Today I’m going to write about music: people often ask me what kind of music I play. Actually, I love to spin techno but techno isn’t thought to go down well with the so-called gay crowd (more on that subject in future blogs). In KL what I end up spinning much of the time is electro house. So what’s the difference? What is techno and what is electro house?
ELECTRO
I’m too lazy to say electro house. Strictly speaking, that is the music I spin but nearly all of us who talk about it can’t be bothered with the ‘house’. It’s an extra syllable, after all. We all say electro. But real electro is a spin off from electronic music – think Dr. Who theme music, Kraftwerk and banks of Moog synthesisers, then Human League and Gary Numan. Or later down the line, think Grandmaster Flash and the Message.
Electro house is a sexy and commercial descendant. Drum machines, heavy repetitive keyboard bass patterns, often with catchy vocals. Wikipedia cites Bodyrox’s ‘Yeah Yeah’ as a trailblazing electrohouse tune.
It’s a tremendous song!
I also think Fedde le Grand’s ‘Put your Hands Up for Detroit’ is a definitive electro house tune. Even his overplayed and by this stage in the game, tiresome ‘Let Me Think About It’ has that definitive electro house keyboard bass riffing.
Detroit
An example of a less commercial but totally cool electro house track is Olivier Giacomotto’s remix of Defected by Robot Needs Oil. Gosh, that is sexy! I love the way the syncopated keyboards slowly develop over the main riff.
So electro house can be very poppy. It often but not always has vocals. Its ideas have grown to influence all kinds of other genres.
Other electro house that you know already: Walking Away, Love Never Let Me Go…
TECHNO
I’m a Trade baby. I grew up in London in an era when the gay clubs were pushing the envelope on what clubs could do and what music could be, and the club that pushed the envelope further than any other was Trade. It was the first legal all night dancing club in the UK. Its doors didn’t even open till 4am, though the queues started earlier and you could dance till 2pm. You could buy everything you needed in there. Everything…The British form orderly queues for everthing, even the in-house drug dealers. They even put in an ATM so you could top up your empty wallet and start over. Trade was a defining experience for many gay Londoners. There’s never been a club like it since. One guy arranged for his ashes to be scattered there after his death! When they closed it down, finally, they gave away pieces of the dance floor as souvenirs, like pieces of the true cross… And Trade played techno!!
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| Trade Baby Bilsen c.2001 |
I don’t want to witter on about the origins of techno. I’m no expert. I found a nice quote on Wiki. Juan Atkins has stated that it is "music that sounds like technology, and not technology that sounds like music, meaning that most of the music you listen to is made with technology, whether you know it or not. But with techno music, you know it."
Techno sounds electronic. It can be hard and banging. But it can be uplifting. Somehow there can be something heartfelt or even spiritual about it, hence the way Trade became a techno temple.
Again, lifting from Wiki ‘Derrick May has summed up the sound as 'Hi-tech Tribalism': something "very spiritual, very bass oriented, and very drum oriented, very percussive. The original techno music was very hi-tech with a very percussive feel... it was extremely, extremely Tribal. It feels like you're in some sort of hi-tech village."
How can dance music be spiritual? If you want to know what I’m talking about you just have to listen. Carbonat by Piemont and Sydenham and Rune’s remix of Argy’s1985 say far more than my words.
Carbonat
1985
1985 is one of my top five greatest songs of all time. I find it so heartfelt and captivating that when Bill and I got married last year it was the music we played as people were arriving and waiting for us to walk down the aisle. Imagine the expecation and love in the room with this on the decks! Thanks for the wedding gift, Argy!
So you can tell just by the length of these sections where my heart is. I prefer techno to electro. Electro can be great. But when you have a verse chorus thing and lyrics and vocals you can sing along to, it shortens the shelf life of a song, no matter how good. Once you’ve heard an electro song a few times, you get bored with it.
But techno is primarily instrumental. The vocals, if any, are ambient or suggestive, rather than dominant. So the track sounds fresh longer, or becomes timeless, like Carbonat or 1985. You could play those on any techno dancefloor in the world, today or in five years time and still enchant the crowd, whether they knew them or not.
And techno has the power to reach into your soul, in a good way and in a bad way. For example, Wrong Turn by Kyle Geiger. Turn it up loud and it will take you into the darkest part of your heart. Beware of your dark side!! When I listen to it I contact my Mr. Jekyll. I become a dance inspired demon! I couldn't find a link for this on youtube but for sheer excitement and tension there's no match -I was forced to learn how to upload it myself. Here it is!
So that’s the end of today’s blog. Would you like to listen to more?
I’ve done a couple of techno and electro mixes which you can download from my soundcloud.
Technomixes
Live at Kinky Kaos.
A live set from Kaos in BKK. It’s an hour of techno and tech house which builds and builds and builds till it reaches a hip-grinding climax with, funnily enough, an electro anthem by Freakadelica…’I Don’t Like It’ . I think this set is great to play when you’re shagging and at least one of my ex-pat mates agrees with me!
Regenerate
For a long time I'd been wanting to do an uncompromisingly 'deeper, harder, faster' mix. This was it - hardly any vocals, four to the floor kickdrums and a galloping 135 techno beats per minute.
Electromixset
Hold That Sucker Down
I really like this mixset. Clearly so do other people - if I check my stats on soundcloud it's got more downloads than any other of my sets. It’s poppy, with quite a few 80’s remixes but some of the material is a little hard edged, the way I like it. I made it especially to impress a promoter and it worked...I got the gig! Antonio Falcone’s Now That We Found Love remix is archetypal electro house.
Thanks for reading. If you’ve got any comments on electro and techno, I’d love to hear them.
I think you are amazing, Oran Bilsen. Your passion on music, much like everything you do, is more than just a hobby but a learning journey that takes you broader and deeper toward this subject, along with people around you. I have learned something from this blog. Thank you. And I am honoured to be given the chance seeing the world that I didn't know by your guide.
ReplyDeleteOooh er..awwww....shucks...blush...thanks!
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