Techstep

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Techstep
Stylistic origins
Cultural origins
Typical instruments
Mainstream popularity Small
Other topics
List of jungle and drum n bass artists Category:Drum and bass record labels

Techstep (also referred to as tech) is a subgenre of drum and bass that was popular in the late 1990s.[1]

Contents

[edit] Style

It is characterized by a dark,[2] sci-fi mood, near-exclusive use of synthesised or sampled sound sources, influences from industrial and techno music, and what some writers have described as a "clinical" sound.[3] Although described as having a "techy" feel, techstep's relationship with techno should not be overstated. It shares the technique of creating a high-energy collage from abstract, synthetic noises, including samples, bleeps and squelches: it rarely uses instruments that have not been processed by effects. Similarly, quantized drum-machine kit and percussion sounds are favored over naturalistic human breakbeats. However, it usually adheres to drum and bass norms in other regards, especially in terms of musical structure, with the emphasis on the "drop". Techstep saw jungle music's obsession with bass change from aiming for low and deep to exploring timbre, artists aiming to outdo each other with ever more distorted and "twisted" bass sounds.

[edit] History

Techstep developed from jungle music and hardstep around 1996.[4] The name of the genre was coined by Ed Rush and Trace, who were both instrumental in shaping the sound of techstep.[5] In this case, "tech" did not indicate a relation to the smoother style of Detroit techno, but to the rawer, more caustic hardcore sounds that were popular in Belgium in the earlier part of the decade. Techstep was a reaction to more virtuosic and more pop musical elements in jungle and drum 'n' bass, which were seen as an adulteration of "true" or "original" jungle.[6] Instead the genre was infused with a simpler, colder, "whiter" European sound that stripped away all R&B elements, and replaced them with a more techno and hardcore sound,[7] and ideological influences like youth anti-capitalism movements, and dystopian films like Blade Runner and Robocop.[8]

[edit] Artists

[edit] DJs

[edit] References

  1. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha (1997-11-11). But Then Again, Who Says It Should?. Village Voice. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
  2. ^ Fritz, Jimi; Tristan O'Neill, Virginia Smallfry, Trent Warlow (1999). Rave Culture: An Insider's Overview. Small Fry Publishers. ISBN 0-96857-210-3. 
  3. ^ Shapiro, Peter (1999). Drum 'n' Bass: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-433-3. 
  4. ^ Venderosa, Tony (2002). The Techno Primer: The Essential Reference for Loop-based Music. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-01788-8. 
  5. ^ Reynolds, Simon (2005), “War in the Jungle”, in Bennett, Andy & Shank, Barry, The Popular Music Studies Reader, Routledge, 0-415-30710-4, <http://books.google.com/books?id=QQZNciX0OgEC> 
  6. ^ Monroe, Alexei (1999), “Thinking about mutation: genres in 1990s electronica”, in Blake, Andrew, Living Through Pop, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-16199-1 
  7. ^ Mitchell, Tony (2001). Global Noise: Rap and Hip-hop Outside the USA. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6502-4. 
  8. ^ Reynolds, Simon (1999). Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-92373-5. 

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Drum and bass
Other electronic dance music genres