This is the first of what are sure to be many posts venting my frustration at the music community (read: “fueling my own ego about my taste in music,” Jeremy Mills, Dance Hall press: 2008). Deal with it.
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Okay you guys. Seriously.
There is a tendancy these days to take a song and slap the word “electro” on it and sell it to masses of undeserving and ignorant kids. This is wrong. You guys need to stop putting out massive amounts of dull and non-musical crud and put a little of the artistry and fun into house music.
Taking what is basically a fuky techno song, filling the bridges with a bleeped and chopped vocal of someone exhaling like they got punched in the chest, putting the bassline through your “make a baseline sound like someone forgot to ground the mixing board” fuzz box (known in amateur circles as the “my moms basement is 70 years old and was not wired properly to handle all of my drum machines AND my world-of-warcraft box” box), and then repeating the first part of the song for 4 more minutes does not consist of musical talent. If I wanted that I’d screw around with Fruity Loops while holding a bullhorn to my computer speaker.
What happened to the days of IHR, Moonshine red and so many other funky, fun labels? The days of funky, bass line heavy, jump-up house that made you want to shake your ass and put a huge smile on your face? Is it so bad to have music that is accessible to the mainstream public instead of those die-hard ‘heads who want to go stomp around on a dance floor?
I say no!
And to those of you who used to make music like that, start again!
I am not saying that there is no place for the music that we now call Electro. I actually enjoy some of it, truth be told. Despite this, however, I believe that calling this fuzzy, overly filtered Techno “Electro House” waters down the musical aspects of both the Electro and House genres, and leads to a watering down of the experience as well. I can put it like this: take Joey Mazzola, DJ Dan, Donald Glaude, RHV and BBB. These were the people that I would have killed to see when I was younger, the ones that were guaranteed to make me shake my ass all night long. The last time I saw ANY of them, they all played the same thing, the same way. The records all sounded the same, the sets all sounded the same, the energy was always the same: “meh.”
Last time I saw RHV I was actually BORED with his set. How the hell does that happen!?! He plays “Electro House,” thats how.
So there it is. My plea. Give me some old school IHR Disco funk. Some old school Blow Media, Funktek, Soul Fusion, etc. Make mshake my ass instead of bombarding me with digital fuzz.
Pwease?
