2562/TRG/Martyn!

[slothrop]

I sometimes find that I can't pick up the 140 BPM in tunes until I make a conscious effort to dance in double time regardless, but once I've started I can't see how anyone could do otherwise. Or I won't be feeling the halfstep tunes until after a 2 step tune's been played and locked me into double speed.

Does anyone else get this, or am I just terminally unfunky?

[corpsey]

I thought halfstep just means one snare on the third beat of every bar? Ghosted or not.

I think it would be nonsensical to dismiss most halfstep given this definition, it just seems that halfstep is the default rhythm for a lot of producers who don't care about rhythm.

[pete_bubonic]

to use one of your examples pete, I definitely move to goat stare at 140, especially when the bass goes into those triplet punches after the breakdown what a tune

haha, I loaded up goat stare just now, it's going to sound odd, but I think I bop to it at 105 (3/4 of 140). Basically I bop my head on the 1st, 3rd and fourth, so you get one bop and the two in succession every bar.

subjective much.

[ufo over easy]

I thought halfstep just means one snare on the third beat of every bar? Ghosted or not.

that would make root and goat stare, two tunes held up as the pinnacle of the half step format, erm, not half step (un-half step?)

and it would make techno dread by 2562 and martyn's broken heart remix half step tunes.. ooh and bury the bwoy! and hunter! and.. and.. and.. so many

[corpsey]

WTF HAVE I BEEN SLAGGING OFF THEN?!

Next thing you're going to tell me wobble isn't to do with how many hi hats there are per minute

[ufo over easy]

you've been slagging off a non-existant concept, that's what. a void! a black hole!

fucking black holes

[safetyboy]

ooooops

[paulie]

This anti-halfstep thing is really getting out of control... a good tune's a good tune isn't it?

[safetyboy]

This anti-halfstep thing is really getting out of control... a good tune's a good tune isn't it?

innit!!!

[daggus]

This anti-halfstep thing is really getting out of control... a good tune's a good tune isn't it?

not at all i'd like a refund on all those tunes i bought........


...coz its not cool anymore an everyone in the playground is gonna laugh when they see my collection

it like when my mum bought me hi teks all over again

[slothrop]

This anti-halfstep thing is really getting out of control... a good tune's a good tune isn't it?

innit!!!

Actually the conversation above reminded me a bit of what I like about halfstep - lots of people view it as a total rhythmic straightjacket / 'We Will Rock You' beat, but the really cool thing about it was partly the amount of freedom it opens up as opposed to having to fit everything around 2 snares per bar.

Plus sometimes it's quite cool to hear something that feels like being repeatedly hit round the head with a bag of cement. Just not all night every night. Like everyone always says, it's all about variety - actually, much as I love a lot of the subtle minimal techy garagey stuff, I sometimes find that it starts to get a bit over-polite and samey after a few hours and I'd actually quite like to hear some ruff wobbles or grimey stuff or whatever...

[pete_bubonic]

This anti-halfstep thing is really getting out of control... a good tune's a good tune isn't it?

Nah obviously you're right, a good tune is a good tune. But I think it's more of a natural reaction to an influx of unskilled producers copying the big names and having the ability to get fuck loads of unispired half steppers out there. With a drop in quality there will be an increase in whinging. It is the net after all.

[ufo over easy]

But I think it's more of a natural reaction to an influx of unskilled producers copying the big names and having the ability to get fuck loads of unispired half steppers out there.

but this is exactly what we're talking about, you're not anti-half step really, for all the reasons we have just discussed - on its own that just doesn't mean anything at all! - you're anti the uninspired, pedestrian, just straight boring stuff that seems to be clogging everything up atm

when you narrow that down to a concept that's always been a bit up in the air, and never used to mean anything negative necessarily, it just confuses the issue even more

I don't want to end up sounding like a broken record but this is what people miss when they oversimplify things and try to pinpoint specifically in sonic terms why it is that they're not feeling the music anymore. Certain people go on about the lack of rhythmic energy and end up evangelising two-step - but that's not the solution, it's not as simple as that, because going too far in that direction would be just as boring and mistaken as the other way round. It leads to people dismissing anything with a certain beat pattern, or a certain bass sound, rather than actually listening. It's lazy! "Not enough snares" is simply not good enough as a replacement for trying to figure out what you really like about music.

Btw pete even though I said "you" a lot up there, that wasn't actually directed specifically at anyone in particular

[shtrofuké]

couldn't agree more. these boys win hands down atm

You can add yourself to that list sir.

Yeah Reso!!!, some wicked beats up on the myspace...2facedrasta rmx is sick!

[pete_bubonic]

But I think it's more of a natural reaction to an influx of unskilled producers copying the big names and having the ability to get fuck loads of unispired half steppers out there.

but this is exactly what we're talking about, you're not anti-half step really, for all the reasons we have just discussed - on its own that just doesn't mean anything at all! - you're anti the uninspired, pedestrian, just straight boring stuff that seems to be clogging everything up atm

when you narrow that down to a concept that's always been a bit up in the air, and never used to mean anything negative necessarily, it just confuses the issue even more

I don't want to end up sounding like a broken record but this is what people miss when they oversimplify things and try to pinpoint specifically in sonic terms why it is that they're not feeling the music anymore. Certain people go on about the lack of rhythmic energy and end up evangelising two-step - but that's not the solution, it's not as simple as that, because going too far in that direction would be just as boring and mistaken as the other way round. It leads to people dismissing anything with a certain beat pattern, or a certain bass sound, rather than actually listening. It's lazy! "Not enough snares" is simply not good enough as a replacement for trying to figure out what you really like about music.

Btw pete even though I said "you" a lot up there, that wasn't actually directed specifically at anyone in particular

You're right, I don't hate half step at all! My first release IS halfstep, ultra minimal at that!

I think half the problem is with half step, is it is so much more minimal (than other high energy stuff) and reliant on the producer being able to tie the elements together well, that mediocre productions can sound really bad easily. So it's a genre/subgenre/'existential ideal' that takes a lot of flack.

[kidkut]

But I think it's more of a natural reaction to an influx of unskilled producers copying the big names and having the ability to get fuck loads of unispired half steppers out there.

but this is exactly what we're talking about, you're not anti-half step really, for all the reasons we have just discussed - on its own that just doesn't mean anything at all! - you're anti the uninspired, pedestrian, just straight boring stuff that seems to be clogging everything up atm

when you narrow that down to a concept that's always been a bit up in the air, and never used to mean anything negative necessarily, it just confuses the issue even more

I don't want to end up sounding like a broken record but this is what people miss when they oversimplify things and try to pinpoint specifically in sonic terms why it is that they're not feeling the music anymore. Certain people go on about the lack of rhythmic energy and end up evangelising two-step - but that's not the solution, it's not as simple as that, because going too far in that direction would be just as boring and mistaken as the other way round. It leads to people dismissing anything with a certain beat pattern, or a certain bass sound, rather than actually listening. It's lazy! "Not enough snares" is simply not good enough as a replacement for trying to figure out what you really like about music.

Btw pete even though I said "you" a lot up there, that wasn't actually directed specifically at anyone in particular

You're right, I don't hate half step at all! My first release IS halfstep, ultra minimal at that!

I think half the problem is with half step, is it is so much more minimal (than other high energy stuff) and reliant on the producer being able to tie the elements together well, that mediocre productions can sound really bad easily. So it's a genre/subgenre/'existential ideal' that takes a lot of flack.

owned...:teeth:

[ufo over easy]

I think half the problem is with half step, is it is so much more minimal (than other high energy stuff) and reliant on the producer being able to tie the elements together well, that mediocre productions can sound really bad easily. So it's a genre/subgenre/'existential ideal' that takes a lot of flack.

But you haven't given me any reasons for believing it exists, Pete

I'm sure it could potentially mean something if people could actually agree on what it is for a second, but at the moment everyone's diverging definitions are just confusing the issue and it's become a lazy tag for 'stuff I don't like'. I agree with what you say, but only assuming we're talking about the same kinds of music when we talk about 'half step', and this discussion proves that we're not.

I'm really shooting myself in the foot here though, as all I'm trying to say is that it's not worth talking about it. Yet I still talk..

[corpsey]

''I'm really shooting myself in the foot here though, as all I'm trying to say is that it's not worth talking about it. Yet I still talk..''

new forum motto

[pete_bubonic]

TRG!

MARTYN!

2562!

We love you!

[martyn]

yeah Pete I was about to say! I was enjoying this thread til u came in with your halfstep definition crap lol

trg - 2562 - martyn = wholestep