In the world of electronic music, artists seem to largely be treading the same water these days. With the explosion of talent splattered across the internet media machine, if one were only to read about, without listening to, the music that is being released at breakneck speed, they would surely assume that these were the most important and fruitful times in music production history. After all, when each hyped release is delivered with the adjectives revolutionary and mind-blowing standard, how could one reach any other conclusion?
Clearly there is has been a disconnect somewhere between quality music production and relevant music criticism. Online magazines eager to break the next Burial, or Flying Lotus—each of whom represented major Events (capital E) in the progression of music in the 21st century—greet each new artist as the forebear of some great new genre. New genres are invented around artists who are largely unimportant.
The modern incarnation of Deep House is one such example. A few DJs started rehashing old styles, that fell out of fashion somewhere in the late 90s and people loved it. The talking heads rejoiced and Deep House was brought back from the dead. Not in the rebirth sense or the awesome zombie sense, but rather in the somewhat disrespectful Weekend and Bernies sense. Critics and DJs alike parading around an old, powerful force of nature so that they can seem important and part of the in-the-know.
The same thing happened last year with disco edits.
And the point is, these records weren't dusty recollections of themselves when they came out. If you are an artist and you like something, great! Go ahead, be inspired, take cues from your influences and make your own music. Don't steal a genres most basic signifiers (which mean exactly NOTHING out of their given context) and slather them in artificial laptop static and call them purist Deep House. Go out and make a record that is actually deep, soulful and sexy.
James Teej's track Get Off the Phone did exactly that. It may be a throwback in vibe but in execution it is anything but. The clipped male vocals and the careful production flourishes are the sound of an artist taking full advantage of a 21st century studio. The result isn't stale or derivative or masturbatory, but straight up angst ridden, sexual (and most importantly) modern dance music.
House/deep house is all about having fun and dancing; grooves and good sounds.
ReplyDeleteThe very nature of it precludes it from being some big 21st century cerebral futuristic Event like Burial or Flying Lotus. If you want it to be like that, you're missing the point.
That's why the 90s thing held sway, a cheeky nod to yesteryear for 'those in the know', and not some masonic conspiracy against the masses.
Sounds fall in and out of fashion all the time, in a couple of years the 90s sound and slow-mo disco/house hybrid will be about as popular as George Bush 43.
The Teej track is great but not a million miles away from a lot of other things produced these days and not dissimilar in feel to say, a Vikter Duplaix track early 2000s. And I would hardly say chopping up some vocals is 'taking full advantage of a 21st century studio'. You could probably do that on an old Akai sampler from 1995.
I never disagreed that house music is, at its core, about the party. But taking a strong style of dance music and turning on its head so that anything representing soul is completely emptied out doesn't make for a good party.
ReplyDeleteGranted, James Teej isn't exactly at the pinnacle of music production but theres some seriously vapid tracks floating around, and the fact that they are being tauted as anything but is a testament to opinion-molding hype machines' power over musical discourse.
I listen to top 40 tracks on the radio every now and again--I love listening to shit music sometimes. Not every track has to be great. But when there are forces out there promoting those very weak impulses while simultaneously defiling the old, I like to get on the old computer and talk about it.
Deep house revivalists are to the dance floor what Green Day are to punk rock.