Yay yay hooray, it's Thursday today! Significantly, Thursday doesn’t really stick out as an exciting day although, slowly but surely, we are attempting to make it the day when people will scramble to their computers. Our MySpace Trawl feature usually hits the interweb at around this time, bringing with it tasty music morsels.
We’ve said it time and time but this poorly thought-of feature is designed to expand and broaden the mind of the music fan who is mostly subjected to top 40 chart music. In our minds, there’s so much more out there, and we aim to bring this to you. Looking at all of music’s various styles; we’ve decided to look at the sometimes horribly dubbed genre known as “dance” music, and more specifically some bloke who calls himself Nathan Fake.
Say 'dance music' to your average Daily Mail reader and it will conjure up images in their mind of pure evil. Kids wearing hardly anything pilled off their heads and wandering around in their own hazy universe whilst listening to music that sounds like an angry child throwing a tantrum on a keyboard. Illegal parties in fields and unregulated sound systems are enough to brand dance music fans as evil as asylum seekers, gypsies, immigrants and gays as far as they're concerned.
Of course, we strongly believe that most of these people have never gone to an all-night warehouse party and experienced the strangeness for themselves. So it's probably down to us to get some facts straight. Dance music is actually more then just a repetitive fast beat that people listen to with the sole purpose to get wasted. Of course, there are obviously folks who indulge in that, but that minority is often reported and then everyone is labelled the same.
There are many different styles of the genre ranging from the ridiculously insane like speedcore and gabba, the more commercial stuff you hear on the TV that samples dodgy TV shows, and then the more experimental stuff like Nathan Fake. Nathan's stuff may not be totally beat heavy, but the other sounds whirl and move around like the clouds on a rare sunny day. Well, rare if you're from the UK anyway. The combination of soft and subtle synth sounds fill the room, almost making everything seem at ease.
The beginning of Super Positions almost feels like it's going to be some sort of indie track as we hear the sound of an amp being connected and some muffled vocals. A frenzied keyboard kicks in which reminds us of a happier, more chopped-up LCD Soundsystem. Laid-back drums crash in and out throughout the song, creating an enjoyable listen. Our own problem with it is that it's just to short! Clocking in at less than three minutes, it's perfect for fitting on commercial radio stations, but not for the eager music lover who craves good original material.
Also on the Nathan Fake MySpace page, there is an interesting little track with an equally intriguing story. One track is simply called Annie Remix. Slinging on our crime solving hat, we poked around and discovered via his blog that this track is a remix of the Annie track My Best Friend. Annie is a Norwegian musician who has had a couple of minor hits like the track Chewing Gum. In his own words Fake literally says that the record company didn’t like it and it never got released. Whoever gave this the stop sign needs a good few smacks with a phonebook as the chilled-out tune with added bits of glitch is one of the best tracks on his page. We’d like to hear what did get chosen instead of his excellent effort. Thankfully, it is free to download and we can listen to our hearts content.
Alongside his studio and remix work, a live track has been put up to show that live electronic music isn’t as easy as pressing play on a laptop. The track Long Sunny showcases lots of different loops and layers without getting too complicated. Halfway into the song and a few extra squeaks kick in to make sure that no-one will be bored listening to the same set of synth happy sounds. Different effects come and go as they please making it an enjoyable experience. Sadly this sort of stuff isn’t deemed too popular at the moment, people would rather go for bilge like Calvin Harris. But hopefully a stop over to Nathan Fake's MySpace and some free download action will make you investigate further into this exciting and creative genre.
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