Ok..
Homebass was a great place for music.. Especially the techno section.. errr at least a couple of years ago when I took care of it:)
I could give you a history of homebass later if you want..
So you know more about electronica well. Well, there are more genres and sbub-genres then any other music on other. The snobbery between fans of certain genres can be quite brutal.
For example. Let's say you like Progressive Trance/House (the Digweed/Sasha sound) and you go to a rave to see masters Sasha and digweed. There will probably be another dj at the rave like, Jeff Mills. now Jeff Mills is a pioneer of what is called Detroit techno. Some people might call it minimal techno because SOME people think that minimal is anything from detroit but this just is not true. Minimal itself has it's own set of sub-genres (techno, house, dub... d&b sometimes called ambiant d&b).
Anyway you're at this rave, Digweed/Sasha come on for their set.. now, you'll see a unch of kids in phat bants that look like overgrown babies.. along with a bunch of college geeky looking kids with glasses who are so high their pristine white faces look like tomatoes. They get into the Digweed/Sasha stuff. Then, when their set is done, you have jeff mills come up, and form the corners, the techno geeks move up closer to the dance floor by a few feet. They sort of surround the area, and stand with a pondering look on their face towrds the dj booth, loosely commenting to their friends about this mix and that cut. All the while the raver kids and college geeks dance idly, but slowly fading to other rooms cuz the music they are no hearing has no cheesy vocal loops for them to empathize with.
Meanwhile, in the second room, which used to be known as the junlge/chill out room, but is now the hip hop room, you might hear the sounds of some drum and bass and or hip hop. In this room you will find some raver kids, usually the ones who aren't doing any hard drugs. Along with your mass of white kids decked out in hip hop gear, bobbing their heards and smoking blunts. In a jungle room you won't get the attitude you'd get from a hip hop room, unless they are playing Hard-Step jungle, which is Hip-Hop infused drum and Bass. Their is Also Ragga/Jump Up D&b/Jungle, this is my personal favourite of the D&B styles. It's the oldest and also the funnest. It's d&b with reggae samples/original cuts, and usually gets a room jumping. notable dj's in the d&b scene include (from the UK) Dj Hype, Mickey Finn, Ed Rush, Roni Size, Grooverider, Aphrodite and dozens more.
Back to techno...
Most people think that anything with an elctronic beat that you can dance to is techno. Which is partially true. Trance and techno are very similar in a lot of ways, however, the main difference is with vocals. Techno (some people also might call tech-house, or hard trance even hard house, but that is so wrong) of today comes in around 137 to 140 BPM's (beats per minute) Notable artists include, Adam Beyer, Mills, Richie Hawtin (although you never know what he might spin) Gaetano Parisio (aka Gaetek) and Marco Carola. There are hundreds more but those 5 are some of the best. They all spin what I consider to be techno.
Next you have trance. Trance uses a lot of acid sounds, breaks, breakdowns, and vocal loops like "i am a spaceman, spaceman, I like cheese, I like cheese" over and over and over. It's BPM clock is around 145 to 150. Personally, I hate Trance. It's too happy and perky for my tastes. Good Trance dj's will take you on a trip. Guys like Digweed and Sasha do it very well, Sasha especially. Dj Tiesto is getting major play right now right about everywhere, so you might want to check out his stuff too. You might also like Mr. C his earlier stuff was more on the house/techno side of things, but he seems to be moving more towards a progressive trance sound.
Trance also has it's own set of sub genres. Hard Trance, which is basically techno with a more industrial sonud, Progressive Trance, which gets the most play and sounds like toys being wound up, and Acid Trance which is about 70% acid riffs with beats.
Next there's hardcore. Hardcore is music with a very fast beat. Usually over 200 BPM's. There's a genre called Happy Hardcore, which in the early 90's had a very Jungle/d&b feel to it. In fact hardcore originated from Junlge breakbeats.. but that's another story. Happy hardcore has what a lot of people consider to be cheesy vocal samples, and i tend to agree, although back in the day it wasn't cheesy cuz it was all ripped off. There is also Industrial hardcore which usually clocks in at 250 to 300 bpm's. You used to hear it a lot at new york raves but it has sort of died in the last few years. then you have Gabber, which is mainly a Dutch thing. You'll hear it a lot at rotterdam and amsterdam raves. It's kind of like a mix of cheesy happy hardcore and a lot of cussing samples.
Next up is the most popular genre, House music. House also has its set of sub-genres. There's Hard House, Garage, Chill House, and Disco House. Hard House, is a lot like techno, only a little bit slower (around 132 to 135 BPM's). Some think that hard house is like disco house and will say that artists like Deep Dish belong there, but this just is not so.
Garage is very vocal house, you'll hear it a lot in Gay clubs.
Chill is a very west coast sounding style of house. It's little slower, has more a vinyl sound to it. it's the kind of house you'll hear in trendy restaurants.
Disco house can also be considered hard house by some. It uses a lot of disco samples to create new sounds and beats.
Oh I forgot, there also ghetto house/ghetto tech. which is basically house with a lot of vocal refrences to sex and shaking that ass.
Some good house Dj's to look for are Mark Farina, Terry Lee Brown Jr., David Morales, Jahsper Dahlbeck, Bad Boy Bill, Danny Teneglia, Dj Funk and John Selway.
Other styles of Elctronica are IDM (intelligent Dance Music) Usually IDM tends to be exprimental/amibiant sounding. Pioneers of the genre include The Orb, Orbial, The Future Sound of London and The Aphex Twin.
There's downtempo/trip-hop.. and ambiant too.
Oh I also forgot breakbeat. WHich has its own set of sub-genres/ Ranging from Phat Breaks to electro. Phat breaks can still be heard in raves, you used to always hear it at raves but it has been slowly fading away, being replaced by Florida/Orlando breaks, which has more of a trancy sound to it (there's also a style of Trance called Orlando/Florida Trance.. guys like Kimball COllins and Rabbit In the Moon are worth checking out).
If you're just looking for stuff that sounds like digweed and sasha, then you should pick up the Global Underground discs i think they are at volume 22 now. Avoid the ministry of sound compilations cuz they tend to be rather cheesy.
That's it for now, if you have any questions don't be shy.
mike
Slashdot Mirror
Ok.. Homebass was a great place for music.. Especially the techno section.. errr at least a couple of years ago when I took care of it :)
I could give you a history of homebass later if you want..
So you know more about electronica well. Well, there are more genres and sbub-genres then any other music on other. The snobbery between fans of certain genres can be quite brutal.
For example. Let's say you like Progressive Trance/House (the Digweed/Sasha sound) and you go to a rave to see masters Sasha and digweed. There will probably be another dj at the rave like, Jeff Mills. now Jeff Mills is a pioneer of what is called Detroit techno. Some people might call it minimal techno because SOME people think that minimal is anything from detroit but this just is not true. Minimal itself has it's own set of sub-genres (techno, house, dub... d&b sometimes called ambiant d&b).
Anyway you're at this rave, Digweed/Sasha come on for their set.. now, you'll see a unch of kids in phat bants that look like overgrown babies.. along with a bunch of college geeky looking kids with glasses who are so high their pristine white faces look like tomatoes. They get into the Digweed/Sasha stuff. Then, when their set is done, you have jeff mills come up, and form the corners, the techno geeks move up closer to the dance floor by a few feet. They sort of surround the area, and stand with a pondering look on their face towrds the dj booth, loosely commenting to their friends about this mix and that cut. All the while the raver kids and college geeks dance idly, but slowly fading to other rooms cuz the music they are no hearing has no cheesy vocal loops for them to empathize with.
Meanwhile, in the second room, which used to be known as the junlge/chill out room, but is now the hip hop room, you might hear the sounds of some drum and bass and or hip hop. In this room you will find some raver kids, usually the ones who aren't doing any hard drugs. Along with your mass of white kids decked out in hip hop gear, bobbing their heards and smoking blunts. In a jungle room you won't get the attitude you'd get from a hip hop room, unless they are playing Hard-Step jungle, which is Hip-Hop infused drum and Bass. Their is Also Ragga/Jump Up D&b/Jungle, this is my personal favourite of the D&B styles. It's the oldest and also the funnest. It's d&b with reggae samples/original cuts, and usually gets a room jumping. notable dj's in the d&b scene include (from the UK) Dj Hype, Mickey Finn, Ed Rush, Roni Size, Grooverider, Aphrodite and dozens more.
Back to techno...
Most people think that anything with an elctronic beat that you can dance to is techno. Which is partially true. Trance and techno are very similar in a lot of ways, however, the main difference is with vocals. Techno (some people also might call tech-house, or hard trance even hard house, but that is so wrong) of today comes in around 137 to 140 BPM's (beats per minute) Notable artists include, Adam Beyer, Mills, Richie Hawtin (although you never know what he might spin) Gaetano Parisio (aka Gaetek) and Marco Carola. There are hundreds more but those 5 are some of the best. They all spin what I consider to be techno.
Next you have trance. Trance uses a lot of acid sounds, breaks, breakdowns, and vocal loops like "i am a spaceman, spaceman, I like cheese, I like cheese" over and over and over. It's BPM clock is around 145 to 150. Personally, I hate Trance. It's too happy and perky for my tastes. Good Trance dj's will take you on a trip. Guys like Digweed and Sasha do it very well, Sasha especially. Dj Tiesto is getting major play right now right about everywhere, so you might want to check out his stuff too. You might also like Mr. C his earlier stuff was more on the house/techno side of things, but he seems to be moving more towards a progressive trance sound.
Trance also has it's own set of sub genres. Hard Trance, which is basically techno with a more industrial sonud, Progressive Trance, which gets the most play and sounds like toys being wound up, and Acid Trance which is about 70% acid riffs with beats.
Next there's hardcore. Hardcore is music with a very fast beat. Usually over 200 BPM's. There's a genre called Happy Hardcore, which in the early 90's had a very Jungle/d&b feel to it. In fact hardcore originated from Junlge breakbeats.. but that's another story. Happy hardcore has what a lot of people consider to be cheesy vocal samples, and i tend to agree, although back in the day it wasn't cheesy cuz it was all ripped off. There is also Industrial hardcore which usually clocks in at 250 to 300 bpm's. You used to hear it a lot at new york raves but it has sort of died in the last few years. then you have Gabber, which is mainly a Dutch thing. You'll hear it a lot at rotterdam and amsterdam raves. It's kind of like a mix of cheesy happy hardcore and a lot of cussing samples.
Next up is the most popular genre, House music. House also has its set of sub-genres. There's Hard House, Garage, Chill House, and Disco House. Hard House, is a lot like techno, only a little bit slower (around 132 to 135 BPM's). Some think that hard house is like disco house and will say that artists like Deep Dish belong there, but this just is not so.
Garage is very vocal house, you'll hear it a lot in Gay clubs.
Chill is a very west coast sounding style of house. It's little slower, has more a vinyl sound to it. it's the kind of house you'll hear in trendy restaurants.
Disco house can also be considered hard house by some. It uses a lot of disco samples to create new sounds and beats.
Oh I forgot, there also ghetto house/ghetto tech. which is basically house with a lot of vocal refrences to sex and shaking that ass.
Some good house Dj's to look for are Mark Farina, Terry Lee Brown Jr., David Morales, Jahsper Dahlbeck, Bad Boy Bill, Danny Teneglia, Dj Funk and John Selway.
Other styles of Elctronica are IDM (intelligent Dance Music) Usually IDM tends to be exprimental/amibiant sounding. Pioneers of the genre include The Orb, Orbial, The Future Sound of London and The Aphex Twin.
There's downtempo/trip-hop.. and ambiant too.
Oh I also forgot breakbeat. WHich has its own set of sub-genres/ Ranging from Phat Breaks to electro. Phat breaks can still be heard in raves, you used to always hear it at raves but it has been slowly fading away, being replaced by Florida/Orlando breaks, which has more of a trancy sound to it (there's also a style of Trance called Orlando/Florida Trance .. guys like Kimball COllins and Rabbit In the Moon are worth checking out).
If you're just looking for stuff that sounds like digweed and sasha, then you should pick up the Global Underground discs i think they are at volume 22 now. Avoid the ministry of sound compilations cuz they tend to be rather cheesy.
That's it for now, if you have any questions don't be shy.
mike