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synth's
 Techno cheat sheet   1997

Entries shadowed out indicate styles not en vogue or receiving attention. Descriptions in quotes are lifted from other sources (hyperlinked at the bottom). Qualifying aritsts highlighted in yellow -- by and large ones I personally listen to or am familiar with.

This page is not the front of the wave; it reflects styles and trends in 1996 and 1997, before I moved to California. Please refer to The Electronica Primer and Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music for up-to-date info.


Acid Jazz

Digable Planets, Incognito, Towa Tei. Hip-hop influenced, with beats and samples of classic jazz. Evokes a "smooth rhythm". Often features the classic Hammond organ.

Ambient

Aphex Twin, The Orb. Background rhythm or no defined rhythm. Mystical, soothing. Liquid, layered chill-out sounds and samples.

Breakbeat

Prodigy, Chemical Brothers. Precursor to Jungle. Loud, fast, aggressive, fueled by speedy drums. Uses 909 kick drum through a distortion pedal as main beat. Beat pattern characterized by 1 2 & 4 "on the floor" and a syncopated 3.

Club / Dance

Funky Green Dogs, Ministry of Sound.. Medium tempo: 130 bpm. Simple bassdrum. Disco influenced. Somewhat generic rhythm. Clean, happy beats and synths.

Drum & Bass

Photek, LTJ Bukem, Source Direct. Origin: London. Offshoot of Jungle. Fast, lots of layered percussion, minimal melody, smooth flowing bassline, flowing string sounds.

Gabba aka Happy Hardcore

Means 'mate' in dutch. Very fast: 180+ bpm. Hardcore, rave sound often with quirky cartoonesque samples. Originated in Rotterdam circa 1989.

Dub

???

Goa

Juno Reactor, Eat Static. Trance with a steady, fast 4/4 ("stomping" beat), multi-layered buzzy/ acidy/ psychadelic sounds and noises, hard bassline. Occasional sci-fi-esque sample. Faster than House but slower than Drum & Bass.

Garage

4/4 house, very vocal-oriented, lots of hi-hats. "Garage came from Philly soul, originally was no more than 120 bpm in its speed, had up _and_ down lines in its bassline department, and had generally a more 'soul' feel than house did. Originated at the Paradise Garage Club, NY."

Hardcore

Precursor to Breakbeat. Aggressive, heavy rhythm -- busy, layered tracks and samples, speed-metal-esque.

Hi-NRG

Dead Or Alive. Mid to late 80's. Fast: 130+ bpm. Upbeat, bright clean sounds. Loud, tight bassdrum, handclaps and hats. Evolved into Euro.

House

Bomb The Bass, Eric B and Rakim. In its original form (sometimes called Chicago House): Originally formed circa 1983 in Chicago, "House is a feeling...House is an uncontrollable desire to jack your body etc etc..." Formulaic grooves at 120bpm. Monster kick drum sound pattern w/ high hat, with a prominent melody. Steady and clean sound with soul-inspired vocals and samples.

Moby, Keoki. Today the term House embodies a more uptempo, happy, rave-influenced sound. Strongly groove-oriented. Steady four- on- the- floor. Dovetails with Nu-Energy.

Spawned its own sub-genres:

Acid House

    Maurice, some Chemical Brothers, Lords Of Acid. Characterized by use of a Roland TB-303. squelchy, squeaky sounds -- the "funky worm". Normal: 130 bpm. Precursor to Trance.

Ambient House


Deep House

    DHS. "Deep house is a style of house most prominently influenced by a combination of gospel and [80's] Chicago house beats. Look for wailing divas, spooky organs and that old chord progression that we know and love. Deep house never nods in techno's direction ... ever ..."

Euro/Euro House

    Shamen. Pop-ish, influenced by hi-NRG -- loud, well-defined bassdrum. Normal to fast: 140 bpm. See also Nu-Energy.

Handbag

    Daft Punk. House music inlfuenced by 70's disco, cheesed up with squeely happy vocals. So called because people dance around their handbags in the clubs where it originated. Northern UK, 1992?

Progressive House

    A combination of German trance and house.

Stadium House

    The KLF, Utah Saints. Strong house or tribal beat evoking a "stadium" atmosphere -- echoing vocals and keyboards, boomy bass, samples of cheering crowds.

Industrial

Front 242, A Split Second, Clockdva, Front Line Assembly, Nitzer Ebb, Bigod 20, TGT, Skinny Puppy. Began mid 80's. Mechanized, hard, robotic. Beats and samples that evoke metallic or cyberpunk imagery. Can be instrumental or vocal -- vocals usually raw, in your face. The forefather of much of today's sound, with traces found in Hardcore / Breakbeat / Jungle. Spiritual descendant of Kraftwerk in the 70's.

Jungle

Photek. Sampler music, typically uses speeded-up samples of other records as main rhythm. Deep bassline and well-pronounced breakbeat. Fast: 160 bpm. Reggae influences. London 1990/91.

Minimal

Techno with a small number of different noises and much empty space in the track.

Nu-energy / Anthem

Moby, Shamen. Offshoot of Euro & Rave, mutated into something harder and faster. "Characterised by a hard techno-based 4/4 bass beat with plenty of pumping basslines. Melodies tend to be pretty anthemic/epic synth stuff and breakdowns are par for the course." Wailing-Diva-style breathless vocal samples.

Rave

Apotheosis, (some) Shamen, (some) Moby. Began 1987/88. Fast: 150+ bpm. Soft and accessible. Repetitive use of catchy sample or soundbite for instant recognition. "Techno as packaged product." Influence on current styles such as Happy Hardcore and Anthem.

Techno

LFO. "Techno is the most versatile of all the genre. It ranges from the intensely hard percussive sounds made mostly of white noise to the disco sounds that were around in the seventies." "If you hear something that you'd never expect to hear - that's techno. If you hear something that kind of sounds like you've heard it before, then it's not techno."

Trance

BT, Underworld, Future Sound Of London. Fast: 140+ bpm. Throbbing, soothing, melodic and meditative; not as in- your- face as other styles. Can be described as Ambient with more pronounced drumtracks, and more upbeat tempos, but like Ambient, it's used as "chill out" music in clubs. Evolved out of Acid House, circa 1989. Precursor to Goa.

Tribal

Coldcut, (some) Moby. Extensive use of Native American, Third World, or other indigenous samples & rhythms. Can also describe a primal (thud thud) approach to rhythm.

Trip Hop

Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead, Cibo Matto, Sneaker Pimps. Slowed down tempo, Hip-Hop-inspired beats, dusty samples, smoky atmospherics. Quirky melodies & progressions. Relatively vocal-oriented. Los Angeles 1993? But popularized in Bristol 1994.

Techstep

Jungle (usually dark jungle) which uses techno style drum machine sounds.


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