I’ve been listening to Eddie Holliwell’s mix the other day, and he played a new awesome track by Thomas Bangalter (well, Thomas co-created it with Mehdi but the meat of the track is obviously him). It is very in line with early Daft Punk creations, which are very loopy, repetitive, yet marvellous. It reminded me of “Music Sounds Better With You”, and now I can’t get it out of my head (kind of a hard track to hum though).
Thomas hasn’t changed his style too much over the years unlike others, and that’s one of the things I wanted to bring up for a while now – the invasion of electro.
A lot of DJs that used to primarily do deep, disco and other flavours of house have now mostly switched over to electro house. I don’t have a problem with gritty saws and compression, but house was derived from disco. And despite the various changes in style it always retained its stylishness and soul, something that set it apart from the more mechanical genres of electronica (I honestly just wanted to use that in a sentence). It feels like it’s loosing it now.
The reason Stardust was such a success is that most dance music of the time lacked substance and feeling behind it. Underneath the vocal loop and heavy phasing lies more than a 4/4 beat, something that makes you shiver when you put the record on, and then hum it for days on afterwards. Something you don’t hear very often in dance music nowadays.
I have considered the possibility that I’m getting old. The newest Bangalter’s track convinced me that I’m far from needing a nurse to take care of my poopie needs though. I do come upon nice tracks every once in a while, but it’s just sad to see how many musicians jump onto current bandwagons as opposed to trying to find their own style.
There is a reason why there are musicians that are more popular than others, and it’s never because they adhere to the hottest current formula well.
I agree. I am not a big house fan but love Daft Punk. another favourite oldie but goodie that gives a similar feeling for me is “Alan Braxe and Fred Falke – Intro”. Also loving soundhack who ive just found recently, who does realy minimal repetitive house. i think they call it micro house.
I’m pretty sure they just call it French house. And yes, I love “Intro”, a very nice loopy house track.
Other works by Braxe are quite melodic and disco influenced as well. Check those out. I myself am digging disco-punk/indie dancefloor right now. LCD Soundsystem, !!!, Klaxons, The Rapture, that sort of thing. There is a pair of 2CD compilations called Leave Them All Behind, released by Modular Records. Check it out, very fun disco influenced rock. About time rock became danceable again.
And let me know if you find anything as loopy and dreamy like Signatune. You must be one of the first people I know that don’t think Signatune is extremely repetitive and stupid.