When I hgave more time I will go and find a bunch of tracks I think are BORING but for now Ill just say that the stuff I find boring are in my opinion just simple beats. They dont really qualify as songs in my opinion of the word. Alot of minimal sounds to me as if the artist just made a loop and added a few notes randomly with some effects here and there. There is no climax no intro just a loop, thats goes OVER and OVER. Alot of the minus stuff seems that way as do many others.
Sure it works great in a club late at night where everyones on drugs or something but I tell you in america if you try and throw down that garbage the crowd will stop dancing. The people here don't get a kick out of an hour set that sounds like the exact same loop the whole time. (Unless your famous then it doesn't really matter what you play cuz the hype keeps everyopne going) Maybe we just don't have as much drugs at the clubs here or something.
Stephan Bodzin is probably one of my favorites of NOT BORING producers. He uses interesting pads and automation to change the moods as the track flows bringing intesity and emotion up and down. You can really tell he spends ALOT of time on most of his songs.
Ill make a list later of more examples of what I think is real music and what I think is crap imitating other crap.
victorgonzales wrote:Ill make a list later of more examples of what I think is real music and what I think is crap imitating other crap.
I hope you don't upset anyone on here by calling their music crap.
If so it's not intended. I ll try and point out examples of more famous artists since my opinion of them is less likely to upset them. And just because it's my OPINION that its crap does not mean that it is. Just going by my definition of the word.
This article on fwd.dj pretty much sums up my entire opinion on this matter.................
As I peruse the annuals of beatport and listen to their paltry one minute samples my final selections don’t always represent my best interests. Many times, certain elements will be present in a track that drive me insane, render a track unplayable and are difficult to pick up on in a quick, highly dithered song sample. Here is a quick overview, with specific examples of these grievances in action, of some of the common quality butchers of minimal techno and tech house music.
1. The repeating vocal line: I can’t stand the occasions when artists implant a sentence of someone saying something semi-interesting and repeat the line through the ENTIRE track. Many times a vocal snippet can add a tremendous amount of value to an electronic music piece. The human words add a biotic touch and communicate specific information to the audience. However, one or two repeats is enough, 50-60 mentions, cascading predictably on the same space in the notation for 7 minutes is ridiculous. A slight modification on the effects, pan delay here, chorus there, is not usually sufficient to render the sample less inane either. The most irritating example of this is when the vocal does not even need to be present and actually ruins a fantastic song. Example: The new release by one of my favorite artists Maetrik. His new 3 track EP on Treibstoff, “Advanced Mechanics” features the repeating vocal in both prefect and debilitating form. The flagship track “choose your systems” chops up a repeating set of sentences in a way that is refreshing, constantly modified, relevant and sufficiently interesting to constitute being present. One of the accompanying pieces, “the light” uses a repeating vocal to exactly the opposite effect. The (I’m assuming) protagonist of the track continually states “I can see the light” about 20 – 30 times killing the fantastic synths and drums, and making the sequencing extremely predictable. Many great artists do the same thing to otherwise fantastic tracks, Kollektiv Turmstrasse for example kills their work on a regular basis with this technique (see the songs: “Melodrama” and “Altona Connection”), though I play out everything that they create that does not follow this trend. The list goes on and on, and the line is thin between tasteful and horrendous but we are not in the 90’s any more and therefore require more dynamic sequencing, I hope artists who clearly have the capacity, take up the mantle. Producers such as Solieb, Audion, Pan-Pot and Mark Ashken often tastefully utilize vocal sample snippets in an effective matter.
2. Those F-ing toms: I don’t know when bloopy tom drum noises became the functional melody section of almost every minimal techno song in existence. I’m pretty sure it started with Gaiser (who’s work I often like, though 90% of it sounds the same) and I’m not sure why it did not stop with him. For about the last year and a half at least ½ of the minimal music coming out has toms (often with predictable, reverb, flange or chorus) popping and bumping over the top and often times make up the majority of the content. The list of artists who use the technique is so large I cannot even begin to name the offenders, but if you have heard a minimal set in the last 2 years you know its true anyway. I’m just saying: toms are great IN MODERATION, like all hard drugs, and just because you tweaked the pitch of the bongos does not mean its now the catch-all melody line for the rest of your career. I have used some toms also in my production, and now I’m digging distorted claps and snares, which are also going around like an ahem, bicycle, or record… or something, but please people, move on!
3. That’s the whole track?: Gregor Tresher recently released a full album on Great Stuff called “A Thousand Nights”. I was listening to samples on our mutual friend beatport and enjoying what I heard. I had the tracks in my purchase cue when I discovered that, in fact, Gregor Tresher had just released a Resident Advisor podcast which featured several of the tracks I was considering. I listened to the mix and began to comprehend that while his tracks DO sound cool and are well produced, it’s basically a giant loop, with high hats in now, a snare here, a quick bass drop there, but really just a continuous loop. I understand the statements about groove being sufficient to constitute a minimal track and that most of these clubbers are sh!t faced by 2 am, so overwhelming them is pointless anyway. However, anyone who finds a groove heavy track interesting would find a song with multiple excellent elements, change ups and sequencing in ADDITION to groove even better. Frankly, these tracks that are the same simple elements throughout are not (imo) pushing the scene forward or giving contact point for people who are not inclined to listen to the same thing repeating for 4 hours. Common offenders include Richardo Villalobos (though sometimes his production is mind-blowing), a lot of the music released on M_nus, Tadeo, and a bunch of other artist who I cannot pull out of my hat because usually I steer clear (techno and minimal are the main aggressors in this case). Stephan Bodzin, James Holden, John Tejada and Extrawelt would all be perfect examples of artists that flip and morph in every song and still manage to groove beyond rational necessity while keeping music cool and techy.
I hope that this info was helpful for budding producers, shopping DJs and EDM connoisseurs in general (and beatport, needs to offer longer samples!!!). It is not meant to be offensive and each person certainly has their own valid tastes, these are just mine (ohh and how I could go on). Below is a chart of artists that usually avoid all of the aforementioned perceived pitfalls and will often be featured in my mixes due to their consistent taste though EVERY producer has their excellent and questionable moments.
James Holden
Stephan Bodzin (Rekorder)
Vedrenn
Stimming
Pig and Dan
Dapayk Solo
Stefan Goldman
Robag Wruhme
Ripperton
John Tejada
Extrawelt
Maetrik
Audion
Solieb
Agoria
Thomas Schumacher
Efdemin
Fairmont
Moonbeam
Magda
MyMy
Pheek
Roel H
Dimbiman
Claude Von Stroke
Justin Maxwell
Choose your systems is an awful track.. And it's that f'ín vocal sample that makes it that awful. I bought that track for the loop (only need to hear a 5 second sample for the tracks I buy), but when I heard that sample it reminded me of Techno Vocals..
I liked the piece, but it's still all about personal taste.. I for one hate tracks with to much effecting. If you can keep your samples as clean as possible and still make the track interesting, you're a great producer in my opinion. All those reverbs & delays makes me sick..
