Good points here I think. I like the use of vocals to tell some kind of
story or overall message.
Dropping in vocals somewhere in the middle of a set, unless they are just
sampled bits, is kind of like a head floating in mid-air without a body
"What's that doing there?!" ;)
I love hearing vocals in the middle of a techno set. It's funny because
old techno records used to have vocals before "minimal" techno hijacked the
sound (bad DJs are to blame for that). What would Inner City be without
Paris Grey's vocals?
I was talking to a friend about seeing techno shows here in Minneapolis and
he said the last techno show he saw was Derrick May. Then he mentioned
that Derrick didn't even really play techno, that it was more house. I
thought that was a strange statement because I thought his set was very
techno. I do recall he played a fair amount of vocal tracks.
I don't know why most techno dropped vocals. It doesn't make any sense to
me.
MEK
Tim Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 11/03/2005 09:14:58 PM:
>
> On Nov 3, 2005, at 3:53 PM, Ian Malbon wrote:
>
> > Clearly there has been a move by many producers to incorporate more
> > vocals in techno and related genres (Diva-house has always been an
> > exception). I remember thinking this was going to become a trend when
> > Juan dropped "The Flow". Some, like Recloose, employ guest vocals,
> > and others, like Jeremy Ellis, handle the task themselves.
> >
> > First, what's your general reaction to vocal tracks? And does it
> > bother you when some of these vocalists can't quite cut it?
> >
>
> I think that vocal tracks, used sparingly, can really enhance a set or
> an album, but it is easy to overdo it. Bad vocals can be pretty bad...
> or not, just as in rock music. It's not as much a matter of whether the
> vocals are on key as whether the style fits the rest of the music and
> the rest of the set. To choose some examples, I think Matthew Dear
> pulls it off really well, because his delivery sounds very "techno" to
> me. On the other hand, when I saw Safety Scissors live, I have to say
> his vocals were a low point. Maybe it's the difference between using
> live, dry (and not especially strong) vocals vs. studio-manipulated
> ones. But then to further contradict myself, I thought the Nitzer Ebb
> track on the first Dex Efx & 909 mix ruined the flow of the mix, even
> though I have no problems with the track on its own.
>
> Overall, I like the move towards more vocals... I don't mind the
> blurring of the boundary between techno and pop music at all. But when
> DJing, you have to put each track into the context of the set as a
> whole (as always) and make sure you're neither playing too much of one
> style, nor constantly jarring people with tracks that are totally out
> of place.
> --
> Tim Moore
>
