Electro house, is a major genre of electronic dance music that has brought some amazing, inspirational, and timeless tracks. The genre has seen major popularity on the mainstream level since its birth around the early 1990s while maintaining its underground presence. Get ready to explore the evolution, artists, and subgenres of electro house.
Progressive house emerged after the first wave of house music and is one of the major subgenres of house in the electronic music scene. The term is widely used especially today for a large spectrum of 4 on the floor inspired tunes that don’t necessarily fall under the umbrella of a traditional house or techno inspired track. Describing the experimental nature of the music as âprogressiveâ refers to the nuances that cause the new music to differ from what has been considered the normal. If youâre a seasoned progressive house head or only recently becoming familiar with the term, we got you covered. Sit back and enjoy the ride as we dive into progressive house.
This week’s Guest Mix features the Tbilisi-based music artist AVIVX. His DJ sets oscillate between Chicago house, New Beat, Italo, trance, old and new techno, generating a vortex of playful techno euphoria.
Lately, he has been seen DJing at Berlinâs famous Wilde Renate, Buttons, Ficken3000, Cafe Luzia, Moscowâs Popoff Kitchen, Kazakhstan’s ZVUKm Tbilisiâs Khidi, Drama Bar, and many others. His latest vinyl EP Dark Temple on Rotterdam‘s Electronic Emergencies label and Clone.nl distribution, is set out to become his biggest project to date.
Imagine this: It’s 2018, and you’re a diehard techno fan. Techno has been reigning supreme on the Beatport sales for the last two years, but you just heard the news… tech-house artist Fisher, has just been nominated for a Grammy. You think, “Huh… Didn’t see that coming… Whatever… techno is life and it’s still #1.” Little did you know it was an omen of things to come.
Beatport has added amapiano to its list of genres. The digital music retailer says the change is to help fans “discover the sound, translating into improved sales for artists and labels, and a better customer experience, as fans can find music that is truly representative of the amapiano culture.”
Kyle Watson has been working hard to carve a space out of the global house scene for his own brand of house music. Sculpted from many avenues, Kyle Watson turns his inspiration into unique sounds that style after forward-thinking house music. His hypnotic sounds of basslines and drums have warranted him industry nods from popular electronic artists such as: Diplo, Chris Lake, and Gorgon City. They’ve all of who have given Kyle an opportunity to spread his music worldwide as well as allow him to become a headliner for many shows.
Since the dawn of the first âuntz,â there has been an ongoing battle within the world of dance music about techno as a genre. In the â90s, the term was often used as a mislabel for all dance music. Today, the debate continues on what it is, and people have created other terms for it such as âbusiness techno.â However, most can agree techno is characterized by the use of a 4/4 synthesized kick drum (the âunâ in the âuntzâ), repetitive beats using various percussions, and heavy use of synthesizers. Now beyond that, is where things get tricky and you go into the wonderful world of subgenres. Don’t know where to start? Here are six sub-genres (plus tracks) to help you venture down the techno rabbit hole.
Contrary to some popular perception, electronic music is quite the extensive and diverse genre. It can certainly be a daunting experience when you get curious and begin to dig deeper into the genre, although it also becomes easy to get lost in the myriads of sub-genres and blurred lines that separate them.
But don’t worry, if you would like to learn a bit more or even immerse deeper into the rich genre of electronic music there is a site dedicated to helping you.
The Electronic Music Guide provides a concise documentation on every sub-genre and movement in electronic music that has ever existed. It also offers a lot of audio content providing examples of each sub-genre and movement, enabling visitors to to enjoy a comprehensive electronic music experience.
Last week Beaport launched a new genre label called “Leftfield House and Techno,” aiming to use it to categorize underground and independent labels and releases in an effort to support them through increased visibility.
We waited to announce the news until we had the actual opportunity to navigate through it and get a proper idea of its functionality, and now that we did we can safely say that the idea, while laudable, doesn’t work.
In Beatport’s official statement they said that, â70% of the tracks sold on Beatport fall squarely in our house and techno genres, so we wanted to do something to highlight the high-quality underground releases that people could miss amongst the 25,000 new tracks that appear each week.”
Despite containing releases from albums such as Hessle Audio, HesslWill & Ink, Trip, Ilian Tape, Acido, Lobster Theremin and Hivern Disc, the Leftfield House and Techno section is essentially a mumble jumble of anything and everything that is considered “too underground” for the actual house House and Techno sections on Beatport.
At first glance, the genre’s “Top 10 Releases” section is immediately puzzling. At first place is Lonely Planet by Tornado Wallace on Running Back, a house album filled with slow enchanting melodies, jazzy elements and and drawn-out emotive energy. A little further on the list is Massimo Pagliara’s Time & Again released on Ostgut-Ton, an EP that embodies italo and nu-disco with a blend of deep house, heavy use of analogue synths and the soulful, almost euphoric sounds you would expect Pagliara to play at Panorama Bar during his sets there. Right below it in fifth place is the Forget It EP from Justin Cudmore, released on The Bunker New York and tinged with Acid House from beginning to end. And finally in tenth place is Tripp, the pure techno debut EP from Unknown Archetype, a collaboration between the British conceptual artist and producer Roxy Tripp and the Netherlands-based producer Oliver Kucera.
A quick look elsewhere under the Leftfield House and Techno genre tab only raises more questions. Mr. G’s “Navigate” can be found right beside a Reeko remix of Kessell’s “Sensorium” out on PoleGroup, the unmistakably techno imprint from Spain that the Asturian producer calls home. And what about Tessela’s “Hackney Parrot” on Poly Sicks, a bass-heavy Chicago-influenced house track that can be spotted on the same page as Marcel Dettmann’s remixes (there’s two of them) of Rolando’s “Time To Jack.”
As part of their statement, Beatport specified that the new section “will shine a light on off-kilter, lo-fi, avant-garde house and techno.” The move was an effort to separate more mainstream electronic music from underground productions, following the creation of the Big Room House and Future House sections in the past.
So what is the difference between a Reeko track catalogued under the Leftfield House and Techno genre and one found under the Techno section? Or Hessle Audio releases featured in the House section versus those now located under the newly-announced category? If you’re confused I can assure you that you are not the only one. I could go on with other artist and label examples, but I think you get the idea.
It’s hard to decipher what truly constitutes a “Leftfield” techno or house track. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word as, “a state or position far from the mainstream,” but how far from the mainstream does a house release need to be to classify as “leftfield” rather than be catalogued under the simple House section?
Beatport’s idea is commendable, but the execution leaves a little to be desired. Genres are a hot topic of debate amongst producers, DJs and listeners alike, especially as the way that music stores decide on genres can actually impact the success of tracks and artists. The current system, however, does nothing to ease the searching for tracks, but rather adds confusion to an already murky situation.
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