From: bbehlen@soda.berkeley.edu (Brian Behlendorf (Vitamin B))
Newsgroups: alt.rave
Subject: What is House?  (article)
Date: 7 Oct 1992 21:08:41 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

KMELJAMS  Beat Report   GAVIN CONVENTION SPECIAL ISSUE

February 1-15, 1992

What is House?  What is Techno?  What is Rave?

--

	The buzz words around town these days are "techno" and "rave".
It seems like everywhere you go, someone is talking emphatically about 
the great underground rave party they attended or the slammin' new
techno cut they've just heard. Well, such conversations are great if 
you happen to be hip and up on the happenings concerning the Bay Area's
underground club scene.  As for everyone else words like "rave" and 
"techno" bear no real significance on their lives.  Primarily this has
to do with the fact that these musical terms refer to a music genre that
has become considerably advanced.  Hence it's difficult for someone to
really understand and appreciate "techno" if they don't really understand
its main roots which is "house".  So let's kick some historical
ballistics on the subject.

	What is house?  House music is a continuation of disco.  We're not
talking disco as defined by groups like the Bee Gees or the Saturday Night
Fever bubblegum crap that led to the popular 70's slogan "disco sucks".  
INstead we're talking about classic, Black, urban, Philadelphia, R&B, style
disco as first defined by artists like First Choice, Loletta Halloway,
Barbara Roy and MFSB.  In fact many consider the drum patterns used in 
MFSB's classic "Love is the Message" as a primary building block around
house.  This particular track has been remade and remixed numerous times.

	House music's origins stretch back to 1977 when New York DJ Frankie
Knuckles came to Chicago to establish an after-hours dance club called the
Warehouse.  Knuckles drew large crowds because he successfully incorporated
popular NY style mixing and remixing techniques with black urban disco.
Knuckles' unique style along with the DJ-ing techniques of popular Chicago
jocks such as Kenny "Jamming" Jason and Keith "Funkmaster" Farley paved the
way for contemporary or "traditional" house.  These early house grooves
were characterized by a raw, steady beat, piano riffs and haunting,
synthesized tremblines.  The vocals were sprinkled with phrases like "jack
your body" and "jack the house". [jacking is a dance, but many performers
used it with sexual connotations]. The success of this early house via clubs
like the Warehouse led to the formation of Chicago's premiere house labels
Trax and DJ International.

	Over the years house music grew, splintered off and incorporated 
other musical styles much the same way as did hip hop.  For example in '84
and '85 Chicago house migrated to NY where it was integrated with the city's
fully produced club music and given better arrangements, better orchestration
and powerful, gospel-like vocals.  Such music was best characterized by
classics like Full House's "Communicate", Pleasure Pump's "Fantasize Me",
and Joe Smooth's "Promise Land".  The continuing integration of Chicago house
and NY style R&B club music has led to what we now call "Deep House" and
"Garage House".  Tracks with the soulfull, gospel-like vocals are often deemed
Garage, which is named after the famed NY now defunct house club.

	As is the case with any underground based music, house began to find
itself within the commercial ranks.  Some of its pioneers like the group JM
Silk signed major label recording contracts while pop stars like Rick Astley
["Together Forever"] and Natalie Cole ["Pink Cadillac"] latched onto the
house groove.  This commercialization was shunned by the core house audience
and resulted in some of its originators to go further underground and emerge
with new cutting edge forms of house.  Acid house, a hybrid of traditional and
hi-NRG dance music, was one example.  This genre was characterized by a
bumblebee like tebline, known as the "funky worm" that was caused by use of an
out-dated 303 synthesizer. [Examples include Tyree's "Acid Over" and Fast
Eddie's "Acid Thunder"].

	The term "acid" initially referred to burning someone by sampling or
"biting" one's musical style.  This translation was lost when the music 
travelled overseas to London where house fans put the 60's drug connotation
to it.  The result was people getting into the music for the purpose of
trippin' out as a result of getting high off a drug like ecstasy.  It was here
that house began to fuse with forms of DOR [dance oriented rock] and industrial
music.  It was this fusion that laid some of the groundwork for the current
rave and techno scene.

	Simultaneously traditional house was beginning to fuse with hip hop
thanks to Brooklyn based producer Todd Terry and Chicago house veterans Fast
Eddie and Tyree.  Prior to this hip hop and house were on opposite sides of
the musical spectrum, but all that changed when Rob Base and EZ Rock dropped
the classic jam "It takes Two".  The midtempo swing beat of this hip hop 
groove was a favorite everywhere and somehow managed to unite the two camps.
Its existence helped make Terry's style house more palatable to the
traditional house audience.  Prior to that Terry's grooves which were
characterized by classical piano riffs, skillful sampling and mid to uptempo 
hip hop beats were at home among those into the Latino freestyle. It wasn't
long before Terry produced classics like Warlock's "A Day in the Life",
Swan Lake's "The Dream", or Royal House's "Can You Party" which became house
music mainstays.

	In Chicago the tracks produced by Fast Eddie and Tyree seemed to be
more rooted in traditional house with a rap being incorporated.  Eddie's
Planet Rock-like groove "Yo Yo Get Funky" is a classic and many credit him
with coming up with the term "hip house".  As for the first house record 
utilizing rappers, many turn to the Jungle Brothers jam "I'll House You".

	While hip house was taking hold, techno house was being born in 
Detroit.  Kolks like Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Frankie Bones are the 
primary names that immediately come to mind.  The techno style produced by
Saunderson came in the form of the group Inner City ["Big Fun" and "Good 
Life"].  It was fully produced or deep house with a slightly hard, electronic
edge.  Juan Atkins and Frankie Bones' grooves seemed to have more of 
electronic/metalic/industrial sound.  An interesting note, Atkins was the
primary architect behind the group Cybotron which brought the hip hop
electronic classic "Clear".

	As house advanced and its various genres and subgenres began to fuse 
with other musical styles, the groundwork was being laid for the current 
techno/rave scene.  Hosh Gureli, our Assistant Program/Music Director and
mainstay in the Bay Area's current underground scene explained; "Techno
house is a harder edge driven dance music that has the same rhythmic patterns
as other house genres but use a harder synthesizer and a harder sample."  He
went on to explain that the basslines of current techno songs could be 
derived form such hard samples.  For example, the sound of a chainsaw could
be sampled and played in harmonic progression to make up a techno bassline.
He also went on the explain that techno is characterized by a faster 
rhythmic pattern.  "Techno is usually 126-130 bpm whereas deep house which is
derived mostly from R&B, NY and New Jersey deep grooves is set around 116-122
bpm.  Hosh continued by noting that in other genres of house like deep or 
garage the energy is more emotional as compared to the energy released in
techno which is more raging.

	With regards to the term "rave" Hosh explained "The term rave is being
over used much too much.  One of the reasons we use it for the 'Underground
Rave' show [Fridays 1-4am] is because it is the current buzz word or
immediately identifiable term which describes the latest underground dance
scene.  It is what I would call a hip term to describe this new techno
movement."  He added that in techno there are various subgenres like "hard
house", "hard techno", and "ambient techno"... "But all that really matters
is that people get into the groove and have a good time,"  Hosh concluded.

	According to Hosh the rave scene in the Bay Area in particular San
Francisco is on fire.  In fact much of the activity here has surpassed NY which
is often cited as being the trendsetter for dance music.  "The whole techno
scene here in SF is becoming a lifestyle," he noted.  "People are going to
clubs and they're dressing the part.  They're wearing funky clothes, blowing
whistles, and wearing funky hats. It's a costume type of situation.  If you 
can look funky and different from everyone else then you're happening."

	When asked about the hot spots in town, Hosh noted that Osmosis on
Thursday nights with DJ Pete Avila and Toon Town which changes location with
each event, although its promoters will start holding weekly events at 
Townsend, are major.  He went on to cite among others like A Rave Called 
Sharon, Never Never Land, Love, Wicked, Uranus, and Colossus.  Hosh pointed
out that at almost any record or hip clothing or shoe store in the City, one
will find a counter full of flyers advertising various rave parties.

	Hosh concluded by noting that while techno is a phenomenon it will not
necessarily die out because of its roots in house.  Hosh stated that various
types of house surface and resurface again under a different name and techno
is no different.  He pointed to 1988 as a big year in which techno began to 
happen.  It went away for awhile and reappeared in '91 and '92.  "There's a 
revolution happening in the Bay Area right now in night clubs.  Young people
have finally taken things into their own hands.  They haven't waited for the
night club owners to institute changes but instead changes have come from the 
promoters.  It won't be long before some of the tired clubs in the city start
having techno nights.

	Davey D