What Was Blog House?

#21

honestly tho, the true precursor to this sound…the one and only oizo

1999

#22

did any of you guys live thru the era as adults? like i was 30 when this stuff came out, saw justice on their first tour in la at Detour Fest(whole ed banger crew was djing as well).Went a few times to banana split and opened up(dj’ing) for quite a few of those type artists in Dallas(im from dallas).

just wondered, cuz i have a different take on the era than most people here and wondered if its sorta speculative or where you actually around the scene at that time?

i’d write more about it, but i think it would come out as a essay instead of a post.

#23

write an essay, all of us youth will benefit…

i was 16 around the kick off…so definately not an adult…however these were my tunes through high school and into college, and most certainly helped shaped my adulthood soundscapes as such…by the time 2006 and justice came around i was approaching the ripe old age of 20…

#24

definitely a milestone in the development of my interest for electronic music and an indescribable door to a lot of stuff

i went through that era during my teen years following all these “French Touch 2.0” artists (2005-2006) and everyone that came along on Myspace, all these blogs (discobelle, hypemachine and so on) but to be honest it was a larger cultural movement (think about the clothes, the design; the hip, laidback “nerdish” aesthetics). for me it’s definitely linked to Justice, Ed Banger, Institubes and a lot of the artists that have been mentioned here (crystal castles, mstrkfrt, digitalism, these bloody beetroots (?) dudes, tiga, radioclit, etc. and even modeselektor or bands like cut copy and others, i feel). i guess it went from 2005-2006 until maybe 2010?

i’d say that pretty much everything in edm comes from sounds “stolen” from that unique and extremely productive time (calvin harris, steve aoki, deadmau5, avicii, diplo, skrillex). i personally lost track with that scene a bit before it disappeared/turned into what we now call edm but its influence has been quite strong culturally, even in rap.

most stuff are barely listenable nowadays but a few remain pretty good (and very nostalgic):




#25

I was obsessed with the stuff back then and indeed it didn’t age well at all. Can’t remember that much tracks from that time as well altho I literally checked everything.

Some I still know

I remember guys like L-Vis 1990 and Mumdance we’re making this stuff (blog house / fidget house) as well back in the day

#26

that is a good summation koigatabriel.

The thing is too, a lot of the guys that had been around and been great djs in other genres, kinda added these songs in their other sets. So you had guys playing all hard electro that were artist like discussed, but then you would have someone like craze/a trak/am would do their pop/eclectic set and then go into blog house cuts.

One of the best days was sunday and going to the do over to banana split at nite. The time Sebastian was there, AM played after and went in on the newest stuff without playing any real classics and is still one of the best sets ive ever heard. People were playing LA on fri or Sat and then Sunday was really the hightlight, cuz they would grab the best and all play at one or the other parties.

2005 so an earlier one with the harder electro french sound

While the banger-y electro house stuff was what emerged, that style was one of many that most people were flipping in and out of. Of couse eventually that sound got co-opted into the Electro house scene(as mentioned above) when i think people were starting to book one genre.

Uptempo music was still ruling clubs and dubstep was still dubstep, til around 09-10. Brostep and trap(edmish) wasnt a thing yet and some hip hop would get played as well, but a lot of it was uptempo. Stuff like Cool Kids or Kid Sister. Oh yeah, flosstradamus played all the worst(i guess the younger gen might like the songs) of all time club hits and anthems like sandstorm or that zombie nation song(think jockjams).

Bassline/bass music was actually in there a bit with the Trouble & bass crew, which of course was more NY than LA, so grittier and more stylistically challenging.

Indie Rock had a run early 2000s and a lot of those bands were getting remixes from these emerging artists. I mentioned flosstradamus somewhere in here, always liked their mix of matt & kim ‘yeah,yeah’

I also left out Spank Rock who def had a hand in the electronic rap side of things(the first album,yoyoyoyoyo produced by Triple xxxchange was my favorite album of the era), along with Cudi also dropping but crossing over withe Crookers remix of Day N Nite. Even deadmau5 was dropping big room classic remixes like the Daft Punk harder faster stronger.

Oh yeah, Daft Punk. IMO, it was Daft punk’s ‘Discovery’ and 'Human After All" to me, were the key to that era. Of course the 07 tour was the biggest thing across the nation and basically you had to go to a show if you were able too. Human After All was slagged by a lot of critics and older DJs because Homework had been such the real House/Techno crossover that the older crowd loved. I think it wasnt quite as crunchy(distorted/saturated) and compressed as the later electro house stuff but you can hear the similar synths

of course justice followed them. I think everyone thought that mabye they had similar characteristics of daft punk but updated and harder production techniques. I always thougt it was some sort of collaborative afffair between that crew.

The thing was, there wasnt 800 festivals and 10 ship parties. You had SXSW kicking things off, the winter music conference/ultra(it was more a bunch of parties/ultra wasnt as big and only for big room cheese) , then a few more regional fests like Shambala that were devoted to electronic music, but most of the other fests were for bands w a few djs and electronic acts.

So when Daft Punk came in 07, it was a mega big event for people coast to coast and they only played 8 US dates in the States. All that blog house that had come out in 05-6-7 really got put in the forefront becaus much of it was very Daft PUnkish and of course their manager was busy p (in some context at some point I always forget the connection), so that added to the legitimacy of the blog house movement among promoters and writers. I went to the show in NYC at a Coney Island minor league baseball stadium.

Baltimore club (Samir’s theme/ tear the club up type club classics and remixes), juke/ghetto house classics(ass & titties of course) was also part of this scene.

It really came down to producers starting to make lots of music and pushing them instead of a dj that made a few records. That why today there are a lot of super average djs, they arent really djs.

Honestly, it was kinda the last era of music only and clubs before the phones, internet and festivals took over. Not that ppl didnt have phones, but the internet sucked and 1.5 megapixel pics arent something you have to have. Video was super limited too.

After the crash of 09, it was like things rinsed and brostep/edm electro house started emerging and the underground went a different direction with more focused stuff like the club trax of night slugs or the nu disco/synth pop(i guess its called something else now future funk or something). A lot of that fresh sound had kinda gone stale with too many similar sounding songs or styles(baltimore club got raped by every crappy bottle service dj from LA with remixes to every akon song there was).

Of course the key to blog house were blogs and forums, which pretty much got replaced by social media starting with facebook since MYspace was such a thing. Myspace hosted about 4-5 songs for producers free remixes, hollerboard would have some and of couse the blogs/blog aggregators (hypem, discobelle, top billin, etc).

A lot of the songs, unless you knew the producer or had a blog, were only available there. You couldn’t grab them anywhere and a lot of times you had to get them the day they came out, because they might have download limit. Sometimes the links would just disappear due to (maybe) copyright infringement, which really pushed people to do their own stuff, because if you did a great remix of a major label artist, like Daft Punk or Stevie Wonder, it would be taken down depending on how and where it was hosted. it was like a game to hunt and find these remixes.

I think blog house essentially was not so much house, it was like independent(sometimes a bigger label but generally smaller labels) uptempo electronic music across the board of the time but the early ‘electro house’ thing was def dominant. Of course some of these songs will have a big label on the video, but they were indie releases that would get picked up later an distributed by a larger label.

some more tunes

i forgot about fidget & the great switch(who is a insane table tennis player)

indie rock - electro remixes

theres a lot of rambling here so i may have to edit and reword some things - sometimes i remember things wrong so feel free to correct me. I didnt write this stuff down at the time, but i have a pretty decent memory.

#27

yeah i’d also say Human after all is the basis for a lot of those sounds (or Daft Punk in general)

#28

i focused more on LA because i dont think NY,CHi,Sf, and Mia were all into blog house as much as LA since they all had their own historical house and techno scenes. Not that LA didnt but it seemed more open to the newer sounds, most of the heads i knew in those other cities were pretty anti-blog stuff. Sorta like the punk/new wave era vs the people that were still into blues/prog rock or metal

#29

Thanks for writing this up, I was hoping for exactly this kind of perspective.

Happy to say it validates more than it disillusions. There was something unique going on after all. I’m praying the forces that brought it about weren’t so unique that we will never see anything like it again. I feel like similar conditions brought about the ‘golden age’ of house, techno, and trance 88-94, ish (disco getting too popular, becoming wildly uncool, eventually creating space for experimentation and creativity in dance music)

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the impact of Alive 2007. It sparked the imagination of every fan, dj, producer, and promoter in the country (possibly the world) with a new vision of what live dance music could be. It also demonstrated how much of that music had slowly but surely soaked into the collective memory. Before Alive 2007, I don’t think people understood how much Daft Punk was ingrained in their music taste. I think everyone has been surprised by how hard it has been to replicate that magic (maybe the Eric Prydz shows come close? Amon Tobin’s another contender but in another way. Possibly porter robinson for some people?)

It’s really interesting going back to listen to the producers from that scene and seeing which are able to transcend that era. There are always artists that create an identity that works in a current scene, and then others that are able to shine a light on a part of themselves that fits with the current scene, and shift that light as tastes change without changing who they are. The latter category’s work usually holds up.

(and god damn switch was so good. i wish he was still releasing music so badly.)

#30

Such a perfect write up kind of forget how much different styles of music I discovered through the blog house period (stuff like ghetto tech, baltimore club and in the end dubstep)

#31

i was really into the indie dance stuff that popped right before that too(that 00-06 era), which morphed into alot of the blog stuff.

Early DFa was around and then there were these really great compilations called ‘The Young Sound of New York’. Metro Area(Morgan Geist) and CHicken Lips were probably my two favorites of that era. oh yeah and idjut boys.

after listening to this i guess ti was post boom and bust internet economy and some was post 9/11 so its subdued and melancholic to an extent. Maybe that was the rise of the bangers and such of blog house

ill post a few cuts

hes making really great house now and is great dj(john maclean/it was a band).

their dfa mates

chicken lips

the obvious cut

idjut boys - this cut is slow but that was kind of space disco type era that was in

metro area - went and saw them around 03ish in houston and i didnt get the 110 bpm house back then that they started with, but understood it more as i was kinda into the funky deep stuff early on in my house/techno listening. I was a hip hop and then downtempo breaks and beats guy before finally getting into house in my late 20s

the obvious classic - the whole album was remastered on bandcamp

#32

These embeds are all top notch

#33

amen.

slept on this release when it came out. Homework was maybe the second electronic CD I ever purchased so I was kinda over DP by '07 but managed to get suuuuuper into Alive last year. heavy repeat for weeks…

#34

Does this count?

I really just wanna complain about how this was pretty decent but then CH was like ¯_(ツ)_/¯ and completely abandoned ship.

#35

fuck… i sorta listened to deadmau5 / calvin harris a bit when I was getting into the whole “EDM” thing back in like 2010/11 ish. Blog house pretty much went over my head cause I was focusing on drum and bass / dubstep instead, and the EDM scene surrounding it. If it weren’t for deadmau5 & harris being associated with Pendulum, I would’ve probably never found out about their music. Looking back, it’s not the best stuff I’ve listened to lol.

#36

I was introduced to Calvin Harris by a friend who was into the EDM charts but I ended up liking the above album more than any of his other stuff. I usually describe it as a mix between Daft Punk’s more funk fusion style and Datarock.

#37

Whoa! This is lit!!!

#38

I really liked Ready for the Weekend too. Caught him with a live band at Coachella for the I Created Disco tour and it was one of the best live electronic acts I’ve seen to date. He just realized he could work a lot less and make a lot more. Hard to blame him for that. He sneaks decent songs onto his albums just to fuck with us sometimes.

#39

reminds of Italians The Bloody Beetroots

#40

calvin harris really wasnt blog house, he was kinda of like a jamie lidell pop electronic singer songwriter. although he did have some alternative remixers and semi blog house guys. i think he was kinda at that, about to get pushed as a really talented pop artist. then edm came along and off to the races he was. I played that stuff in bottle service clubs quite a bit at that time. The vegas song and acceptable in the 80s were the 2 i remember