I’m not the biggest house fan; but this remix by Chicago house legend Larry Heard of Tom Trago’s 2011 track ‘What You Do’ is pretty great.
Eerie synthesizers, sombre piano tunes, but an uplifting beat and ditto vocals, laced with nice little electronic goodies. I keep playing it over and over.
It’s number 9 of the Friday Night Special! Since this is probably the last FNS (at least for a long while) we’re going out with a bang. An 80+ minute long summer mix with lots of funky fresh tracks. This means some of the latest sunny techhouse and minimal, classic Chicago and acid, smooth disco, plenty of vocals, slow stretched-out mixes and spacey tropical vibes. Perfect for a nice day in the park or at the beach (and it’s downloadable!). So long, and thanks for all the fish:
Techno music -- we’re not talking commercial electro crap like Deadmau5 and Skrillex that is right now gaining mainstream popularity in the US -- is and has been primarily a European thing. The acid house scene in England and techno scene in Berlin made it great. Yet, the roots of techno are firmly in America, in particularly the former industrial metropolis of Detroit. Here, in the early 1980s, a couple of black dj’s later named the Belleville Three listened to Kraftwerk (admittedly, very European) and Chicago house, and turned it into something stripped-down and industrial that reflected the place in which they were living.
NPR -- that’s the American public broadcaster -- has a nice feature on its website with 10 of the most essential Detroit techno tracks. A couple of illustrious names from the Detroit scene like Juan Atkins, Carl Craig and Jeff Mills (who can still be found dj’ing regularly all around Europe) write about these tracks. It’s nice to hear this and notice how tribal and spacey everything sounds. But this is the basis for today’s sound.
Here’s a couple of highlights:
The hipster kids are getting younger and younger these days. Check out this clip featuring kids in the disco by Hamburg producer and dj Tensnake. Tensnake is a producer who sorta combines the good sides of the mainstream sound of some popular dj’s with a more qualitatively appealing edge: in tracks like this one and Coma Cat you’ll hear disco, dub, Balearic, Chicago and acid house influences.
Check out these dancefloor killers:
Tensnake -- Something About You (gets great in the middle):
Tensnake -- Coma Cat (totally happy, definitely listen to this):
Holding Back (My Love) is also a great, lazy track.
Tensnake plays at the Melt! festival on July 15!
This one was released in 2009, but I hadn´t heard yet. Very nice “rolling train techno” with a soulful twist. The original is a classic chicago house track by Inner City. Would love to hear this in a big room:
Cut Copy were doing synth, incorporating 1980s cheesy glam influences and sampling nostalgic-sounding tracks long before it became common hipster fashion. Combining this stuff with indie rock, their previous albums Bright Like Neon Love (2004) and especially In Ghost Colours (2008) were full of really great tracks – check out ‘So Haunted‘, ‘Strangers in the Wind‘, ‘Hearts on Fire‘ and ‘Lights and Music‘. These guys already are the 21st-century heir to New Order (one of my all time ever favorite bands) if there ever was one. The problem with this particular sound, though, is that it can get tired and a bit monotonous pretty soon.
So the question is, when a new album comes out, to which extent have they moved on and expanded their sound? Cut Copy stream their album Zonoscope for free on this site, if you log in with a Twitter account. I listened to it, and I have to say it’s pretty good!
In addition to the influences above, they’re now also incorporating acid house, Chicago house, disco, 1960s psychedelic rock, tropical instruments and Brian Eno-like ambient soundscapes in their music. The first three tracks I already knew via leaks – ‘Need You Now‘ is a Deadmau5/New Order like banger, ‘Take Me Over‘ sounds the most 1980s like the previous album, and ‘Where I’m Going‘ is a 1960s psychedelic track. All three among the best of the album.
Ironically enough, then come two tracks entitled ‘Pharaohs and Pyramids‘ and ‘Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution’. The track list was already announced a while ago, so a nice coincidence with some world events lately. The first one is maybe the best track on the album – acid housy, with a great buildup and pay-off. After that, though, Zonoscope implodes a bit… And it doesn’t get back on track until ‘Alisa’.
But then, the 15-minute closing track ‘Sun God’ is epic. A techno club banger that goes on and on… This is Cut Copy’s ‘Jumbo’ or ‘Dirty Epic’, I’d say. So, all in all, a great album. Buy it here. Cut Copy will be playing the Melkweg in Amsterdam on March 18!
