Lofi/Retro House and Techno

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The_G
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Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by The_G »

Curious what y'all think about this stuff. A lot of it strikes me as gimmicky, but every once in while there's a track that reminds me a bit of how and why I got into this stuff in the first place. Like

youtu.be/g6eu1Wb8CVE

youtu.be/z5pOkd7AC2M

youtu.be/eWh-0vtNsF8

The_G
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by The_G »

Or this, which I love

youtu.be/lBAJXzeP-zQ

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jordanneke
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by jordanneke »

Some of that stuff is ok, as in the odd track. Some DJ Octopus stuff is ok, along with rare things on UTTU. I think a lot of the stuff is tongue in cheek, bordering on satirical almost

The king of that scene DJ Haus/ UTTU has been releasing increasingly puerile and lame stuff and a very very fast rate.

It reminds me a bit of the 'cartoon rave' period in the early 90's


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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by The_G »

A lot of is about 50% serious and 50% tongue-in-cheek performance art, like vaporwave. I mean, I read an interview with DJ Seinfeld where he said "all I do know is that I want to live life as uncompromisingly as Kramer does." That's kind of funny, granted, but it also shows you a prevailing attitude in the scene.

On the other hand, I've found some real gems--stuff that's dirty, but where the dirt is purposive. And sometimes I think production can be so clean nowadays, to the point where it almost feels sterile. So the really good stuff can be pretty inspiring. All the tracks by Willis Anne I've heard so far are pretty damned good.

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winston
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by winston »

jordanneke wrote:Some of that stuff is ok, as in the odd track. Some DJ Octopus stuff is ok, along with rare things on UTTU. I think a lot of the stuff is tongue in cheek, bordering on satirical almost

The king of that scene DJ Haus/ UTTU has been releasing increasingly puerile and lame stuff and a very very fast rate.

It reminds me a bit of the 'cartoon rave' period in the early 90's

is that the Fact magazine DJ Haus or another one? i listened to his Boiler room, maybe it was another livestream and wasn't impressed. he seems to be like a Nathan Barley character who hasn't grown up, or else he is deep into some Ali G-esque long-game joke that no one cares about.

i like the aesthetic of this sound, the music anyway, unsure about the vocal samples.

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jordanneke
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by jordanneke »

I assume there can only be one DJ Haus...

The Haus I was talking about sounds just like the dude you describe.

Yeah, some of the stuff is great, no doubt. I suppose it's great to drop into a set every so often, away from all the serious chin stroking techno and house, but some of it is terrible and pastiche

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by The_G »

Hmm, can't say I'm a huge fan of those DJ Haus tracks. I'm thinking more of the stuff I posted above, especially the Willis Anne track, which has a "Detroit-back-when-Detroit-made-good-techno" vibe to it, but doesn't just sound derivative either. This is another goodie from the same EP:

youtu.be/18HQnUsVkKk

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by dubdub »

With this stuff for years i've hated most of it and then every once in a while some of it is really, really good. I really Huerco S and Terekke. Some of the stuff on Lobster Theremin is really good, although most if it is forgettable.

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by msl »

That Ike Release track is amazing

Yeah been listening to a lot of it as its so popular atm. Too many people jumping on that bandwagon cause its trendy imo... and too many of the tracks are just painful to listen to and near impossible to mix nicely with regular hi-fi tracks.. that said when its done right it can be perfect. Oh and the names are stupid did i mention that.

Some I like

youtu.be/s5vm2gs52fc
youtu.be/LxUDBY2HcEY
youtu.be/62fd23fTYfI
youtu.be/Qm8fwTp2NtI
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by intrusav »

Check Actress for something that ticks that box. His stuff is interesting. That and Kyle Hall earlyish stuff.

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by The_G »

msl wrote:That Ike Release track is amazing

Yeah been listening to a lot of it as its so popular atm. Too many people jumping on that bandwagon cause its trendy imo... and too many of the tracks are just painful to listen to and near impossible to mix nicely with regular hi-fi tracks.. that said when its done right it can be perfect. Oh and the names are stupid did i mention that.
This is basically how I feel about it. For every quality track there's three crap ones, but the good one captures something that often gets lost since techno and house got professionalized and older.

(Not yelling at clouds here. There are a lot of things that are straight up better about stuff being made now than back then, like production level and quality control. But there can also be a crushing sameness about new releases, so the good lofi stuff stretches an itch.)

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by msl »

The_G wrote:But there can also be a crushing sameness about new releases, so the good lofi stuff stretches an itch.)
Yeah all this lo-fi stuff has a definite and very intentional aesthetic to it. And they really try hard, I'd almost say the aesthetics is mostly what they are going for.

But sometimes its just raw, which I like. That last video I posted is just a young lad from Serbia with zero releases to his name yet, but I love the track, its raw as fuck. I emailed him and got a promo to play out locally.

Thing is if its really great lo-fi track, it would probably work in hi-fi too, but not the other way round I think.
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by The_G »

msl wrote:
The_G wrote:But there can also be a crushing sameness about new releases, so the good lofi stuff stretches an itch.)
Yeah all this lo-fi stuff has a definite and very intentional aesthetic to it. And they really try hard, I'd almost say the aesthetics is mostly what they are going for.

But sometimes its just raw, which I like. That last video I posted is just a young lad from Serbia with zero releases to his name yet, but I love the track, its raw as fuck. I emailed him and got a promo to play out locally.

Thing is if its really great lo-fi track, it would probably work in hi-fi too, but not the other way round I think.
A lot is definitely all about the a e s t h e t i c s. Like vaporware, etc.

But I think for people who are really serious about it, it's really about freeing yourself from the kind of detail work that clean "hifi" production requires.* Which isn't to say that it's crap production...I get the feeling that the guys on Lobster Theramin, LAN, etc. know quite a bit about production, but are just making a conscious choice to emulate the fidelity of early Trax, Metroplex and R&S records. Probably the low grade stuff is made by people who just don't want to put the work in.

*Again, I'm not making a luddite argument here. I appreciate good, high fidelity production or I wouldn't be here. In my own techno productions, I'm trying to incorporate certain elements of lofi that I like, but in an overall "hifi" context. Or at least what I hope is a hifi context :lol:

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by Amøbe »

There's a lot of that going on in Copenhagen at the moment (check out the label ectotherm), there's some really beautiful gems among the releases - and I'm usually mods for romantic melancholia from Köln.

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Plyphon
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by Plyphon »

I found this track earlier, but sounds a bit too far done on the YouTube, but in Lone's feel my bicep mix (Worth checking gr8 mix) it sounds on point

youtu.be/5wBo0uiTiFA


FUNCTION

Edit, notice Haus has some mentions here, that record / label has something to do with UTTU/DJ Haus/etc

I feel a really good medium right now is Vin Sol's style of stuff, it's really crunchy and has all the energy, all the distorted, saturated percussion, but you can actually get away with playing it in clubs:

Heres a mix from Serge where he opens with a Vin Sol track, but the whole mix is on that sound


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Plyphon
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by Plyphon »



This mix is absolutely full of the doof and its gr8 doof

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by [wesellboxes] »

For a scene that seems to be based around kids having fun and doing their own thing, it could be a lot worse. I chanced across this will finding out more and like it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjTdgb0zPuc

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Plyphon
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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by Plyphon »

Ive noticed in a lot of these records there is massive amounts of GROOVE. like really swung shit that just rolls.

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by chava »

Overall much better than what else has been going for 'techno' the last 10 years.

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Re: Lofi/Retro House and Techno

Post by disparate »

chava wrote:Overall much better than what else has been going for 'techno' the last 10 years.
It's easier on the ears than most of the dark-techno-by-numbers I sift through on the hardwax site lately, I'll say that.


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