can you bitches stop saying Microhouse?!

this must be covered by marcello in the wire.

Why am I picturing Joe Strummer and Mick Jones reduced to the size of thimbles?

(a very small vincent gallo playing a korg.)

Most of it just sounds like techno to me. I caught up on Immer and Hypercity recently; like 'em both, but don't hear anything particularly distinct from what was going on in, say, 1995. You might as well call Carl Craig microhouse.

OK, I will shut up with my negativity ;)

but maybe you can spot the difference between dubstep and oxide&neutrino instrumentals and "microhouse" is a real problem for you?

two things come to mind here. (a) "microhouse" feels a bit more valid a term to me because when Philip Sherburne came up with it he was trying to capture a sound that had emerged--plus it's a pretty evocative word. so is "electroclash," which gets the semi-confrontational attitude of the music/scene, if only in the sense that Larry Tee et. al. is only confronting what he views as the staid club scene. part of my problem boils down to the music: microhouse is simply better music overall than electroclash (rockism alert!), at least to my ears. but with "microhouse," the word seemed to follow the music; with "electroclash," the word (and its accompanying attitude) seemed to dictate what the music sounded like/became/embodied. I'd love it if more of the music succeeded on even its own terms, but most of it doesn't: its cheapness seems to be intended as quick-dirty-thrilling but feels mostly drab and half-assed. I went to the opening night of the second Electroclash Festival a couple weeks ago and the vibe was just awful, self-congratulatory in a we're-really-scamming-them way.

(b) this seems like a good place to ask about the dualities of what both terms actually seem to mean. there's a pretty big difference between glossy, gliding, tech-house a la Immer and the dubby, cut-off phrases and sticky-clicky textures of Superlongevity--between Kompakt and Perlon in general, from what I've heard (a few things, not everything, I stress). yet both are labeled "microhouse," and I'm not quite sure I get it. it's been awhile since I played Immer, so maybe another listen would clear this up, but that's what sticks out in my mind. (one reason the first Luomo album resonates so strongly to me is that to some degree it straddles those sounds but errs much further on the sticky-clicky side.) to put it another way: I could imagine any number of Immer trax on, say, a Deep Dish Global Underground (god knows they'd improve things), but not something by Pantytec.

Electroclash's lineup seemed similarly bipolar: the lineup seemed to be divided between dirty house (esp. in the basement, where a couple of ghetto-tech/booty-house jocks were keeping things bumpin') and the warm leatherettes of Larry Tee Inc, with very little bridging that gap. I realize that Electroclash is an attitude as much as anything, but for some reason this bothered me. am I becoming an essentialist or what? (or do I just love Pantytec-style stuff so much that I just wanna swim in it?)

Both 'microhouse' and 'electroclash' are self-sustaining and rapidly expanding movements of interconnected artists making music of interconnecting - but not necessarily uniform - styles and sonics. I don't think that the term 'microhouse' *does* apply to most Kompakt using the strictest application (and I don't think Kompakt themselves would *ever* call what they do microhouse), but when it is so abundantly clear that what Kompakt does affects Perlon and Force Tracks and vice versa, that these labels are sharing a common pool of artists who are making music with similar ideas, intentions and affectations, it seems churlish to bitch that "this track could be [x] and that track could be [y]". As Tom notes, this is true of any genre.

Why do we give names to scenes like "riot grrl" and "emo" (both of which refer to nebulous microscenes within broader contexts)? Because we believe that these groups of artists are worth talking about in a manner that efficiently locates them from within the broader morass of sounds and styles. In essence, it's because we believe they're worth talking about. In this sense, any new genre tag is a "media invention", a tool for information/hype dissemination. If it's the *hype* that you suspect, then complain about the music itself and try to explain why you think it doesn't live up to the advance press. Constantly focusing on the specific term of reference seems to miss the point somewhat extravagantly.

That said, I'm not using 'microhouse' so much now precisely because I think the (apparent) self-contained nature of the scene increasingly seems less solid as it progressively merges with electroclash, IDM, disco etc. Talking about Germany seems easier.

Braunschlager and beats. It's a vision.

In the end, you can call these tracks any number of things -- minimal techno, ambient house, click-house, tech-house, etc -- and give the average dance-music fan a decent idea of what they're about. After all, you could label D-Train's You're the One for Me as anyting from house to electro-funk to old school to post-disco to disco to (ehhh) "urban".

Tim, I don't appreciate your condescending attitude. you don't need to give me a tutorial on how the media works, or on why movements that don't necessarily sound uniform get lumped together, anymore than I have to explain to you why mind-body dualism is a fallacy. my point is that the stuff that's been discussed on this board and elsewhere under that umbrella, seems to be drifting apart, or has drifted apart: "self-sustaining and rapidly expanding movements of interconnected artists making music of interconnecting - but not necessarily uniform - styles and sonics" is one thing, but it's another when they don't (to my ears, anyway) seem to even necessarily interconnect, never mind being uniform. so "sigh" yourself.

I hear DREAM has their second album coming out soon.

I agree with your point regards the split(s), hence the last section of what I was saying about moving away from using the term.

This is one of the hardest things to explain in regards to the German house scene - why Kompakt and Perlon (say) sound like they ought to be grouped together and yet at most points feel poles apart sonically (rupture vs sleekness, say, though that's hardly a hard'n'fast rule). I hadn't even thought of replying to your queries because I haven't yet come up with an intelligent response.

zzz, etc.

""there's a pretty big difference between glossy, gliding, tech-house a la Immer and the dubby, cut-off phrases and sticky-clicky textures of Superlongevity--between Kompakt and Perlon in general, from what I've heard"

It seems to me to be the difference between intimating and explicating a set of preferences. Maybe it's all in the ear of the beholder, but much of Immer seems to me to imply and to suggest all sorts of sonic approaches that it never or rarely embraces - sounding approving of Pantytec even when it's as smooth as Deep Dish (whose influence on all this stuff should, let us stress, not be underrated!)if that makes sense at all. The shuffle-rhythm of Fehlmann's "Gratis", the clicky swing of Akufen's "Psychometry", the methadone haze of the Superpitcher remix of "You Don't Need A Weatherman" - all seem to be strategies to, if not rupture the house groove, then to at least rupture conceptions of what constitutes a house groove. That they've chosen not to use specific Pantytec-style sonic rupture seems almost like a secondary consideration (on Markus Nikolai's album he moves from Pantytec sounds to absolute smoove disco to abstract techy sounds (not to mention homages to Air!) and it sounds like the house equivalent of Timbaland shuffling through different rhythmic tricks).

This is where Tom's application of Nitsuh's definition of indie comes into play I guess - microhouse as a psychological as much as specific sonic distortion and contortion of house. But the specific type of indie that fits for me is Saint Etienne - like St. Et. with pop, microhouse artists are in love with their source genre, and equally like St. Et., you can hear echoes of what these artists also bring to the party (for SE it's dub, sampladelica, the sixties, house etc.; for microhouse its dub, glitch, abstract techno, pop etc.) even when they're not explicitly applying it in a particular case.

I've a feeling I've said this all one way or another, so apologies for the repetition.

When you talk about glitches and rupturing the house groove etc, that makes sense to me, and the name fits.

Of course none of this matters. But why do we need so many genre names in electronic music? We don't in hip-hop. I kind of like the continuity of calling it all (or lots of it) techno.

We actually try very hard but nothing sticks because not many things sound very good in the obligatory 'X-hop' form and hip-pop is apparently too hard to say.

I disagree. I think these are strategies to disrupt a techno groove.

Honestly, which house producers were dissatisfied with the lack of creativity in techno? Precisely none - the microhouse initiative is as much a "techno" issue as a "house". Herbert started out as labelmate with Kirk Degiorgio! These guys pay as much attention to artists like Patrick Pulsinger, Rob Hood, Juan Atkins (thanks ed) and Porter Ricks as they do any house producer (sorry if that sounds 313-snobby, i'm really not mt).

I understand where Phillip S. is coming from with the "micro", but you may as well call it microtechno. Blame the landslide towards "microhouse" on the post-2-step rush to look for some sort of feminized aspect in all the music we like (also why we stopped calling it glitch-house: glitch too cerebral, masculine, etc). This is basically facetious, here in San Diego most of the house is progressive/tribal and way harder than anything on Kompakt, over in Berlin Ellen Allien is copping Anthony Rother's moves.

Ignore (for argument's sake) the 90% of techno producers making bland drum loop tracks.

(NB I don't know what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is based entirely on listening to my only 'proper' techno CD Luke Slater's Freek Funk, 10 mins ago)

and rentboy, surely you can find a more imaginative way to be a troll?

nah. i'm just bored at work today and wanted some good scrap. but don't feel like being too imaginiative about it

few recommendations
Single
Justus Kohncke-Zwei Photonen

And if you can find it, Tobias Thomas and Superpitcher Live@Kamera, it's around SLSK, Nick K had it for a while, maybe still. It's a set from the end of last year and is really really ace, perfectly mixed, great track selection. Up there with the best of the mixes if you ask me.

(for the rest of you with reading comprehension skills.... was it so hard to understand that my beef was not with the genres themselves, but the endlessly boring bickering over what constituted them? good - i didn't think so, thanks.)

I just wanted to clear that up.

Carry on.

Adam

i started it because at the time, the word microhouse was thrown around as some catch phrase to seem in the know. i'd been listening to kompact and other stuff and never heard it labeled as such. i always knew it as minimal techno, or tech house or whatever and besides aukufen and herbert, never really heard the micro aspect of it.

but whatever, genre names are started all the time and some catch on some don't. the word microhouse dosen't bother me as much anymore. and there's always gonna be some subject that gets talked to death on this board (grime, crunk, mvb, kanye, blah , blah, blah). it doesn't mean i didn't like the music, or the term, i was just bored

that's why i got a bit "snarky" in this thread. i also didn't intend my original post to be read with such venom or animosity as some of you took it. anyone who has spent time discussing music on the internet knows how this all plays out. i've been involved in more than my fair share of these same threads.

that said, enjoy the music, whatever you call it. that's ultimately what it's all about

Surely the bigger problem from a gatekeeping perspective is the sort of listener/dj/artist who says "that's not [x] so don't play it" and leaves it at that.

Personally I'm rocking that 100 Minutes set by Sami Koivikko, seeing as I now have a mechanism for hearing it (i wuv my i-pod!).

blount, you should check out post office #2 on telegraph out of france (iirc).

tim, be careful with those long mixes on yr ipod. they will drain the battery faster than you can say microh

you can play .ogg (ogg vorbis) files in winamp.

don't convert .ogg --> .mp3, it'll end up sounding like a realaudio stream.

Speed Toilet would be incredible.

Tobias: "Michael, Oh Michael, I see visitors comink in the distance, can you go outside and mow that there lawn"

Axel:"Always neurotic about the lawns, hush Tobias"

Michael:"When will you varmints realise I am the boss around here, ME, MICHAEL MAYER. There's pigs that need swilling, fences need whitewashing, and rabbits that need feeding. We can do it now, ourselves, or we can sit here all day and wait for Rex The Dog to do fuck it up

Tobias/Axel:hahahahahaahaha, those English!

Michael:Shut up, whose wagon is that?????

FIND OUT NEXT WEEK.

"Snugger-Fit House"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/garden/24tiny.html

the akufen mix of the new plej single (blue) is pretty great
― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, May 13, 2004 2:06 PM (fourteen years ago) Bookmark

this song rules

the akufen mix of Craig David's "what's your flavor" also rules

You bitches