DJ Whip, real name Randy Butts, a music producer from Salt Lake City in the US has inadvertently invented an entirely new genre while attempting to make a completely generic house track.
According to Whip, he began by laying out a simple four four drumbeat at 120 BPM and an absolutely generic 1st to 5th bass line, following the old favourite chord progression I –VI –IV – V.
“I was fucking delighted with the results,” he said, “it sounded like everything I had ever heard before.”
However, events took a turn when he tripped over his dog’s tail while walking back to his computer with his dinner of beans on toast.
He lost his footing, falling onto the keyboard and managed to hit about twenty buttons at once, simultaneously spilling his beans all over his dog.
The dog jumped up, dragging the computer’s power chord by its tail, knocking the pc onto the ground. She then proceeded to drag the computer through the house, knocking various items onto it as she went.
Whip feared the worst, however, when he pressed play on his track, it had transformed from being the usual generic four four shit-pile that house producers make, into something which he calls “Dog House”.
“The sound itself is incomparable,” said Whip during an interview today. “It sounds like Aphex Twin in a blender with a load of Psylocibin, or Sqaurepusher being dragged backwards through a field of synths by a thousand monkeys.”
Whip said his world opened up at that moment. “I used to strive to make music like everyone else. That’s why I only ever use 120 BPM and fifths. Now I’m entering an experimental phase where I sit on the keyboard to see what happens, play the synth with my toes and have trained my dog to use an MPC.”
The results are unpleasant to say the least. Despite Whip’s hyperbole about his new sound. Toour ears it sounds more like what Kraftwerk would sound like if they were all tuning up at the same time, if that were even possible. It’s been compared to “an electronic shit storm” by the only music executive who was willing to listen to it.
Whip has said however, that the music must remain unreleased as his dog wants co-producer credit on it, and he is not willing to share the royalties.
Oh how deliciously ironic: a Wunderground article that reads exactly the same as every other Wunderground article criticising a genre of music for allegedly having become overly generic.
Haha… Touche, Mr. Weatherill-Hunt. There is a process to follow when creating anything so it clearly communicates its’ purpose, be it music or an article. When any process is overused, things become generic, and the rules that have been laid down become cliché. This is happening ever quicker with the internet. To be fair, I do feel house music is overly generic for the most part, however the irreverent attitude of the piece shouldn’t be taken too seriously- generally this done on the site purely for the sake of humour. There are some great house tracks out there, as there are in an genre (except of course for country music, I think everyone can agree that’s shite)
Haha! Well, I think the multimillion dollar, multimillion following, global country music scene would have a bone to pick with you on that one, but that’s another discussion altogether 😉 As a genre, I’m not sure where else house could go. Irregular time signatures (Math House)? Two step beats (Nu Garage)? I think maybe genericism is something that could be levelled at music in general these days, especially considering the fact that the industry is predominantly owned and run by three major, multinational corporations. However, I guess my main beef isn’t really with Wunderground per se, but more with a growing analogue fetishism within the scene itself that this article largely validates. As a house DJ, producer, fan and researcher myself (sorry, that makes me sound like a self absorbed tosser, but its relevant here), I more and more often come across others in the scene who cling to ‘the old ways’ (vinyl, analogue production equipment etc), not only because they enjoy the medium, but also because it acts as a stamp of elitism. A sort of “no you can’t come and play with us” to anyone interested in getting involved in the house scene, but might have bought a laptop and logic pro rather than saving £2,500 in order to try and find a partially working TR909 on eBay (I’d genuinely love a 909 by the way lol). It used to be ‘our house’ after all, not an exclusive club. Put it another way: I think far too many people will read this article and, whilst they’ll realise that it’s a joke, they’ll also happily invest excessive amounts of validity in it to further entrenching the divide between analogue and digital which, if you hadn’t already realised, drives me fucking insane haha! Apologies if I sound confrontational: that wasn’t my intention. I just find myself falling a little out of love with house, not because of the music, but because of the tossers who often inhabit it 🙁
Wheres this track though?