Really "dark disco" is just a buzzword that's only been floating around in wide usage for about a year, and all it describes is the sleazier end of what my mates and I have been calling "slo-mo" for years. As far as I'm concerned it's all part of one very diverse continuum, but the softer end of that continuum would just be labelled "Balearic" or "cosmic disco" by most people. Acid is just one of the harder sounds you'll find in there, but I don't think it's in every track by any means and I don't think it's critical to defining the genre.
Again, this whole scene owes its coherence largely to Weatherall (RIP) & Johnston's ALFOS parties. They are/were to this scene what Sasha & Digweed were to '90s progressive. When Sasha started doing Tyrant with Lee Burridge and Craig Richards he started playing tech house records in with prog and the next thing you know you have "dark tribal prog" as a genre, when really it was just a very influential prog DJ playing lots of tech house. Similarly, Weatherall has always played a lot of acid towards the end of one of his long sets and so now you have lots of producers trying to get played at ALFOS putting acid lines in their records and some buzzword going around to describe it. There's no science here.
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Similarly, Weatherall has always played a lot of acid towards the end of one of his long sets and so now you have lots of producers trying to get played at ALFOS putting acid lines in their records and some buzzword going around to describe it. There's no science here.
Okay, this makes the most sense. I quickly came to realize that acid was no more essential to the sub-(sub)-genre than any of the other influences you mentioned above, as it's largely a cocktail of reoccurring sounds that come up in different measure each time around.
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Really "dark disco" is just a buzzword that's only been floating around in wide usage for about a year, and all it describes is the sleazier end of what my mates and I have been calling "slo-mo" for years.
And I noticed a few minutes after creating this thread, when going through Beatport, that 'dark disco' is actually among their official tags, so...
I had been just using 'dark disco' as a functional description. As far as I was concerned, it was just (modern) disco. But dark. I had been using 'slow-mo' the same way, though I've since let that go as the catch-all I made it out to be, as there is a noticeable enough difference between the music posted in this thread and the stuff you'd hear on one of those Sudbeat disc 1's, which plays out at the same tempo but sounds more like heavily pitched prog.
The stuff Cattaneo plays on CD1 of his compilations doesn't really exist outside of those CDs, as far as I can tell. Most of those tracks seem specifically commissioned by him for the CDs, and maybe mixed in with some more varied downtempo/electronica. I don't think you can name a single record label or even an artist specialising in that sound. As such, I don't include it in the "slo-mo" scene at all.
What I think you see with this, and also with the much-ridiculed "organic house" category Beatport recently created, is that sounds and scenes exist for years without a name before someone finally slaps a buzzword on the front of them, and the buzzword always ends up chopping off some of the legs of whatever it's trying to capture.
Registered: Jan 2007
Location: West LA, California (where retired party people live)
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
All of 'em. This sound wouldn't exist without Weatherall.
agreed. A legend.
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Jul-21-2020 20:38
planetaryplayer
Surpeme traineanddict
Registered: Dec 2011
Location: Pine Tree Valley
you can try going through pinkman(label) as well
Jul-23-2020 16:53
lacksesepsotygh
;B
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Danderyds Psykhus, Stockholm
quote:
Originally posted by planetaryplayer
you can try going through pinkman(label) as well
Great label. I've been using some of their releases in my mixes. This is nice and chaotic
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Jul-23-2020 20:03
planetaryplayer
Surpeme traineanddict
Registered: Dec 2011
Location: Pine Tree Valley
quote:
Originally posted by lacksesepsotygh
Great label. I've been using some of their releases in my mixes. This is nice and chaotic
^ very good
Jul-24-2020 16:37
Silky Johnson
International Playa Hater
Registered: Nov 2003
Location:
Ooooh this is all very sex. Love this kind of groove. Lots of goodies in hurrrr.
Jul-24-2020 20:56
Paradox Lost
In This Twilight
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: San Francisco
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
The stuff Cattaneo plays on CD1 of his compilations doesn't really exist outside of those CDs, as far as I can tell. Most of those tracks seem specifically commissioned by him for the CDs, and maybe mixed in with some more varied downtempo/electronica. I don't think you can name a single record label or even an artist specialising in that sound. As such, I don't include it in the "slo-mo" scene at all.
And that's always been rather frustrating. There's plenty of 4/4 that churns away at the tempo of those CD1's, but the stuff in those mixes stands apart from most others in that it, like I said, literally sounds like modern pitched prog, though more conceived to play out at that speed rather than something that was simply pitched to do so. A not insignificant percentage of it is Hernan & Soundexile originals, so that accounts for that, but as for the rest, you're right, in that they seem to be mere one-of's in a producers larger discography:
As recent a shift in his style as it seems (probably on a account of Balance 26 ) I have to keep reminding myself that he was throwing together these mid-tempo mixes as early as 2010.
Those tunes are one of the reasons Cattaneo compilations are still an eagerly anticipated event in the modern superabundance of free online mixes. Plenty of DJs go with the "loads of unreleased tunes" angle to try and make their rare CD excursions more exclusive than a random liveset or radio show, but not many go with "loads of unreleased tunes in a style that doesn't exist except on my CDs".
