House music, particularly French house, relies heavily on sampling bits of material from all kinds of audio sources (i.e disco and classic rock). Find out how it works and where the samples from dozens of house tracks originated in this series of excellent youtube videos.
posted by Taft on Jan 27, 2012 - 7 comments

DJHistory.com's list of 100 Greatest Dance Records may not be definitive or feature your favorite record, but it's hard to say that each and every record on there hasn't earned its place, from the Northern Soul swing of "The Clapping Song" to the post-ironic dancehall of "Pon De Floor." [more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin on Nov 15, 2011 - 38 comments

Do you like listening to DJ mixes? The Mixes DB has tens of thousands of them, going back 30 years, broken down by genre, radio show, club, artist. Most pages have the mix embedded. Here are the most popular. [more inside]
posted by empath on Oct 25, 2011 - 25 comments

I Was There When Acid House Hit London and This Is How It Felt by Charles Mudede
posted by Artw on Oct 18, 2011 - 23 comments

Need something to distract you from the howling winds outside? Here's two hours of gorgeous house, techno, disco and garage from Mercury-winner Jamie XX from the XX. (The actual mix starts at around 3:30) Download link here.
posted by empath on Aug 27, 2011 - 22 comments

Teachers [more inside]
posted by hellojed on Aug 11, 2011 - 30 comments

Decades before "You Got the Love" was covered by Florence and The Machine, it was a little known gospel record originally recorded for an 80's dieting video by Candi Staton. [more inside]
posted by empath on Aug 6, 2011 - 26 comments

Charanjit Singh on how he invented acid house ... by mistake. The Guardian interviews an unlikely pioneer of Acid House. With the aid of a TR-303 and a TR-808 this track was born somewhat earlier than traditionally appreciated for the genesis of the genre. "So far ahead, in fact, that it appears to pre-date the first Acid House records to come out of Chicago by about five years." Its enough to make you smile.
posted by SueDenim on May 10, 2011 - 95 comments

"Who knew township occultism and gangs of South African kids shared something of the pulse of post-punk dirges?" Spoek Mathambo covers Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" and sparks a journey into a world of grimey dub, white suits, musical dissemination via taxi cab, and a potential dash of Black Identity. [more inside]
posted by artof.mulata on Mar 8, 2011 - 52 comments

Pump Up The Volume - The History Of House Music was a three part documentary (1 Time To Jack, 2 Can You Feel It, 3 From Hardcore To Handbag) first shown in the UK in 2001, telling of House’s origins in the Chicago underground, it’s crossing over the Atlantic and evolving into illegal Acid raves before entering into the mainstream in Britain. (Some NSFW language) [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Feb 21, 2011 - 46 comments

Record label Fool's Gold, run by DJs A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs, has just put their entire catalogue online for free streaming with links to paid downloads for each track. [more inside]
posted by battlebison on Aug 13, 2010 - 9 comments

In 1980s New York, two songs - Planet Rock and Let The Music Play - hit the Latino club scene like an earthquake and the aftershocks created a new genre of dance music - Freestyle. Characterized by funky electro-style breaks made on a Roland 808, with Latin rhythms and uplifting vocals about love and loss, often sung by unknown and untrained singers, the sound has remained a force in pop music and has influenced house and breaks music to this day. [more inside]
posted by empath on Apr 30, 2010 - 36 comments

"Trance music" is not a new phenomenon.  The ability for music to drive dancers into ecstatic frenzies has been known at least since Euripides.  The Shakers got their name from the ecstatic behavior they exhibited when dancing to their simple, repetitive hymns.  Voodoo rituals are built around complex, trance-inducing rhythms.  It was well known that trance-dancing can produce ecstastic states, but until the later part of the 20th century, and the invention of the 'extended dance remix', it was rare for commercial music to reach for it. [more inside]
posted by empath on Feb 1, 2010 - 86 comments

A rather silly music video
posted by tehloki on Jan 13, 2010 - 35 comments

Gridface has an on-going series of interviews as part of its Chicago House music history section. The first interview was with Stacey Collins, aka VERB, who started working security at The Music Box in 1983. Others interviewed include producers Merwin Sanders (discog) and Jamal Moss (aka Hieroglyphic Being, IAMTHATIAM, The Sun God) and Frank Youngwerth (discog), and DJ Leonard "Remix" Rroy. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jan 11, 2010 - 15 comments

JOIN THE COOLCATS MVMT. So-Me is the art director for Ed Banger Records. His job description includes touring with his muse Busy P, living with Justice, directing music videos, fashioning t-shirts and album art, designing Coca-Cola bottles, contributing to art exhibits, and just being a Cool Cat. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana on Jun 11, 2009 - 10 comments

While the clubs of London are rocking to Lady Gaga and Paul Van Dyk, the dancefloor sounds of the capital are shunned in the north-west of England. Why? Because a whole generation of dance music fans are putting a donk on it. This documentary aims to find out why this genre of fast MC-led hardcore is so popular in one corner of the country whilst being completely unknown in others. [more inside]
posted by mippy on Feb 19, 2009 - 91 comments

The 25 Greatest Electronic Albums of the 20th Century. From the instrument that was created by Leon Theremin, to the Moog Guitar that's been named after the legendary Bob Moog (the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer), Electronic music has come a long way since its early days. YouTube [a, b, (extreme caution advised: graphic images of death, destruction and 9/11 c), d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y] (Previously mentioned here, here, here, here, here and here)
posted by hadjiboy on Jun 29, 2008 - 84 comments

A massive collection of live DJ and PA sets of electronic music sorted by year and genre. Enjoy.
(Coral Cache link. Please use this to help archive and propagate the files.)
posted by loquacious on Dec 31, 2006 - 15 comments

WaxDJ.com - an excellent source for free downloads and streams of original electronic music mixes of all sorts, from seasoned pros to beginning bedroom amatuers, all told numbering in the hundreds or thousands. My current brand new favorite is the very diverse and well-versed Detriot/Chicago techno stylings of DJ Rubsilent. Recomended mix: Future Funk 23: (Direct MP3 link) (Streaming mp3 link) But don't let me divert you - search for your favorite local DJ or browse for new ones.
posted by loquacious on Oct 11, 2006 - 19 comments

Raves not dead! The British subculture the government tried so hard to kill is alive and well in Cornwall and Essex.
posted by Artw on Aug 27, 2006 - 74 comments

fleep.com is a wonderful repository of deep house electronic dance music mixes from Tokyo. The fleep.com mix archives is where you can find my favorite mixes such as "7am Sessions," "Situation Satellite," and the newest one, "4th Floor." Enjoy!
posted by gen on Aug 15, 2005 - 14 comments