It's a cruel cruel summer: the sounds of deep tech / shuffle / cuttin shapes / upgrunt house / etc. etc. in 2014

same brackles who did this amazing mix?

http://www.discogs.com/Brackles-Songs-For-Endless-Cities-Volume-1/master/336324

Yeah, that looks like the sort of thing he was playing last time I checked.

That Rinse session is a bit of a Hugo Massienathon, and I have no problem with that.

https://soundcloud.com/house-ent/introducing-callelebraun

if anyone enjoyed not listening to the prev calle mix i mentioned then trust me you'll just <3 letting this one slide on by too

As a complete newcomer to this scene and having paid zero attention to this thread before, I can confirm that Audio Rehab 1 makes a fantastic primer.

It's weird to see all these posts upthread going "how does this differ from X or Y?" when the sonic parameters are less interesting than the question of who's dancing this time round. Still, there's so much more techno in this stuff than there than the British house music in adjacent scenes - I hear Detroit in there, but I also hear Sheffield. But it feels defineably London as well, those grimy handclaps, like it would just work driving through wet London streets at night, and it's dark without resorting to the tiresome faux-screwface of so much UK bass music.

It's striking that in the Blackdown interview, Radford pinpoints hearing Booka Shade as the thunderbolt moment because a lot of this stuff is quite similar to peak Booka Shade if not in sonics but in its sleekness, the way the sounds hang in the air, the ability to go for epic without sacrificing economy. But ex-garage crowds, by and large, weren't dancing to that stuff or anything connected to it, give or take a Claude Vonstroke track here or there.

I guess I haven't been paying much attention this year but I knew something was up when Innervisions stuff like Ten Walls started appearing on the 1xtra playlist but it still feels like a big shift for these sounds to be reappearing in this context.

Comp itself is brilliant obv.

✓✓✓

Man how amazing is Hugo Massien's "Now You're Gone"

And this Carnao Beats tune:

https://soundcloud.com/carnao-beats-1/chords-of-life-1

not sure i'm familiar with that massien, where does it live

see e.g. Mark Radford's 6 September set from 56.20.

ooh yeah good spot

Can we caucus on the deep tech songs of the year? We need to get at least one track into ILM's top 100.

Even though I first heard it last year i'd happily swing behind Kane Law's "Free Your Mind" given its 2014 release and impact.

Massien's 'Kontrol', 'Better Let Her', 'Now You're Gone'.

Nightshift, 'Through the K Hole', 'Made You Look'.

RS4, 'Gladiator' and 'In the Dark'...

All those spring to mind.

Who does the insomnia track as well?

Yep all of those!

https://soundcloud.com/camocrooks/camo-crooks-insomnia

Great track! Love the EP title, Drugs and Stuff.

https://soundcloud.com/definition-audio/sets/definiton-audio-presents

out now. calle, louie and camo trax are the nuts

https://soundcloud.com/rinsefm/djhaus141114

lol haus kicks this latest set off with an offish arun verone remix of his own 'comin on' (classique tune btw) and massien 'better tell her'

interzoney style rudebwoy inta inta

(new rinse schedule of shorterz and haus b2b for four hours 7-11 friday nites is radio heaven fyi)

Can we caucus on the deep tech songs of the year?

"real shifters (get down)", "circles" and "babylon system" are my top tier, and "from above" and "okay" are kind of undeniable?

'Wet Dollars' by Tazer (although is this 2014?) and Ghost House Banton 'Shadows'.

https://soundcloud.com/camocrooks/camo-crooks-insomnia
Yassss you beauty, this one's been high on my list of 'must get an ID' tunes for a while now.

it would just work driving through wet London streets at night, and it's dark without resorting to the tiresome faux-screwface of so much UK bass music.
Might not have put it in exactly these terms myself, but Matt I think you've hit on something that appeals to me a lot about this stuff - it does ~darkness~ in a way that's fresh because it feels... unfussy maybe?

what am i missing here? this stuff is so ... basic.

i mean, i like stuff like "wet dollars" and "m-o-e", i just don't get the idea of a whole genre of tracks that sound so samey and simple

i basically get the hardwax new releases rss feed and pick stuff off of it based on my own narrow interests in trad acid house and detroit-rooted techno. not sure if that means anything about anyone other than myself, pretty sure it doesn't.

- the late great, Monday, 3 December 2012 23:42 Bookmark

^^TLG - Started to write a big response to that which defended this stuff with reference to various historical antecedents, but realised that it would just come across like amateur-hour b/s (especially to someone as knowledgeable on house and techno as yourself). Basically I can see quite well how a lot of people won't find this sort of thing very exciting, and I'm more or less ok with that.
I like it because it fulfils a particular need I have for moderately tracky, dark, mixable, unfussy/uncomplicated bassline-driven dance music. If that's less central to your tastes then you're not likely to get much mileage out of it tbh. Personally I was experiencing pretty major burn-out with dance & electronic stuff in general round about 2011-2012 because everything that was getting pushed in the circles I moved in (this including both critically-revered and more populist stuff) seemed too over-the-top or try-hard in some way or another. In that context, this sort of sound coming to the fore has been like a major breath of fresh air. Of course like with anything, I'll prob end up getting fed up with it and moving towards an opposite pole, but that's life.

Samey, perhaps, in that the sonic aesthetic is so defined. But I wouldn't say it all sounds simple.

Some of the reference points that came to mind with RS4's recent EPs which surprised me were (unfashionably) psytrance or (more tastefully) Lindstrom's Smallhans album, the interweaving arpeggios have that real Mandelbrot set quality to them.

let's not pretend we don't know what's happening here, again

v which set posted itt did you hear that didnt do it for you?

i'll check out more rs4 tracks, i liked the lfo tribute

r i'll tell you which set posted itt did do it for me: the dj haus set from 11/14

i liked it better than the calle lebraun set (which was admittedly pretty good) which bothered me because every track had the same bassline

what's happening is i'm starting to sound like geir again

other ones i liked but couldn't make it all the way through were the majesty set and the dice and perch set.

overuse of fm bass

three things this music reminds me of: 1) chicken lips 2) dj narrows 3) jump up jungle

this mix and the dancers in it video are really doing it for me

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OkmLydrf_-U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Oops, sorry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkmLydrf_-U

i just don't get the idea of a whole genre of tracks that sound so samey and simple

It is what it is (etc.)

Also, shout out to the ultra-dark sonar bass on the second half of the RS4 LFO Tribute! Could listen to that forever.

Love that youtube, though note that one of the qualities the London shuffle appears to have inherited from the Melbourne shuffle is its attraction to dancers who don't really understand the notion of dancing in time with the music.

think u can say that about dancing in general

chicago house is pretty samey simple wudnt u agree chaps

and okay and from above are not deep tech

Yeah you can say it about dancing in general but shuffle type dances make it more obvious I guess because of how focused the dancing is.

yeah i would like to think that watching some of the dances might at least illustrate to some extent why this stuff is narrowed by design, the appeal in deliberately focusing on a specific claustrophobic minatory tension, using it as tautly-wired rotational axis

fyi both calle sets are 50% his own production (and majesty's 100%) which maybe adds to the "samey" thing somewhat tho i know that's not rly what tlg was getting at

also hope it is audibly obvious that the dj haus set is not pertinent to this stuff in the slightest, as i said i only mentioned it in noting some scene trax finding their way into unexpected avenues

chicago house is pretty samey simple wudnt u agree chaps

also trad acid house and detroit-rooted techno iirc. typical infidel's gambit

and okay and from above are not deep tech

i've already said why i'm not v happy with this polemical tack but otoh perhaps hardline hawkisms might make for a better study guide at this point

bad moment to indulge outliers but i do quite like the rs4 psytrance angle

https://soundcloud.com/rs4house/toyc-shuffle-rs4-mix

particularly this remix (which isnt really much more than a rejigged 'no one else') was enough to get me wondering if a humid tropical rainforest deep tech set (a la wonderland09) was viable, just for fun

oh I so want that

and okay and from above are not deep tech

It's a fine line between it being a coherent style and something like a 'made in England' tag. #justsayin

But maybe a label like Mokujin is interesting for sitting on the edge (and mainly being a clearing house for Paul Robinson). I think Valid might like some of this stuff, but is this deep tech? *shrug*

Soz, meant Vahid (the late great?) there. Was posting after the pub!

like i say it's not a particularly accurate or sane reflection of what the scene is but i do get where riz is coming from if the ilm deep tech eoy only adds up to massien, rs4, and popular house commonalities. was that caucus or caucayzh

x5 dubs, calle lebraun, majesty, ar, truce, a2h, jack n danny, louie anderson, riaz dhanani among others have all put out like at least three huge riddims each this year and if we're not riding for those we're not riding for anything, just ideologically vacant personal-brand cherrypick tourism and doglatin discourse blagging

:)

Real talk.