I can see your point, but I don't quite agree. I certainly agree with your distinction, but there's more in between. A lot of it comes from more of a garage direction, but the likes of Ron Trent, Roy Davis, the Chicago lot, KOT, Blaze etc., are all organic but not wankily so - I suppose because they are coming from a garage structure. You can take it too far: for me a lot of Spiritual Life, Body & Soul stuff is too much, but there is plenty of good house music. In fact it's always been a bit like that, though. What's classic house music? Chicago, and a load of dubs by Garage folk like Smack, Mood II Swing, Murk, Victor Simonelli, Blaze etc. Nothing really has changed, in that respect. As I said, though, I certainly agree with your distinctions. I can't take most of the overly live house and can't find room for the overly quirky in sets (though I listen to the latter at home a lot and I will always make room for Theo!) But for the smooth edits, solid house, good old US garage is the best place to look.
Then again, most sets I play (sound all the same and?) have at most 2 records from after 1996 - maybe because I work for a second hand record shop and am always too skint to buy records with actual cash. Jonny. > Like Ani I work in a record store and I'm responsible for ordering techno, > house, minimal and lounge. I'm looking for innovative fresh sounds. I > currently own almost all of the Klang/Playhouse/Perlon backcatalogue and > I've listened to every Glasgow/Paper/GU release. Like everyone else I'm a > huge Herbert fanatic, and really dig most stuff that sounds like him. > > My current problem with house is the lack of innovation right now (with a > few exceptions). Not just in use of sounds but presentation of sounds. The > advent of organic sounding house (ie. sampled drums and noises) has left no > clearly definable frequency space in the music. While this creates a nice > flow to the music as all the frequency ranges seem to just gel together, it > leaves no room for any individual sound to breath, and thusly mixing these > types of tracks together sounds muddy but warm, or as I like to call it 'a > comfortable distraction'. > > In opposition is the dry/minimal approach, giving each sound far too much > room to breath. There may be a groove but it seems that upon closer > inspection the sounds just bleed themselves dry with little to no > interaction. This is usually deemed 'boring'. > > The current dilemma I'm facing is that labels like GU/I records/Paper etc. > are either getting just far too wanky (ie. instrumental solo after solo on > and on), or like Perlon/Klang etc just to absorbed by things like quick > edits and breakdowns to remember that a groove needs to be created (I call > this 'wankin the rhythm'). Mix these to things together and you get > abstract electronic music equivalent to fusion jazz, not bad to listen to > once an a while but definetely not something to dance to. > > So to rephrase my question I'm looking for some good house/minimal akin to > the last Hakan Libdo release on Paper. I want to hear about those most > solid records with great sounds and smooth edits (not the typical reverse > crash cymbal to piano/guitar/vocal/ambient that TOO many house producers are > knocking hard on right now). I'd love to hear about all the great local > labels that people know about on this list that don't get major distribution > (like Delsin for example; great label especially that last Lee Norken > release, can't say much for the Peel Seamus stuff though not my cup.) The > last couple of Planet E's have really kicked it all up a notch (the new Ibex > and the Herbert rmx of Recloose). I really hope to hear some great > responses here
