I usually don't drop in on these types of discussions, but this one caught my attention.
I work with electronic music production/Djing as well as other forms of media production (web/graphics). Before my electronic music days I played all kinds of instruments (guitar, drums, bass, piano, horns, etc...) so I have a background in traditional forms of "quantised" melody and music. I was fascinated for a period of time by the fact that when listening to relatively simple minimal tracks (minimal as in harder techno minimal, not explicitly minimal music) my mind, groove, movement, was swayed by melodies often not present in the tunes themselves. Not that I was off in some fantasy realm making fluffy trance realities, but there were melodies implied or suggested by various rhythmic elements of the music, or by the mind of the listener themselves. I also found that many of the melodies were opposing dualities. The experience of being swayed between two poles. This can sometimes be found in simple bass lines moving between two primary tones, notes, or keys. Sometimes a third step thrown in for transition. I think it also has a lot to do with the four/four structure. Also, out of repetition the mind has a need to create variance. John Lilly performed an experiment with a tape loop of the word "cogitate" being played to a room full of psychologists for about 15 minutes. They were instructed to record the various word changes every time the tape changed. None of them knew that the tape was a static loop. About 90 percent of the group came back with a list of at least ten changes. This was an official psychological experiment using other psychologists as the lab rats. How elementary for the mind to need to split a repetitive non-melody into the opposition of two. Moving from the static "one" of nothing to the newly created "two" of something. I was always curious about this. I think much of the melodic projection is also based on the timbrality, tuning, and harmonics of the instruments (drum sounds, synths, etc..) being used. Therefore the melodies and shifts seem intimately related to the actuality of the piece itself and therefore more inherent, as in exisiting, yet not quite manifest. Parmahansa Yogananda, an old spiritual teacher from the east used to talk about inventions like this. He would say that the "potentiality" of the invention existed inherently in the fabric of reality. Its physical operation was in line with the laws of engineering and physics. To him the inventor was a person whose inner workings had become so highly in tune with this potential structure in reality that they become the tool to manifest it. Quick comment on the DE9 reference. I agree completely that Rich's use of the effects on the tracks brings to light through expression a kind of transitional state between two things (w/ reference to the use of delay). This transitional state is quite possibly the result of years of listening to mixes. Mixes falling off, exposing the difference between the two records, and then realigning. But the over use of this effect CAN become overly manifest, overly static, and a little boring. No diss to Rich. Trust me, he's one of my utmost favorite DJs of all time. But I remember hearing him a couple of times when the delays seemed to be used so often, and at such an obvious transitional point in the break down and mixing in of the next record that it gave me a not so faint reminder of a time where parties were a night of snare roll cresendo after snare roll cresendo, this being the primary exciting agent of the peaks in tracks. You know how boring this got. Build up, build up, build up, then nothing....or a raised cut-off or resonance. Of course those with skill, such as Rich, know that a build up is nothing if there's nothing to build up to! Anyways, just my two cents! Have fun with it. - DBIT http://www.music-in-formation.com
