Still I guess not having new instruments didn't stop Berg, Mahler and Schoenberg (or punk - but you could argue that was more of a fashion thing than music that was revolutionary).
To me the new direction is in the sound system itself. While I think there are some interesting things that you can do with the structure of sound in a conventional environment . .. the future is in multi dimensional sound environments. Now I'm not talking about 5.1 dance parties .. (but that would be a start) Because I don't think you are bored of music. You are bored of stereo! Consider that every piece of music that you listen to today regardless of style or genre. It is always presented in the same format. Stereo. Of course there are different scales of Stereo and lots of effects and tricks to make stereo sound bigger, better, different. However in the bigger context. The whole process from initial production to final presentation of music is developed around conformed set of engineering principles about sound. An holy grail of stereo production. As a result of modern music is so much about the machine, the technology that creates the music. So many people are concerned with crawling inside the machine and inside the processes of creating more interesting music. What we seem to have forgotten about is that sound is space. Sound surrounds us .. it is all around us and moves around us. Organic listening. Like walking outside and hearing the traffic is very visceral and dimensional experience. Listening to sound on sound systems is intense but also very monochromatic compared to a sound experience in real life. Sound technology has conditioned and confined our way of listening so much that no matter what we do the underlying structures that sound is presented on is always the same, which in turn makes all music the same. Imagine every meal you ever ate provided to you in the same basic shape. Perhaps in a different size, different colour, different taste .. but always the same shape. For me this is so much modern music. No matter where you take it stylistically or whatever ... it will end up on a stereo track being presented on two speakers. This is where the bottle neck exists. This is where the boredom kicks in. Weather you realise it all not. All you end up listening to is two speakers. Left & Right. .. I would argue that a huge part of the initial success of Techno and other styles of dance music was the sound systems. Where rock n'roll was generally produced loud and from the front. (Which has to do with microphones & feedback issues (apart from the Grateful Dead who side stepped this issue)) dance music which was generated from pre-recorded music could be amplified on sound systems that surrounded the audience. While the music was new .. the sonic environment was also new. The sound was all around you, it was immersive enveloping cocoon of sound. An amplified sonic space that has never before been experienced. To this day the basic difference between a club and venue is in the way that a sounds system is set up. I true club will have a sounds systems that surrounds you on all sides. Where as a venue will have sound from the front. I think people underestimate the relevance of the way a sound system is set up to the ultimate sonic result of the music. However there is plenty of evidence and history to show these differences and why people choose them. .. Moving forward and addressing the idea of of new music. Consider this: Constructing three part a harmonies in three dimensions. Introducing different layers of music from different directions. Collaboration of multiple Artists into a singular multi channel system as the same time! Given modern technology, midi clock time. Advance forms of time alignment there is no reason why a producer or composer should not be considering sound in 3D. Good sound engineers will know all about phase and cancellation. Generally speaking phase is considered an enemy and everything possible is done to eliminate phase cancellation. I treat phase in sub bass frequencies as a way of triangulating intensity. With the right gear on a multi speakers setup .. you can use phase alignment to move the intensity of a bass line to different parts of a room. In this way you can create baselines that travel in physical space! Techno music specifically should be leading the way in all these areas. Techno producers should be the people hijacking technology to do things beyond what they are intended to do. This is the history of Techno music. Don't stop now. .. There are some serious challenges in play. Nearly every musical device is built to be stereo. Every trained sound engineer or producer is taught to think in stereo. All sound systems are designed to work in stereo or in a FOH position. .. Think about it .. the 303 was designed to be a bass guitar. Techno musicians used this device in a completely new way to create new sounds, new music. This ethos of using technology to do new and interesting things is what Techno should continue to be doing with sound. Think dimensionally. Think about sound in physical space. I know Dillinga has talked about the sound outside clubs influencing his production. Too young to be let into clubs he had to listen to events from outside, where all he heard was muffled baselines that were trapping themselves in the external environments of clubs and reverberating objects. When he came to producing music, these are the sounds he tried to reproduce. He even had to create his own sound system in order to achieve what he wanted because what he had been listening to was not clean bass but the shifted harmonic series of baselines caught in physical structures. So not the bass directly, but perhaps the resulting bass of a whole building structure becoming a resonating sound box. ?! .. I should stop because I can go on and on about this stuff forever .. But the future is inevitable .. and its all around us. .simon
