KLUTE: KnowledgeMag article//issue 59

[fable]

thought this was a relevent article, from a seasoned hard-hitter, well known for coming from a different angle whether on the production end of things or up on the mix.


Quote:KLUTE: Who are we, where are we at, and where are we going...and do we give a fuck?

Frontlines has been blessed with a brand new columnist:Klute. It was born out of frustrated conversations between Klute nad ZFrontlines that mirrored coversations Klute was having with other key scene members. This column therefore is intended to provoke debate, change but not offence in our scene.

"Having been a seperate music form in its own right for near enough 13 years, drum and bass has certainly fared well compared to alot of other music born around the same time. For the most part itds proved itself to be a healthy and slf sufficient scene. Truly independant. Sales of records compared to alot of other dance music is reletivley healthy. Djs are flying off to destinations around the globe on a weekly basis.

So what on earth is there to complain about? Well, Im not sure but one thing im sure of is a lot of people involved with this scene are feeling a sense of frustration and boredom but none can put their finger on it, but we all try to go on as if nothing is wrong. So, given that there is officially "no problem," whats the fucking problem then?

I say one big is the general lack of suprise. D & B has become a format, a set of rules and as we become further entrenched in it we forget to question the whole reason why we came here in the first place. More and more music is made to sound like other music the producer would like to have his tune associated with. All of us are guilty of this to some degree, but we are all in real danger of blandness setting in.

Judging by the quality of a lot of the demos i receive at Commerical Suicide new producers seem more concerned with fitting in than trying to add something new. Is it fear of being accused of getting it wrong? Who knows. The majority concern is to make a tune a DJ will play and we all know how easy it is to mix a D & B tune tailor-made for the mix. Best not take a chance and make it easier for the DJ to play?

These days dancefloor tunes have been made so obvious they literally tell people how to react. Huge obvious let offs, big patronising buld ups that appeal to the vordka Red Bull generation. Wheres the depth? Wheres the sense of the unknown, the cavernous empty spaces your mind can wonder where it wants?

All this has ultimately led to a stale nightlife - endemic in all dance music. We all know how a night will go, we know where the venue is, you know where the bar is and basically we all know what we are going to get. Its rarely exciting these days. How long will people tolerate this? We've come full circle, we're back to where we were before acid house.

In everyones desperate attempt to conform, get it right and take no chances weve ended up in a bland old familiar place. It seems that in the pursuit of success we all forgot to have some fun. Are we so despertly protecting our stake in the game that we all forgot about everyone else?

If we keep releasing the same old music and booking the same old DJs its only going to be so long before people feel the tedium and fuck of elsewhere. Just because this is your only source of income doesnt mean producers should inflict their heartless productions on us, flooding the overcrowded market with drive! Take a break, go on a holiday - go be a grave digger... Punters are a lot smarter than some people think: they can tell when somethings half arsed"

"big patronising buld ups that appeal to the vordka Red Bull generation"

-haha this line is priceless! So whatya think? Klute making some relevent sense, or is he just having a bad day?

On the listeners end of things, my cans have been rocking what i believe to be some quality cuts/mixes:: including klutes x2lp late last year "no ones listening anymore," a few singles from the offshore camp + Clevers BBS Excersise 5, London Elektricity's "power ballads," lp, the violence camp came correct with the "welcome to violence" lp On top of that a few mixes by the uber talented Kuma/eve, some breakcore/idm bizness from various artists most kindly provided by Torment, some ragga fucked uped ness from montreals Chopstick Dubplate, as well as a few mixes from Angst///not to forget our other local vinyl molesters PSIdream, Pacific and Dabbs, im sure ive left much out, but needless to say, im comfortable with the amounts of music fuck wit my ears!

i would love to see:::
a ladies of reverse compilation -perhaps including some illy vocals, and burlesque style raunchy swing beats

a quadra longplayer -maybe incorporating some blue grass/hillbillyness kinda like how Ben harper hooked up with the "Blind boys of alabama?"

influenza longplayer -perhaps on some Tipper tip?

Oh yea, i also wanted to mention the nastyness coming from the evointent camp, as well as noisia , mayhem , counterstrike, and the most recent of mixes to tickle my ears, a DEEP BLUE mix courtesy of KnowledgeMag 59, mixed digitally a la ableton live4!

any comments, from all yall?

peace+'spect
fable

[Toxxin Ephekt]

I bought that Klute album and it sick, in tasty Red Vinyl too....yum... I also bought that London Electricity Album too....sick as well. Good Article.

[dj_soo]

amen. Klute hit the nail right on the head. Dnb is starting to get as formulaic as anthem trance nowadays...

[decypher]

evointent camp, as well as noisia , mayhem , counterstrike, and the most recent of mixes

yeh the noisia mix is wicked. Phace, Chase & Status, Upbeats and solo stuff, Gridlok, all still doin it for me ATM.

Don't forget about Krusha's new work. Draconian blood and Kriminal

[oddmud]

Originally Posted by fable

influenza longplayer -perhaps on some Tipper tip?

Whots this mean?

Tipper tip? Then it wouldn't be influenza. ;)

[fable]

Originally Posted by influenza

Whots this mean?

Tipper tip? Then it wouldn't be influenza. ;)

ha! no doubt! you gots me there-

but i guess i kinda meant just goin off on some backroads galactic shit! Everytime i think of abstract breaks, that leave me completely and pleasently confused goin WTF is this!? i think of tipper! (asides from many a breakore act)

regardless there will be support for you twoz- whatever the format....unless you throw down some amen, and half-time breaks over some abba, with stretched out vocals, and uber compressed bass action crazyness- then ill probably be like - eh!?:)

peace+'spect
fable

[decypher]

Influenza is like Break's answer for Neurofunk.

[Toxxin Ephekt]

Originally Posted by mofo-x

amen. Klute hit the nail right on the head. Dnb is starting to get as formulaic as anthem trance nowadays...

what do you mean by formulaic? how the number of beats is common in many records nowadays? i'm kinda confused.... I like how some records are able to be mixed for a long time....like a DD and it ends right into the second break down perfectly and still goes for another 8 beats into the breakdown before the first record finally ends....I understand what he meant by people trying to make a track that sounds like someone elses work....

[Toxxin Ephekt]

Personally, I like Dj Friendly tracks.....able to be mixed in and out fast and end off on perfect beats and blended breakdowns. Yes Kam.....Andy Style. Hahaha, JK!

[decypher]

I think what he meant by Formulaic is the fact that there are alot of very popular DNB out there that follows a similiar structure and Style. Example: X-ray. Something that wasen't as formulaic and had some variety, example: Welcome to Violence LP.

[dj_soo]

Originally Posted by Toxxin Ephekt

what do you mean by formulaic? how the number of beats is common in many records nowadays? i'm kinda confused.... I like how some records are able to be mixed for a long time....like a DD and it ends right into the second break down perfectly and still goes for another 8 beats into the breakdown before the first record finally ends....I understand what he meant by people trying to make a track that sounds like someone elses work....

exactly what you said.

how many tunes follow the same old formula of intro -> break -> buildup -> drop -> buildup -> 2nd break -> 2nd drop which is exactly the same as 1st drop? Or how about this? long-ass intro -> drop -> break -> 2nd drop? With abosultely no musical development after the 1st drop? Back when jungle first came out there was actual musical *development* within the tunes themselves the breaks were different, there were variations of the musical themes, there was actual musical progression. Tunes are constructed nowadays to tell you *exactly* how to react. Something like Slam (killer hiphop intro aside) reminds me more and more of anthem trance. huge buildups, giant drops, big breaks. Read this statement again:

Originally Posted by Klute

These days dancefloor tunes have been made so obvious they literally tell people how to react. Huge obvious let offs, big patronising buld ups that appeal to the vordka Red Bull generation. Wheres the depth? Wheres the sense of the unknown, the cavernous empty spaces your mind can wonder where it wants?

Nowadays for a lot of the the tunes coming out, I wouldn't even call it a "tune" It's a single riff that hits at the drop and is repeated ad naseum until the 2nd break where it'll just repeat again for the 2nd drop with minimal variation other than a couple extra textural layers or something.

So few tracks nowadays have a 2nd drop that's significantly different than the 1st drop - there was a time when things like the basseline would change, the musical theme the tune was started on would be different, the 2nd break was completely different from the 1st break - you don't see as much of that anymore.

And my theory for this is that it's all because of the dnb dj - now that the dominant mixing style is the fast-mixer (a la andy C) with tunes being mixed out before the 2nd drop or striving so hard to get that "all-important" double drop producers (who are generally djs) probably don't even see a point in developing a track beyond the first 3 or 4 minutes as the DJs are probably going to be mixing out of the tune anyway. It's a vicious cycle. Even if a DJ would want to let the tune play out longer, there's really no point since the track is going to get too repetitive after the 2nd drop anyway. I feel like a lot of dnb is becomming less and less "songs" or "tunes" and more and more "mixing tools" for the DJ.

Keep in mind I'm really talking about the popular, top40, dnb dancefloor hits - there's a lot of lesser played and lesser known stuff that's still amazing out there - it's just that I'm probably rarely ever going to hear it in clubs or parties.

[Moon]

brilliantly put by klute.. it's so true. i too find myself bored and hardly ever excited to hit up an electronic night with some dj playing tunes that all pretty much have the same format, same shit all the time. whoo thats quite a bassline! whoo nice mix! whoo thats a heavy break! whoo whoo ok whatever

"Wheres the sense of the unknown, the cavernous empty spaces your mind can wonder where it wants?"

fuck yeah.... what attracted me to this whole scene in day 1 was how mysterious the music was... how out there these djs and producers were in procuring such amazing music i couldn't even imagine where to start looking or even imagining

i've thought about this... many things over the years have contributed to revealing the mystery of the underground completely, making it hardly a mysterious thing anymore. kids now know what they wanna hear and expect to hear it. you can download a dj set that was played last night with the newest shit and know what tracks the djs have in their bag by looking up on web forums for tracklists. promoters are limited to a small market so their interests are in giving the crowd what they wanna hear, not something new and straight from the underground.

and it's true that it seems like producers and djs are helpless in getting sucked into sounding like an accepted norm to fit in with the crowd.

peeps need to chill the fuck out and enjoy what they do. boh! good read

[fable]

so are the producers creating "formulaic music" because thats what attracts heads, or are the headz demanding "formulaic music?" - both in regards to sales, and attendance of weeklies/one offs?

hey whos dj friendly, i havent heard any of their beats?:) heehee

peace+'spect
fable

[dj_soo]

^ i'd say a bit of both. I have heard about a lot of very big time producers that really don't like a lot of the "dancefloor" anthems they play and/or produce themselves. It's a bit of a vicious cycle tho.

[decypher]

I'm still dreaming of the day that Chase & Status or Noisia could pack a club here.