Padraig (u.s.)'s Post Disco/Proto House Masterclass

S

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
with these "post-" music's there are all these signifiers of distance; echo and reverb, a stripped backness, a certain sparsity and emptiness.

the terminology "post-" does indicate that the music is a music remembering something. it's the abstraction of a former glory through the lens of half-formed memories and imagined idylls.

this is what burial very consciously does with garage, but i'd say the same of joy division in relation to the sex pistols; it's in part the sex pistols through the sepia haze of memory.

this music has that quality. the utopia that was disco has ended and this music commemorating it. remembering it. it's a music haunted by a distant happiness.

there's a melancholy in these musics that are absent from the cultural artefacts they're alluding to.
 
B

Bang Diddley

Well-known member


you'll all know this record... pacman, asteroids, london bass next door, feels like the party is over in certain parts, after the dance is through, funky keys but there an underlying quiet string like synth in there too - humming to himself (seems on his own), the kick seems off at times to me - maybe

treat us to a proper write up...
 
Last edited:
T

the ig

Well-known member
i hear all that stuff - echo and reverb, a stripped backness - but for me they're signifiers of space rather than (temporal) distance

it's disco culture settling into its spaces, feeling for the echos of those enveloping rooms, expressing the dawning joy that the thing's no mere passing fad, but here to stay.

producers are not involved with the peak-disco hype machine any more, so there's a new capacity/confidence to strip things back, to work for the floor, to locate the sinewy line through the track, that purrrfect ergonomic body music. but all that ads to the general lushness, you picture your own body in there, bumpin the bass, you're not crowded out by the strings etc.

but the sherberty synths, the succulent texture, the rounded bass tones, the pillowy reverb, the brightness...all v heady but also tactile and close

yeah a closed loop of fun - we're in da club, and we're staying put! the spatiality, the dubbiness of a lot of that stuff folds you in..





 
Last edited:
version

version

Well-known member
sadmanbarty said:
with these "post-" music's there are all these signifiers of distance; echo and reverb, a stripped backness, a certain sparsity and emptiness.

the terminology "post-" does indicate that the music is a music remembering something. it's the abstraction of a former glory through the lens of half-formed memories and imagined idylls.

this is what burial very consciously does with garage, but i'd say the same of joy division in relation to the sex pistols; it's in part the sex pistols through the sepia haze of memory.

this music has that quality. the utopia that was disco has ended and this music commemorating it. remembering it. it's a music haunted by a distant happiness.

there's a melancholy in these musics that are absent from the cultural artefacts they're alluding to.
Click to expand...

Basic Channel/Rhythm & Sound do this with dub and techno.
 
pattycakes_

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty


The bass line chews it's way up and down your spine while Syreeta burns off a bunch o luv calories. On Motown even.
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
thing with post-disco or 'disco not Disco' is it's so broad it can even include stuff like this:



or even



but then it can include stuff like this. shep pettibone on da buttons!

 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
but then this is also proto house or even 'house not House' if we are to go off farley jackmaster funk tapes.

 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket






A lot of this stuff has the strong pinging analog synth electro bassline. that obviously started to disappear when house got conflated mostly as garage in the early 90s. so in that sense it still sounds futuristic. molten magma and proper songs, what more could you want?
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
of course this is the post-disco masterpiece. not the vocal version which isn't that good but the instrumental. proper freaky alien brain and ear eating synth delight. could come out tomorrow and still sound like the future. very ticklish and synaesthetic. it was on my list of course.

 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
thinking of stuff played in punk/new wave dance clubs, things like...

an all-time fav



awesome opening



nuts



and of course...

 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I can't get to this now but maybe later, or later this week

just tbc, is the request for proto-house specifically?

the terminology I usually use is post-disco/pre-house, of which proto-house is a subset

and I use pd/ph as basically a synecdoche for all fwd dance music ca. 80-84ish, and/or what was played in cool NYC, Chicago, etc clubs at that time

so it's many genres, or core sounds, to refer to what I was saying elsewhere

post-disco proper (i.e. Prelude, West End etc), disco not disco, boogie, electro, new wave, post-punk, Italo, etc

and you'll notice that even among those many aren't really proper genre names so much as catchalls, or contain within themselves multitudes

and then there's that particular hallmark of the era, and why I use pd/ph as shorthand, the many virtually impossible to categorize records
 
  • Like
Reactions: sus
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top