See I get this. I’m not a metal head, but obviously expecting metal to have a sexy swing would be besides the point.
I do think it is possible to be nuanced at faster tempos, but that would depend on the type of music. I’m thinking of certain electroacoustic compositions, a lot of dribbling 90s acid from the likes of Mike Ink, etc.
conversely a lot of the high street house/dance pop/‘EDM’ with the sidechained compression and filters is at a fairly sedate mid tempo, but intolerable unnuanced to my ears.
When I was living in surrey I had to be tortured by Eric Prydz whenever going out for a drink, give me gabber over that any day! diabolical…
It’s all just, do you like the feeling it gives you. Whether it’s too fast, slow, silky, beaty, or what TF ever else it has about ,it is just like saying it’s too salty, sweet etc. We just tend to get drawn to whatever we are into/from/looking for/needing and on and on. Personally there are endless tunes that I should like that I hate, and conversely. Just like what you like and feel what you feel. Obvious as F, but endless talk about this stuff I don’t get.
normally I’d agree but this seems to pop up in so much club discourse and it’s one of the main reasons why I just cannot be arsed with going out anymore, exhausting.
‘oh techno’s gotten too fast’ ‘jungle is too fast to dance to’ ‘deep house is too slow’
And why should the product always match your expectation? This is always something I’ve disliked about club culture, a significant minority of people turn into reactionary Blairites on E, sooner or later.
I don’t like a lot of the contemporary hard techno, but I have hard techno records from 92-94 well into the 160s which are absolute dancefloor dynamite to this day.
I don’t recognise this at all. Having said that my interaction with club culture or discourse is limited to this forum and occasional parties with likeminded people. I can’t honestly recall a single comment regarding bpms.
There probably is a new thread here on music you’re supposed to like I certainly used to be a lot more impressionable and subconsciously got suckered by hype a fair few times. The final straw was probably White Elephant ‘Sir John’ which everyone seemed to venerate whilst I thought it was just wallpaper.
the concern has always been there. sometimes justified, for instance the great techno reset of 95 when the funkier chicago relief type records started coming through, the really fast trippy stuff had its day.
The slower detroit house in the late 90s and 00s. theo, kdj etc, good antidote to euro bosh and filter house overload.
Some of the ‘chug’ sound, opening up room for more swing, although I still think it could do with getting dubbier and less eurodisco.
the switch of the pirates from jungle to 2step garage after the overload of lumpen womp womp jump up.
But that doesn’t rule out fast electronic music in my opinion, for example the detroit electro stuff of the likes of Stingray etc runs at 150-160 and is often more cerebral than a lot of 128 bpm house and techno. the chicago footwork producers were doing cool things with rhythm at faster tempos. like mid 90s ghetto house deconstructed and reconstructed. and Ugandan Singeli is just nuts.
Whilst it’s easy to make fast music that is obnoxious, it’s equally just as easy to make slower music that is middling and bland.
sadly the dance music press with its anti-black tendancies christened it ‘turbo psycho nosebleed rave fodder’ or some such inanity.
Good to see that’s changed, in no small part due to the likes of Richard Sen etc. Thank God.
But read any mag from that era and the neoliberal desire for the product to match expectation with no surprises, no disorientation, nothing too radical or brash, it’s all there. people always want a nice steady vibe. the aural equivalent of instagram vintage filters, so it’s ironic to see the same type of people lambasting social media djs.
wouldn’t call this the ultimate steady vibe, but horses for courses!
Maybe by steady I mean metronomic or rhythmically unengaged (I don’t think I do, but this sort of term is muddy…)
Although I will never understand the rockist/indie idea of listening to dub versions without the vocal component of reggae, be that songs, or sound system tapes with toasting.
Standalone dub sets on london [pirates have always been extremely rare in my experience. You’ll get rare groove, dancehall and roots sets but rarely any dub sets.
Of course steady vibes in and of themselves are not problematic, and in certain contexts are sublime (proper deep house, ambient techno etc.) But the obsession with it in dance culture is annoying. no, please do not trance out, for once, face your fate!
I certainly used to be a lot more impressionable and subconsciously got suckered by hype a fair few times. The final straw was probably White Elephant ‘Sir John’ which everyone seemed to venerate whilst I thought it was just wallpaper.
