The strobing the
There's something funny in the juxtaposition of the celebratory beat and the opening "another day in the ghetto" with dope fiends etc, not sure how self aware wrt irony the genre is, but I'm sure it's all very good humoured
I thought this as well at first but now I don't think it is that actually, in particular because the music is never *just* celebratory, it's also kind of melancholy?
Maybe part of the reason that this stuff typically draws only for the most super-obvious rap is so that a sense of nostalgia/collective-memory is immediately hard-coded in, like when you hear Biggie saying "believe me sweetie, I have enough to feed the greedy" over these bittersweet winsome synth chords the effect in part is a kind of memento mori, a reminder not of literal physical death but of the death of all past moments, and these conflict-ridden tales (sex / violence / wealth / excess) all end up seeming sepia-toned and hazy and halcyonic in retrospect, a callback to when life was so exciting and vital.
― Tim F, Thursday, 30 July 2015 22:33 (eight years ago) link
The first part of my post was gonna be about the strobing synth chords in the second chorus (beginning "If happy ever after...") of the Matoma remix of Maroon 5's "Payphone", which I increasingly adore - it really captures that sense of intermingled joy/melancholy I'm talking about above.
― Tim F, Thursday, 30 July 2015 22:46 (eight years ago) link
Good points! The more I listen the more I notice the underlying melancholy / sentimental vibe. Maybe the payphone also works as a motif that triggers nostalgia / collective memory? No coincidence that Matoma's biggest hit is called Old Thing Back...
Would never want to listen to the M5 version but agree that the mix is v goodhttps://soundcloud.com/matoma-official/payphone-matoma-remix
― niels, Friday, 31 July 2015 08:25 (eight years ago) link
Oh yeah, also, the whole death of past moments nostalgia seems an integral part of the beach party lifestyle as I remember it from, tropical sigh, younger days
― niels, Friday, 31 July 2015 08:28 (eight years ago) link
These are super cheesy but I like them a lot. They remind me of the theme tune from Out Run.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 31 July 2015 09:23 (eight years ago) link
dat café delmar
― r|t|c, Friday, 31 July 2015 21:26 (eight years ago) link
I think this sub-genre might have already peaked a year ago... this is a sort of summer-y playlist I've been listening to these past months and there's some fine tropical house tunes here and there.
https://open.spotify.com/user/moteldemoka/playlist/7mxHhrMyUGjK55aKZemx76
Problem is most of the great tropical house remixes I've heard are bootlegs or unofficial so soundcloud might be the best source to find the gems but you also have to dig through a whole lot of subpar songs to get to the good stuff.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 31 July 2015 21:54 (eight years ago) link
Wow, I hate this on every level.
― drown zoowap (The Reverend), Saturday, 1 August 2015 09:47 (eight years ago) link
Next you'll say you hate Crazytown
― Tim F, Saturday, 1 August 2015 09:50 (eight years ago) link
I can't say I have anything nice to say about them
― drown zoowap (The Reverend), Saturday, 1 August 2015 10:06 (eight years ago) link
Rev what do you think of "Try Me"
― Tim F, Sunday, 2 August 2015 12:01 (eight years ago) link
This works better with a pop tune. The whole rap acapellas refitted as bachelorette party music for Rachels is a big part of what had me seeing red. This is still not it for me. I need my dance music to be either more percussive or gayer than this (or preferably both).
― drown zoowap (The Reverend), Monday, 3 August 2015 00:25 (eight years ago) link
Rachels?
― jaymc, Monday, 3 August 2015 01:02 (eight years ago) link
we don't say Becky anymore
― drown zoowap (The Reverend), Monday, 3 August 2015 01:20 (eight years ago) link
Rev, maybe you're listening to the awful remixes that just add some steel drums in the chorus and call it a day. What do you think about the following three songs (classified as tropical house)?:
Goldroom feat. Chela - Fifteenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTe_1edk1mk
Poncho Warwick & Wally Callerio 'Who Will Comfort Me' (Guti Summer Loving Remix)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RafU6e5yXqo
Perseus - Russian Girlfriendshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey875l-XqgI
And I suppose you've heard the international hits from Klingande, Duke Dumont, Klangkarrusel, Faul & Wad Ad, Robin Schulz... even that omi remix by jaehn is considered tropical house I think.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, 3 August 2015 06:02 (eight years ago) link
There's heaps of mixes of this style out there obviously but this remains my favourite, been playing it all year. Some German dude, very blissed out.
megatief - summer ends
― Siegbran, Monday, 3 August 2015 10:21 (eight years ago) link
disappointed rev isn't into this stuff
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Saturday, 29 August 2015 03:21 (eight years ago) link
There's a direct line of descent from Aeroplane, and the epicenter of this over the past four years surely must be Los Angeles (with satellites in Australia, Spain and Paris). I agitated for this for a while on the sounds like Aeroplane thread, but no one bit.
Still think no-one has outdone Perseus's Jeremy Glenn remix, from 2011. Most consistent purveyor has been Moon Boots.
― somewhere between islamic call to prayer and an orgasm (Sanpaku), Saturday, 29 August 2015 05:09 (eight years ago) link
garbage
― the late great, Saturday, 29 August 2015 05:55 (eight years ago) link
I think this shit is too "balearic" for me, I've never really been about beach vibes in any sense. I find them actively offputting, really.
Of the tracks Moka posted, I really like "Russian Girlfriends", and the Pancho Warwick is cool, deeply h8 the Goldroom tho.
Most of that list isn't pop in the US, except for OMI and (kind of) Robin Shulz. "Waves" is a jam on the low, but I find "Cheerleader" just on the wrong side of hokey.
― best beloved george benson (The Reverend), Saturday, 29 August 2015 08:19 (eight years ago) link
I'm going to love all this shit aren't I?
― Matt DC, Saturday, 29 August 2015 11:26 (eight years ago) link
Beach vibes is played but this does it the right way, it's like if classixx's shwayze remix had actually been super influential
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Saturday, 29 August 2015 15:27 (eight years ago) link
Also the bieber record would sound dope ~in the mix~
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Saturday, 29 August 2015 15:28 (eight years ago) link
i don't see how this is particularly distinct from the domestic casual-type deep house that was(/is still?) popular in the past couple years. spread mostly by youtubes w/ background images of white skinny women in bikinis, appropriated vocals from 'collective memory'-type r&b records (filtered so that they sound not sung but almost whispered by the breeze), 'chill' vibes. like yeah i guess there wasn't as much sax in those (w/ some exceptions, like klangkarussell's "sonnentanz", which i actually like a lot) but otherwise like what is the difference? same lineage if not cut of the exact same cloth maybe?
― dyl, Saturday, 29 August 2015 15:47 (eight years ago) link
Rap music is good and wallpaper house is bad (except when it is also good )
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Saturday, 29 August 2015 15:49 (eight years ago) link
You gotta understand that this wedding of two of my favorite forms of music is basically an extension of personal aesthetic interests...I made these mixes about 5-6 years ago that was like, let's mix DOC out of crydamour, I'm glad the world is coming around
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Saturday, 29 August 2015 15:51 (eight years ago) link
All of this stuff is post-Aeroplane, yeah, and I think I even heard that Jeremy Glenn remix in Seminyak, but the actual vibe on the beach typically was much much more distinct: lots of Matoma, Boehm remix of "Dear Mama", that remix of Mr Probz's "Waves", Major Lazer and DJ Snake's "Lean On".
Like yeah it's important to see the historical continuities but it's also important not to ignore the shifts - e.g. these tunes do not have vocals "filtered so that they sound not sung but almost whispered by the breeze" (which is a great description of what other, related stuff was doing a few years back, mind), it's much more literally "oh hey we all know this song let's sing along or at least wave our beers in time".
And Matt DC I think you would!
― Tim F, Saturday, 29 August 2015 22:10 (eight years ago) link
idk dyl, I like the british pop-deep house stuff, if that's what you're talking about
― best beloved george benson (The Reverend), Saturday, 29 August 2015 23:06 (eight years ago) link
side note: usually when I see youtubes w/ background images of white skinny women in bikinis, I assume it's not for me
― best beloved george benson (The Reverend), Saturday, 29 August 2015 23:07 (eight years ago) link
it's funny how small the gradations can be, cause I totally rock with shit (not necessarily proud of such, mind you):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5wppgR1HH4
― best beloved george benson (The Reverend), Saturday, 29 August 2015 23:24 (eight years ago) link
Oh yeah don't blame you for that at all, and I often suspect north euros of being the worst virulent racists. None the less and give or take a hamfisted record or three I feel as if playing some of these songs to diverse audiences would work p well given the right conditions
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Sunday, 30 August 2015 01:19 (eight years ago) link
Just heard Kygo's "Stole The Show" on the radio B-)
― Tim F, Sunday, 30 August 2015 01:40 (eight years ago) link
Two songs later it was Felix Jaehn's cover of "Ain't Nobody".
― Tim F, Sunday, 30 August 2015 01:50 (eight years ago) link
they're pushing this stuff in the states too, kygo's marvin gaye remix is getting spins out here
also i suspect justin timberlake's single moving this direction is indicative of where the market is moving generally
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Sunday, 30 August 2015 02:47 (eight years ago) link
*farts*
― WD-40 (mattresslessness), Sunday, 30 August 2015 05:30 (eight years ago) link
i def like (much of) the british pop/deep house stuff too rev! i am just confused about what the relationship between that stuff and the topic of this thread is, if there is one -- like is one a subset of the other or no? did they evolve in parallel or one after the other?
they seem to be super similar other than what vocals are used -- is that the main difference? idgi
― dyl, Sunday, 30 August 2015 06:34 (eight years ago) link
― WD-40 (mattresslessness), Sunday, August 30, 2015 12:30 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
cool opinion shithead
― mods = chickenshit idiots (D-40), Sunday, 30 August 2015 17:15 (eight years ago) link
huh this is what I've been hearing; "Stole the Show" is currently #2 on the French charts and "Ain't Nobody" #4 and "Lean On" #7. It's been a hot summer.
― droit au butt (Euler), Sunday, 30 August 2015 17:59 (eight years ago) link
Selena Gomez One Last Time is also totally this stuff, it already has infiltrated everything.
― Siegbran, Sunday, 30 August 2015 19:14 (eight years ago) link
Beach vibes is played
Lol I was starting to get all eyerolly at this but thinking about it, the ~balearic~ spirit has been migrating inland for the past few years and now it's all tropical rainforests instead of sun and sand... i'm probably totally not otm here but whatever
― brimstead, Sunday, 30 August 2015 20:26 (eight years ago) link
like i know ronnie & renzo were hot 5 years ago but that vibe seems to have permeated and lingered... anyway offtopic
― brimstead, Sunday, 30 August 2015 20:28 (eight years ago) link
The tracks Moka posted are cool but they don't fit my idea of tropical house - too housey, not tropically enough. To me it seems genre is defined by slight "carribean-style" syncopation and synth-effects and the melancholy beach vibe Tim F mentioned.
― niels, Monday, 31 August 2015 16:29 (eight years ago) link
Is the mix that Siegbran posted representative?
― Matt DC, Monday, 31 August 2015 19:35 (eight years ago) link
eh not really. The borders of this are of course very porous so you see a lot of mixes with slight tropical house vibes interspersed within a more amorphous "chill house" / "deep house" setting.
Still think Matoma (who's something of a tropical house purist) is the best starting point.
This 17 minute mix of his own tunes he did is kinda hilarious, albeit jarring;
https://soundcloud.com/matoma-official/one-year-one-love
Thomas Jack also has a 'Tropical House' DJ mix series featuring a lot of the key players but, again, most of the practitioners are a bit too subtle to play like an entire hour of tropical in a row (which is a shame almost, the thing that really struck me in Bali is how the more of the same style that's playing the more involving it is).
― Tim F, Monday, 31 August 2015 20:11 (eight years ago) link
One way to think about this style is if Afrojack circa 2010 had "gone balearic". Anything that's actually balearic/deep is perhaps a bit too nuanced/tasteful to capture it.
― Tim F, Monday, 31 August 2015 20:12 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-QR5_58xPk
― 1995 ball boy (Karl Malone), Monday, 31 August 2015 20:22 (eight years ago) link
this music gives me bad feelings
― lil urbane (Jordan), Monday, 31 August 2015 20:56 (eight years ago) link
it will make you renounce everything you believed in
― 1995 ball boy (Karl Malone), Monday, 31 August 2015 20:59 (eight years ago) link
ha well i didn't mean Iasos.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Monday, 31 August 2015 21:00 (eight years ago) link
stay away from Iasos, i repeat, stay away from Iasos!
― 1995 ball boy (Karl Malone), Monday, 31 August 2015 21:02 (eight years ago) link
enjoying the "call on me" vibe on this one https://soundcloud.com/sigalamusic/sweetlovin
― niels, Monday, 5 October 2015 10:58 (eight years ago) link
most of the auth tropical by kygo et al feels so cold and clinical, but i love when it gets warm & is fronted by pop stars lol
― TheFatSJW (D-40), Monday, 5 October 2015 18:57 (eight years ago) link
any tropical eoy lists?
that bieber track sure is something
Justin Bieber – 'What Do You Mean?'
― niels, Friday, 4 December 2015 09:44 (eight years ago) link
oh well, I guess the Bieber and MØ tracks topping lists count
― niels, Monday, 14 December 2015 15:35 (eight years ago) link
this is new and good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRxdrus-I5c
― abcfsk, Monday, 14 December 2015 15:57 (eight years ago) link
relatively new
― abcfsk, Monday, 14 December 2015 15:58 (eight years ago) link
Hits the spot
― niels, Monday, 14 December 2015 21:58 (eight years ago) link
http://www.magneticmag.com/author/ben-houston/https://soundcloud.com/bhoustonla/sets/the-trop-15-the-15-best
i mean u kinda have to hand it to this guy no. like why does everyone come online now to read/aspire 2 be some uselessly generalist dork-at-large when the post of Tropical House and Chillwave Editor is available
― r|t|c, Saturday, 2 January 2016 05:14 (eight years ago) link
Haha I love this post, best music writing 2015
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Saturday, 2 January 2016 08:17 (eight years ago) link
So many lines I want to c&p into every thread.
― Tim F, Saturday, 2 January 2016 11:48 (eight years ago) link
Some writers may think that tropical house is a bubble that will burst, and even some artists like Thomas Jack are coming in hot saying that they want to distance themselves from the sound. To them I say, it’s just getting started and evolving outside its stereotypes so sit back, grab a cold brew and quit trying to bring down music that has the inherent ability to make you smile and want to run into the ocean butt naked.
― niels, Saturday, 2 January 2016 17:57 (eight years ago) link
RIP guru josh
― lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, 2 January 2016 21:17 (eight years ago) link
I contend The Magician's Magic Tapes has been the curatorial center this subgenre for 5 years now. Among 200k listeners, he surely had a few producers.
My favorite 2015 thisthready thing was Cyclist - Heartbeat Speed (ft. Jocelyn Alice).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPVG7iMb8dY
For 2016, I await the Darius album like the Second Coming (of Aeroplane).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JckhXz8aktY
― Flesh emoji (Sanpaku), Saturday, 2 January 2016 21:48 (eight years ago) link
classy stuff!
matoma is playing my town in two weeks, kinda thinking abt going... small venue, 20 $
― niels, Saturday, 2 January 2016 21:58 (eight years ago) link
gospel mentasm trop-step
https://open.spotify.com/track/2NaEg8lTZXUg0TgYOiqSzN
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 19:06 (eight years ago) link
i'm not sure that's true, about the magician, but then the trop house pulse is like lab designed for me not to find
did anyone take anything from bhouston bro's list
― r|t|c, Thursday, 7 January 2016 11:32 (eight years ago) link
i liked mazde - pitch black a lot, it scratches a similar itch that goodbye by feder feat. lyse does, but it's not really trop house
so much of this stuff just sounds like slowed down euphoric trance - trance-bahton? - even down to the insistent chugging one-note basslines
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 7 January 2016 12:29 (eight years ago) link
yeah try pitching terje's remix of balearic incarnation up, it's totally progressive trance
― 0 / 0 (lukas), Sunday, 10 January 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
cue Tim F for the obligatory reminder that 'the differences are more interesting than the similarities' which is probably true in this case too i guess? as far as the uses to which this music is put, if nothing else
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 10 January 2016 17:43 (eight years ago) link
but i am pretty far removed from the 'run into the beach butt naked' massive, so i don't know - and that does pain me
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 10 January 2016 17:45 (eight years ago) link
Love this genre. That John Mayer thing up top was ridiculous!
These guys do a good job of culling through a lot of this stuff (along with bits from other genres) each week: http://noonpacific.com
― schwantz, Monday, 11 January 2016 16:33 (eight years ago) link
cue Tim F for the obligatory reminder that 'the differences are more interesting than the similarities' which is probably true in this case too i guess?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 10 January 2016 17:43 Bookmark
yes
― r|t|c, Monday, 11 January 2016 17:28 (eight years ago) link
haha first name i recognize when quickly scanning the page is kaytranada
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Monday, 11 January 2016 18:11 (eight years ago) link
because that site is also wrong
― r|t|c, Monday, 11 January 2016 20:16 (eight years ago) link
Which site?
― schwantz, Monday, 11 January 2016 20:39 (eight years ago) link
ur one. idk i looked thru a bunch and to me they were tropical but not Tropical
― r|t|c, Monday, 11 January 2016 20:53 (eight years ago) link
What's the difference? Not trying to be pushy, I'm genuinely interested. They definitely post a bunch of tracks that are not tropical (Tropical?) house, but I've discovered a bunch of good TH stuff through them...
― schwantz, Monday, 11 January 2016 21:15 (eight years ago) link
yeah sorry i know i'm not being v illuminating, mainly bc i hate this stuff and generally try and examine that urge from a safe distance
the distinctions tim makes upthread seem sound to me and i think have been consistently overlooked. capital TH in a popular wave sense is an overripe inbred mutant cousin to the lighter chillout/deep/tropical subscenes that may or may not occasionally coalesce in their uninteresting ways. idk it's also probably already dead?
― r|t|c, Monday, 11 January 2016 23:47 (eight years ago) link
(Kygo isn’t familiar with the term Balearic, the eclectic, slower D.J. style of late-1980s Ibiza that is tropical house’s clearest dance-music antecedent.)
:-)
from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/arts/music/kygodelivers-dance-beats-with-a-side-order-of-pan-flute.html
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 20 January 2016 00:33 (eight years ago) link
Matos!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 20 January 2016 00:34 (eight years ago) link
The original balearic scene was much smaller en less known than the Ibiza chillout/downtempo scene of the 90s and 00s, which is what Kygo is the actual successor to.
Compilations like this:http://www.fantazia.org.uk/Mailorder/images/HedKandi_BeachHouse2000_2CD.jpg
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 20 January 2016 07:37 (eight years ago) link
into this even tho the title is a van halen false flag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiJb6uypm5s
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 02:27 (eight years ago) link
tropical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MwltueD5ak
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 02:43 (eight years ago) link
So has anyone actually listened to the kygo album yet?
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Monday, 16 May 2016 08:12 (eight years ago) link
5 tracks in sounds a lot like what you'd expect
― niels, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 11:50 (eight years ago) link
So many steel drums
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Tuesday, 17 May 2016 11:52 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTYOkcRH220
every now and again injecting a little life into the formula appears to involve exhuming a deceased icon huh
― dyl, Sunday, 30 June 2019 15:57 (four years ago) link
Anyone heard the new I think album “Tropical House Cruises to Jamaica “ ?
Saw a mention on twitter
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 17 March 2021 17:21 (three years ago) link
Oops , I see that the 2020 collector’s edition of that 2017/2018 album is still getting attention in some circles
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 18 March 2021 16:24 (three years ago) link