Help me to get "abstract" house please?

Black Jazz Consortium, Anton Zap, Jus-Ed, John Daly, Linkwood, Patrice Scott, Rick Wade, Kassem Mosse, Reggie Dokes, Even Tuell, Theo Parrish, Break SL, 3 Chairs, Alton Miller, etc.

How?

or maybe "help me get." english is not my first language.

If you mean "get" as in "acquire," try Hardwax, Boomkat, Rush Hour, etc.
If you mean "get" as in "understand," just listen to it! Nothing too "abstract" about most of that stuff in my opinion, it tends to be pretty visceral!

if you're in the USA:
dopejams.net
downtown304.com

what i mean is get as in understand.

yeah, i'm a bit confused by this. this isn't abstract:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFq9iPF5kn4

neither is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRBhA_1sjhU

i think that you might need to clarify yourself a bit more.

in some ways, i wish pipecock were here to do the whole 'this isn't abstract this is REAL house music' thing. but then again, no.

well, of course it is abstract. isn't most (instrumental) music?

well, by abstract I mean tracks by those pipecock-approved producers seem to me as lacking definite hooks and grooves that can make me move. some example of recent tracks that have those "hooks and grooves": "U & I," "Six Figures," and tracks from Panorama Bar 02.

a lot of anton zap is hooky. try "captain rush"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoHllzzV3x0

'abstract' here is the same as 'abstract' being used to describe instrumental hip hop in the mid 90s aka TRIP HOP, therefore, this is Trip House.

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/m/mase/album-harlem-world.jpg

well, that's awesome. not abstract at all. (referring to "captain rush")

no, Ma$e House is what would be really awesome.

But yes, listening, carefully, is what makes things worth the while. It's the details, be they sonic, conceptual, emotional, that makes you not bored of them after two months (they may come slow, but if and when they do they're there to stay, which is more than I can say about a lot of chart fodder, but that's another story). This was a sort of realization that came to me seeing Substance play live last year: sometimes you have to really listen to the music, and listen attentively to get what's below the surface, and then unseen layers of depth can really hit you hence pshrbrn's comment upthread regarding it's viscerality.

I think "abstract" is the wrong word here primarily because it as easily describes a lot of the post-minimal which you already love, durr.

Maybe the key pipecock word you're looking for is "deep" - and not just in the sense of "deep house" specifically. I think almost all of the producers you've listed (not john daly though to my knowledge) at least occasionally put out stuff which deliberately do away with tunes/hooks/dynamics in exchange for "deepness" and setting a mood.

Opinion will always be divided as to whether: a) this is likely to be a fair exchange; and b) on which tracks it works and on which tracks it doesn't.

For myself I tend to prefer tracks which set up signifiers of deepness against stronger hooks etc. This is because I'm not nearly as clever as all the deepness heads.

I tend to prefer tracks which set up signifiers of deepness against stronger hooks etc.

this is what's up imo

the list at the top is pretty big and not really coherent. zap is an extremely hooky producer....one of the few around now I could listen to all the live long day. zap needs to make an album...his music transcends the cul de sac.

well, my mistake then about anton zap. i listed him there because he's usually associated with the other guys.

@tim: what do you mean by "set up signifiers of deepness against stronger hooks etc."?

wow, this anton zap is really something. been listening to his tracks on youtube and i just can't stop to move.

the really deep deep stuff i sometimes struggle to get into when listening at home too, but ime it can be great for dancing to esp in small dark rooms w/ good sound etc. you can really 'lose yourself in the music' as they say. have u had much chance to go out dancing to this stuff?

nope. no dj's in my country play this kind of stuff..

you could :)

help me understand it then :))

Not everyone understands "abstract" house music, it's a spiritual thing, a body thing, a soul thing.

(sorry).

try some hard drugs maybe

^ the easiest advice so far

It feels weird that this kind of house has come back into fashion again, it just reminds me of smoking doobs in the corner of electric chair with loads of house dads in manchester. Inevitably DJs cant do as many Es as they used to, then they go deep.

Which country do you live in, Durr?

Indonesia :)

re: straightola's post, kinda feel like there's a big point to be made about how the lack of a sense of forward momentum in underground dance music sends ppl retreating to tried and tested signifiers of quality i.e. deepness, and how the 'ppl getting older' crack rings true cos why would young ppl be excited about house music in 2009? but i can't really make a proper point because i don't really know what i'm talking about plus i'm too tired (because i'm old).

Another person who's just discovered Anton Zapp cos of this thread. Really hypnotic, gorgeous stuff.

that's great! he deserves the recognition. UQ just released another record of his: http://undergroundquality.com/store.htm

I just discovered Anton Zap like a day before reading this thread (well I'd heard/heard of him, I didn't bother really listening to his stuff till this week). I had thought he made boring preset-sounding techno... I really wonder where I got that idea.

probably because his name. anton zap.

@tim: what do you mean by "set up signifiers of deepness against stronger hooks etc."?

I mean, using sonic tricks that suggest "deepness" but keeping all of the things that make tunes hooky (vocals, or at least strong melodies, interesting percussion arrangements etc.). A good example this year is Manuel Tur's "Will Be Mine", which I guess is maximalist dub-house. A lot of people who seem to privilege ideas of deepness also seem to be suspicious of maximalism.

I wouldn't say the people in your list as a rule don't do this, I was just making a more general point about deepness in dance music.

anton zap's stuff on headphones or in a club...just fucking SO GOOD. the warmth of his stuff is weird, like lights up an entire club.

The Anton Zap track upthread reminds me (in a good way) of Jeff Bennett from the beginning of the decade.