The origins of Deep House and Acid House with some examples
October 25, 2015 10:37 AM Subscribe
These are decent intros to the styles, I wouldn't have recommended using the "What is" construction, but I'm nerdy enough to distinguish between acid music (and acid mixes of house music) and acid house, which was/is denser and chiefly a UK style. There is also a distinction to be made between Deep House as a genre and the concept of "depth" in house music, which is something a DJ incorporates through track selection.
posted by rhizome at 1:08 PM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 1:08 PM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
And many years later, when the 303 sound was established and had been used everywhere, came the awesomeness of Access.
posted by marienbad at 1:28 PM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by marienbad at 1:28 PM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is nice - I find myself wishing that someone would do a similar update for basically every genre in Ishkur's Guide. It's ancient but I've never found anything else which is so good at letting you compare and contrast so many samples of each of the squillions of microsubgenres of dance music until you start to get an idea of how they all fit together.
It's fine to say, eg, "Acid House sounds like this" but then you hear something else and think, "Is this Acid House?" and then ask someone and they're all, like, nooo, this is Detroit Techno", and it only makes sense once you've listened to a bunch of tracks and see how they relate.
posted by doop at 2:08 PM on October 25, 2015 [4 favorites]
It's fine to say, eg, "Acid House sounds like this" but then you hear something else and think, "Is this Acid House?" and then ask someone and they're all, like, nooo, this is Detroit Techno", and it only makes sense once you've listened to a bunch of tracks and see how they relate.
posted by doop at 2:08 PM on October 25, 2015 [4 favorites]
Bidibidibidibidibidi diggadiggadiggadiggadiggadigga wooowwwwww I love the acid sound.
posted by migurski at 3:10 PM on October 25, 2015
posted by migurski at 3:10 PM on October 25, 2015
Train Spotters take note: ultra divisive plates of beans ahead.
posted by clvrmnky at 3:14 PM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by clvrmnky at 3:14 PM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
I remember when Deep House was the one with the pianos and possibly saxophones, as we were still in the 80's it was too soon for the painful inclusion of a sax solo in every pop tune to have been forgotten.
Acid House was the one without the saxophones. Most of the time. So I preferred that.
The tunes in the link are what I would call soulful house (other than the Dajae one), something that I have come to appreciate more over the years. There was a time when deep/soulful (predominantly US) house became 'garage' in the UK, before UK Garage morphed into something else.
How good is Phuture's Acid Trax though? Following that with We Are Phuture was such a genre defining double that it seems almost inevitable that there would be a lull after that. Who could top them?
Excellent example of the Devilfish 303 mod from Josh Abrahams, perhaps unsurprising from a fellow Victorian. So slippery!
posted by asok at 4:49 PM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Acid House was the one without the saxophones. Most of the time. So I preferred that.
The tunes in the link are what I would call soulful house (other than the Dajae one), something that I have come to appreciate more over the years. There was a time when deep/soulful (predominantly US) house became 'garage' in the UK, before UK Garage morphed into something else.
How good is Phuture's Acid Trax though? Following that with We Are Phuture was such a genre defining double that it seems almost inevitable that there would be a lull after that. Who could top them?
Excellent example of the Devilfish 303 mod from Josh Abrahams, perhaps unsurprising from a fellow Victorian. So slippery!
posted by asok at 4:49 PM on October 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was resident DJ at a legendary club in Reykjavik called Thomsen for a few months around the turn of the millenium. My room was the smaller one, so my job was to keep a loungey vibe downstairs while the party raged on upstairs. Deep House was the order of the day for the first part of the evening. Minor keys, lilting bass, and yeah, a bit of saxophone here and there. Empty dancefloor and unlimited drinks. I developed an allergy to that sound, just 10 seconds of minor Rhodes keys and i'd get a flashback to that drunken lonelyness.
When the sound came back in a big way a few years back, I was weary of it at first, but it had grown quite a lot. Artists progressing and trying new things, and new people coming in with new ideas, blurring the lines.
I tend to dislike the definitive description of genre. Any art form without blurry boundaries is dead. Right now Deep House is very much alive, and though I don't like all of it, and it's sometimes a catch-all term for trendy derivative stuff, that's how it goes. A few years back, the term Electro became useless, as that was for a while the name for anything fashionable and popular in electronic dance music. It can't really be reclaim, and neither can Deep House. The meaning has washed away, a victim of it's success, as the Electro revival before it.
posted by svenni at 5:37 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
When the sound came back in a big way a few years back, I was weary of it at first, but it had grown quite a lot. Artists progressing and trying new things, and new people coming in with new ideas, blurring the lines.
I tend to dislike the definitive description of genre. Any art form without blurry boundaries is dead. Right now Deep House is very much alive, and though I don't like all of it, and it's sometimes a catch-all term for trendy derivative stuff, that's how it goes. A few years back, the term Electro became useless, as that was for a while the name for anything fashionable and popular in electronic dance music. It can't really be reclaim, and neither can Deep House. The meaning has washed away, a victim of it's success, as the Electro revival before it.
posted by svenni at 5:37 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
genrephilia: disorder generally afflicting those who desire to discuss music while lacking the ability to actually produce any.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:40 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:40 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have never been a house person per se - I prefer breaks and goa and psy trance - but I do like acid house and deep house, the latter more for listening than dancing. Although, these sub genres can get confusing and often bleed into each other. I recognize and appreciate house's long lineage and how it's considered the "universal beat" (although breakbeat has a similarly long timeline through the origins of hip hop), but straight up house is only enjoyable to me at the after-after-party, late morning into afternoon (continuing from the night before), when an endless disco groove is a suitable soundtrack. It's kinda funny though, these days at rave-type parties here in the southwest US, what's really popular now is trap and dubstep (AKA "bass music"), edm, and variations on swing. House music is for olds like me, as well as techno, breaks, electro, trance, etc. It's all good, music must evolve, but I always gravitate to steady BPM and those old school pulsating kicks, because dubstep and trap are hard to dance to.
posted by krinklyfig at 6:34 PM on October 25, 2015
posted by krinklyfig at 6:34 PM on October 25, 2015
The post and comments are all very helpful. Trying to understand this music is like coming into a series three quarters of the way through, and constantly having to ask "What's that?" "Who's that guy?
posted by Modest House at 6:37 PM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 6:37 PM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
This is a great post. This music transports me back to my misspent youth. Thank you.
posted by Nevin at 9:34 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Nevin at 9:34 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
All you need to appreciate the Acid sound is A Higher State Of Consciousness.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:49 AM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:49 AM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
yessssssss grumpybear yessssssssssssss
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:04 AM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:04 AM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm glad to see that Donald Glaude is still going strong. He convinced me that house wasn't just the cheesy stuff I first heard from the likes of Richard “Humpty” Vission. Which admittedly, I have a nostalgic fondness for.
posted by mubba at 9:28 PM on October 26, 2015
posted by mubba at 9:28 PM on October 26, 2015
what's really popular now is trap and dubstep (AKA "bass music"), edm, and variations on swing.
What is 'swing'? I have never heard of this genre. Could you please link to an example?
posted by dydecker at 3:10 AM on October 27, 2015
What is 'swing'? I have never heard of this genre. Could you please link to an example?
posted by dydecker at 3:10 AM on October 27, 2015
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posted by scose at 12:45 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]