Dance Music Genre Analysis: Techno, Industrial House & Jazz/Funk House

Today I'm going to be breaking down a few subgenres of electronic dance music: techno, Industrial house and Jazz (or Funk) House. The significance of these genres is that they all evolved and progressed around the same time-frame, and has taken multiple influences from each other.

First off, if you've got 8 minutes - I absolutely recommend checking out this mini-documentary on the origins of techno, featuring one of the few guys who started the whole culture, Kevin Saunderson, and German DJ/Producer Boys Noize:

Following on from the video above, I'll start off with Techno. It is one of the pioneering genres (along with Chicago House) of post-disco club music, and what we call 'EDM' today. With techno and it's roots in early 1980s Detroit, it's basis was a group of suburban black DJs who experimented with blending dance music with the sci-fi aesthetics of Kraftwerk and other early electro. They used Roland TR-909 and 808 drum machines and sequencers to create beats that were jacking, mechanical and dark; complemented by vocoded vocal cuts.

You'll notice the main drum elements are fairly minimal with the majority of the tracks using a kick and a layering of hats & other percussion elements (shakers, knocks etc.), however a clap or snare is less common. Most of the rhythm is built from the sequencing of different synthesizers, creating a glitchy, jacking groove. Typically, you'll find techno tracks sit anywhere between 120-150BPM - there's a lot of variation! I believe the fact that the genre began around live tinkering in the studio or on stage to create a final arrangement then and there, is what has kept it fresh and retains a sense of mystery or unpredictability.

This experimental aspect birthed an offshoot genre which grew up alongside Detroit techno, 'Acid' or 'Acid House'. I wanted to mention this subgenre as it's characteristics are often blended into techno songs and vice-versa. This form of dance music heavily involves sounds from the iconic TB-303 bass sequencer. You'll notice the warbling, liquid kind of melody-lines will filter in and out and have it's resonance modulated throughout the track - which is a characteristic trait of Acid and the whole live jam factor of techno music. To give an example of how acid closely integrates with techno and house, this particular track I've chosen gathers more influences from Chicago house (which is the lighter, disco-influenced brother of Detrioit Techno) with it's staccato piano chord stabs:

This love for dark, droning dance music lead music producers to form a fusion of techno elements with electro and EBM (Electronic Body Music, originally coined by Kraftwerk). Gesaffelstein is one artist that is sometimes hard to corner into a single genre, however his music is often identified as a mix of Industrial House/Techno, and EBM.

Firstly, the main differences you will notice is a much slower tempo. It allows for more space/emphasis for groove and swing variations. Percussion elements are more in your face and play a larger role in driving the rhythm. As for influences from techno, those raw-sounding synth sequences that sound like they were ripped straight out of loud factory machinery, still play as big of a signifying role in EBM/Industrial.

One of Gesaffelstein's signature traits is his emphasis on massive, punchy snares or claps; and this coupled with very dark themed, grinding bass elements creates a very aggressive sound which is characteristic of Industrial House.

In the outro of 'Hate or Glory', you'll hear Gesaffelstein's Acid influence coming into play with those characteristic TB-303 styled warbling synths.

Another notable change in Industrial House is the choice of kick drums. They usually have a much shorter decay time, however their initial transient packs a big punch. In the two Gesaffelstein tracks above, the sound design and mixing has been built around having that kick drum sitting very prominent in the mix, and controlling most of the sub frequencies. You can also hear a good amount of sidechain-compression happening in order to duck and groove those bass-lines around the kick.

Bouncing back to Techno's regional brother - House or historically 'Chicago House', I'll go into a little more depth into it's own characteristics and how it differs from the previous genres I've covered.

House music originally took heavy influences from Funk & Soul. It's distinctive features were staccato piano riffs and chords, gospel-diva vocals or rap over 4/4 rhythms - typically created with a TR-808 or 909 drum machines. One of it's pioneering artists, Chicago's Frankie Knuckles, really created the base grounding for the genre with his DJ techniques of creating seamless disco loops, around the same time as Grand Master Flash's record mixing techniques in New York.

Jafunk is one of my favourite modern dance artists who has heavily taken influences from these House roots, solidifying him in todays Funk or Jazz House scene.

This style of House music is typically a little slower in tempo than a lot of it's neighbouring genres, and often involves a lot of swing to create very bouncy grooves and has a much lighter, happier feel to the previous genres I've covered. You'll hear the funk influences coming through in 'Dazed' with that those bass guitar licks playing a main role in generating that irresistible groove. As for other drum elements, you'll hear in these two tracks that the samples used are much more organic and natural sounding. I believe this is a trait carried over from it's jazz/funk influences where live bands were what you went to dance to in a club. Percussion elements like shakers, real toms and hats play a big role in attributing to the Funk vibes in the two above tracks. A interesting pick-up in 'Why Would You' is that Jafunk has chosen to layer his natural hat elements with the signature TR-909 open hat sample midway through the chorus, an iconic staple in almost all types of House music.

Check out this freeloops sample of what this signature hi-hat sounds like. You'll hear variation on this sample throughout genres, however you'll hear most with the longer decay to really make that characteristic timbre present in the track.

Another leading artist in Jazz House is Cody Currie:

In this remix of an MF DOOM track, like Jafunk's track above - you'll hear those natural drum sounds and groovy bass guitar licks coming through over the club-friendly arrangement. There's a lot of amazing textures in this track which make up Jazz House's influences. Gospel-style harmonies, hip-hop vocal samples, brass melody-lines, leslie guitar stabs, clav-style keys and the whole production just has this LO-FI warmth over it as if it was ripped straight from vinyl.

You can draw a lot of base similarities between these subgenres of House/Techno music at a surface level; 4/4 signature, kick > hi-hat > clap > hi-hat, the whole "boots & cats" characteristic rhythm that is present throughout. However, the way this classic rhythm is presented, is what sets the subgenres apart and slots them into their own respective corners of dance music.

I've only covered some of the subgenres I've had a lot of experience with since first delving into electronic music production, however I definitely plan to do more of these! I think it's a pretty cool and interesting way to share music I'm liking, rather than "yo this track is bangin' check it out". Anyway, I hope you enjoyed a little bit of my insight! More to come.

Lachy

References:

A Musical Analysis of Techno | Audio Undone. (2017). Audioundone.com. Retrieved 3 March 2017, from http://audioundone.com/a-musical-analysis-of-techno

Jazz-House Music Genre Overview | AllMusic. (2017). AllMusic. Retrieved 3 March 2017, from http://www.allmusic.com/style/jazz-house-ma0000012013

Perfect Sound Forever: Acid House. (2017). Furious.com. Retrieved 3 March 2017, from http://www.furious.com/perfect/acidhouse.html

Red Bull Music Academy. (2017). Daily.redbullmusicacademy.com. Retrieved 3 March 2017, from http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/07/roots-of-techno-feature

The Beginnings of House Music. (2017). Univie.ac.at. Retrieved 3 March 2017, from http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/webprojects/LiveMiss/Chicago-House/house-text.htm