Deep-Tech & John Carpenter

This remix is the goods, better than the original methinks and speaking of John Carpenter recently, you can hear his influence once again on this tune. The Deep-Tech producers understand his minimalism and it meshes well with their own. The vibe too.....

Loving this one off John Carpenter's 2015 Lost Themes on the Sacred Bones label. I was thinking Sacred Bones is not really my scene, you know, retro rock and all that but hey they re-released the Eraserhead soundtrack, Gary War's 2009 classic Horribles Parade and I do really enjoy hearing Moon Duo on the radio. It's funny I went a bit off Carpenter's soundtracks when he started using more guitars but the thing is all the other stuff is still in there, it just has guitars as well. I may have to reassess his later work. It's not like I hate guitars or anything anyway. Most of my favorite LPs have guitars on them!

A little bit of old School Carpenter. Soo spooky....

Carnao Beats - Chords Of Life

This is an epic tune (maybe I already posted this whatever) that kind goes to all sorts of funny and unpredictable destinations. We're in the future now. That 80s synth drum sound which a lot of these Deep-Tech guys are so fond of reminds me of those groups from a few years back who had a micro-genre Outrun centred around the Rosso Corsa Records label. Some of the better groups from this milieu included ActRazer, Miami Nights 84 and Lazerhawk. Lazerhawk are probably the most ambitious of that crew and possibly the only ones still in existence if indeed they still are?. Their last album Skull & Shark went off into epic horror disco soundtrack territory and was damn fine. So I guess there's another connection to John Carpenter and Deep-Tech and music in general of the 21st century. Migraine kicking in and I'm on a tangent without a destination I think. I best be off to a dark room with no devices or soundz, doctors orders.

UK Garridge 101

Another tune I only just discovered from 1998, well identified, as I'm pretty sure I've heard it before and maybe it's in a mix I've got. The vocal version is good too. So Grant Nelson is apparently like the godfather of UK Garridge and was doing it long before everyone else. I read somewhere that Nelson is still doing his thing in House related zones. He was also Bump & Flex so this is him remixing himself.

Turns out Steve Gurley did a remix of Things Are Never by Operator & Baffled. I can't work out if it was his dub version in that previous post or not. Anyway this is a tune from 2000 he did and it's a cracker. One wonders if there is an actual vocal version of Hotboys though, because I've not been able to find one. Bloody hell! Steve Gurley was in 4 Horseman Of The Apocalypse and Foul Play. Then he became a leading producer of UK Garridge and a remix extraordinaire. Legendary enough for ya? I'm expecting him to show up at some point in the Deep-Tech milieu, if he hasn't already that is.

Simon Reynolds adds the Gurley remix of 'things are never' is so much better than the original - which is good - but it's incredibly baleful and rolling. but it's not on YouTube, which is odd, i remember it getting played a lot on the pirates, so obviously well loved. i might try to dig it out and digitize it and put it up myself.

Deep-Tech Is This Where It's At?

Found this excellent article over at Blissblog about the Deep-Tech scene in London by Dominic Morris (at a publication I'm reluctant to publicise after some shameful journalism last year. I'll make this one exclusive exception due to how much I'm diggin the shit he's talking about). Mr Reynolds has some thoughts too and both have an excellent selection of tracks from the scene. I tried not to double up on those. Morris too senses something in the air. I mean I knew nothing of the tensions in the scene until now but I can sense something has to give. I was also thinking how blank a lot of this stuff is and how Eno will probably show up any minute now saying something about the scene. My wife said Dance Muzak that she could ignore at low volume but get into the groove if it was boomin out of the speakers. I love that dichotomy. But for me with the volume lower it's just as mesmerising (if you're listening). It's like these tunes don't need any extraneous bits. The tunes have just enough in them to excite the punter who's invested in the music and is willing to get deep. I don't go to clubs anymore, hey I moved to the desert, but all club music gets road tested on my bike (you know my legs are moving, a bit like dancing) and going to sleep in bed (which usually includes some kind of drug of the drowsy variety, hey they're drugs). Deep-Tech has passed both tests, whereas say Gabber only really passes the bike test (but I'm not taking amphetamines to kill pain or sleep). Deep-Tech can be really trippy and hypnotic music as well as truly bangin. That's the secret to this music, I reckon, that precipice. A bit like Ratchet's 'deceptively simple' trademark, it might seem basic but it's architecturally sound and aesthetically pleasing at the same time. This precipice is probably way harder to achieve than you think.





One of the outstanding tunes from Audio Rehab Volume 1.

Here's another parallel that Deep Tech has with Ratchet and it seems loads of other musical styles - John Carpenter. You can hear it most definitely in the above track. Here's a thought/question/future essay 'John Carpenter: the most influential musician of the 21st century?' That's a whole other story but a tiny piece of the Deep-Tech puzzle.

Speed Garridge to Deep Tech (?)

Came across this tune last night, fuck it's good. This is a UK Garage tune from 1997 but it's the dub version. After listening to a lot of current 'Deep-Tech' music from labels Audio-Rehab, Definition Audio, House Ent., Mokujin etc., Things Are Never (dub) by Operator & Baffled kinda seems appropriate. I hear a lot of Garridge in the music from the artists on those aforementioned labels. Obviously house is a big influence on 'Deep-Tech' but it's all definitely coming from the UK with the bass and rhythm. Even the house inspiration in this 'Deep-Tech' genre (not lovin that name) seems to be predominately of the late 80s British Acid House variety though, doesn't it? But perhaps it's Bleep with it's lavishly clean production sounds, along with it's bass weight and depth, that informs this music most. Then there's, you know, bits of the the other stuff that Speed Garage stemmed from Jungle, Drum'n'Bass, NY Garage, R&B, Reggae and of course good ole Disco. Deep-Tech's even got a bit of old school Electro and Techstep in there at times, I reckon. It's good stuff. Probably the best thing since UK Garage really. Is it something new? (Is the Hardcore Continuum back on track?) Even if it's not, Deep-Tech has somehow captured my mind and body like Grime and Dubstep never did. This stuff for some reason* seems so much better than that of the acts producing genuine fakes of jungle, drum & bass, grime etc. I love this track Insomnia from Camo Crooks (below). They also had the outstanding tune Maestro on The Various Audio Volume 1 compilation on the Definition Audio label.

Bloody hell make up your minds already! Some are calling it deep house, others tech house, minimal, even jackin electro or just plain old house but it's 'Deep-Tech' that's really stuck. These genre names have been around the block several times already though and sometimes in a derogatory way. I mean I used to want throw up at the mention of deep house. The music of Theo Nasa, Nightshift, Hugo Massien, RS4, Camo Crooks, Ghost House Banton, DJ SKT et al. deserves better than that. Come on all you micro genre geeks here's your chance to give this stuff a new and better name! At the same time making a name for yourself. Will that then signal the genre's demise though? You get the feeling that something is going to happen very soon like a break off genre from Deep-Tech before a rebranding even happens. For more music from this London scene (I believe it's spreading. I mean "hi I'm in Australia") check out these two highly recommended (by me at least) compilations that were in my Best of 2014 list.

The Audio Rehab compilation has tracks from Hugo Massien, Nightshift, RS4, Mark Radford, Shay & Sinista, Carnao Beats, DJ SKT and so on.

*I wanted to post my fave Hugo Massien tune Mitte but it's not on the youtubes. These Deep-Tech guys seem really protective of their music. A lot of it can only be found in annoying snippet form online. I mean I payed for both of those compilations but maybe they want their scene slightly insular and only for the truly dedicated ie. patrons willing to pay for the music (those who care). The dilettantes and dabblers can fuck off which is kinda cool I suppose.