RFI: Dad-House

I'm not quite sure how FC Kahuna got lumped into this, though I do like them so perhaps they're just hitting the broody buttons. Are L&B good then? I keep reading conflicting reports. Seven quid in Fopp for the vinyl though, I'm very tempted.

Agreed! I just mentioned him because the first time I saw the term Dad-House was in an article about Garnier and a few others shortly after the release of "30" (which Garnier made when he turned 30). My understanding at the time was that the term referred to the production side and was affectionate rather than pejorative. The term may have been co-opted since

The blueprint for dad-house is Leftism I guess, although I think only some of the songs on that album are definitely "dad- house". Maybe it's more the rhetoric surrounding Leftism, and all the ideas about what the album "meant" (both positive and negative). Certainly you're unlikely to find dad-house producers working in vocal house/phased disco etc. because such music is too relentlessly pleasure and pop-focused; rather, this is music that considers itself contemplative, moody, sophisticated, often distant and generally somewhat desexualised. Hence you're more likely to find it popping up in the deep/progressive/tech end of things.

Layo & Bushwacka! are sorta-not dad house, but rather a dad- house equivalent making breakbeat ("Deep South" and "Love Story" excepted). You could prob. find dad-house "equivalents" in other dance genres too (Photek or Size/Reprazent's first album for jungle, Wookie's album for UK Garage etc.), the common elements being the ethos and the intention, plus the music's reception by the press (people either love it for being sophisticated and more cerebral/cinematic/emotive than yer general dance music or hate it for the same reasons).

I don't think that "dad-house" or its equivalents automatically refer to bad music. A lot of the groups I've listed I really like or love. I suppose the main issue is whether a dad-house artist or album genuinely lives up to its own intentions. L&B's first album was frequently excellent dad-dance because the grooves were actually as dark/compelling/cinematic/gripping as they were intended to be. Most of what I've heard from their new album sounds like bad dad-dance because it is merely applying the forms of what is felt to be cinematic or compelling music over the top of uninteresting grooves. In this common situation, the dad-dance artist's "sonic signature" becomes detached from the music's fundamental base (its groove, its "danceability") and is no longer being invested *within* the base.

I guess though, as a general rule most dance bands who make non mix albums are "dad house" or have some of the elements of it. I mean the notion of dance ALBUMS instead of singles or mixes is a bit dad house in itself.