cliched minimal sound

[jackbrazzo]

just think how much more interesting it would be for everybody if we all wrote in different timesignatures and polyrhythms.
especially for the DJ, its goodbye to boom chi clap chi, hello polyrhythmic mixing, and an infinite number of possibilities.

why havent we done it yet ? i dont get it.

I suppose its because most audiences like 4\4. Remember most people that go to events are after the opposite sex and beer and whatever. Music is a low 4th I know what you mean though.

[steevio]

I suppose its because most audiences like 4\4. Remember most people that go to events are after the opposite sex and beer and whatever. Music is a low 4th I know what you mean though.

not at the parties i go to, or are involved with.

if you say most audiences like 4/4, then you dont really know what i'm talking about.

[Barfunkel]

Are there artists and labels that specify in that stuff? I don't think I've ever heard a dancefloor oriented techno track that wasn't in 4/4. I listen to tons of clips and youtube videos because I'm constantly hunting for new vinyl to play, but I can't say I've run into a whole bunch of non 4/4 stuff. Jazz and progrock, yes,I got those records too, other time signatures are common there. Sometimes in ambient or IDM (hate the term though, music is a primal, tribal, meditative experience to me, very far from intellectualism), yes. But in dancefloor tunes? Where is that music hiding?

[mehta]

I suppose its because most audiences like 4\4. Remember most people that go to events are after the opposite sex and beer and whatever. Music is a low 4th I know what you mean though.

Nothing wrong with beer and the opposite sex, but that is a really dimunitive view of techno people

At the last big event we did out here, it was a mix of livesets and DJs playing everything from shoegaze to high-tempo complex breakbeats, and people were responding to every set - not just shuffling around pretending to dance while scoping out their next target to try out their latest NLP tricks

Nothing against straight beat music, that is mostly what I make and play out, but if my relatively tiny and isolated community can have a vibrant and diverse local techno community, almost anywhere can. Not that it's easy - I'm sure Steevio can expound on the difficulties of developing and maintaining a good series of events, but it's so worthwhile

Again this isn't really about straight-beat vs. broken-beat music, more about the mentality that club music should always appeal to the lowest common denominator

[steevio]

But in dancefloor tunes? Where is that music hiding?

polymeters in techno? everywhere. its the whole basis of acid,

6 minutes in:

[AK]

Are there artists and labels that specify in that stuff? I don't think I've ever heard a dancefloor oriented techno track that wasn't in 4/4. I listen to tons of clips and youtube videos because I'm constantly hunting for new vinyl to play, but I can't say I've run into a whole bunch of non 4/4 stuff. Jazz and progrock, yes,I got those records too, other time signatures are common there. Sometimes in ambient or IDM (hate the term though, music is a primal, tribal, meditative experience to me, very far from intellectualism), yes. But in dancefloor tunes? Where is that music hiding?

I can't say I've heard a lot of odd time sigs in Techno ( if any ) , polyrhythmic stuff yes but obviously EDM has a wide scope of music and there's literally tons of DnB music in time signatures other than 4/4. I don't really listen to it any longer but to some extent, that kind of rapid fire breakbeat stuff seems more easily workable into time sigs outside of 4/4. Maybe that's just my perception, I really don't know.

Music can certainly be danceable outside of 4/4, take a track like Foo Fighters 'Times Like These' - which ( I think ) has some 6/4 and 7/4 in there but remains danceable in that rock sense of things.

I've heard some African music not in 4/4 and/or containing polyrhythms/meters but all that I have been exposed to is pure mayhem from a listening perspective and the natives dancing to it look like they are either possessed or are in the middle of some crazy epileptic fit. Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-rBWKHh ... embedded#!

I think if you came on the floor freaking out like this in western society, you'd quickly find yourself being taken away by the men in white coats.

[steevio]

[steevio]

ok i'm probably wasting my time here, and i find it really hard to explain myself but one last try;

polyrhythms are the basis of much dance music, latin american music being a perfect example, you cant get much more danceable than that, so to say it is undanceable is just nonesense.

polyrhythms are used and have always been used in EDM, but in techno its been limited mostly to phrases, riffs etc. ie. acid techno.

my point here is that if more people were more adventurous and used polyrythms (polymeters) as the main rhythmic basis of their tunes, we would have an almost limitless smorgasbord of grooves to mix with as DJs.

this does not mean you cant have a 4/4 kick underpinning it if you want.

i cant say it any more simply than that.

now i will STFU