Dark house

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dark-house is the name used by some people to describe certain progressive house records that are characterised by deep penetrating lowtempo beats (~130 BPM) and the use of words and sounds that create a foreboding atmosphere.

Many house connoisseurs deny the existence of this sub-genre or reject the creation of new sub-genres in house music, and simply refer to these types of records as progressive house. The reason for this skepticism may be that this style peaked in popularity between 1998 and 2001, after which many so-called 'dark-house' producers continuing to move with the constantly evolving styles that define progressive house. Nevertheless, darker progressive house records seem to be re-emerging, but with a 'dirtier' influence than has been heard previously (for example, DJ Vibe).

[edit] Structure

Dark-house is usually tribal but minimalistic. It often features echoed trance-like claps (as opposed to progressive house snare drums), and low pitched, driving basslines. The tone is almost always melancholic and somewhat dreamy. At more intense levels, dark house may contain screeching, moaning, or electronic pulses to emulate sounds found in horror movies. Where Detroit techno may feature raw basses usually looped between four beats, dark house usually has intricate basslines with a possible pitch change looped over eight or more beats.

[edit] Examples

The following tracks are examples of the dark house genre:

Tijuana - Groove Is In The Air

Jamez Presents Tatoine - Music (16b Remix)

Satoshi Tomiie & Kelly Ali - Love In Traffic (John Creamer & Stephane K Remix)

Dirty Harry - Musica

Moshic & Landa - Faza

Angel - Powerplant (Hamel & Medway Remix)

Filur - You And I (Trentemøller Free Dub)

The following is a track commonly layered over a dark house beat to make it scary:

Ame - Rej

House
Acid - Ambient - Chicago - Dark - Deep - Dream - French - Garage - Ghetto - Hard - Hip - Italo - Latin - Minimal - Microhouse - Progressive - Pumpin' - Tech - Tribal
Other electronic music genres
Ambient | Breakbeat | Dance | Drum and bass | Electronica | Electronic art music | Hard dance | Hardcore | House | Industrial | Synthpop | Techno | Trance