Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release

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UH that was badly edited hence the repetition

― braveclub, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

It was more the "sounds like a good time" as a defence I was questioning.

You can make people dance even if music isn't happy or goofy.

And sure, there's nothing definitively wrong with music for music's sake, but I don't see that SMD are the chief exponents of this, nor the best, I mean why not just listen to actual pop music?

― Ronan, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

Sure. But I see SMD more as pop than dance music. Also Justice. As dance acts these are shitty, but I think they make good pop msuic.

― braveclub, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

what pop music sounds like SMD, Justice etc. - apart from them?

― blueski, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

Daft Punk maybe?

― braveclub, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

not pop

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:52 (nineteen years ago)

ok explain why daft punk aren't pop then

― braveclub, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

I put these acts squarely into "DANCE music" and not just because you can dance to them, but because the structure and function is obviously house.

― Spencer Chow, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

spencer nails it on the head.

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

pop is not just some catchall where we throw everything with lyrics, choruses and headbands

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

i mean sweatbands

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:56 (nineteen years ago)

the structure is that of a classic pop song though! i fail to see one reason why daft punk is not pop music. also pop IS a catchall, it is not a genre

― braveclub, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:58 (nineteen years ago)

are we talking about the same daft punk?

probably not.

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:01 (nineteen years ago)

I think some Daft Punk tracks are more pop and some are more dance.

― Spencer Chow, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

daft punk is to blame for blog house

― cutty, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:36 (nineteen years ago)

and jogging

― haitch, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:49 (nineteen years ago)

It should be noted that "jumping up and down" is not the same as dancing! The marginilisation of bass, where it occurs (it's being overstated in this thread), is intimately connected to the fact that at the club nights that play this music very few people are doing anything with their hips!

This does have its roots in electroclash except that almost all the best electroclash anthems actually did have great basslines e.g. the sampling of Bobby O in "Silver Screen Shower Scene".

For me the key tune to explain the distinction is "Rocker", where the "verses" (the squiggly noise beats) are actually quite erm funky, while the "choruses" (the faux guitar anthemics bit) is like straight rock almost. I always liked the verses more, but the converted-rock-kids crowd that was just emerging within electro-house in late-2004 always seemed to respond massively to the choruses instead.

― Tim F, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:41 (nineteen years ago)

if i saw someone in 2007 dancing with their hips i would probably laugh them out of the club. rocker is definitely the touchstone though, and it is funny that people who were once celebrating the fact that alter ego were making synths sound like guitars are now bemoaning it

― creme1, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:54 (nineteen years ago)

Tune in next week for an enthralling new episode of "Why do people get tired of overused ideas in dance music?"

― Tim F, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:00 (nineteen years ago)

also, the guy who tried to explain to me how geht noch is basically a punk song to thread

― creme1, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:04 (nineteen years ago)

i don't know anything about simian mobile disco, but recently i had to review their remix of muse's 'knights of cydonia' and it was an absolute crock of willies. the beat remained, static and tuneless, for five minutes, neither building nor diminishing, and bearing no discernible resemblance to the original, although occasionally interspersed with entire, untreated vocal samples from the song (these occurred when no other music was playing), as if to remind the listener beyond any doubt whom they were remixing. i've never heard such a shoddy effort before in my life. ugh.

― Just got offed, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:12 (nineteen years ago)

RECENTLY I HEARD THEIR SONG WE R YOUR FREINDS VS JUSTICE IT WAS REALLY GOOD

― cutty, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:19 (nineteen years ago)

but because the structure and function is obviously house.

no more than techno or electro half the time, esp. in Justice's case. i think people stick the house tag on to make it seem more 'friendly'/accessible - seems to work.

all the best electroclash anthems actually did have great basslines e.g. the sampling of Bobby O in "Silver Screen Shower Scene"

indeed. i don't hear that so much now but would like to. it's gotta rumble and throb, even on earphones.

― blueski, Friday, 11 May 2007 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

if i saw someone in 2007 dancing with their hips i would probably laugh them out of the club.

friendly

― braveclub, Friday, 11 May 2007 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

if i saw some cute girls dancing with their hips i would throw my drink over them in disgust

― blueski, Friday, 11 May 2007 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

from a non specialist's view it does look like some fault line is opening up here.

― Alan, Friday, 11 May 2007 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

"It's the beat" is rubbish. "Tits 'n' acid" is great though, and well produced, and if it doesn't have a big bassline as such, it still sounds deep.

I have difficulty guaging how well known or popular this stuff is. I keep ending up in bars where there are people laptop djing this sort of stuff to completely indifferent audiences or indeed empty rooms. But there clearly is a well defined crowd, just perhaps a small one.

Also, it seems that it IS dance music, in terms of structure and so on, so a few comments upthread are off the mark. It's just adding a certain kind of rock sound or rock dynamics to the mix. This isn't that different from the edits people, turning soft rock or krautrock or whatever into dance music, or big beat turning hip hop into dance music, (or indeed jungle also turning hip hop into dance music).

VICARIOUS BLISS "LIMOUSINE" off the ed banger comp is ace, by the way. Lex would HATE it.

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 11 May 2007 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

fault line=gates of hell

― Ronan, Friday, 11 May 2007 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

The problem with Tits and Acid is that the beat is too stuttery which makes it difficult to actually dance to.

I was being a bit OTT upthread about it being not really dance music, it's not functional dance music is what I meant, I can't see much of it working in a club context.

The first couple of tracks are the most successful I feel, the most content to settle into a groove and not pile on too many noises or annoying vocals. I Got This Down is my favourite, something about it reminds me of early Get Physical although I can't see it ever coming out on that label.

― Matt DC, Friday, 11 May 2007 11:51 (nineteen years ago)

i think simian mobile disco have had their successes - two, to be exact: i actually like "it's the beat" (as tim f pointed out somewhere, it's basically a homage to "pump up the jam", plus it's got a sparkly breakdown), and their remix of "downtown" is anchored around big sticky stompy synth hook, with nice acid-y splashes - gets squealy and bludgeoning by the end, but it's rather good for a while.

as an aesthetic though, the concerted abstinence of deepness of almost any sort gets, yeah, tiresome. sebastian, in particular, seems to represent the real dead-end of the muddy, monochrome stutter aesthetic, and his upcoming remix of rage against the machine might just be the final point where this stuff migrates from dancefloor to moshbit.

― jermainetwo, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

and if it doesn't have a big bassline as such, it still sounds deep.

or at least dense. packed full of five different kinds of nut.

― blueski, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:25 (nineteen years ago)

moshbit was a typo but i actually quite like it.

― jermainetwo, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

oh wait, i like "i believe" too! which is quite obviously more pop than dance. even so, i prefer the prins thomas remix.

― jermainetwo, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

I actually think I mean Animal House, anyway. But yes. I should actually listen to this record before commenting.

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

btw, ronan, you might like maurice fulton's remix of "over and over" if you're ever looking for a crossover record.

― jermainetwo, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

xpost about "people making synths sound like guitars": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOtrPlIXRYE

― Drew Daniel, Friday, 11 May 2007 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah "I Believe" is good.

― Tim F, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

Strangely contrasting reviews from me and Jess today.

― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

the feud continues!!!!

― later arpeggiator, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

what is it with mid-8.s and functional 2007 pop-dance records?

― Just got offed, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:26 (eighteen years ago)

there were so many, terrible, terrible statements on this thread.

"pop is not just some catchall where we throw everything with lyrics, choruses and headbands"

erm, yes, yes it is. pop = everything catchy

― later arpeggiator, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:28 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't think there was a feud; I thought we were vaguelly in agreement.

― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

i think we have hardly whit in common aesthetically nick, so i dunno why it would be so strange

xpost!

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

also i'm almost completely burned out on/lacking the attention span or energy for on any dance music that's NOT 3:30 BLAM-BLAM-BLAM chuck-all-the-hooks in shit, so grain of salt.

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:32 (eighteen years ago)

Haha; I agree on that totally, I just thought, on this thread, that there was vague consensus! By the time I wrote about it, another m onth on from this, I'd probably notched up the negativism a touch, but I'm surprised you came out so in favour.

xpost - Whereas I'm the other way around, and anything that's hyperactive and short screams at me "I'M EVIL".

― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)

Have you heard the second of this year's Two Lone Swordsmen albums?

― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

i have not

― strongohulkington, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:36 (eighteen years ago)

You should. Have you heard the first?

― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:38 (eighteen years ago)

The only SMD I've heard was a quite abominable remix of Muse's Knights Of Cydonia. I know you'd probably all blame this on the source material, but actually it sounded NOTHING LIKE the original, occasionally reminding us what it was meant to be remixing by stopping entirely and then playing wholesale a complete sample from the Muse version (whinnying horses, voices in harmony chanting "No-one's gonna take me away" etc). The rest of the time we had this boring, tuneless, sonically bereft pulse, which didn't even see fit to change its modulation/volume/pitch/anything which is generally the preserve of good dance music. The result, and I repeat, my sole experience of SMD, was truly some of the most wretched 5 minutes of music I've ever heard.

Oh wait a mo, I've already posted this exact same spiel about a month ago. To hell with it. It bears repeating.

― Just got offed, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)

There's nothing wrong with remixing something and making it sound nothing like the source material, dude. In fact, if it sounds too much like the source I tedn to feel short-changed.

― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 21 June 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)

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