THE DIFFERENT FACETS OF THE 4/4
It’s a Friday evening and I have had a wonderful day listening to good house tunes, and getting myself ready to write this article. Wait a minute, will this help me write an impressive article or should I be feeling it? Afterall, music is an emotional thing, right? I’m going to touch on a few house music sub-genres, according to my understanding.
Deep Vocal is one we all like exposing ourselves to, primarily because the vocals are magical. Conduct a small survey, yes I tried it, and ask 5 of your friends, individually, which song got them hooked to house music. The majority will answer by singing the lyrics to that song. This goes to show the immense power of a great vocal. Even though it’s electronic music, we long for that human touch to launch us into space; vocals just make the music worth listening to. Your favourite track has those emotional keys and adding that vocal makes it so much better. Producers like Charles Webster, Ben Watt and Atjazz master this artistic form, for they not only find the perfect vocalist for any song, but they constantly know how to manipulate it to make sure it fits sweetly into the song. Vocals trigger emotions that no other instrument can and that’s why we involuntarily gravitate towards Deep Vocal. It has analogue elements and allows those who enjoy acoustic instruments to get lost in the music. Deep chords, a laidback bassline and the appropriate vocal is all one needs to jet off to house planet.
Deep Tech fuses the soul and deepness of house with the electronic elements borrowed from Techno. This is a solid and rough sound that has groovy synths but still provides the deep elements to remind us of the roots. This one has been embraced throughout the world and lets us experience the best of both worlds, the deep and the techno, and it is for this reason that a large audience lends an ear to it. The deep elements, keys and pads create a calm environment that is later hightened by the techy bassline and synths to get the track pacing and grooving. Many try executing this sound but very few master it, because it’s testing trying to balance the two without the one overshadowing the other; thus the track not being a Techno or Deep track, but a Deep Tech track. Ame have pioneered this sound on many of their records; I don’t think “Hydrolic Dog” was easy. In a track’s mix, the kick and snare would be very clear to get that hard-rough sound, the bass and synths there to support with the groovy elements to get your head bumping.
Trance/Progressive seems to be the easiest one to point out simply for its tempo. Its BPM is about 131 and to my surprise, it escalates. This one’s filled with looped, computerised methods and a lot of effects. A very upbeat sub-genre that may have a few instruments but many of them go through effects processors which tend to crowd the sound… which is its characteristic.
Afro-beat is the percussion! Shakers and semi-complex patterns are its characteristics. Too many producers here fall into the trap of using too many percussions or shakers that don’t afford the track some air to breathe or for the listener to comprehend the patterns; this then tends to crowd the track. Simple use of the percussion at the right places, a bold bassline, acoustic elements and a native vocal is what you need to put you in a trance. Julien Jabre and DJ Gregory (Gregory Darsa) were working on their jungle and tropical before I heard them in the year 1999. Gregory’s “Tourment D’Amour” was my gateway to house music’s pearly gates and have never left its sacred sanctuary ever since. A beautiful sub-genre brought back by the likes of Manoo and Culoe De Song to dominate the international house scene again.
This one is definitely a German sound. Minimal is full of that deep Detroit sound with clever uses of effects that occasionally show up to mesmirise your ears and trigger the motions. The formula is in its word; minimal uses instruments, patterns and effects. The deep Detroit elements fused with effects and mild use of percussions create a sound that readies you to escape to wherever it is you’re being taken to. This simplistic method has been mastered by Sven Weisemann and he’s kept this identity of fusing deep chords, effects and percussions together. “Amity” and his “Slices” remix are masterpieces indeed.
House music evolves on a daily basis but the basics stand the test of time. So many sub-genres which add up to what we call home, house music IS home.
“We find peace in the 4/4″ - Sibusiso Dladla
Written by: Sibusiso Dladla
Well spoken. I have to research more on this as it is really vital info
I definitely put a stamp on the most fundamentals stated above.Am into house music the same level as u are.Big up to all the pionners in this thing who laid down a pattern 4 us to embrace…am super rockin.