- Chillout and Trance Styles…Nice
- Friday, October 03, 2008
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Hey Everyone,
Firstly, I would like thank everyone who has purchased our new Large trakPack bundles. As mentioned in my previous weblog, you can now purchase bundles with 100 loops in 10 bundles for the great price of $19.99. In this week’s weblog, I will highlight the different styles within Chillout & Lounge music as well concentrating on some of the different styles within Trance music. You can also purchase our Chillout and Trance bundles from our very own trakAx Shop.
Wikipedia defines Chill out (sometimes also chillout, chill-out, or simply chill) as a term derived from a slang injunction to relax, emerged in the early and mid-1990s as a catch-all term for various styles of relatively mellow, slow-tempo music made by contemporary producers in the electronic music scene. The genres associated with chill-out are mostly Ambient, Trip-hop, Nu jazz, Ambient House, Ambient Trance, New Age and other sub-genres of Downtempo - a major branch of electronic music. Sometimes the Easy Listening sub-genre Lounge is considered to belong to the chill-out collection as well.
The term “Chill out music”, as well as the genre itself, originated in chill rooms that were set up by DJs off to the edge of club dance floors to give patrons a chance to take a break from the hectic dance vibe and chill out with this style of music. Chill out as a musical genre or descriptive is synonymous with the more recently popularized terms “smooth electronica” and “soft techno” and is a loose genre of music blurring into several other very distinct styles of electronic and lo-fi music.Downtempo (or Down Tempo, or DownTempo) is a laid-back electronic music style often intended more for listening and socializing than dancing, though some releases are unmistakably produced for the dance floor. Often the names lounge music or chill out are used to refer to songs demonstrative of the genre, but those names also refer to other styles of music, and downtempo encompasses a wider variety of styles than those terms alone would indicate.The downtempo genre draws heavily on dub, hip hop, jazz, funk, soul, drum ‘n’ bass, ambient, and pop and is often confused and/or mated with closely-related styles like IDM, trip hop, and acid jazz.
Kruder & Dorfmeister from Austria and Thievery Corporation from the United States are amongst the most well-known bands of the genre. Both founded their own influential labels: G-stone and Eighteenth Street Lounge. Other important labels promoting downtempo music are Stereodeluxe (Germany) and Akara Music (UK) with their artist Glideascope.
On a different note, Trance music is a subgenre of electronic dance music developed in the 1990s. Perhaps the most ambiguous genre in the realm of electronic dance music (EDM), trance could be described as a melodic, more-or-less freeform style of music derived from a combination of techno and house. Regardless of its precise origins, to many club-goers, party-throwers, and EDM adherents, trance is held as a significant development within the greater sphere of post- modern dance music.
Trance is a form of music best characterized by quarter note drum patterns, and 16th/32nd note rhythm synthesizer patterns. It has a meter of 4/4 always, with a quarter note bassdrum acting as metronome, and quarter note high-hat hits offset. This unwavering drum mechanism may be constantly tweaked with for effect, with the attack, decay, resonance, frequency, tone, delay, reverb all given liberal treatment. The tempo is generally around 130-150 bpm.
The rhythm section consists mostly of a repeating 1-4-5 (A-D-E) 32nd note sequencing arpeggio, and a bass section of minor whole notes usually drifting through the aeolian scale (though not always). Additional rhythm sections are added and subtracted every 16 measures (sometimes 8, and sometimes 32) to add weight and anticipation to the composition. The bass chord will usually change every 4 measures. A typical trance song has 2-4 bass chords, tops.
There is a lead synth, and it will be a simple minor scale melody of 8th notes, looping every 4 measures (some have 2, some have 8. Some even have 16).Trance is produced with computerized synthesizers, drum machines, and music sequencer software (sometimes MIDI, sometimes not). The average trance song has a polyphony of 8. The most busy will have 16.
Trance : styles
Acid trance : An early ‘90’s style. Characterized by the use of the TB-303 drum machine as the lead synth. Artists: Hardfloor, Simon Berry, Eternal Basement
Classic trance : Original form of trance music, said to have originated in the very early 90’s. Characterized by less percussion than techno, more melody, arpeggiated melody, and repetitive melodic chords/arpeggios. Artists: Resistance D, Progressive Attack, ArpeggiatorsGoa trance : A complexly melodic form of trance named for Goa, India, and originating in the early 90’s. Often uses the Arabic scale. Goa Artists: Psygone, mfg, S.U.N. Project, Man With No Name, Astral Projection
Psychedelic trance : (ambiguously synonymous with Goa trance, less melodic more abstract.) Psy Artists: Shiva Chandra, Etnica, Infected Mushroom
Hardcore trance : The hard side of trance. Can be uplifting (light) or dark.
Progressive trance : Style of trance that originated in the early-mid 90’s. Differentiated from the then “regular” Trance by bass chord changes that gave the repeating lead synth a feeling of “progression” Artists: BT, Cosmic Baby, Simon Berry
Anthem trance / Club Trance : Style of trance that emerged in the wake of progressive trance in the late 90’s. Characterized by extended chord progression in all elements (lead synth, bass chords, treble chords), extended breakdowns, and relegation of arpeggiation to the background while bringing wash effects to the fore. Artists: Vincent De Moor, Ronski Speed, Tiesto, Mirco de Govia, etc.
I hope you all enjoyed this weblog and remember you can always buy royalty-free loops, beats and full tracks at the trakAx shop.
Reference: discogs.com and 3345.com