Blog House

I will have a few comments on this in the next few days, great stuff.
So does this mean I now have a proper Blog + Roster = Bloster?!?!

Any DJ/Producer out there, better hurry and get on board with MAS while the revolution lasts!

“Blog House is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged after (or just before) Justice’s Waters of Nazareth EP in 2006, which provided the genre its distinctive sound. Utilizing non traditional house drum beats, heavy electronic synth bass lines and incredibly dirty and distorted samples, “Blog House” is almost a complete opposite of the typical and stylistically clean French filter disco house that made Paris famous in 1996. This new sound culminating out of Europe has bubbled out of the underground with the help of predominant taste maker mp3 blogs, including Fluokids, Palms Out Sounds, Discobelle, and Big Stereo who compete with each other to post exclusive tracks and remixes. Although Blog House does get released on traditional 12″ vinyl singles, the genre’s popularity is driven by exclusive taste maker DJ/producer reedits and exclusive remixes that are leaked for promotional use. Many see this as a problem in the blogosphere since blogs sometimes rush to post songs, repost exclusive songs from other blogs without permission or recognition, and also sometimes leak songs that are unfinished or of lower sound quality. This is usually done with little regard to what the actual artist or label thinks.

This term was first coined in February 2007 by Baghdaddy (aka Fistfight) who is a member of the Low Bee message board. It was first used in retaliation on his blog when he was surprised that people were not appreciating the other aspects of house music that were coming out or more traditional classic tracks. It has been concluded, although not implied in the definition of blog house, that there is a negative connotation surrounding the usage of the word stemming from the fact that the music is sometimes over hyped on blogs and the people listening to it are scene hoppers. For some, hearing a DJ play blog house signifies that they know very little about the actual history of house music and are just playing, listening and talking about these particular songs since they have gotten hyped from certain taste maker blogs.

For others, Blog House has started an Internet and musical revolution where music enthusiasts and DJs alike are now able to download and DJ the hottest and most in demand house music coming out of Europe. With more and more bloggers and DJ’s using iPod shuffles at their DJ gigs, Blog House is quickly replacing Dirty South Rap as the new music du jour to wile out to at the end of your Saturday night. It should be noted that this term could become outdated when the Neu-rave scene takes over the blogosphere and eliminates its weaker cousin Blog House. This problem is also constantly debated since many of these record labels think that some of their fan base will jump ship when a new sound starts to dominate the blogosphere. This was hotly debated at the French based Institubes web based forum and has now been appropriated as a part of their forum which is subtitled “Enter Scene Hoppers”.

Much, but not all of the music originates from Europe, including songs from the French labels Ed Banger, Institubes, Record Makers, Arcade Mode and Kitsuné. In the UK Blog, House is finding a home on namestay Wall of Sound and on any label that has a Switch remix.

It also comprises a number of edits and remixes done by othe artists such as Mr. Oizo, Feadz, Kissy Sell Out, Van She Tech, Passions, Herve, Drop The Lime, Guns and Bombs, Vyle, Surkin, and Yuksek.

There is now even a monthly dance party in London devoted soley to blog house.”

Bloggers Delight

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Daft Punk @ Even Further, Wisconsin, USA May 26, 1996

“Let me tell you about the first time I saw Daft Punk, and while it wasn’t at my house, it was pretty damn close. My first introduction to Rave culture was in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dave Prince best describes what was happening in Milwaukee in his 1994 Request article “Milwaukee’s Rave New World”. Ask your friends about Milwaukee and instinctively they’ll offer one word: beer. And while you can often smell the hops from one of the city’s many breweries while wandering the small but clean downtown, a true underground spirit exists just below the surface of this industrial working-class town. Unbeknownst even to most people who live within the county limits, Milwaukee is home to America’s hardest and perhaps strongest rave scene. Incorporating elements from the city’s residual punk-rock scene with heavy-metal sensibilities and a comfort with house music it has absorbed from neighboring Chicago, Milwaukee’s rave community has withstood the mainstream media indifference, police harassment, and quickly changing musical tastes that have stalled the movement throughout the rest of North America. The Milwaukee scene is an amalgam of hippie sensibilities (“peace, love, unity and respect”), punk spirit (“do it yourself”), and heavy-metal attitude (“f—king hardcore”)”. Full article

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The event was called “Even Further”, produced by Drop Bass Network and Crew, and it took place Memorial Day Weekend, Friday May 24 – 27, in Eagle Cave, Wisconsin. Daft played in the wee morning hours on Sat May 26.

New York Times writer, Neil Strauss reported – “It rained every day; nonetheless, ravers danced in muddy tents to their favorite DJs (Frankie Bones, ESP Woody McBride, Scott Hardkiss, Apollo, Mixmaster Morris), marveled at how well electronics whizzes like Daft Punk and Laura Grabb could perform the music on live instruments and discovered that rock bands like Low and Poi Dog Pondering could also fit into a rave.” Full article.

Personal note on this: I was honored to be part of the 1995 Even Further production crew when I was running Ripe Productions with my partner in crime, RP Smack. I would be lying if I said I wish I could lay claim to being part of the 1996 production. However, I had brought my daughter, Aria into the world not yet a month before. This Further, was, in fact the first time I had been back amongst my community of hardcore Wisconsin electronic music enthusiasts since that time, and made the 7 hour trek from my newly relocated home of Chicago. All of these combined factors made the weekend even all the more memorable for me.

“Generation Ecstasy” author Simon Reynolds was on hand to document the festival for Melody Maker, UK, (now known to us as NME) and stated “Saturday’s big hit, though is French unit DAFT PUNK and their sinuous, sine-wavey brand of industrial-tinged house”. Full article.

Thomas & Guy Performing @ Even Further

I found this bit on Wikipedia regarding the above footage . . .

In the mid-to-late nineties, Daft Punk performed live without costumes in many places including the United States. In particular, a rare bootlegged video featuring the duo in Wisconsin matches the verified identity of Thomas Bangalter. Less clearly seen, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is to Bangalter’s right and is mostly cut off from the camera. Comparing the artwork packaging of Homework to the video footage, one can verify that the album’s liner note photo was taken during this event.

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I came across this very poignant speech given by Marc Hollander of Crammed Discs after winning the WOMEX Award in 2004. Its lenghty, but worth every bit your time. His insightful deduction of music, culture, and “the biz”, really resonated with me. He’s been taking risks and “genre bending” successfully for over 25 years.

Memento Audre Semper all the way! (remember to dare always)

A lil’ bit about WOMEX:

Quality, creativity, impact. Since its introduction in 1999, the WOMEX Award has been honouring world music on the international level. Musical excellence, social effectiveness, commercial success, political impact, lifetime achievement - any or all of these might make one a worthy recipient.

Life is what music is all about … or should that be: music is what life is all about?

About Marc Hollander & CRAMMED

With 225 albums and 200 singles, Marc Hollander´s Crammed Discs is one of the seminal players on the world music field. They brought us genre heavyweights like Zap Mama, Taraf de Haïdouks, Hector Zazou and Mahmoud Ahmed, as well as the new wave of Brazilian sounds that make up their sub label Ziriguiboom: Cibelle, Zuco 103, Trio Mocotó, and Bebel Gilberto, to name a few.

They were behind fusion milestones such as the Electric Gypsyland long player, Zazou Bikaye, Bel Canto, The Honeymoon Killers. They are the market force behind electronic music innovators like Carl Craig, 4hero/Tek 9 or DJ Morpheus & his Freezone series. And they will surely come up with more of the same quality in the years to come.

If you care about your independence, artistically or economically, you have to be twice as creative as others, three times as gutsy, four times as persistent ­ that´s the story of this community. Small units of adventurous, free-thinking minds with an attitude and a lot of ideas coming together to fuse the different genres and create a unique musical vision, (more…)

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When we first had the idea to start (yet another) music BLOG, possibly the fastest decision we made in the development process was who to devote our first post to. And in order to make it a proper first post, I have two exclusive tracks, an exclusivo mix and an interview with the one called Drop The Lime. Since December, roughly, Drop The Lime has been my (and our) favorite producer. Literally every DTL track that crosses my path has the ability to pound dancefloors into submission through his gargantuan beats and eye-wiggling bass.

The guy gained a lot of notoriety a couple years ago in the breakcore scene with a bunch of big hits and has since moved on to a more party-friendly sound. He’s about to blow up huge with his upcoming release on Institubes under the pseudonym Curses! (sorry, we can’t give you guys that one) and catapult him to the upper eschelon of dance music. His music somehow manages to incorporate elements of just about every EDM genre since 1982 and not in a gimmicky or tacky sort of way. One track will have a b-more drum line with with a dub-step bass line and a distorted new electro lead with a house/oldskool chipmunk vocal overtop, but all you notice, though, is the fact that it just knocked your pancreas out the back of your ribcage and your roll just kicked back in from about 3 years ago.

Production aside, DTL is a brilliant DJ and the head honcho of Trouble & Bass, which throws one of the finest monthly parties (of the same name) in the whole of the good ol’ U.S. of A. Go to the crews blog (troubleandbass.blogspot.com) to see pictures of clearly is a wall-sweating, sign-making, bass-facing good time. Trouble & bass’s other residents, Mathhead, Shadetek, and Star Eyes will definitely be receiving some hype from us in the near future so watch out.

“I Want 2 Know” is def a signature DTL banger. Featuring a straight forward housey beat and a woobly bassline that will satisfy the grumpiest of junglists as well as a nice, choppy vocal and a rough, distorted lead. This one has been a major part of my sets in the past month and really lends itself to keeping the energy going after a big build.

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DTL – I Want 2 Know

For those of you who lean towards the housier, techier side of the spectrum, “Good Inside” will fit well in your sets. Due to its rawness and endless energy, this tune will find itself comfortably resting next to Green Velvet or T. Raumschmiere (off the top of my head) as well as a lot of the more mainstream electro house. Don’t let me tell you how to use it though, because this one is a fantastically versatile utility track.

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Drop The Lime – Good Inside

We cant stop there! So here’s a fantastic mix made exclusively for the TM crew made by the man hisself, Drop The Lime, complete with more exclusorama tunes from DTL as well as the likes of Surkin. Also, it has plenty of old-skool hardcore classics (at my request, I’m a dork for that stuff) which will make the yoots wish they were 10 years older.

photo by evancampisi.net

JUST PUMP IT

• (0:00) Intro
• (0:21) Bass Construction – Dance With Power
• (4:04) Cirez D – Knockout (John Dahlbäck Remix)
• (5:18) C.L.A.W.S – Claws Theme (Curses! Remix)
• (6:55) Drop The Lime – I Want 2 Know
• (9:24) Auto Riot – Fight The Pigs (Acid Jacks Mix)
• (12:53) K.A.O.S – I Can’t Stop (Hardcore Mix)
• (14:52) Voodoo Chilli VS. Trevor Loveys – Look What You’ve Done To Me
• (16:52) Infants – Firetruk Theme (Drop The Lime Remix)
• (19:21) The Bulgarian – Listen Man
• (21:13) Curses! – Like Thunder
• (24:00) EJ – U.F.O
• (26:00) Kick Squad – Champion Sound
• (26:45) Drop The Lime – Hold On
• (28:44) Intellect – Throw Your Hands Up (Remix)
• (30:33) Jem 77 – Never Felt This Way
• (32:32) Surkin – J-Hood
• (33:54) Farley ‘ Jackmaster’ Funk Feat. Darryl Pandy – Love Can’t Turn Around
• (37:32) Curses! – What I Need

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Drop The Lime – Exclusive Mix for Trash Menagerie

Be sure to keep an out for DTL’s upcoming on Institubes as well as Trouble & Bass records. If you’re ever in New York, be sure to swing by a Trouble & Bass party. And for all our Chicago readers, Drop The Lime will be playing Friday, March 30th at base 10 and Trash Menagerie’s party, Algorhythm @ Lava Lounge.

After all this, are you still craving more of that DTL? Well we are too, so I decided to do a little (or not) interview with the man and see what hes all about.

Interview with Drop The Lime

Local Hero: So lets kick it off with the basics. When did you get started in electronic music and what got you going?

Drop The Lime: Really, What got me going was jungle music and then after jungle then I got into early hardcore and hardcore breakbeat stuff and I was probably about 14; I’m young, I’m 26 now. That kind of stuff just got me so hyped. I was always into music. I had been playing guitar since I was 7 and recording stuff even around then. Then when I heard these pirate radio tapes of, like, DJ Hype and Andy C and stuff. Friends from London imported them and gave me the tapes, they said check out this shit and I said, “Oh my God this stuff is amazing! Like what the hell is this?” It made me angry. It made me jealous and want to be making it myself.
So, yeah and at the time, I didn’t realize that I was going to rave parties. I went and saw Chemical Brothers when I was like fifteen at some party that I went to just see Chemical Brothers, and my friends were like, “Let’s check out Chemical Brothers. They’re cool. They’re electronic music.” I thought, OK cool. And we go and there’s like all these other DJs. It’s in a warehouse and they’re playing a surprise show in Queens. And I was like, “Wow! What is this? This scene’s fucked up. This scene’s like scary. Are people allowed to be here? Is this supposed to be happening right now?” And then as I met more friends and people would be like, “Do you go to parties? Do you go to parties?’ And I’d be like, “Parties? Yeah I go to parties. What?” And then slowly I realized that this was a whole scene. This is a rave. This is a rave party. (Laughs)

LH: So, I’m not too caught up on when things happened in New York. Were these like those Sonic Groove parties or was this after that whole scene?

DTL: Were these, like, the storm parties, you mean? Are you saying, like, Frankie Bones and that stuff?

LH: All those guys, right.

DTL: Yeah, No this wasn’t. This was definitely after that. Like, right after that, though. I wasnt around for those parties. Because these parties started to get shut down and moved away from Brooklyn and more towards Queens. And, yeah, that’s where I was going. And there was still a lot of stuff in Brooklyn. Kids would be like, “Yeah. Those were the good old days.” Like Frankie Bones would (more…)

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