time. It's an art house movie!

Just like art house, it's brilliant when you're in the mood, but if you're not, it's tiresome and you'd rather watch anything else, even Resident Evil or Night At The Roxbury.

American Beauty, Babel, Shawshank Redemption

Kit Phillips

Today I'm proud to present the work of a 18 year old Kit Phillips, a budding producer with bucket loads of talent. Residing in Sydney, Australia, Kit set foot on his current path at the age of 13, listening to commercial trance on the radio, while at the same time producing rock music, another passion of his which shines clearly in his production.

However, it wasn't until two years ago that Kit got his act together, purchased some soft synths, a copy of Ableton Live, and started teaching himself electronic production. Over the ensuing two years, his talent has sprung forth, giving rise to tracks that bely his relative inexperience within the scene.

Currently, his influences include trance acts such as Mirco De Govia, Kyau & Albert, Leama & Moor and First State. Far more telling in his own music is the influence of his favourite down-tempo artists such as Lamb, Apparat and Boards Of Canada, as well as rock acts Powderfinger, Foo Fighters, Whitest Boy Alive and Crowded House. Danish maestro Trentemøller also ranks highly.

All of these sounds are combined to form a truly unique sound; part trance, part soft rock, and wholly blissful. Kit plays all the guitars himself, and sings too in Breaking Down.

First up is my favourite, Tranceformer:

Second is a happy little number, Autumn Burn, with some beautiful pads in the second half:

Elastone is a short, seemingly experimental track:

Finally is Breaking Down, my least favourite track unfortunately, despite the beautiful guitar. However, this track is in the process of being fully re-worked - I look forward to the final results!

Beautiful, beautiful music, with a nicely polished sound for someone this young. A few years on and I envisage higher quality music with a more than just a bit of appeal to labels.

For more information, visit Kit's soundclick page:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=423205

No email address provided here unfortunately, but there is a contact form. Please contact Kit if you or someone you know is interested in signing his music!

Production is achieved using the following:

Native instruments Komplete 4
Ableton Live
Digidesign Mbox 1
AKG k240 Headphones

Ibanez SA160
Fender American Deluxe Strat
Line 6 Pod XT live
Roland JC 160

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

Ha!

Interview: Mark Farina

On your new Fabric Mix; I was impressed with how you’ve doggedly stuck with your recognisable house sound, despite a global downturn in the popularity of this style of music. What places do you think this kind of music is still booming in at the moment?

The Midwest (USA), California, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, Belgium, just to name a couple spots.

Has your loyalty to house music been a conscious decision, either for the benefit of your long-time fans, or perhaps because you don’t like to be dictated by current trends? Or is it just that you don’t identify so much with the more popular music right now (arguably tech-house)?

I just love House. There’s a certain Chicago – SF jacking deep sound that I enjoy and always try and find new goodies to support that. I think Chicago house has many sub-genres within though.

What do you prefer to listen to at home, funky house music along the lines of your Fabric Mix, or the sound you’ve been credited as coming up with, “Mushroom Jazz”? Any other left-field stuff?

Both. I usually listen to more house because I tend to find more new house tunes than downtempo. I collect weird records – searching for samples too.

Your Fabric Mix contains a few interesting science fiction samples. Where did these come from?

Obscure old spoken word albums I’ve collected over the years.

What about the Japanese samples in Das Shibuya? What’s the guy saying? (something about a computer I think, my Japanese skills are a bit rusty)

The guy is naming all of the Kraftwerk songs they performed at a concert in Tokyo in 1981.

Being a veteran of the house scene, does it disappoint you to see so many kids in America growing up thinking of anything with a 4/4 beat as “techno” in the negative sense, especially since techno and house were conceived in their own back yards?

It’s not their fault. It’s hard in the US to be into house or techno or any other sub genre of electronic club music because all the clubs are 21 and up (meaning you must be 21 to get in).

How’s the scene in America now? I’ve heard you mention in the past few years that rock music is making a big comeback, but I have also seen signs that dance music is gaining ground generally. A lot of American producers are starting to emerge on the global stage, though not necessarily in the house field. What do you make of this?

Still, it's pretty good here. Club style is either house, techno or electro. Then of course there’s the whole hip-hop R&B thing that’s more mainstream.

America is currently your home. Though hosting plenty of talented producers and DJs, it’s dwarfed by the amount of material from Europe. Have you ever had thoughts about relocation, or would it feel wrong considering that both house music and yourself got their respective starts in America?

Probably thought more about relocating to Europe or Canada because of lack of faith in our government than music.

You’ve stated in the past that Detroit, the techno mecca, is actually not that great to play because the clubs close so early. What IS your ideal club night? Are you in the open air on a beach, like the Full Moon parties you’ve played in Hawaii, or in a dank and dingy underground club in the centre of the city? What are people wearing? What’s the décor like?

Detroit is fun to play though, it just sucks when the party has to end too early wherever it may be. I usually prefer clubs in the 300-1000 range.

I wrote an article a while ago about the impact of drugs on the dance music. There are few people who have as much experience as you in the scene. What are your thoughts? Do you think drug use has increased or decreased? Is it detrimental? Would you prefer a crowd of drinkers or drug takers at your parties?

I think music, whichever genre, and drugs or alcohol have always had intertwined relationships. It’s just part of growing up. I think a mix of people is usually best, a few drunks, some druggies and some sober people too.

I’ve heard you like to play video games in your spare time. Are you a console or computer kind of guy? What are your past and current favourite games?

I prefer X-BOX 360 or PSP. Current faves: Grand Theft Auto (X-BOX 360), Call of Duty (X-BOX 360) and Tigerwoods 2008 (for PSP).

I’ve found that my favourite games often have great soundtracks. Is this something you notice too? If so, what games have good soundtracks for you?

The radio stations in GTA 4 are cool. One is a DJ Premier channel.

What’s coming up in your world in the next 6 months?

After the Fabric 40 release this weekend, going to do tours in USA, Canada, China, Japan, Brazil, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Don't leave just yet...

7 days between updates; I feel ashamed!

This week I've been quite busy, but in my downtime I've been listening to Anthony Pappa's excellent new tech-infused mix CD, Moments, Headroom's debut psy-trance album, Artelligent (slightly above average, but no more than that), and catching up on a bit of techno/tech house with a good night out on Friday and a few releases from the Get Physical stable.

Sadly, I don't have anything interesting to share, but don't leave just yet, because I have two very interesting interviews coming up this week, possibly within a few days of each other. One with a veteran house DJ/producer and the other with a young progressive jock.

Hang around!

Music Review: Digicult - Out Of This World

Digicult is a fledging full-on psy act consisting of Bert De Becker & Davy Piessens, based in Ghent, Belgium, which seems to be hosting a lot of talent right now.

Dacru Records is one of my favourite at the moment; label boss Becker, also known under his pseudonym "DJ Nemesis", and his co-founder Jon Ford, son of John "Phantasm" Ford, have a great ear for music. In particular the Orientation series CDs compiled by Becker are quite good. The music on this label is by no means deep, but it's not cheesy either. It's music made for dancing and enjoying, not analysing.

With that in mind, step into the world of Digicult and see what they have to offer with their debut album...

The first thing that struck me about the release was the artwork; fantastic! The image above doesn't quite do it justice. Inside the cover is no different, with a clever sketch of an audio waveform clearly saying "Out Of This World".

The title is apt because each and every song is themed around space, aliens, interstellar travel and the like, right from the cosmic tones of the opening, Star Travel, to the last track, The Return, featuring Fatali. While I admit a deep love for "themed" albums, I feel that this one went a bit over the top. Every track contains a copious amount of "space" vocal samples, with a vast majority being taken from American documentaries, the speakers clearly being geeky astrophysicists or the like. This I didn't enjoy at all. It's good for samples to have a certain mystery or strangeness surrounding them, and these satisfy neither criterion.

Also grating is the sheer over-usage of samples - every song has one. Like huge emotional breakdowns in epic trance, these feel like they are more there because they "had" to be rather than for actual artistic merit.

On the upside, most of the snippets seem relatively unique, though the nice female "we are now charging..." sample heard in Domestic's Limited Addiction rears it's head again. I'd be interested to know where this originally came from if anyone knows.

However, samples aside, this is a generally pleasing album.

It's more trance than psychedelic, with "rolling" bass lines being the only real link to the psychedelic scene. I think this is a good transition album for someone wanting to make the jump between the two.

The opening track has a distinct "cosmic" Euro feel to it, not unlike PPK - Resurrection (cringe!). However, rather than use a cheesy hook and weak percussion as PPK did, Digicult takes it up a notch, adding a delicious bass line, minimal hi-hats and loads of gorgeous melody in various forms; string plucks, synth stabs and raucous arps. It would be incorrect to call the album "formulaic", but all the tracks are cut from much the same stuff as this. The lead sounds are engaging, mostly eventuating in medium-intensity builds and bass drops, though it's clear that the producers are wary of making things too epic, and the energy is maintained right from start to finish as a result.

Some different flavours can be heard in tracks six and seven, my favourite two on the album, with Awaken The Dream having a faintly Indian feel to it in the second half, a nice nod to the roots of the genre and a great dancy track to boot.



Following this is Magic, which dedicated psy heads will no doubt hate with a passion, but which I think is pretty cool. Infected Mushroom have copped a lot of flak for trying to combine guitars with psy, and I think in some cases it's warranted, but Digicult have done a good job here in my opinion, using 80's style guitars that sound like they've been lifted from a sitcom's opening theme. Sounds horrible, I know, but listen to the sample to hear otherwise.




All in all, a nicely rounded album with perhaps lacks depth, but makes up for it with consistency and doesn't take itself too seriously. Digicult won't win any accolades for inventiveness or originality, but that doesn't mean this album isn't worth listening to. On the contrary, it's highly enjoyable if you can get your head past the annoying samples.

Music Review: Booka Shade - Charlotte

From the forthcoming new album is Charlotte, which continues in the same vein as past works. As usual, will be released on Get Physical of course.

The first track on the release is simply labelled "remix", leading me to believe the new album will contain the original mix. This tune sounds like a leftover from Movements, an album I have enjoyed many times over. It has the same smooth bass line, the same clapper sounds, and the same warbly synths as many of their previous tracks. Added is some soft female harmonising which is a nice touch.

However, while this is undeniably "pure Booka", Charlotte (Remix) is missing the infectious hooks and catchy strains that made Night Falls, Body Language and Mandarine Girl so popular, instead employing an unmemorable melody which will no doubt impact the song's airplay.

While hardcore fans will no doubt still fawn over this release, I'm disappointed to see such a sameness of sound two years on. Though generally this is a solid track, cruising along with typical Booka ease, somehow dancey and relaxing at the same time, it still feels a bit dusty, as we've heard this exact same sound too often. Nevertheless, a good listen.

The second track on the release is "Booka's No Pain, No Gain Mix", which really adds little to the aforementioned description, being more for DJ programming usage than anything else it would seem.

Third up is the Dubfire Remix. YAWN.

Why the hell does everyone go crazy for Dubfire productions? Ali's music makes me positively sleepy; it's a fine example of "plodding" techno; music that has no soul, no rhythm, and goes no where. In this generic track, that great Booka bass line has been removed and replaced with a monotonous string pluck and boring hats. Horrible, absolutely horrible. This would be fine if there was melody to keep things happening, but the melody has been largely stripped back too, leaving nothing but pure poo with which to indulge our ears; six minutes of dubby bass line and minimal percussion with minute variations.

Three tracks in and I'm less than impressed.

But! In flies newcomer Matchbox, with his "Right Or Wrong" remix, single-handedly saving the day!

Matchbox's version adds a happier bass line, switches the Booka percussion for something slightly different, and pours a whole lot of emotion on top, a stark contrast to Dubfire's cold remix. Providing most of the feeling in the track is a blissful breakdown which uses an array of interesting sounds, but ties them altogether nicely, with my favourite being the 80's style tom-toms. Altogether is has a more serene feel than the other three tunes, and clearly shows that Matchbox put of lot of work into this, as rising producers out to impress the world tend to do.

On the other hand, the other three songs feel positively heartless and rushed; the efforts uninspired producers completely comfortable within the scene, knowing that their names alone will be enough to make people go gaga over their work. On the whole, a disappointing release, but worth it for the last track alone. Sample below.