hey, thanks for notifying me, i was a bit away for a while.
This days i only seek pitputs from artists i already knew, i don’t go to live or festival much exept for local artists/mate, i its been long time i don’t go to festival anymore. Haha shame. So fir now i don’t have anything to add to this topic, but I will keep on reading it, who knows maybe i’ll find my bread
Hey gang, cool thread.
The trance renaissance I’ve been waiting for for the last 10 years is finally in full swing and it’s bearing interesting fruit. I hadn’t realized the full extent of expression that was restricted as a result of the good taste ban on trance. Melody, euphoria, and joy are seeping into just about every subgenre in ways I wouldn’t expect and while there is some hacky stuff coming out of the trend, there is a ton of incredible, moving, blissful stuff pouring out of just about every subgenre of dance music.
At the same time, I’m hearing the kind of bass that was formerly found only in genres like Dub, Jungle, and ‘Bass’ music show up in just about every genre as well, which is really exciting. I don’t know why interesting, dynamic basslines were absent for so long but I am loving the presence of lush, deep, dynamic bass in genres like house, techno, breaks, and even chill out.
The other renaissance I’ve been waiting for for a long time is breaks, and I must confess that it has been a mixed bag. I find breaks are easier to half ass than trance, so we are hearing a lot of tracks with breaks that don’t really get what breaks can do to a tracks rhythm and flow. At the same time, we are getting more incredible breaks tracks in a year than we have had in the last decade, so I’ll take it.
Finally, I feel like music across the board is better than it has been in a long time (since blogs peaked maybe? maybe since the early 90s?) From pop, to rap, hip hop, rock, ambient, experimental, jungle, chill out, house, techno, trance, hardcore, breaks, just about every sound is doing something worth listening to, and I find it really exciting. I think I’ll be digging for tracks released between 2018-2022 for a long time, like I do with tracks from 91-95.
Yeah it’s really an incredible time for music these days, and I can’t help but be excited all the 2020 quarantine bangers that we’ll experience next year…I have the sense that lots of artists are in the studio leveling up, that all that has been happening is prefect fodder for emotional deep digging that brings musical gold.
i gotta say, I’m really glad that breaks haven’t faded myself. Really enjoying all the new and inventive flips and use of breaks in music I’m hearing lately. It’s very refreshing, and fucking HYPES me up!!!
There has definitely been a big pick up in breaksy 2-step hybrid stuff recently, like Interplanetary Criminal, Time is Now (via Shall Not Fade), Desert Sound Colony, which I think is pretty closely linked to the recent rise in 2-step cropping up in more minimal house/techno, like Entity and NorthSouth.
I agree though about some of the breaks comments above, as it does feel a little like the 90s ‘breaks plus soft pads’ trope which can be so good (obvious recent examples are Skee Mask and Yak), has been overdone by some throwback releases on labels like Lobster Theremin.
I would definitely give a big mention to SVBKLT and Nyege Nyege/Hakuna Kulala who are putting out some of the most out there music at the moment. On a similar note Tzusing has been bringing together industrial sounds with different types of East Asian music. I’d also say that the Nazar album on Hyperdub is very good in this kind of space. You’ll also see that Pan is getting in on the act with this split EP which really bangs.
A final recent trend I’ve noticed is that reggaeton and dembow seem a bit more prevalent in club music, a few examples are Arca, Simo Cell, Zut Zut and Clara!.
https://www.musicweek.com/management/read/aj-tracey-manager-andy-musgrave-talks-streaming/080809
Interesting interview by AJ Tracey manager Andy Musgrave.
“[Streaming is]the core focus for us, it’s the thing we build our artists businesses around. I’ve always focused on helping an artist not to get the big pay cheque, but to get a consistent income.”
twitter.com/EngineEarz/status/1289501665226182659
Spotify is still somewhat of a dodgy business model and metrics aren’t everything but it all the more puts importance on good management for artists and building fanbases. I use to chat a lot with Andy as well - he said because of streaming, musicians have to release on a constant basis to remain relevant. Whether that’s changing the musical landscape for better or worse depends on the person you’re talking to.
is trance back fr fr? was watching hor berlin and some uplifiting trance came in lmao. havent heard that since 2008-2010
I wouldn’t say it’s back back, just acceptable in mixes and generally as a sound again. To me it’s more like it’s in vogue, people are playing with the trance sonic palette, and if it keeps on this route yeah I’d say we could be seeing a resurgence…trendcasting has to be done with a grain of salt but this mix and the comments it got gave me some good insight into what may be around the corner…
6100 likes speaks for something, eh?
However, @euth seems to have his finger on the pulse in the LA scene and I’m pretty far out of a major city / digital scene, if he says it’s in full swing down there I believe him!
yeahh i like the way you put it! i see a lot of ‘trance fragments’ lately - mostly on deconstructed club and experimental releases. its pretty interesting that this nostalgia is happening now thoo
never been a fan of trance music in general but it’s been having a lot of leeway with music scenes in general.
this is honestly a guilty pleasure. posted this on dubstepforum and people understandably didn’t like it. “annoying breathy vocals pop trap”
“fuck me this is truly terrible ain’t it”
completely understand and agree with them to an extent. But it really reminds me of weightless grime / ambient a bit which is probably it’s only saving grace.
This turned into a bit of a ramble about my personal circumstances so apologies for the length, and also doing a “Music Predictions 2020” in September 2020 might be considered cheating slightly. But nevertheless…
I’ve been enjoying the Interplanetary Criminal stuff a lot, Move Tools in particular is so good. Just done a garage mix with a few of his things in. “Summer Garage II”, so I’ve basically missed the boat with getting that out in appropriate time.
What I’ve noticed in the UK - garage is on a bit of an upswing. There was an RA article about it, and people from overseas who focus on it seem to be getting some attention e.g. this Changsie mix (which I’ve not listened to).
I can’t actually tell whether this is just my interests making me look at this though. I’ve been slightly less invested in music recently than at any time for several years. I’m not embedded in any scene at all, I don’t really go out that much because I live in a place which is close but not well connected to London so it takes about 3-4 hours to get back home after a night out, I work in care and my hours are all over the place which means I’m knackered or have to be at work at 7am on most Saturdays. And I’m just in a bit of a flux position at the moment, have quit weed after years of addiction and I don’t drink or do harder drugs, and I’m getting a bit older now having got into all this quite late (early-mid 20s), so I just feel a bit awkward and self conscious dancing completely sober atm, and I don’t really read much music media any more, and have been trying as much as possible to get off social media. And of course I haven’t been out at all since lockdown. I don’t have any friends who are really into this stuff aside from my brother who has also slightly been losing interest and has been leaning heavily into old music, early 90s hardcore (like pre-jungle for those outside of UK). So I don’t really have a good insight into what’s going on really. I just find stuff I like online and follow my instincts there, plus a bit of social media chatter feeds in, I do my mixes when I’m feeling productive, and that’s about it.
But having said all that I’m currently much more interested in garage (new and old) and kind of old 90s house and garage house. Having been more into grime as far as new music has gone for a few years, and having felt the interesting stuff (if not the popular energy) was there for a few years, that seems to be in a bit of a bitter and dead-end space at the moment, though I like what Mez is doing. And I’m also being drawn back to guitar music for the first time in many years (probably 6 or 7 years), and quite sedate stuff which is not what I’ve historically been into.
Maybe this feeds into what @nickecks was saying about people having an appetite for cheerier sounds at the moment. I was very invested in Corbyn here in the UK politically, and Sanders in the US, and both of those flaming out and being subject to a huge aggressive retrospective scorched earth campaign (for Corbyn specifically, expect the same in the US if Trump wins again) plus the left dissolving into energy-sapping infighting has snuffed out a lot of my optimism about politics and made me think that investing quite so much emotional energy into it was a bad idea for my mental health, so I guess I’m looking towards music for that positive energy.
Other people might not have exactly the same politics but I do think there’s a similar energy around. The BLM stuff is making some strides but is (understandably) focused on a very depressing and brutal history, and it’s not obvious that it will translate into proper gains outside of stuff like record labels being a bit more fair in how they redistribute their (historically quite low) income. In terms of actual police or wider social reform and stuff it’s not looking very good (idk if that’s the view of BLM activists but that’s how it seems to me on the outside). The right are in the ascendency everywhere and they still seem to be completely miserable and convinced they’re losing? Corona is obviously shitting everyone up. So I guess ppl need that escapism?
More broadly my prediction would be for a bit of a jungle resurgence. There’s been a bit of that energy floating about for a few years now, but it feels close to the surface at the moment. Ppl like Sherelle and that crowd have (from my very arms-length observations) been doing a lot of “160” stuff which is kind of mostly footwork influenced but there seems to be a significant jungle influence there as well. And there has been a significant jungle influence among the US / Chicago footworkers for a few years as well. There also seems to be a bit of a link between more footwork oriented ppl like Kush Jones, and Moma Ready and those slightly more house and techno oriented ppl as well (I only have a very vague impression of this so I could be wrong here), and one of the areas of overlap is jungly, high BPM stuff. So there might be some interesting crosstalk there on the footwork / jungle axis or perhaps even spilling out a bit into some interesting hybrids or new ideas. Although again I’m only looking at it at arms length - they’ve been very prolific and I can’t really keep up with it all. In America the stuff that I’m seeing reflected through my social network stuff seems to be oriented around NY at the moment, but that’s even less informed.
Appreciate the personal take, i also got into clubbing late, not til 28. These days I’m far removed from nightlife 48 out of 52 weekends a year. Also stopped smoking socially, but will have a lil puff here and there. However my appetite for these tunes still remains voracious and this year I’ve been purchasing more music as I’m not saving money to travel to dance and city scene destinations.
The whole Sanders and Corbyn thing hit home too, def focusing more on my garden, comrades, family, friends and other projects this fall than an external top down movement, but that’s just been the medicine all year long.
Also see the jungle resurgence coming along, but in a much less rough and more hipster ig friendly mode, which honestly im sort of loathing…fuck bubblegum jungle…I need that rough revolutionary burn down babylon sound or its not gonna do it for me…om unit’s always been one to balance two worlds honorably, and im looking to his stuff to point the way toward what’s coming…he just dropped a nice ambient breakbeat sound pack I’ve been having fun with
speaking of happy, upbeat, escapist sounds…
lol sorta get this and not get this. I’m gonna need some examples of “bubblegum jungle” cause that description alone isn’t doing enough for me
On the other hand, YEAR0001 has been killing it this year outside of their primary entourage of Drain Gang + Yung Lean.
It’s just the pop version of jungle, like how Blink 182 Or Sum 41 was the bubblegum punk to Dead Kennedys or Minor Threat punk. A watered down crowd friendly version to make it wholly acceptable by a radio ( or today streaming ) audience. Haven’t found any examples yet but I’ll post em when they appear. Not a full on thesis or anything just an off cuff idea of what occurs when underground becomes served for the masses and the next generation accepts it widely, makes their version, and often softens the edge.
