Jansons returns to Circus Recordings with the infectious house anthem āMedicineā feat. Dope Earth Alien. Following his 2019 debut on Circus Recordings with the massive āSwitchā, Jansons quickly established himself as one of the most exciting UK producers on the scene and continues to demonstrate his ability to deliver dancefloor-focused house music. His latest track āMedicineā is no different.
Itās been almost a decade since the Bosnian Techno-House heavyweight Sinisa Tamamovic made his Yoshitoshi debut with his signature dark and high-energy sound. After five releases (and two remixes), Tamamovic is back on Yoshi with arguably his best work yet, the Hypnotised EP.
“How can you love this ‘boring, repetitive’ electronic music?” Who hasn’t heard this question asked in some form or another in the past?
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
BOOOM BOOOOM BOOOOM!!!
The many people who raise an eyebrow to our love of techno, house, drum & bass, trance and other forms of electronic music, especially the “boring and repetitive” ones, do so without an understanding of the history of music itself.
At its core, electronic music and especially techno and its various offshoots are just an ensemble of old music disguised under new names, and produced with new technology. Think about it: you’ve probably seen drummers play music very similar to techno, and you’ve certainly seen and listened to African tribal music and shamanic music from South and Central America and thought, “this sounds a lot like techno!”
The truth is that it is techno that sounds a lot like those ancient, ritualistic musical expressions. Loop-based electronic music shares those same, very familiar rhythmic sounds, layered with various other sonic expressions. In 2021 these sounds are produced electronically, using current (or slightly less current) technology that gives it its wider appeal.
So why do we like those sounds so much? Why are we so drawn to them?
Nope, the core reason is not and should never be drugs! In fact, academics are confirming that our love for repetitive music boils down to something much deeper than drugs and the “need to party,” and you can now use actual this scientific research against anyone who looks down on you as a “degenerate” for wanting to listen to techno in a dark, gritty warehouse until sunrise! (wink wink!)
“We know of societies without writing, and even without visual artāāābut none, it seems, lack some form of music” Philip Ball, The Music Instinct.
The biggest commonality found in the music of all these societies, from old to new, is that consistent, repetitive 4×4 beat, known to most cultures around the planet.
In his essay Patterns in Musical Composition, Transformation, Mathematical Groups and the Nature of Mathematical Substance, Bill Hammel links steady rhythm and biology: “Undoubtedly, the most primitive musical percept is that of pulse, recognized perhaps first in our own rhythmic pulse, heart beat. Imagine an Australopithicus, on his day off, picking some object up and banging it against another; the satisfaction obtained by simply ābeating out timeā, in a steady repeating unit of time.”
The scientific connection goes further, as Dr. Stefan M. Oertl explains: āWhen music is designed for immediate effect (dancing) āmore primal and automatic neural processes take over, [ā¦] bypassing the intellect to create a pure and optimal experienceā.ā Our mind and our body process these sounds differently, also explaining why even the slightest change in a techno track (and many memes exist about this) have a huge impact for dance music fans and listeners, as these changes remove us from the āfunctional tranceā we are in for a brief moment of analytical appreciation, only to quickly put us back into that very same trance.
Gus Nisbet takes this deeper, explaining that this is why “we enjoy successfully predicting the next four bars of a song, but we also occasionally enjoy when those predictions are wrong and the music catches us off-guard.”
There you have it, this is why we enjoy and love repetitive music so much!
Check out our latest Global Vibe Radio techno mixes, featuring a ton of repetitive music, below:
This weekās Guest Mix features artist Francesco Ferraro. The artist of Italian and American descent curated an exclusive studio mix. Born in Santa Barbara, California, he credits Italy for driving his lavish sound. A land he describes as breathtaking and whose landscapes are rich in colors, smells and rhythm. Read more
The foundationsĀ of House Music are strictly American, its roots traceable to the late 1970s in Chicago.
This week’s Guest Mix features Dominican artistĀ Jee BearĀ (born Juan Attias) who is known for his energetic, uplifting tech house sets. He’s at the helm of Yet Records, and his music also has other homes including Smiley Fingers and Piston Recordings. Jee Bear goes deep with a one-hour mix of groovy tech with a hint of minimal recorded in his home studio in Punta Cana. He also talks about the motivation behind becoming a label owner and how artists can take advantage of this downtime to continue growing in their careers.
For New York-based artist Ant LaRock Ā BK BrooklynĀ introduces a different essence of house music, an “at-home house” type of grooves. In the present socially isolated day, the album brings the unique Brooklyn color and hustle to everyone at home. This is truly an album of the new decade.
New Yorkās Timmy Regisford reveals his brand new album on Quantize Recordings, titled Almost 30, as his famous Club Shelter party edges towards reaching its 30th year milestone!
After making a grand entrance with their groovy debut, āI Love Your Loveā in the Spring, Jason Herd presents 161, his new House band, are back with a super new feel-good song for summer, featuring one of the UKās best loved vocal divas, Lisa Millett. āRemedyā, a song about love, sees Lisa belt out her signature high octane soulful vocals over piano house groove armed with a funky live bass and guitar licks. Also on the package Jason ramps up the heat with āAll About Youā, giving Lisa’s spine tingling tones the full Herd chop-up treatment, set to a peak time chunky groove, powered by a booming distorted Garage bass line, old school synth hooks and bouncing beats.
