I’m not sure if there is a thread dedicated to producers who make tunes respective of the thread’s title, but after getting referred to a few others, I didn’t see much of a representation of this style of music.
I guess to start, this is a palette I feel most comfortable with and as a hobbyist producer (still getting up to speed with my set up), I thought it’d be dope to share tips and tunes that are closely tied to these styles of house music.
For me, artists like Trinidad Deep, Ron Trent, Osunlade, Atjazz, DJ Manoo, CoFlo, Larry Heard, M.A.W., Oveous, Mark Francis, DJ Qu, Kyle Hall, Karizma, Blaze, Marcellus Pittman, Omar S, Theo Parish, Byron the Aquarius, Atjazz, Fred Everything, Chaos in the CBD…all sort of come to mind and fit the bill.
I’m in no way an authority on these sub/genres, but if these resonate with you all, and you don’t know of a thread where this style of music has a home, then perhaps this can be a place where we share these recordings and level up our approach to music making inspired by the aforementioned?
Omar s was a huuge influence on how I got started making music with gear. Love the simplicity but depth and groove of his tunes, especially the early stuff.
I was messing around with volcas until I saw a photo of him with his gear and a white box plugged into it all, and I was wondering what that was… realised it was a hardware sequencer (mc500) and then I was like… hang on I can sequence all these toys with one box and write whole songs on it?
About a year on from that I had a whole hardware studio set up, sequencers, drum machines, synths, samplers, 16ch mixer… rack fx the works
He writes some of my favourite bass lines as well, love this one, melodic bass line, dreamy pads, tight drum groove…
I think the key with this kind of stuff is knowing how to hold it down and not do anything too crazy
I actually took a note of this great bit from Mike banks talking to Adam x about it:
Summary
“
musicians have to learn to minimalize themselves to make a good dance track. A good person to study is James Brown.
He had master musicians in the band, but the parts they played was extremely simple. And same as George Clinton. These guys don’t get enough respect as arrangers and producers.
George had Michael Hampton. I mean, you got Bernie Warrell. They can play their ass off.
But when they got in the groove, once they get in the groove, they play, they part. And it’s the machines is the same way. A lot of these machines got a lot of potential.
But to get to dance groove, the machine got to be in the groove and just play its fucking part. They can’t do everything it’s possible can do. It got to do what the fuck it’s supposed to do.
And some of the machines can’t do it. They got too much shit in them. You know, it’s just shit flying everywhere.
You can’t really find the groove in the motherfucker because it got too many options. You know, a musician, your band leader could say, hey man, I know you could solo your ass on, but we don’t[…]”
“I’m about to sing this song and you about to play this fucking part and get in the pocket.
They call it getting in the pocket. And you get your ass in the pocket and play. And then when they tell you, you can turn your shit loose.
But until then, you stay in the pocket. The machines is similar. You have to keep them in the pocket.
The machine don’t run you. You run the fucking machine. You know, yeah, the machine, it don’t have a brain or a heart or none of that shit.
It got a lot of souls in it though, because of the people that made it. They put a lot of energy in it, but the machine can only do what it’s programmed to do.”
He’s really true to his influences, I can say that. I think that’s a big part of it and why I thought making this thread was important.
And you sort of touched on it earlier. You were looking for ways to connect what you heard to the tools that you could use to inspire your imagination.
For me, I’m on a similar journey of defining my sound with an appreciation for so much that came before me.
Thanks for sharing this tune. This one actually wasn’t on my radar.
I love all this music. Big fan of Kenny Larkin, he’s a cool guy too. Omar S, a legend for sure. This style of music is great, a lot of it is just good producing chops and spending a lot of time with your gear until something locks in.
I’m a huge fan of this style as well (though arguably there’s several styles encompassed in the artists within). I want to try to make more of this kind of music but I always tend to go down paths that are a bit weirder / more left field. One of my favs is Larry Heard. Also really love Fred P and his various aliases.
I kept it like it was for a few years. Used a Roland mc50 sequencer. No computers, just recording straight to stereo. Loved it as it forced me into an early techno/house workflow. I’ve since had kids and don’t have time to be alone in a studio for hours so I sold a lot of it and now just use an op xy but following the same principles.
That interview was this one, he says that toward the end of it:
This is very much up my alley. Detroit House (and music inspired by or adjacent to it) has been at the core of my vinyl buying addiction for the last decade or so – and I own records by most of the artist mentioned in the first post of the thread. Currently I am a bit more into the deeper, more tool-ish side of things, but will alway love the soulful stuff as well.
Let’s add some more quality artists (just off the top of my head):
Delano Smith is an bonafide Detroit DJ legend, and a brilliant producer to boot
Patrice Scott and his label Sistrum are always fire as well, including both the deep and the soulful
On the soulful side, Kai Alcé and his label NDATL usually deliver high quality records as well
One of my all-time faves from Europe, but with a clear Detroit vibe: Derek Carr
If you don’t know them, you should also check out the now defunct crew and label Italojohnson from Berlin, brilliant stuff (and I very fondly remember hearing them DJ at Panorama Bar in 2012 or so)
