The MicroHouse Thread

someone told me that basic channel / chain reaction's dubby house was a sort of precursor to microhouse.

i don't know about microjungle, because a) jungle is too dead for such a movement to spark; and b) there was always an implicit 'micro' dimension in the intricate / obsessive breaks editing, esp. in atmospheric jungle - it seems too intrinsic to jungle (combined with bass science) to split into its own thing.

simon reynolds loves microhouse :)

Micro-Jungle? Surely the exciting thing about jungle was the bombasticity. Can someone explain this tendancy for people to want to conflate genres?

the grandaddys - basic channel - phylypps track 2 and isolee - beau mot plage (playhouse)

then - farben - beautone (klang), akufen - psychometry 1 to 3 (trapez), akufen - quebec nightclub (perlon), pantytec - pony slaystation (perlon), alter ego - slaughterhouse (klang).. pretty much anything on klang, traum, trapez, perlon plus some playhouse and kompakt.

microhouse really does pick'n'mix from the last twenty-odd years of house and even disco culture, so trying to give you the roots would be as easy/hard as saying: all of it. obviously it - by and large - avoids masters at work style "Bigness" except when it wants to clip those forms (divas, big horns, orchestral schtuff) down to it's own pert geometrical shapes. it certainly takes something from mid-90s minimal/tech house ala gene farris/cajual/relief. ditto cologne acid ala mike ink. todd edwards (although his beats are too rectilinear, his vocal cut ups are a clear pull for people like hakan libdo and they best represent the micro-editing fetish outside of microhouse proper.) herbert (cf. around the house, one of the great underrated albums of the 90s.) basic channel/chain reaction, yes. good old fashioned stormin' techhouse (i'm not familiar with the stuff to name-names, but you know: the kind of track-ed out, chrome plated shit that blurrs the line between gabba/techno/house just so.) even mouse on mars and certain other bits of idm. and yes, even in a moment of (gasp!) conflating genres (!!), tim is right that you can year some microhouse in horsepower productions garage tracks. (god, that album is so good.)

anyway, microhouse top 10:

1. luomo - vocalcity
2. isolee - "beau mot plague"
3. kompakt - total 3
4. kaito - "saturday & sunday"
5. andrew weatherall - hypercity
6. farben - "live at the sierra tahoe, 1973" or "say, 'love to love you baby'"
7. sascha funke - "when will i be famous?"
8. matmos - "freak'n'you"

(i could only do 8...gimme a break, it's 6 am!)

my top ten albums/comps:

1. Luomo - Vocalcity
2. V/A: Michael Mayer - Immer
3. V/A - Total 2/Total 3/Total 4
4. V/A: Herbert - Let's All Make Mistakes
5. V/A: Martin Landsky - The Best Of Poker Flat Volume II
6. Markus Nikolai - Back
7. V/A: Andrew Weatherall - Hypercity
8. Herbert - Around The House
9. Farben - Textstar
10. MRI - All That Glitters
10.

I can't really hear the relationship with drum n bass, and dare I suggest Horsepower? Again, I've not heard the LP, but the singles I've heard don't really have the fragility of Herbert (for instance).

Nevertheless, having said that, I would cast my vote for Photeks Natural Born Killa EP as being where micro-jungle started (and ended)

The micro in microhouse is in the short, rhythmic samples and clipped beats, no? With lots of space in the music. I suppose you could apply that to other genres as well. Maybe Jay Dee's production style is a bit like that in hip-hop, see also Slum Village's new album Trinity (Past, Present & Future) (Jay Dee's former group, there's still a few of his productions on this album), which even samples a Herbert record!

I'd say definitely.

[See also: Dabrye, the last Prefuse 73 EP.]

also some of Mink Ink's studio 1 records are good. some of the stuff on the poker flat label as well.
I posted a lot of this to the Lofi Stereo thread, but I always forget my html so I can't link to it. :-(

But is this the "micro" at work or the "house"? I'd say the latter. Why I chose Source Direct specifically is because their hypertensile yet funk-riddled, vaguely hardcore-ish sound does with jungle what I think most microhouse does with house - ie. marries abstract studio complexity quite radically to the host style in a manner that preserves (or even intensifies) its dancefloor suitability, its groove science. You're right insofar as neurofunk as a whole, given the stilted and clipped minimalism of most of it (a tendency towards a lack of funk in fact) is probably not the best comparison.

All this sort of answers your earlier question - "Can someone explain this tendancy for people to want to conflate genres?" - the purpose being: if we can, at least mentally, translate what one style is doing into another style, we can learn better what it is that motivates and explains the original style. Asking something like "is Horsepower Productions micro-garage or not?" is the easiest and best way to explore what "micro" actually means (there's certainly no clear consensus).

Can I just plug Markus Nikolai's album Back from 2000? It's fantastic.

I love "Passion" so much, I've probably listened to it more than any other song for the past month (dunno about the Billie Jean reference - quite possibly he's just sampled a bit of the bassline a la Eminem). The "Bushes" version on the album is slightly more cut-up (very Herbert actually) but I think I have heard the one you're talking about. Search from Back: "Superstar", which is just about the epitome of the Perlon sound. There's also all these lovely swerves into Air-styled loungecore pop.

I'd just got paid, was curious about the whole microhouse thing, so splashed out on the Melchior Productions EP, plus Total 4 and Herbert's Around The House.

Well, it's nice, but is that it? If I was listening to this sort of thing all night I'd eventually be crawling up the wall for a squelchy bass riff. These are only my first impressions, mind, and I like the two Luomo tracks on gabba.net a lot.

It does seem to make more sense over headphones. I have a horrible feeling it would make even more sense if I was wearing a poloneck jumper and scratching my chin.

General: I once heard microhouse defined as music that is sort of an endpoint in that once a person has been into "electronica" for ages, they will be more sensitive to inspired subtleties instead of riffs, big beats, etc.

01 Sascha Funke - Drei auf Drei - Kompakt
02 M. Mayer - Amanda - Kompakt
03 Luomo - Class - Force Tracks
04 Farben - Live at the Sahara Tahoe, 1973 - Klang Elektronik
05 A Rocket in Dub - Rocket No. 3 - Italic
06 Herbert - Going Round - Phonography
07 Isolée - Beau Mot Plage - Playhouse
08 Todd Sines - Come Closer - Planet E
09 MRI - To Be Honest - Force Tracks
10 Losoul - You Can Do - Playhouse

Disclaimer: Funke's track is actually closer to Brikha than Brinkmann and might not be considered micro in any sense. Oh well.

my random top ten tracks E-VAH:

Luomo - Class
The Modernist - Abi '81
Jeff Bennet - Last Breath
A Rocket In Dub - Rocket No. 3
Motorbass - Ezio (Herbert Mix)
MRI - Deep Down South
Markus Nikolai - Superstar
Isolee - Beau Mot Plage
Superpitcher - Tomorrow
Thomas Fehlmann - Gratis

Quit making sport of my goosepimples!

(They're senstive.)

heh

Speaking of: Famous When Dead II. Any opinions?

Eh? I didn't read it that way at all! Fret not.

Seconded!

Famous When Dead II. Any opinions?

Not as solid as the first but still quite good. Overall sound of the comp is rounder and fuller. Bless them for including Shake. Also, the Playgroup track (a really moody/Italo/New Order remix of Number One) is spectacular.

You're right, I think I needed to find the context. Someone around these parts compared microhouse to UFOrb, possibly semi-facetiously, but after listening to Pommes Fritz, The Orb's first album with Thomas Fehlmann, and the Sabres' Haunted Dancehall recently it suddenly all made sense. Basically, right, it's dub, innit? (There is something worthwhile to be said about this, but I can't articulate it at the moment.)

Right now I'd say Poker Flat have a very solid argument for being upgraded to the "first tier" of microhouse labels.

"Hm, but maybe they're just playing to their strengths? Maybe they just want to make single/comp appearances because they figure that's a better medium to work in than trying for a full album... "

Point taken. But Glowing Glisses are fairly clearly artists-not-producers (the closest reference point is Super_Collider I guess) and even a short compilation of Jeff Bennet's collected Poker Flat tracks to date would be a mindblowing release. You can hear soundfiles at the Poker Flat site.

(there are six tracks, each is exactly 10 minutes long, but it's not like there's any real diff. between them.)

http://www.jahsonic.com/MicroHouse.html

Thanks to Simon Reynolds and Scott Plagenhoef

Yours
Jan

and for you microgarageheads (ignoring potentially troublesome definitions of 'micro'), there's a edit of a luomo track ("melt") up on gabba.net now that y'all might be interested in.

if the mitchblog kept updating more often I would remember the old stuff in it hint hint

Tip-Light - best Farben Yet.

*

Timtim - "Snowflake"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vp1b94

It's from a series of largely unlistenable 7"s - http://www.discogs.com/label/Spielwiese - Spielwiese being a division of BPitch Control. The loneliness of this particular imprint - just look at that page - suggests the experiments in this direction never really took off with the public. (Although stuff I feel belongs in the same kind of camp but that's much more straightforward and grounded in techno has done very well indeed)

All that said his songs are nice but slighter and underdeveloped by comparison (to the above, and maybe some Morr stuff?). I wonder what he's up to now? His closing track on that Modeselektor DVD was fantastic, like Ulrich Schnauss done right and clearly a development from his Bpitch album (in the same vein as that Spielwise thing).

Revive! I'd almost forgotten we used to call all this stuff michouse, not knowing the horrors of minimamal to come...

In April and again just a few weeks ago I bought a very fine microhouse 12" by Jörg Fischer & Maurice Dulz AKA Goldfisch und der Dulz on the very fine German label Playhouse. Lila (Play 57) has samples from Futurama....

― JoB (JoB), Sunday, September 22, 2002 5:38 PM (5 years ago)

Just discovered the track 'Lila ' last night. I'd say it was much more 'tech-house' than micro - but does anyone know any tracks similar? I love this kind of wonky house.

er, "minimal"

The devil to all the microhouse naysayers! Part of it is this was the first proper house/techno music I ever started listening to and am forever nostalgic for it, the other part is that it's wonderful, and certainly not just sound design nonsense.

And indeed, I bought the Farben. Says: Don't Fight Phrases EP on monday too!

is there any hope for 'club culture' at all any more is is it just going to foreverandever assimilate and DESTROY any possible innovations in house/techno in a way that rock ppl's dont seem to be afflisted with?

fuck clubs I suppose

god I need a decent nights dancing so bad :(

"is there any hope for 'club culture' at all any more is is it just going to foreverandever assimilate and DESTROY any possible innovations in house/techno in a way that rock ppl's dont seem to be afflisted with?"

Fandango you know i love you but this is so much bullshit.

yarr.

apologies, kinda drunk.. not articulating well at all. I guess I have a lingering urge to question the real usefulness of the status quo re: the way new ideas actually get distributed in music (repetitive beats...) in the 00's

It really does feel sometimes like there's a majority (corporate, conservative, sponsored sexy-style) culture that gatekeeps in a way that other genre's do actually try (or at least pose as) to actively reject, which just needs burning away so badly for actual creatives to be able to flourish properly, not just get a foothold with one killer 12" and then... slip into the program liske all the rest.

This probably isn't the way things happen mind, more like different branches constantly gathering strength and colonising back upon the same old grounds until years down the line the original default starting point looks... very much changed. But pah. I am still drunk, I will probably not return to this thread anyway. :/

thanks for the love :) reciprocated! x

if house/techno have any problems right now it's lack of populist figures, not lack of creatives. the scene is brimming with leftfield stuff.

"It really does feel sometimes like there's a majority (corporate, conservative, sponsored sexy-style) culture that gatekeeps in a way that other genre's do actually try (or at least pose as) to actively reject, which just needs burning away so badly for actual creatives to be able to flourish properly, not just get a foothold with one killer 12" and then... slip into the program liske all the rest."

fandango, name some names, otherwise in an era where luciano and villalobos are among the biggest names in european house/techno I'm wondering what you're talking about.

who/what/where are the gatekeepers?

I didn't know you were such a dance music fan, Guard!

who/what/where are the gatekeepers?

― Tim F

in the US it's (as trife might put it) "corny headwrap bohos"

after policing so many events I do tap my foot now and again

I for one would like to hear more stuff like Details by Richard Davis these days. And a copy of said album as well.

Hmmn, (just checked discogs) I thought that was '03, not '05, and indeed it's a bit sonically richer and fuller than a lot of other stuff stuff from that time anyways, but well, I just happen to be listening to "honest with you' and this track is making too much sense to me right now.

http://www.trip-hop.net/images/jacquettes/big/215.jpg

Can someone tell me if this is microhouse or not? Because I really love the combination of deep and micro on it, makes it sound more soulful than some of the more clinical minimal stuff.

To me the first proper microhouse record, or at least the first predecessor to it, has always been Burger/Ink's Las Vegas (which is also mixes deep and minimal house to great effect) from 1996. Or are there some earlier examples?

Is this genre still around?

What difference does it make?

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Fagottron&view=videos

uhhh, wrong thread?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/garden/24tiny.html?_r=0

Well, I'm glad we finally sorted that out.

serious question: is anyone still producing this kind of stuff today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQbQGG-oOrE