house ain't all that complicated.

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Everyone always asks me - what is house music? What's the difference between minimal, minimal techno, microhouse, and techno? I struggle to answer these questions. There are a great many shades of gray in the dissection of all these layers. I just run with what I like :) but to give you a brief run down on the genre of music that has captured my heart, I have pulled some info off Wikipedia and uploaded a piece entitled 'Feelin' House' by Brothers' Vibe. It fits the theme of this entry PERFECTLY.

Click here to listen and/or download. If you like it, support the artist and buy it!

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The Rundown

House Music is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was initially popularized in the mid-1980s discotheques catering to the African-American, Latino, and gay communities, first in Chicago, then in NYC, and Detroit. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop & dance music worldwide.

House music is strongly influenced by elements of soul and funk infused varieties of disco. It generally mimics disco's percussion, especially the use of a prominent bass drum on every beat, but may feature a prominent synthesizer bass line, electronic drums, electronic effects, funk and pop samples, and reverb- or delay-enhanced vocals.

Techno and trance, which developed alongside house music, share this basic beat infrastructure, but they usually eschew house's live-music-influenced feel and Black or Latin music influences in favor of a more synthetic sound and approach.

Microhouse has its roots in the minimal techno, glitch (both developed in the early 90's), and house (developed in the mid-80's) genres of music.

Like many contemporary electronic genres, microhouse has many influences, most notably techno and the "click and pop" garage house. It is aptly described as 'housey minimal techno' - a marriage of the funky and groovy backroom house elements with glitch and the driving, repetitive sound of techno.

**Some microhouse artists I love include: Aphex Twin, Arik Brikha, Gui Boratto, Isolée, Luciano, Matthew Dear, Michael Mayer, Ricardo Villalobos, and Superpitcher.

Minimal Techno is a form of electronic music (EDM) that is considered a minimalist sub-genre of techno. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition, and understated development. This style of dance music production generally adheres to the motto less is more; a principle that has been previously utilized, to great effect, in architecture, design, visual art, and Western art music. The tradition of minimalist aesthetics in Western culture can be traced to the German Bauhaus movement (1919 to 1933). Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detroit based producers, Robert Hood and Daniel Bell.

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Running along these same crazy house lines, I highlighted Gui Boratto (mentioned above, microhouse artist) in a post a few weeks ago in my Sunday night music series. A new album is out now entitled, 'Take My Breath Away'. I haven't listened through the entire thing yet, but I like what I've heard so far. How could I not? Gui is phenomenal.

This review describes his style spot on. His songs tend to build at a leisurely pace, but soon metamorphose into incredibly lush, beautiful, and complex compositions.

Here's the title track from his new album -



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I also want to make mention of some entries I have planned for the near future. Despite looming business law and marketing tests, I'm sure I will find time to blog that would have been better spent studying. This blog has never been graced with a signature Kerouac entry. My livejournal (seriously, I had one?) and my previous blog, La Luz Roja, enjoyed frequent Kerouac side trips and quotes. In conjunction with this, I want to discuss interests in general. I feel, in a sense, overwhelmed by all that interests me and what there is to be had in terms of art, expression, and sound. There is one particular Kerouac quote that springs to mind.

I also want to broach silences and what it means to be completely comfortable with someone. I've brought up my perennial single-ness many a time, and I think my inability to let go and just give people a chance prevents me from realizing success at dating.

Lastly, I still want to revisit my travels in South America and would like to do an entry highlighting each country I visited, my experiences there, the people I met, etc.

So that's what you have to look forward to! Longest blog entry ever. Forgive me.

un besote!
thank god tomorrow's finally friday... CUT COPY. oh my.