Northern House

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1991 era piano tunes, love decade so real, shades of rhythm sound of eden, new atlantic i know, dream frequency, a provincial/northern strain running through (pre)hardcore, that seems to have been ignored.

but is it something else again? i'm not sure now, looking back, that those big piano tunes are house music at all. the midsize town nature of northern soul and rave is clear (wigan, blackpool, burnley, warrington, stoke) etc, directly maps on onto the other geographically, and possibly the same audience, sepearated only by a decade or so in chronology...

to me, most of the succesful tunes from that era owe more to northern soul than to house music, though there is an identifiably belgian influence there also, but it seems like embellishment, updating, window dressing, to the main course, that loud and forceful vocals, and the pianos.

what do you think?

― Stringent Stepper (Stringent), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:22 (twenty-two years ago)

YOU ARE NOT REALLY TALKINGANOUT THE ESSENCE OF THE TUNE, RATHER YOU ARE DISCUSSING ACCENT AND DECORATION. hOUSE AND BREAKBEAT HARDCORE ARE DEFINED BY THEIR BEATS, HOUSE HAS AT ITS HEART A FOUR BEAT, ITS ESSENCE IS TO ACCENTUATE AND FOCUS ATTENTION ON THIS FOUR BEAT. hARDCORE ONLY BECOMES DESTINGUISHABLE FROM HOUSE BECAUSE FOUR BEAT BASSLINE OR BREAKBEAT BASSLINE THE BREAKBEAT IS STILL ITS ESSENTIAL AND DEFINING ELEMENT.

― LUKEY, Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Enough with the musicology!

it seems like embellishment, updating, window dressing, to the main course, that loud and forceful vocals, and the pianos

But surely the pianos are just embellishments to the beats. And why all those snares? Why not just stick to bass beats, four to the floor...?

― ENRQ (Enrique), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

WOOPS POSTED BEFORE i WAS DONE. WHAT I WAS GOING TO CONCLUDE BY SAYING WAS THAT ALTHOUGH THEIR ARE TUNES IN BOTH THE HOUSE AND EARLY HARDCORE CANNONS THAT ARE REMENISCIENT OF NORTHERN SOUL, THOSE TUNES STILL HOLD MORE IN COMMON WITH OTHER HOUSE OR HARDCORE TUNES, EVEN ONES WITH MORE HIP HOP OR REGGAE INFLUENCES. NORTHERN SOUL, DESPITE HAVING A DRIVING RYTHM IS STILL A MUSIC HEALD TOGEATHER BY ITS VOCAL, AND THAT RYTHM STILL RESPONDS TO THE VOCAL. IN HOUSE AND HARDCORE THIS RELATIONSHIP IS REVERSED, THE BEAT IS THE CATALIST AGENT, THE VOCALS ACCENT AND RESPOND.

― LUKEY, Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Would you not say that in 1991 breakbeathardcore was still emerging from house and that sets would include the breakbeat tunes, and the 4 to the floor tunes, and hybrids of the 2, that hardcore hadnt separated properly from house at that point?

― Stringent Stepper (Stringent), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

perhaps it would be possible to say that the very populist northern soul aesthetic in the north (and norhtwest particularly), distorted house music in its own image.

also, i wonder how many of the northwests house djs had previously been in the northern soul scene (i dont know the answer to this question, but am curious)

― Stringent Stepper (Stringent), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:50 (twenty-two years ago)

yes this was the case, it was still very common to hear breaks and 4/4 tunes in the same set - it was all still seen as one big thing then, no syncopation segregation

what it has to do with Northern Soul other than being popular up North i don't know. unlike Northern Soul rave was just as big down South if not bigger as that's where the focus seemed to be and where most of the bigger raves took place

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i CONCEDE THAT THE TITLE'RAVE' COUVERED BOTH BREAK AND FOURBEAT RECORDS AND THAT BOTH COULD BE PLAYED TOGEATHER IN HE SAME SET AND OFTEN WHERE. I STILL THINK THAT THIS IS AS A RESULT OF THEIR STRUCTURAL RIGIDITY AND THAT IF YOU WANT TO FIND A MODERN DANCE MUSIC WITH THE SORT OF RYTHMICAL FLEXABILITY THAT NORTHERN SOUL HAD, AND WHICH EMPLOYS ALMOST AS MANY VOCALS, UK GARAGE 95-98 WOULD BE THE FIRST PLACE I WOULD LOOK.

― LUKEY, Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Please stop shouting.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

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