Yeah, I think I just find most Mountain People stuff really boring— "neutral" is perhaps the best descriptor for it, and while I like a fair amount of music (and even house) that might be described this way, I find most MP records to be completely lacking in affect or color. Not for me...
I guess that part of the reason why I push back, perhaps, is that it seems so diametrically opposed to some of the West End stuff that was being praised on this thread a few posts prior, which I also found awfully dull— a lot of West End stuff is kind of by-the-numbers deep house or disco-inflected NY house, and the tracks that were posted weren't anything special...
But I think my tastes are really different than a lot of others around here, it seems, which is fine. Just makes for some bafflement on my part, at times.
― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Friday, 8 October 2021 20:40 (two years ago) link
i don't have a horse in this race but tbh i don't even know what house music is anymore.
i do have some ... possibly boring ... thoughts on what constitutes boring dance music, for me, personally. i'm still working out how to explain it, but it's basically any track with static, loop-based construction with no musical phrasing happening. where you can hear the ableton layout, basically. i don't mind very simple or reduced musicality, a slowly evolving filter over some jittery effect for example, but when there's just 32-bar loops stacked on top of each other it sounds completely dead to me, actually makes me irrationally angry. there's a lot of stuff out there like this! i'm always listening for musical phrasing and if it goes somewhere interesting or unexpected-but-perfect then even better.
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Friday, 8 October 2021 21:18 (two years ago) link
I feel that, too. A decade ago I interviewed Rolando and he said, "it's all just techno to me man," and while that's a truism at this point, it really is all just techno or house to me— even when I'm listening to something that's more like drum'n'bass or trance or whatever, my reference points always go back to house or techno.
It's funny, this discussion has made me think of artists I like that *do* use really repetitive musical gestures and make "workmanlike" tracks, and one is the ever-elusive POM POM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvfUx2NhT2c
My first thoughts as to why I like a track like the above but don't like Mountain People is mostly one of timing and "vibes"— I tend toward more minimal, late-night, industrial sounds, particularly in my techno. Polite loopy stuff to "come down" to rarely moves me, probably because in my raving days I was very much into ambient music or silence for those moments. My tastes in house are more traditional, maybe, in that I tend to dig the more "organic" sounds of people like Theo Parrish and that whole wheelhouse.
― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Friday, 8 October 2021 21:57 (two years ago) link
I can see why these Mountain People tracks seem boring, but I can also imagine it being 6am and lost in the groove in a warehouse and feeling those warm chords wash over me. They're not obvious hits or thrilling moments but I'm listening to 007.1 as posted upthread and there's a hi-hat coming in that's made me quicken up. I'm not sure I'd love a whole night of this but dance music singles never exist in a vacuum.
― boxedjoy, Friday, 8 October 2021 23:10 (two years ago) link
Totally. Those MP tracks are nice grooves to slide into a set of diverse house tracks.
― DJI, Saturday, 9 October 2021 00:42 (two years ago) link
Lol, it makes sense I’ve never got, and often straight up disliked, Pom Pom. But all that means to me is, when you’re dealing with fairly stripped down and repetitive tracks, a minor inclination to certain moods and sonic flavours really makes or breaks the track. I mean, there’s SO much bad late 00s deep house, and a lot of that comes down to that “you can see the abelton arrangements” quality (lol, remember when Oslo and mobilee were hot shit?), and listening to MP today, it hear something that’s outlived it’s contemporaries.
― ed.b, Saturday, 9 October 2021 00:46 (two years ago) link
just sampling the mp tracks they sounded very good to me, i like the reduced kerri chandler thing going on, plus enough happening to keep me entranced and moving.
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Saturday, 9 October 2021 00:48 (two years ago) link
but honestly, and i find this more and more, i have to listen to a whole track from beginning to end at least once to know if i like it or not, and lately i feel like i can only devote that time to certain things. i do need to make a project out of listening to everything posted in these threads without an agenda before the end of the year.
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Saturday, 9 October 2021 00:51 (two years ago) link
I'm not sure I'd love a whole night of this
Thats a fault of a DJ not the fault of any particular record!
― saer, Saturday, 9 October 2021 05:24 (two years ago) link
Well yes, I didn't want to hit out with a cheesy cliche but a good DJ can make a decent record sound phenomenal in context and these are the kind of things I can imagine work really well as bridge-building moments in a set.
― boxedjoy, Saturday, 9 October 2021 08:29 (two years ago) link
I didn't mean that exactly! More that however great a record might be you still want ebb and flow with other records, and for things to go around the corner and find pockets of space too
― saer, Saturday, 9 October 2021 08:45 (two years ago) link
Break SL on philpot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Abhply77Fshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thv38Yp4PF8
― missingNO, Monday, 11 October 2021 15:49 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qduy_1cRi78
Daryl Bryant - Under My Spell (1998) fitting that early afternoon vibe
― saer, Monday, 11 October 2021 21:29 (two years ago) link
Like that.
Wish one of my fave Philpot records were available on YouTube but alas
― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Monday, 11 October 2021 21:37 (two years ago) link
the samples on the Clone website give a good idea. sick record, think i picked it up at Halcyon the year it came out
https://clone.nl/item6947.html
― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Monday, 11 October 2021 21:40 (two years ago) link
more limpid Zürich reductionism, this time from Canson on Morris Audio Citysport Edition (2003)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrxVsTdTv1c
― missingNO, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 06:03 (two years ago) link
One of Dave Clarke's first releases and now 30 years old
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLbp5veVgs
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 07:30 (two years ago) link
Satoshi Fumi presents Owl - "Do It The Music" (Italic, 2005), jazzy astrodynamics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utT3Z3wUrNY
― missingNO, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 12:37 (two years ago) link
Nitzer Ebb - "Fun To Be Had (Steve Masters 12" Mix)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xu3uNPiX-0
― missingNO, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 05:44 (two years ago) link
(p sure that's a re-edit of the Dust Brothers' mix from this)
― missingNO, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 05:48 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPAoaDOOa7c
Queen Factory - Good Year
Came across this understated Wednesday morning bus stop dreamer from 2002 recently. Incongruously, its the flip side of a remix of Queen's Another One Bites The Dust
― saer, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 07:04 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0nRl0m-CTM
Daff - Reversal (2000)
Wondered about this mysterious escapade for some time! Looks like the only release by the artist, and the only release on the label
― saer, Thursday, 14 October 2021 18:34 (two years ago) link
sick live set by Cabanne from 2004! I miss this quirky, funky, irreverent style of 00s minimal house music, labels like Telegraph, Musique Risque, Circus Company, Karat, Minibar, et al. ... who in 2021 is making stuff like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCthwpo4q3Y
― missingNO, Friday, 15 October 2021 04:28 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpoIni8mhq8
Malcolm Moore - Nomad Mood (2010).
One from the sea bed, could never find on yt before but its up there now, surveying the steppe
― saer, Friday, 15 October 2021 10:16 (two years ago) link
missingNO, I don't know who is making music like that anymore. That style seems to have really fallen off in a huge way.
― I'm a sovereign jizz citizen (the table is the table), Friday, 15 October 2021 17:56 (two years ago) link
I also think, tho, that some of that kind of thing became subsumed by the more minimal ends of tech-house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PosOz9j13uE
Fresh & Low – Funky Daze (1997)
Didn't realize this was an F&L track, might be the best one too
― saer, Sunday, 17 October 2021 19:41 (two years ago) link
Love that "quirky, funky, irreverent style of 00s minimal house" but can't think of many artist doing it now that aren't the artists doing it 15 years ago, though one example that comes to mind is Digby. My sense is a lot of quirky/funky/irreverent house is coming out, but it's has this bold sound that's unlike the microhouse style of Cabanne/that mix, while the microhousey stuff tends to be more serious.
Should go in the bobbins 21 thread but this seems relevant here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVRBNUItM1g
― ed.b, Monday, 18 October 2021 14:30 (two years ago) link
<3 <3 <3
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Monday, 18 October 2021 14:50 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s_rRvFIRvc
― brimstead, Monday, 18 October 2021 18:57 (two years ago) link
I like the other side better on that one, but both are good - and the previous Tofu as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdtHj9w4mSw
Oral Experience - Timbo
dub/lounge ephemera from 1997
― saer, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 11:58 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHCFRqiMp4k
Shafty - Deep Inside (Of You) (Soul Trance Mix)
Its on holiday!
― saer, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 18:44 (two years ago) link
on a holiday, deep inside (of you)
love that one
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 18:49 (two years ago) link
Looks to be a pretty well known one but never heard it before!
― saer, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 19:05 (two years ago) link
it was on a popular dave lee / joey negro compilation of itailian house called "italo house" from a few years ago. also selected by our own boxedjoy on his latest mix!
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 19:07 (two years ago) link
I will look for that mix!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNtTcvzrFVI
Uncanny Alliance - I Got My Education (Masters At Work Dub)
Didn't know this MAW dub before either. The original is quirky and sort of fun, but this is the one
― saer, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 20:38 (two years ago) link
catnip to me
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 21:33 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUlBze9Gt6Q
Flip - B1 Untitled on Xspheremental Concepts from 2000
LOVED this for ages but never knew what it was. Until today!
― saer, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 06:09 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZrX-M_RGQ
Another Phil Asher banger, All I Want, from 2012
― saer, Friday, 22 October 2021 09:42 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9CsWk9myUg
― mmmm, Friday, 22 October 2021 09:54 (two years ago) link
I’ve been searching for this one for 25 years no less. Colin Dale played it on his Kiss FM show when it came out. I thought all the El Chocolate records weren’t for me but this one is good.
― mmmm, Friday, 22 October 2021 09:57 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-gwmRRlqs
Nu-Era - Cost of Livin from 1994,
This one hiding in plain sight (on the Deepest Shade Of Techno Volume I compilation)
― saer, Saturday, 23 October 2021 14:39 (two years ago) link
ot but to answer my (boring, utterly inconsequential) question upthread: akufen, surprisingly (or not)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Rr9oPM8B4
― missingNO, Monday, 25 October 2021 14:49 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2et5tleVLaU
Han Litz Group- Yemaya Olodo (2019)
Came across this recently, from a Dutch flautist, unexpectedly hitting the Tuesday afternoon vibes
― saer, Tuesday, 26 October 2021 17:58 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpeG-uxx1SY
Ham ft Shotta Shah- Welcome To Bradford (2019)
Two in a row from 2019, probably too recent to fit the feel of an 'of the past' thread? friendly vibe all the same
― saer, Friday, 29 October 2021 10:04 (two years ago) link
Love the last track on the Akufen record!
― saer, Friday, 29 October 2021 10:11 (two years ago) link
it's a stunner isn't it? full on hopeful piano vibes. and legal according to the rules of this thread as he originally uploaded it to his soundcloud 4 years ago or thereabouts. akufen has a new record due out in november and the preview sounds v promising, first track in particular
returning to matters of the past earlier today i was reading about this funny situation / mild controversy involving baby ford. he put out a record on trelik in 2014 and one of the tracks happened to be exactly the same as a tune by background records cohort rhythm maker, released on a label compilation in 2003. people were accusing ford of plagiarism but it turns out he had some old dat tapes from the label in his possession and mistakenly thought it was some forgotten track from the vaults that he had made years earlier. it totally does sound like the kind of tune he would make though!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOtKX-Xggbw
welcome to bradford vid is making me hungry lol
― missingNO, Friday, 29 October 2021 13:32 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHQ49j4AkE
Instinct - Just A Feeling (The Hand In Motion Mix)
Detroit classic from 1992
― saer, Tuesday, 2 November 2021 10:25 (two years ago) link
ric y martin remix of "tessio"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBlEkWO3Fu8
― missingNO, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 13:30 (two years ago) link
This poll may be of interest to Bobbins archaeologists:
MUZIK Singles Reviews, November 1996
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 18:49 (two years ago) link