Motion and Gesture in Trance Music
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The Psytrance Party
THE PSYTRANCE PARTY C. DE LEDESMA M.Phil. 2011 THE PSYTRANCE PARTY CHARLES DE LEDESMA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of East London for the degree of Master of Philosophy August 2011 Abstract In my study, I explore a specific kind of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) event - the psytrance party to highlight the importance of social connectivity and the generation of a modern form of communitas (Turner, 1969, 1982). Since the early 90s psytrance, and a related earlier style, Goa trance, have been understood as hedonist music cultures where participants seek to get into a trance-like state through all night dancing and psychedelic drugs consumption. Authors (Cole and Hannan, 1997; D’Andrea, 2007; Partridge, 2004; St John 2010a and 2010b; Saldanha, 2007) conflate this electronic dance music with spirituality and indigene rituals. In addition, they locate psytrance in a neo-psychedelic countercultural continuum with roots stretching back to the 1960s. Others locate the trance party events, driven by fast, hypnotic, beat-driven, largely instrumental music, as post sub cultural and neo-tribal, representing symbolic resistance to capitalism and neo liberalism. My study is in partial agreement with these readings when applied to genre history, but questions their validity for contemporary practice. The data I collected at and around the 2008 Offworld festival demonstrates that participants found the psytrance experience enjoyable and enriching, despite an apparent lack of overt euphoria, spectacular transgression, or sustained hedonism. I suggest that my work adds to an existing body of literature on psytrance in its exploration of a dance music event as a liminal space, redolent with communitas, but one too which foregrounds mundane features, such as socialising and pleasure. -
Neotrance and the Psychedelic Festival DC
Neotrance and the Psychedelic Festival GRAHAM ST JOHN UNIVERSITY OF REGINA, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND Abstract !is article explores the religio-spiritual characteristics of psytrance (psychedelic trance), attending speci"cally to the characteristics of what I call neotrance apparent within the contemporary trance event, the countercultural inheritance of the “tribal” psytrance festival, and the dramatizing of participants’ “ultimate concerns” within the festival framework. An exploration of the psychedelic festival offers insights on ecstatic (self- transcendent), performative (self-expressive) and re!exive (conscious alternative) trajectories within psytrance music culture. I address this dynamic with reference to Portugal’s Boom Festival. Keywords psytrance, neotrance, psychedelic festival, trance states, religion, new spirituality, liminality, neotribe Figure 1: Main Floor, Boom Festival 2008, Portugal – Photo by jakob kolar www.jacomedia.net As electronic dance music cultures (EDMCs) flourish in the global present, their relig- ious and/or spiritual character have become common subjects of exploration for scholars of religion, music and culture.1 This article addresses the religio-spiritual Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 1(1) 2009, 35-64 + Dancecult ISSN 1947-5403 ©2009 Dancecult http://www.dancecult.net/ DC Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture – DOI 10.12801/1947-5403.2009.01.01.03 + D DC –C 36 Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture • vol 1 no 1 characteristics of psytrance (psychedelic trance), attending specifically to the charac- teristics of the contemporary trance event which I call neotrance, the countercultural inheritance of the “tribal” psytrance festival, and the dramatizing of participants’ “ul- timate concerns” within the framework of the “visionary” music festival. -
Final Copy 2019 01 31 Charl
This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Charles, Christopher Title: Psyculture in Bristol Careers, Projects and Strategies in Digital Music-Making General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Psyculture in Bristol: Careers, Projects, and Strategies in Digital Music-Making Christopher Charles A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of Ph. D. -
House, Techno & the Origins of Electronic Dance Music
HOUSE, TECHNO & THE ORIGINS OF ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC 1 EARLY HOUSE AND TECHNO ARTISTS THE STUDIO AS AN INSTRUMENT TECHNOLOGY AND ‘MISTAKES’ OR ‘MISUSE’ 2 How did we get here? disco electro-pop soul / funk Garage - NYC House - Chicago Techno - Detroit Paradise Garage - NYC Larry Levan (and Frankie Knuckles) Chicago House Music House music borrowed disco’s percussion, with the bass drum on every beat, with hi-hat 8th note offbeats on every bar and a snare marking beats 2 and 4. House musicians added synthesizer bass lines, electronic drums, electronic effects, samples from funk and pop, and vocals using reverb and delay. They balanced live instruments and singing with electronics. Like Disco, House music was “inclusive” (both socially and musically), infuenced by synthpop, rock, reggae, new wave, punk and industrial. Music made for dancing. It was not initially aimed at commercial success. The Warehouse Discotheque that opened in 1977 The Warehouse was the place to be in Chicago’s late-’70s nightlife scene. An old three-story warehouse in Chicago’s west-loop industrial area meant for only 500 patrons, the Warehouse often had over 2000 people crammed into its dark dance foor trying to hear DJ Frankie Knuckles’ magic. In 1982, management at the Warehouse doubled the admission, driving away the original crowd, as well as Knuckles. Frankie Knuckles and The Warehouse "The Godfather of House Music" Grew up in the South Bronx and worked together with his friend Larry Levan in NYC before moving to Chicago. Main DJ at “The Warehouse” until 1982 In the early 80’s, as disco was fading, he started mixing disco records with a drum machines and spacey, drawn out lines. -
An Introduction to Vocal Recording, Sampling, Looping and Effects (Unit 1)
An Introduction to Vocal Recording, Sampling, Looping and Effects (Unit 1) Students will explore and learn the skills required to create music using new sampling, effects and looping technology. The main focus of the scheme of work is to develop an increased awareness of sound through the manipulation of vocally generated sounds. Students will compose and perform pieces of music in conjunction with various pieces of technology. This unit should be studied prior to Unit 2 (Vocalise) and Unit 3 (Film Music) and is written primarily for Year 7 students. This can be adapted for other year groups. Key Concepts: sampling, editing, effects, recording, synthesis, looping Featured Technologies: RC-300, ME-25, DR-30, HPD-10 Age Level: 11 – 14, Year 7 Download Unit Further Resources PPT for Activity 3: BailaBaila vocal samples [link to Unit 1_activity3 folder here] Sample Image for Activity 6 [insert link to comic.jpg here] Sample Image for Activity 7 [insert link to hpd10.jpg here] PPT for Activity 7: Drum Kit [insert link to Unit 1_activity7.ppt here] Vocalise (Unit 2) Students will learn how to use their voices as musical instruments in conjunction with a range of performance and sound processing technologies. They will create ‘sound poetry’, a form of musical and literary composition, within which the phonetic aspects of human speech and noise making are highlighted. Sound Poetry is a performance based activity and, as such, will provide an ideal way to meet the National Curriculum’s new demand for using technologies to support processes of musical performance. The vocal skills that students will learn in this unit are transferable into singing activities and will also generate confidence for future lyric/song writing. -
Download Brochure
Name: Niraj Singh ACOUSTAMIND Hometown: Mumbai Genre: Electronic Dance Music: Psytrance, Dark Progressive Likes (Facebook): 1270 likes About: Acoustamind - is Niraj Singh who is born and bred from Bombay, India. Niraj got acquainted with disc joking at a very tender age of 16. In his Djing journey, he was hit by the psychedelic music wave in 2005 which gave birth to his psychedelic project “Psyboy Original” under which he performed in several events and festivals throughout India. Completed his “Audio Engineering” from the prestigious SAE institute in the year 2012 to deepen his understanding of music production and is currently pursuing Acoustical instruments. He spends majority time of the day in his studio (Rabbit Hole Soundlab), producing music which consists of dark and harmonic atmospheres, deep and powerful bass lines, psychedelic melodies and synthesized rhythms. His music is a smooth blend of familiar Sounds from the nature and unheard Alienated sounds. “Acoustamind” as a project believes and focuses on working with collaboration with various artists like Karran, Shishiva, etc to produce music with cross collaboration of creative ideologies. Niraj has shared the stage with many senior artists of the dark and forest psychedelic trance genre on numnerous occasions in Goa and other parts of India. Acoustamind’s objective is to spread UNBOUNDED FRESH BREATHTAKING AND BRAIN TRANSFORMING ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES with a humble smile through SOUNDCARPETS MELTED WITH PHAT KICKS AND ULTRAUEBERROLLING GROOVY BASSLINES and wishes to travel the world. http://bhooteshwara.com/artist/acoustamind/ http://soundcloud.com/…/acoustamind-vs-kosmic-baba-bad-robot Name: Ovnimoon records ALPHATRANCE Hometown: Toulouse, France Genre: Psychedelic trance, Progressive trance Psytrance, Trance Likes(Facebook): 10,588 About: Dj Alphatrance (Ovnimoon Records) is DJ who is spiritually enlightened by Buddhism. -
Progressive House: from Underground to the Big Room
PROGRESSIVE HOUSE: FROM UNDERGROUND TO THE BIG ROOM A Bachelor thesis written by Sonja Hamhuis. Student number 5658829 Study Ba. Musicology Course year 2017-2018 Semester 1 Faculty Humanities Supervisor dr. Michiel Kamp Date 22-01-2017 ABSTRACT The electronic dance industry consists of many different subgenres. All of them have their own history and have developed over time, causing uncertainties about the actual definition of these subgenres. Among those is progressive house, a British genre by origin, that has evolved in stages over the past twenty-five years and eventually gained popularity with the masses. Within the field of musicology, these processes have not yet been covered. Therefore, this research provides insights in the historical process of the defining and popularisation of progressive house music. By examining interviews, media articles and academic literature, and supported by case studies on Leftfield’s ‘Not Forgotten’ en the Swedish House Mafia’s ‘One (Your Name)’, it hypothesizes that there is a connection between the musical changes in progressive house music and its popularisation. The results also show that the defining of progressive house music has been - and is - an extensive process fuelled by center collectivities and gatekeepers like fan communities, media, record labels, and artists. Moreover, it suggests that the same center collectivities and gatekeepers, along with the on-going influences of digitalisation, played a part in the popularisation of the previously named genres. Altogether, this thesis aims to open doors for future research on genre defining processes and electronic dance music culture. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 - On the defining of genre ....................................................................... -
Formal Devices of Trance and House Music: Breakdowns
FORMAL DEVICES OF TRANCE AND HOUSE MUSIC: BREAKDOWNS, BUILDUPS AND ANTHEMS Devin Iler, B.M. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2011 APPROVED: David B. Schwarz, Major Professor Thomas Sovik, Minor Professor Ana Alonso-Minutti, Committee Member Lynn Eustis, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James Scott, Dean of the College of Music James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Iler, Devin. Formal Devices of Trance and House Music: Breakdowns, Buildups, and Anthems. Master of Music (Music Theory), December 2011, 121 pp., 53 examples, reference list, 41 titles. Trance and house music are sub-genres within the genre of electronic dance music. The form of breakdown, buildup and anthem is the main driving force behind trance and house music. This thesis analyzes transcriptions from 22 trance and house songs in order to establish and define new terminology for formal devices used within the breakdown, buildup and anthem sections of the music. Copyright 2011 by Devin Iler ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF EXAMPLES……………………………………………………………………iv CHAPTER 1—INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………......1 Definition of Terms/Theoretical Background…………………………………......1 A Brief Historical Context………………………………………………………...6 CHAPTER 2— TYPICAL BUILDUP FEATURES……………………………………...9 Snare Rolls and Bass Hits…………………………………………………………9 Bass + Snare + High Hat Leads and Rest Measures……………………………..24 CHAPTER 3— BUILDUPS WITHOUT TYPICAL FEATURES……………………...45 Synth Sweeps…………………………………………………………………….45 -
Genre in Practice: Categories, Metadata and Music-Making in Psytrance Culture
Genre in Practice: Categories, Metadata and Music-Making in Psytrance Culture Feature Article Christopher Charles University of Bristol (UK) Abstract Digital technology has changed the way in which genre terms are used in today’s musical cultures. Web 2.0 services have given musicians greater control over how their music is categorised than in previous eras, and the tagging systems they contain have created a non-hierarchical environment in which musical genres, descriptive terms, and a wide range of other metadata can be deployed in combination, allowing musicians to describe their musical output with greater subtlety than before. This article looks at these changes in the context of psyculture, an international EDM culture characterised by a wide vocabulary of stylistic terms, highlighting the significance of these changes for modern-day music careers. Profiles are given of two artists, and their use of genre on social media platforms is outlined. The article focuses on two genres which have thus far been peripheral to the literature on psyculture, forest psytrance and psydub. It also touches on related genres and some novel concepts employed by participants (”morning forest” and ”tundra”). Keywords: psyculture; genre; internet; forest psytrance; psydub Christopher Charles is a musician and researcher from Bristol, UK. His recent PhD thesis (2019) looked at the careers of psychedelic musicians in Bristol with chapters on event promotion, digital music distribution, and online learning. He produces and performs psydub music under the name Geoglyph, and forest psytrance under the name Espertine. Email: <[email protected]>. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 12(1): 22–47 ISSN 1947-5403 ©2020 Dancecult http://dj.dancecult.net http://dx.doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2020.12.01.09 Charles | Genre in Practice: Categories, Metadata and Music-Making in Psytrance Culture 23 Introduction The internet has brought about important changes to the nature and function of genre in today’s musical cultures. -
Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture
The Vibe of the Exiles: Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture Feature Article Graham St John Griffith University (Australia) Abstract This article offers detailed comment on thevibe of the exiles, a socio-sonic aesthetic infused with the sensibility of the exile, of compatriotism in expatriation, a characteristic of psychedelic electronica from Goatrance to psytrance and beyond (i.e. psyculture). The commentary focuses on an emancipatory artifice which sees participants in the psyculture continuum adopt the figure of the alien in transpersonal and utopian projects. Decaled with the cosmic liminality of space exploration, alien encounter and abduction repurposed from science fiction, psychedelic event-culture cultivates posthumanist pretentions resembling Afrofuturist sensibilities that are identified with, appropriated and reassembled by participants. Offering a range of examples, among them Israeli psychedelic artists bent on entering another world, the article explores the interface of psyculture and Afrofuturism. Sharing a theme central to cosmic jazz, funk, rock, dub, electro, hip-hop and techno, from the earliest productions, Israeli and otherwise, Goatrance, assumed an off-world trajectory, and a concomitant celebration of difference, a potent otherness signified by the alien encounter, where contact and abduction become driving narratives for increasingly popular social aesthetics. Exploring the different orbits from which mystics and ecstatics transmit visions of another world, the article, then, focuses on the socio- sonic aesthetics of the dance floor, that orgiastic domain in which a multitude of “freedoms” are performed, mutant utopias propagated, and alien identities danced into being. Keywords: alien-ation; psyculture; Afrofuturism; posthumanism; psytrance; exiles; aliens; vibe Graham St John is a cultural anthropologist and researcher of electronic dance music cultures and festivals. -
University of Nevada, Reno Partying with Hello Kitty: How Electronic Dance Music and Rave Culture Are Transforming, Commercializ
University of Nevada, Reno Partying with Hello Kitty: How Electronic Dance Music and Rave Culture are transforming, commercializing, and globalizing youth culture in the twenty-first century A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History By Geoff Scott Dr. Hugh Shapiro/Thesis Advisor May 2014 i Abstract This thesis will demonstrate how electronic dance music (EDM) has evolved from the musical underground during the second half of the twentieth century into the mainstream, commercial powerhouse it is now in the early twenty-first-century world. EDM at its core is a musical style characterized by the use of synthetic, electronic sounds. The combination of technological devices such as drum machines, repetitive bass lines, electronic builds and releases and inorganic noises in tandem with instrumental and vocal samples makes EDM an incredibly malleable style of dance music that has branched into a variety of forms over the course of its less than fifty year existence. Innovations in technology, like the tape reel, the Moog synthesizer, the vinyl mixer and the computer have led to new ways of contemplating and creating music. I argue that the innovative musical voices of late modernism and early postmodernism set the foundation for early EDM, who were not afraid to harness the new synthetic sounds at their disposal. Electronic dance music can trace its roots back to the repetitive, minimalist structures used since the 1960’s by postmodern composers such as Philip Glass and the electronic instrumentation of artists like Terry Riley and John Cage. Owing to its flexibility, EDM has also been re-contextualized in different cultures. -
Ambient Music the Complete Guide
Ambient music The Complete Guide PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:43:32 UTC Contents Articles Ambient music 1 Stylistic origins 9 20th-century classical music 9 Electronic music 17 Minimal music 39 Psychedelic rock 48 Krautrock 59 Space rock 64 New Age music 67 Typical instruments 71 Electronic musical instrument 71 Electroacoustic music 84 Folk instrument 90 Derivative forms 93 Ambient house 93 Lounge music 96 Chill-out music 99 Downtempo 101 Subgenres 103 Dark ambient 103 Drone music 105 Lowercase 115 Detroit techno 116 Fusion genres 122 Illbient 122 Psybient 124 Space music 128 Related topics and lists 138 List of ambient artists 138 List of electronic music genres 147 Furniture music 153 References Article Sources and Contributors 156 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 160 Article Licenses License 162 Ambient music 1 Ambient music Ambient music Stylistic origins Electronic art music Minimalist music [1] Drone music Psychedelic rock Krautrock Space rock Frippertronics Cultural origins Early 1970s, United Kingdom Typical instruments Electronic musical instruments, electroacoustic music instruments, and any other instruments or sounds (including world instruments) with electronic processing Mainstream Low popularity Derivative forms Ambient house – Ambient techno – Chillout – Downtempo – Trance – Intelligent dance Subgenres [1] Dark ambient – Drone music – Lowercase – Black ambient – Detroit techno – Shoegaze Fusion genres Ambient dub – Illbient – Psybient – Ambient industrial – Ambient house – Space music – Post-rock Other topics Ambient music artists – List of electronic music genres – Furniture music Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric",[2] "visual"[3] or "unobtrusive" quality.