What the fuck is Micro House?
Submitted By: j. rogers
Excuse me for my ignorance here, but seriously, what the fuck is micro house?
I remember hearing mixes by DJ micro a ways back. These I seem to remember sounding like semi-glitchy, chopped-sample, kinda funky tech house. (What a description. Only in Electronic music folks...)
I'm not sure if that's what we're talking about here.
And while we're at it, what is all this 'Maximal' business about too? (Please kindly point finger and laugh if I'm totally missing the joke on this one.. :D )
I thought DJ Micro was cheesy fluff trance?
And correct me if I am wrong but isn't Micro House just minimal techno/house?
Here's what Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microhouse
Sean Knight
www.blipswitch.net
sean@blipswitch.net
Well this is pretty much open to interpretation, as is any form of anything, but my knowledge of what micro house is, is this. Micro house was really similiar to minimal techno in early 2000-2004. Some of the artists were Dub Taylor, Dick Richards and some others i cant remember. It was very similar to minimal but everything was much glitchier and almost IDMesque but using very organic housey material. As far as Maximal goes, I think that is just what minimal is now. Cause, There really isnt any minimal anymore. Its pretty much techno thats gone maximal. All in all its just pigeonholing something so it really doesnt matter that much now does it. But i still hate when people are like "MINIMAL!!!" Sorry bro, it aint minimal anymore, at all.....
Clint Stewart (Auralism Records, Nightlight Music)
clint@auralismrecords.com
www.myspace.com/clintstewartsounds
www.blue-collarent.com
no it doesn't. the question's should be:
do you like it?
does it make you move?
does it make you think?
is it affective?
is it effective?
True, but I have to say there are aspects of the pigeonholing that I rather enjoy. One of the most interesting things to me about electronic music is the "splintering" effect we see in genre description.
The fact that so many people are able to pin down, with usually a great deal of accuracy, the exact genre implications of a track is pretty amazing. If nothing else, it speaks to how incredibly well-informed and proactive our community of listeners are.
It's also amazing to see how much the music has evolved over the years, and in some ways the history of the music is rather well-documented in the genre descriptions themselves. If I say "chicago house," a particular sound and era definitely come to mind. Same thing for "detroit techno."
There is the unfortunate "high brow" factor to all this, of course, which can be annoying at times. But in many ways I think it's kind of a necessary evil. If I were telling someone about a particular producer they haven't heard anything from before, my only choice is to break it down in terms of genres, really. I could also say, "well it's got kind of a Villalobos sound to it, but it's a little more pumping like Kenneth Graham's stuff." But then again, I could also just say "minimal tech house."
In the end, it does just come down to whether it's good or not and whether or not we like it. But I totally get a kick out of genre nonsense sometimes too.
You should see my iTunes indexing system.. Yikes!
Funky minimal tech house anyone?
(I should probably go to sleep now.. I think there's actually 3 people online right now with me.)
techno fiends......
DJ-Producer-Promoter
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microhouse
when i think microhouse, i think Akufen.
definitely housey beats and groove, but more splicey-dicey IDM/techno-ish sounds.
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in reply to j.rogers:
your points are well taken, and i (can be) just as guilty as the next guy; but deep down i feel that this over-analysis does more harm than good. pigeonholing leads to isolating of tastes...
it can kill how you FEEL about certain sounds, beats, production techniques, etc...
i used to organize my stuff by genre and sub-genre, and that was useful in someways - but due to my irreverence towards this type of thought (and lack of free time), i now only categorize stuff by date.
can you FEEL it!? :wink:
yes.
It can keep new people from getting into our music when someone
(like myself) corrects them as in...
this isn't techno its minimal
or
this isn't house its tech house...
or
whatever.
who cares.
As long as its quality, let people enjoy it without over analyzing it.
Mattie Bowen/Mossmoss | Racecarprod. | NLMX/Nightlight Music.
www.myspace.com/mattiemossmoss
who cares.
As long as its quality, let people enjoy it without over analyzing it.
HaHa. Yup who cares. If it sounds good, it sounds good. Its funny how your peers and categorizing music can affect your personal tastes over the years.
I have to admit that I am just as guilty as anybody else when it comes to describing music, especially electronic music.
Sean Knight
www.blipswitch.net
sean@blipswitch.net
FEELIN IT BRO!! :)
DJ-Producer-Promoter
myspace.com/DJjrogers
jrogers.net
"Maximal" are usually those tracks I like to avoid. To me, maximal tracks are minimal tracks with too much fucking stuff going on to be good.
It's true that most stuff now being released under the "minimal" genre is anything but minimal, but I feel like most of those new tracks seem to be hybrids, straddling the line between minimal, techno, and tech house. The bad stuff sounds generically similar, while the good stuff falls outside of boundaries.
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