Music at Raves!



For me, music is the best thing about raves. Forget the techno music you here on the radio,'rave' music is a infinitely better. The stuff you hear on the radio is watered down, so that everyone can enjoy it. Rave music is meant to appeal to a small section of people, but those people who DO like it, like it A LOT!

How the music is made

Just in case you are totally clueless and you have been living under a rock for the past while...At a rave a a DJ plays music usually on a pair of turntables. Using his turntables and a device called a mixer, the DJ attempts to make a mix of two songs, creating a new sound out of the two songs. Do you get it? Pretty simple right!?

Live PAs- Instead of the regular two turntables...these performers (note: not DJs)use a complex system of electronics to actually create live music! I have no idea how it works, but I do know that all of the Live PA shows I've seen have been incredible! Definitely check 'em out.

Other music makers- Besides from the records and turntables, DJs can use other music makers to um...make music? For example there are flangers (I can't even describe how wikkid this sound is), 909s, 303s and drum machines. If a DJ can balance one of these into his sets a long with a pair of turntables, he is considered to be a more highly skilled DJ...

MCs- In case ya hadn't heard MC stands for Master of Ceremonies. Basically its a guy with a mic up on stage whose job is to pump up the crowd. How they do this is up to them, either through wikkid rhymes, yelling obscenities at the top of their lungs, etc. Some people like 'em, others find them annoying. Myself, I'm stuck in the middle. If the MC has dope rhymes, a wikkid voice and most importantly knows when to SHUT UP he's a worthwhile addition to the set. If he's missing any one of these qualities, the set goes straight down the crapper.

Types of Music

Rave music is broken down into a lot of diffucult classifications, I will do my best to explain some of the more popular ones. Keep in mind I'm no expert...

Electronica
This is what the media has dubbed 'rave' music. Every type of music I describe from now on falls under this category...

Techno

Repetitive beats...Thats all it is. Sounds simple right? Heh well it is. But its up to the DJ who adds his own skill to the mix that makes techno a wikkid sound...
Sub genres- Detroit, Swedish, hard, minimal, and Swiss techno plus many more
Masters of the Music- Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Juan Atkins, Adam Beyer, Carl Craig, Rabbit in the Moon etc.

Trance

Probably the most popular form of electronic music. Has a definite electronic/techno sound. What classifies it as trance is the way the song progresses. Generally speaking, trance goes like a wave. It has low points that eventually lead up to a big CRASH (usually when this happens all hell breaks loose on the dance floor =).
Sub Genres- Acid, Epic (where the lows take a long time but the crashes are HUGE), Hard, Nu NRG, Progressive, psychadelic/goa (like trance...but more layered and detailed...you'll know when you hear it) plus many more
Masters of the Music- Chris Liberator, Infected Mushroom, X-Dream, Paul Oakenfold, Nick Warren, Lab 4, Carl Cox, Captain Tinrib, Sasha, Paul Van Dyke etc.

Drum & Bass/Jungle

This next session was written by jungle expert, DJ Trauma...

Jungle music is a fusion of elements taken from house music, hip hop and hardcore from the early 90s. This fusion created a new sound that was later called jungle (or drum and bass). The music is a blend of faster breakbeats (same sort of beat as found in Hip Hop, except faster) and other elements such as vocals, atmospherics (nature loops), synthesized loops, pianos, jazz, saxophones, etc. What makes jungle what it is is the versatility and lack of boundaries that allow the music to flow in many directions. Jungle/Drum and Bass has been divided into many sub genres here are a few:

- Jump Up: This music is characterized, by upbeat breaks and a quick tempo, there are often hip hop samples, and vocals.
- Techstep: this is a much harder and darker form of the music, characterized, by a more techy (read, computer generated sounds) and scarier sound too it. This is what is often called dark Jungle.
- Chill/Atmospheric: This is often coined drum and bass, or intelligent jungle. This is characterized, by a smoother sound, and features many elements from ambient music combined with a breakbeat. These tracks can also include loops from nature and a lot of synthesizer sounds.
- Ragga: this style was the main focus around 1995, this features Reggae samples along with hard jungle beats.
- Old Skool breakbeat: this is one of the original jungle sounds, and originated in the late 80s, this combined slightly slower breakbeats, with vocals, and other loops. This tended to either be more upbeat (similar to happy hardcore, only it had a breakbeat), or dark. This music tended to be extremely creative, and limitless.
- Jazzy: this is often a sub-grouping off of atmospheric, but it isn’t always the case. This features a lot of pianos, and saxophones, and jazz along with the breakbeats.

Peace,
Trauma

DJ Trauma Booking contact:
Sacha Leclair of Full Force Performance Management at kid_sl@hotmail.com or fullforce@ottawa.com or contact myself at traumaadam@hotmail.com

House

Urm...I once asked a bunch of DJs what the difference between house was and dance music (aka Alice Deejay, Love Inc., stuff like that). The best response I got was that house music is more underground, what you here this year from a dance DJ was what a house DJ was playing last year.
Sub genres- Acid (the music that started it all! Its like house...'cept on acid =), garage, Progressive, hard, BOOTY!(low down dirty Chicago house but with a very sexual theme =) plus many more
Masters of the Music- Bad Boy Bill, Derick Carter, DJ Sneak, DJ Funk etc.

Breakbeats

Hardly knowing anything about breaks I turned to local breaks mastah...Brahma Breaker for some help with this next bit....

"Brakes" were first used by jazz musicians to create a pause in the music; a section that slows down and lets the artist mellow out a bit. The brakes would highlight a particular instrument, like the drums of bass, and was consistently instrumental.

Many early hip-hop artists looped brakes samples within their tracks. Songs from the likes of Aretha Franklin, & The Average White Band were sampled heavily by the likes of Afrikaa Bambaataa, among others. Breakdancing was so called because of the numerous "breaks" in the body's motion. Since a lot of brakes music was used for breakdancing, the spelling quickly turned to breaks, and the original meaning soon was lost.

Modern breaks have much in common with drum & bass, trip-hop, and jungle. Each genre shares a similar beat, although dnb and jungle have a significantly higher bpm. Breaks draws heavily from early rap music, and in the case of big-beat, also from 50's and 60's pop music. Just like every other category of electronic music, breaks have diversified to the point where it's very hard to quantify what actually constitutes as "breaks". What they do have in common is the beat. Most breaks have a more complex rhythm than the standard 4/4 beat. Lately, breaks have become increasingly popular thanks to the likes of The Chemical brothers and Fatboy Slim, all of whom play breaks. Fatboy Slim's Big Beat Boutique in Bristol is probably the most famous breaks night in the world, and the birthplace of Big-Beat, a subcategory of breaks that, much like Fatboy's tracks, incorporates a lot of hits from the big band era.
Breaks DJs: DJ Dan, Czech, D-Monic, Big League Chu, Marty McFly, Freddy Fresh, Simply Jeff, Fatboy Slim, LeTone, Afrikaa Bambaataa, DJ Stew, DJ Ming & FS
-BB

Hardcore!!!

Ah...mah favorite style of music. It's really hard to describe, but imagine extremely hard beats just repeating over with crazy dubbed in samples ( "Have you ever heard the sound of your head in the ground? And you're too afraid to say...Yeah that's the sound of your brain crackin'..yeah..." Neophyte-Brain crackin' fer an example =), all going at around 150-200 BPM (Beats per minute).
Sub genres- Happy(like hardcore but with love songs mixed in), Dutch, Nabi(or underground club), Speed/Terror/Noisecore (what I described above? its like that 'cept on speeeeeed =), old skool, new style (slowed down to 150 BPM, although slower the assaultive beats pound you into the floor! =), Italian plus many more
Masters of the Music- Neophyte, Omar Santana, Masochist, DOA, Lenny Dee, DJ Paul, DJ Panic, Tommyknocker, King Matthew & Bass D etc.

You could probably tell but I obviously know more about some forms of music better than others (goa, hardcore and techno are my 3 favorites just in case you hadn't guessed =). So that little review wasn't objective at all (nothing in life is).

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