Thursday, April 1, 2010

boring tech-house for elevators

51 comments:

  1. I did not comment on RA, as it seems the regular visitors to this blog pretty much summed up the Carl Craig mix. It was pretty uninspired. It came across like a streamlined and professional product. Much like Carl Craig in general.

    What you guys have put together here allows you to avoid much of the problems that affect websites such as RA, who attempt to reach out to larger broader audiences. All things considering I feel RA do good job, but I don't think any listener should be over reliant on any blog or website.

    Do you guys at mnml worry about what might be expected of you from you from regulars? Perhaps you might become associated with a certain sound, or close the ears of some to other music (I'm thinking of the reaction to oni ayhun's non headfuck mix). I'm also thinking about your desire to end the mix series. Part of me thinks that was a good idea, as it would create something like an artifact, something complete, that you created (a mix made from mixes even).

    Obviously none of this is your responsibility, and avoiding being pigeonholed is something I guess you guys aim for. It's just I remember your DJ Bone post and some of the interesting points that were raised on that thread.

    Often one of the criticisms that is leveled at the net is that it can act as a force against diversity, creating small insular communities that reinforce minds rather than open them. Does anyone think that we are at all guilty of this?

    This not aimed at anyone, it is just rumination.

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  2. thanks oliver. those are some really interesting thoughts and questions. i dont want to say anything. i am curious what others thinks. definitely do not apologise for your comments being too long. greatly appreciated!

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  3. i'm sorry, i don't get it. is this post edited or what? i can only see a picture. chris, maybe you can explain it to me?

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  4. It's a thinly veiled dig at RA #200 (Carl Craig). FWIW, I actually kinda liked it =X. Not my favorite (after a couple listens, I'll admit it's a little "cookie cutter"), but not a bad set.

    Maybe I come from an area without a very developed techno scene; most of the DJs here play electro or trance, and SSGS-style techno is hard to find, and can't attract an audience. I won't be shy to admit I saw Digweed a couple weekends ago... *shrug* And had a good time.

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  5. @ tony: it is a thinly veiled dig at a lot of things... it partly sums up many of my frustrations right now. then again, it is not just about that. we purposely kept it open so people can choose how they interpret it.

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  6. As this is going to be my first ever appearance here in discussions, I'd like to start with saying hi to all the members and the honorable owner(-s). You are doing a great job over here broadening the horizons of perseption and analysis of EM.

    Now I'll try to speak to the point. Mind you, that's all too personal to take it too serious.
    I dare think that passionates, whatever they are doing, are putting there minds and souls into the project from time to time becoming a way too subjective at the same time having only good things in mind. I feel that's the case with ssgs and as time passes by nothing is likely to change. What I mean is that Chris is expressing his view of the scene(-s) and whatever happens he will be more driven by his individual emotions and opinion then by what people might expect here. The point is that we are all here because of a more or less identical level of education(here i mean not the uni dergees but the life, social, music and emotional and the most importaint analysis experience) That's why we are now all more or less into one bowl. Still the ways of God are inscrutable and any kind of disturbance (both positive or negative) might touch the author chaning his mind in this or that way which will inevitably lead to a certain change in music flavours and after that, being a music passionate, he'll honestly modulate the content here. Same story with us, lesser mortals. My 2 cents would be to enjoy the beautiful moment of our symbiosis and mind our own social and individual responsibility because being honest with yourself is the only way to keep your mind open..

    Hope that was to the point and my english was not too bad :)

    PS: another interesting point to think over in this vein is the "earning a living/honest creation" question..

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  8. 2 berusplants:

    that was my thoughts about some of the points raised by Oliver in his above comment

    -Expectations/content of ssgs
    -Role of the community (social and individual aspects)

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  9. Ok, so what we have here? Trendy Mr. Craig making money for living & undeground much hyped internet influenced music. I must admit that I downloaded about 3 or 4 RA sets from the beginning of theirs podcast story. Why? Because it's market thing & everybody things how to push himself to vider audiences & not care about the music. That's why I prefer to listen to old Paperclip People live show via soundcloud with Carl shouting at people in Green Velvet way & not to follow his trends. On other hand I bought several Planet E vinyls in order to play them for different audiences.

    As for role of communities. It's already a massive thing. Silent Servant, Dozzy, Hoesen, D'Or & many others must be appreciate Cris & others who made it happen. It's a big trend or something even if it's underground. I want to say that internet unites people under techno flag. That's why there are lot of us from USA to Ukraine & it's really cool, because if there is no scene in particular in your town or country, you could find people with the same interests here or there on Facebook etc. As for the future of this fings. Blogs will become more "beautiful" like social networks or will because closed communities with ID & password to enter it.

    As for the content of SSG. The story will continue with guys like Solab, Ryndel, Napoletano, Milton Bradley, maybe even with Robert Hood ;). Who knows?!

    Love & Peace.

    As fo

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  10. @Val- Welcome from a fellow SSG fan!
    BTW- I don't know if that was directed just at this post or not, but there are two SSGS (who actually post on the blog). In fact one of the things I like is the interplay between Pete and Chris. I think it help keep a diversity of opinion. I seem to remember a pretty entertaining debate about the merits of Johnny D some years back.

    @Oliver- It seems like in the internet techno community, SSGS has become a symbol of so-called "Headfuck techno". But there's definitely more to it than that.
    Personally I could not understand the reaction to the Oni Ayhun mix. I thought it was amazing and after listening I went out and bought all three of his 12"s.

    I like the diversity of mixes and artists and I'd like to see more of it. Heads up to Chris and PC- Please feel free to talk about whatever is or is not floating your boat music wise.
    I mentioned the Oni mix already, but there are others. My favorite mix is still probably the Dozzy '08 triple set. But right behind that would be SCB and that Koss mix. God was that one good.
    If anyone has anything else by him that they think is worthy, please post. I'd love to hear more.

    My point is that I understand the SSGS=Headfuck techno meme, but regular readers will know that it's more than that. I love this site BECAUSE I don't know what I'm going to find or what's going to be under discussion.
    It's a community not because the views (of the writers or the commenters) are uniform but because it's a place where people who really love techno and other electronic music come to congregate. And because the mixes are so good, I feel confident downloading stuff by someone I don't know and being exposed to cool new sounds I may not have heard before, because I trust in the quality of this here internet watering hole.

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  11. @Brad: If you liked the Koss mix, consider getting his most recent album

    http://www.discogs.com/Koss-Ancient-Rain/release/1708117

    It's super dreamy... somewhere between Gas and Murcof. As for Oni Ayhun, oar004 is out now if you didn't know already. Maybe not as memorable as oar003, but definitely worth owning. You can really hear how he just has fun doing what he loves: making music, without any concern about how it will be perceived, or consumed, or whether it'll be playable on the dance-floor and such things. This is what people should be doing when they make music. For me the bottom line is this: If you can't have fun making music, then nobody is going to enjoy listening to it...just fucking stop making it and move on to something else.

    oh and btw... mind my ignorance, but who is the girl in the photo, and what is her relation to Carl Craig?

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  12. @Chris: Frustrations? There will always be a mainstream, an easy sound for people to trend towards, I-IV-V. There's a reason why Lady Gaga makes more money than Levon Vincent. Not everybody likes deep techno, mindfuck stuff -- in fact, most people don't.

    I've been trading music with a good friend of mine, singer/lead guitarist in a surf rock band, heavily into experimental dub/reggae kinda stuff, and complete noob to electronic music. I thought he'd be into dub techno, ambient tech, deep house, but nothing I showed him really piqued his interest. You know what finally caught his ear? Sasha's Invol2ver. I was pretty surprised -- didn't think a "indie" rock artist would dig that stuff. I guess it's mainstream for a reason.

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  13. Well ain't this a mélange of posts and topics, and yup - this is another reason why so many of us love ssgs. People that are passionate and emotive enough about their music will share or enforce their opinions, and that's great & initiates some very interesting threads at times. Like them or loath them.

    It's pretty simple really - I think for most of us, ssgs is for "heads" - wherever the hell those heads may be, and rest assured they'll be in a shitload of different places. Most of those heads will be open to new sounds, and I for one, am massively appreciative of the introductions we've all had to new producers / artists / DJ's and genres; Whatever the genre (and @ Brad is right - ssgs is so much more than headfuck techno. Man I've grown to hate that term).

    If it wasn't for the ssgs - I'd / we'd never have had doors opened to the likes of Dozzy, Gigli, Cio, Deer, Nuel, our mate Evad - and pretty much the bulk of what has been posted & shared to date. So my music now has so much more variance depth and scope (and my Beatport costs are soaring !).

    So ja, leave the boring tech house et al for those that like such, their choice, as we heads eagerly await the next offering.

    Keep on keeping on lads.

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  14. @Brad. There is much more to this site than "headfuck", anyone who has spent time here knows that. However I don't necessarily think it is a bad thing for mnml ssgs to become synonymous with a certain sound (Chris and co probably do). After all it is their a ability to be pretty specific that makes this site so attractive. Perhaps what is required for a thriving community is more highly specific spaces like this one, replacing much of what has been lost in the industry in the last say 10 years (referring to the Bone thread again).

    For something as big as the net, I don't see many alternatives and feel a lot of us orbit around similar places. I suppose this is where one of my concerns lie.

    Perhaps it is up to some of us to follow examples set, as opposed to relying people like Chris to do it for us. I think a really interesting scenario can be imagined, where there is real distance between blogs, where certain sounds and styles can only be heard by visiting specific places.

    You are right, the views are not uniform here and attempts are often made to challenge

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  15. @Jeremy

    "You can really hear how he just has fun doing what he loves: making music, without any concern about how it will be perceived, or consumed"

    This is exactly what comes through in his music. This is what I long to hear in majority of all my music now, a sense of liveness. Not overly compressed and limited tech house, which takes joy in sounding as professional a product as possible. It is literally like air brushed music, which does not trust you to see the beauty in it's flaws.

    That said, I do have an appreciation for well produced and shiny music, I just don't think it has much a place in house or techno.

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  16. Same situation as val. Very interested reader of ssgs, but never made an appearance in the discussion. So it´s time for that!

    @tony: well I guess your friends sound preference has something to do with hearing habits. I think "Guitar driven" music (sorry for that impreciseness) is a bit more melody orientated. For sure there´s also rhythm and groove in that kind of music, but I think these elements are of small importance. Putting a surf rock guy into a auditive journey into techno (Peter Van Hoesens Entropic City for contemporary example...) is condemned to fail, because he isn´t familiar with that kind of music and so with that kind of listening habit.

    @general: I keep it short and simple, at least I´ll try it. Stop worrying too much about that boring music for elevator thing!!! It simply takes too much energy and encouragement, because at the end of the day theres no other perspective like "no perspective" left. For sure, its a bit conservative to "accept" this whole electronic music industry thing, because there are tons of unbelievable rubbish tunes made for elevators... (hmm, getting to the point) and as long as this kind of industry lives and operates, it always will be. The structure here determines the output. I´am also very frustrated about that and I have every f..... permission to do that, because I live in a small area (boring southwest of germany) where people in general (not everybody, but looooootts of them) have absolutely no clue how to hear electronic music, because their ears got blocked up by the music industry and their henchmen. Theres no music scene outside which you can share your input, mix it up with other inputs. So! I´am absolutely delighted!! to connect with open minded persons via internet and share thoughts and music! So what´s the point? Everything is okay if theres a community who´s into electronic music outside a strong commercial frame (which means music making for money). And its much better if we got connected communities which interact and can inspire themselves. Maybe Scuba is A very good example, because he brings "two Worlds" together and yes! the result is absolutely stunning.

    And furthemore we need this "tech house for elevators" (call it techno, minimal, house, bla... easy listening whatever) listeners because theres a chance that these people will diving much deeper into the whole thing AND develop themselves... maybe there´s one genious left at the end of the day, who will inspire the scene and pushing things forward. call it techno "philosophy"! And thats one thing I always liked about techno. An open minded community and not a self contained and boring scene which reproduces the same, same, same, same... you get me!

    So these are my thoughts about this posting. Hopefully they´re a bit useful!

    cheers
    Tobi

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  17. wow. some amazing responses. very very happy. i dont want to say anything substantive now. just one or two minor points. i have no idea who the girl in the pic is. found it on google images. the carl craig mix definitely fed into this post, the main motivation for it was donnacha costello's incredibly dull new album on pokerflat. that is what inspired the title of the post. but as you guys have been making clear, it is much broader than that.

    and yes, we dont like labels, especially being limited to the headfuck one. right now that sound is not really interesting me, to be honest, and dozz is about the only one in that style i am listening to regularly. techno is a bit flat right now for me.

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  18. That's interesting on the Donnacha Costello Chris as was going to check that out. Still will of course, but your readership might like this ambient podcast of his. I reckon it's really nice and have had much sofa time to it.

    Loving a lot of ambient more and more.
    My one big wish - is for Cio to release an album of ambient spacey music. I reckon she'd nail it.


    http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/podcasts/2010/mar/24/bodytonic-podcast-075-donnacha-costello/

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  19. chris say something substantive now or what's the point? this forum is too "one way" for this kind of open ended provocation. long time ssgs reader but i think i'm done now. this is weak

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  20. @ scott: well, i guess there must not be any point then. cheers.

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  21. Haha, sorry but this was funny:

    1. "it was donnacha costello's incredibly dull new album on pokerflat"

    2. "techno is a bit flat right now for me"

    Flat seems to tell everything. I think it is hard to make good tech-house - maybe by definition this genre/category is useless. But the DC album was a bit nowhere on it. Donnacha Costello used to make music that would not just flow by in the background while working. Hardly observed anything in it that would point into a good direction. Though, I still consider him a good producer.

    Maybe the label...

    As for techno: well, the new Surgeon Record really worked for me. Let us see Dettmann, and maybe a new Shed album.

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  22. I understand frustrations with watered down tech house at the moment, but the C2 mix was a pretty standard C2 affair. Honestly, that's why I liked it. To me, C2 has always walked that fine line between pop or commercial dance music and the underground shit. Yet, people get upset when C2 delivers a mix (a free one at that) chalk full of tech house and neo-Detroit business. This mix is in the same vein as his Fabric CD and it's also coming from a DJ/Producer who has remixed the likes of Hot Chip and Goldfrapp, as well as being nominated for a Grammy. So please...tell me why this set should come across as a surprise to anybody who is aware of his discography.

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  23. Im going to take this as the April discussion thread and put a couple of things out there that ive been thinking about recently for discussion.

    Ive just finished watching a documentary on the current Berlin techno/house scene called Feiern. I enjoyed it, though found myself wondering exactly what it was trying to achieve. It was certainly well put together and had intelligent or otherwise interesting contributions from pretty much everyone interviewed, though as a whole I thought it lacked any clear message or sufficient critique of its subject matter. Would be interested to hear what others made of it.

    Having also just recently watched We Call It Techno! after a recommendation from one of the ssgs, I could see a clear echoing of what appeared to me to be the most interesting and important aspects of the early techno scene in Feiern.

    These are (a) the capacity for this type of music to create a trance-like state which, as I see it at least, is a way of reclaiming some semblence of a unified, integrated way of being which is entirely in touch with the world and has in some sense transcended the imposition of reified/commodified time and "identity" on our basic mode of inhabiting the world
    and
    (b) the creation of a kind of a collectivised culture surrounding the music which is based on an atmosphere of trust, friendship and equality, which once again functions as a 'reclaiming' of something lost in advanced capitalist society.

    Both aspects are obviously heavily related to drug use, though hopefully not entirely dependent on it.

    What prompted me to think about these things just now and ultimately to write this post is that one of the interviewies in the documentary mentioned in relation to drug fueled partying something like "sure we may just be trying to substitute drug/music/partying euphoria for what weve lost, but so what?". This kinda made me think that maybe I shouldnt be living so much in anticipation of my monthly or bimonthly excursion to some techno night somewhere, but rather to try to build something more concrete, less reliant on drugs and more overtly "political" as a way of expressing the desire I feel to meet certain basic human needs which are denied me and all of us under the society we live in.

    There's something fundamentally egoistic and gratuitous in the partying scene, even if its done free and in a collective manner and in such a way that a community forms. Nothing further emerges from it. You cant party 24/7, and even if you could, is that all there is to life?

    Im not really sure where Im going with this, and apologies for the really long post but id love to discuss some of these things with people.

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  24. Actually, I should add to that that maybe partying 24/7 would be a sufficiently need-meeting life in itself, but its completely impossible to actually live to such an excess for any length of time without becoming severely depressed or fucking up your body in some other way.

    I think I was wrong to say that partying is gratuitous, because it most definitely isnt entirely so. The world would be a far worse place if the techno (or whatever you want to call it) scene didnt exist, but at the same time, the fact that nothing further emerges from it means that you simply end up with an unhealthy dichotomy between excess but also companionship, authenticity and so on, and everyday, alienated working life. I cant help but feel that this is only allowed to continue as it is ultimately reinforcing of the dominant power structures of society, i.e. that it allows for the release (in a highly non-threatening manner) of repressed human urges which may otherwise be spent trying to set up more longlasting, total and effective means of resisting commodified life.

    There should most definitely be a place (a very large one IMO) for partying in a better world, but it should not stand in for a more complete and genuine human solidarity and political action.

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  25. @Zahn, what has "free" got to do with anything? The man put his mix out to be listened to, and therefore to be judged and appreciated by the listener. If you can express a positive opinion, are we not allowed to express a negative one?

    I am familiar with his work, and I know he is capable of delivering much better than that. What's more he was not creating a mix for a commercial audience, it was for RA, and a landmark in their series. You may of been happy with a stock mix, but I was not. Perhaps he should have passed on the honor to someone who could be bothered to create something memorable.

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  26. Has Carl Craig ever really delivered as a dj? His DJ Kicks was a bit of a mess from what I can remember and his Fabric cd was marred by a lot of bizarre wooping and hollering! Strange stuff indeed. There were some great tracks on his Workout comp but as a mix it was average.

    Scuba would have been the inspired choice of course but you can see why RA did what they did.

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  27. @Oliver,

    what does 'free' have to do with it? You're not out any money. Why get bent out of shape about being offered something that caused you no effort or money outside of a couple mouse clicks? And quit putting RA on a pedestal. The website supports some fairly underground stuff, but the mass appeal is definitely on the commercial side of things. To top it all off, 200 is just a number and it refers to quantity, not quality.

    Plus, if you are familiar with all of his work, you'll recognize that he was never that great of a DJ. I have seen C2 numerous times. I can't count how many times I have watched him wreck classic into classic at Hart Plaza. IMO, It wasn't until the whole Cocoon/DC-10 crew started jocking his shit that he upped his game a bit with DJing.

    Lastly, I never once mentioned that a person can't have a negative opinion about something. I simply said it's a bit weird that people were expecting anything more or different than what Carl delivered.

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  28. Another new ssgs commenter here. Let me take this opportunity to say thank you all for what you've done and written; it's definitely set me on the right path, musically and otherwise.

    To begin, I agree with a lot of what Owen had to say about the influence of drugs in the scene. Yes, they have their place and purpose, but for many people going out, and even for people putting on shows, it plays too big a part. Getting partygoers off of shitty drugs and getting them hooked on the music instead of a high will go a long way to making our collective scenes more healthy.

    I also agree that techno needs to become more vocal politically. I'd go one step further and say that playing techno is more political than many things. DJs, on average, have more power than they realize; when you get in front of a big crowd with a loud soundsystem, you can forcibly change peoples way of thinking by playing different kinds of music, and directly implant thoughts and feelings with the emotional and expressive aspects of music. DJs, and producers as well, need to realize that they have this power, and use it for the benefit of those in attendance (though sadly it could be used to more nefarious purposes as well).

    Still, there are a lot of problems in the way. It can be difficult if not impossible to change someone's musical taste; I've been trying to convert some friends to techno and other music, and while I've had some success, it's really hard to introduce something to someone and have them like it right away. People don't like being suggested something; it's much better to have them discover it for themselves.

    As for tech house... it actually helped me ease into techno, so it's not all bad. Gotta agree about the Donnacha Costello album, too. I was under the impression that he was good, and was disappointed when I heard it (time to go diggin through his back catalog perhaps?). Then again, I've never really liked anything on Poker Flat anyway...

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  30. @Zahn - Money is not a factor in my critical framework. Whether it is free or not is irrelevant.

    You are equating expressing a negative opinion with "getting bent out of shape". Why would you presume such a thing?

    I respect the fact you liked it, and have opinions on Craig. However there is no need to then become defensive and suggest we are being weird for being critical. Perhaps we should not expect more, but I don't see anything wrong with expressing our dissatisfaction and seeing where it takes us.

    Comments like yours come across as being pretty aloof and patronising, something I don't think is very helpful on blogs like this.

    Plus downgrading the achievements of RA to suit your argument is a little unfair. I am sure the people at RA would disagree that it's "just a number". They probably felt quite a sense of achievement, very much similar to the one felt on this site when it reached 50.

    Putting RA on a pedestal, I am not sure I have done this (my first comment?)

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  31. @djmod

    "
    I also agree that techno needs to become more vocal politically. I'd go one step further and say that playing techno is more political than many things. DJs, on average, have more power than they realize; when you get in front of a big crowd with a loud soundsystem, you can forcibly change peoples way of thinking by playing different kinds of music, and directly implant thoughts and feelings with the emotional and expressive aspects of music. DJs, and producers as well, need to realize that they have this power, and use it for the benefit of those in attendance (though sadly it could be used to more nefarious purposes as well)."

    Yeah look at Terre Thaemlitz for example. The start of Midtown 120 Blues has a whole thing about house being more than just a certain sound, its a "situation", which operates in the same manner as any other set of social relations. She points out that to a very large extent it was based on exclusion and was heavily commercialised from the get-go. We need more DJs to take a stand in the same manner.

    Id like to know if the ssgs see what they're engaged in as directly political, and if so in what ways? Might be a stupid or impertinent question but it could get interesting discussion going

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  32. hey, same boat Tony (about electro/trance and digweed)

    you must also live in north america

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  33. @ everyone: well, I just got back from the beach and five days away from the coalface/interface.

    ...wow! Amazing response...

    ...I'll say from my end (as the sometimes silent, or at any rate less frequent interlocutor here) that this post was emphatically not 'about' any particular recording, except perhaps what was provoked by Donnacha's new record from Chris' end.

    Boring Tech House for Elevators is much, more more (and less!) than that. It is about a form of music made from a control surface that *appears* transparent and controllable. Is of course available to download. As an app. And can be remixed, shared for high fives, and uploaded for cultural capital with the cool kids (but quickly, before the tipsters durn dumpster on it.

    My personal, wider, deeper feeling is that so much of this culture (more than a music, remember the context) is made through a control surface, as a controlled surface. And that is boring. And usually tech house. And in Donnacha's case, specifically... for elevators...

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  34. had to share this as i'm finishing listening to it now... an amazing mix by ercolino, part of modyfier's showcase of the intriguing label stroboscopic artefacts... great compact set of intense techno and beautiful organic ambience...
    http://modyfier-modifying.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post_05.html

    a unique, inspired mix. i could go for more techno/ambient crossover mixes like this one!

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  35. Just read Kiran Sande's Month In Techno column at FACT where he too talks of dissatisfaction with contemporary tech-house, or what he calls 'pre-planned' techno/house production. Goes on to praise Actress and Carlos Giffoni's No Fun Acid. Giffoni's project sounds fabulous, anyone heard it? Reminds me of the approach taken on those old kooky 4/4 experiments on Profan, what got me into techno and house in the first place. Seems an approach largely lost in today's world of dumb functionality.

    http://www.factmag.com/2010/03/26/the-month-in-housetechno-2/

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  36. @ djmod: Keep in mind the people a DJ is playing to (and "politically influencing") are the type of people that would go out and party. So in some ways it's preaching to the choir.

    @ Vito: Yup, California. I see room for the techno scene to grow into over here. But there are many things blocking its maturation -- lack of public transportation, huge swathes of suburban communities, early closing times + burgeoning electro/trance/rave scene, and an already well established top 40/hip-hop/rock scene. It is growing, though. And there's always the internet, and great sites like this~

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  37. @ Joshua... I've heard No Fun Acid...I think it's an interesting bridge from the experimental DIY noise community to an acid house one. Perhaps the xOxbOx (a DIY TB-303 Clone) is to be blamed for this crossover. I think this has the potential to be my favorite project by Giffoni, and judging from the track on the Synth Night compilation, it sounds like it was a blast to hear him live. Looking forward to hearing more from that project. His new album Severance is quite good if you're into that sort of synth-noise genre. While we're on the subject of acid, anyone got any? ....Sets that is. I've been listening to early 808 state recently and Tin Man's acid set from his website is probably the only acid set I have.

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  38. I never really understood what was impressive about Donachella Costello. But that's not why I'm posting.

    We shouldn't be surprised that boring tech-house for elevators exists in this age of individualised stockpiling of music which is a formalised barter commodity. The danger is that the blogophere is already a factor in the complementary element of private music consumption absent of spectacle.

    The future is music made not for its exchange value, but made by and for small communities, which in itself is sufficiently political for techno not to be extrinsically political. This blog also participates in that, but Berlin and other places are also full of off-broadway experiences which are about the shared experience and a boring tech-house track slipped into a day of music is not such a bad thing after all, because it is shared and can be spectacular.

    The drugs thing is neither here nor there.

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  39. say what you will about donacha, Color Series will still beat the hell out of Hawtin's Concept series any day of the week. :)

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  40. I think I accidentally feminised his name.

    I thought the colour series was a well crafted exercise in replication, not quite appropriation.

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  41. I'm not sure about making Techno or House more political. I think one of the reasons I listen to this music is to escape from all that. I enjoy the noninvasive nature of this music. For me Techno is far more important than politics.

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  42. @ Jeremy: Thanks for the tip, as for 'Severance' I really can't stomach Noise, but marshalling that aggression into looped structures a la No Fun Acid sounds fascinating.

    From what was said on this blog Roman Flugel's Robert Johnson set is meant to be all acid, and great

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  43. Does anyone know why the promomixes.com series seems to have stalled? I really liked the concept.

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  44. i had some constructive criticism regarding the mix series box. while it is nice to have the download links immediately available, it would be even nicer if you had links to the blog post about the mix. it's nice to read the info about each mix, but it can be pretty annoying having to search for it (especially as some of these artists get lots of other hype/blog posts on here)... something like: ssgmixXX - artist (DL link), with the first part linking to the appropriate blog post... just a thought...

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  45. oh and if anyone is interested: i've started a mix series at my blog; i'm gonna try to keep it focused on deeper shades of techno. mix #1 is by nax_acid, an italian producer/dj who's done collaborations with giorgio gigli:
    http://smilecoldanatomy.blogspot.com/2010/03/anatomy-01-naxacid-mix-series-debut.html
    ... will hopefully have another mix or two soon :-)

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  46. @ brian: yeah, i've been thinking that. i just haven't had the time/motivation to go through & fix all 50 links (some of the earlier ones need updating too). i figure we've got the search function below, which should be a pretty easy way to find the post. i think when we retire the series (hopefully very soon), then we will put links to each of the original posts.

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  47. Whoever said poker flat has always been boring, I suggest you check their early releases, some damn fine deep (tech) house to be had.

    As for the current glut of crap, it’s just that, a bunch of easily digestible boring music. With that said, why even listen to it? Or comment on it for that matter? The C2 mix, I didn’t listen because it’s not my bag and I know that I wouldn’t really enjoy it. I agree with whoever said, “what did you expect?” I mean the guy plays in all the trendy clubs, so why would you expect an underground perspective from the mix? I did like the recent remix he did on Cheap and Deep and I think it was a return to the C2 we all want to hear.

    Something I’d like to ask of the readers and owners of this blog, what is your opinion on dubstep? If this has been covered before, I apologize for retreading a topic. My opinion is that just like every other genre there’s good and there’s bad dubstep, obviously subjective based on the listener. But, quite a bit of it is teetering on the edge of being straight up techno. Jackmate’s (soulphiction) SSGS mix was one of my first introductions to dubstep and IMO a great intro into a sound I had never heard. I think labels like Hyperdub, Daphne, Planet Mu, 7even, and a few others make really good dubstep that has great crossover potential.

    Also, I wanted to highlight the digital release of the Off Key Industries catalog. I’ve been dying for this stuff and I can finally buy it in my preferred format. If you’re like me and can’t afford TTs and vinyl, give it a listen, some great techno to be had.

    http://www.whatpeopleplay.com/?redirect=/labeldetails/null/id/000000504

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Say something constructive, bitte. Or if you're gonna take a swipe, at least sharpen your nails.

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