**** warning, this thread is moving farther and farther away from Detroit and techno so you may want to stop here unless you want to toss around theories about how this present hard/progressive house sound -- best illustrated by the recent blasphemous rape of Green Velvet's "Flash" -- is going to work out...
> >I think a lot of them are turning to what's being called "hard house" > >because it doesn't have as much of the clichéd (aka cheese) stuff that > >makes so many people dis trance. In other words, it's a safer sound, > >a sort of compromise between trance and Relief-style hard house. > > If you're thinking those remixes are Relief-style house you need to hear > more Relief releases. I'd like to see them fit an early Paul Johnson, > Gemini, or Cajmere w/Dajae into their sets. Then I want to hear > them do it > without Pro-Tools! Ya, you guys busted me. I haven't heard many Relief records and am basing my statements purely on my ever-handy yet often inaccurate schemas. Assuming that Fred's below-listed schema is much more in tune with the traditional sound of hard house than my ill-applied analogy to Green Velvet -- > I think that the popular hard house > (stuff on > Groovaliscious, Tripoli Trax, etc.) just took the big 909 bass kick and > maybe a handclap here or there, added the old sound of the Hoover > and put it > all into a echo box and threw in some chorus to beef up the sound so it > sounds BIG and echoey to fill big commercial clubs with silly drink > specials. The sense of danger and sheer F_R_E_A_K is all but > gone... -- I'm going to make the argument that a lot of the trance guys are moving to this style of hard house with a Euro-tweaked, trance-like accessible gloss strictly as a conservative way to avoid the increasing trance backlash. It's no coincidence that tracks such as "Flash" are being integrated into their aesthetic via compromising remixes and also that producers such as Timo Maas are so popular at the moment: In a way, these guys are playing it conservative with Euro-hard house until this trance trend subsides so that they don't fall victim to backlash. I may get flamed to death for saying this, but I think progressive house/hard house is probably the dullest music out there. It has no esoteric qualities and takes no risks (as cheesy as progressive trance may be, it at least get eccentric, though often for the worse). Yet the fact that this recent UK hard house sound being championed by the likes of Tall Paul and his other generic followers is so intentionally conservative/bland/non-esoteric makes it perfect for populist audiences. Top off a set of it with whatever that particular week's anthem is, and you've got a set all the clubbers go home happy with. ***note*** I know this is off-topic, but off-topic topics seem to be the more interesting topics this week; it's no coincidence everyone's going off on tangents. P.S. Why the hell did Green Velvet ever let Timo Maas of all people remix his trademark track? No offense to the guy -- I love his music -- but I don't think he could have picked a better artist to alienate himself from all the purists.
