Profile: Jay Haze & microhouse
Thu Nov 10, 08:43 PM by
The progress of electronic music has produced a near constant branching of different genres and classification into even more specialized subgenres and family categories. Ask any electronic music aficianado and he or she will be able to discuss a near limitless number of these clades; it almost seems as if the taxonomy is an intristic driving force of the music’s development.
To highlight this relatively new genre of electronic music, we are gonna look at Jay Haze, a leading producer of the genre of minimal electronic music typically described as microhouse. microhouse music is generally characterized by a high level of complexity within the sound scape, held in check with a very minimal amount of progression. Some people may find the unusual elements of minimal music unconfortable to listen to at first, but oh…how you will learn to love it. Maybe.
Jay Haze is possibly the best example of the current state of underground electronic. Not only does he produce his own music under a plethora of names, but also maintains a variety of record labels and collaborations with other leading minimal electronic musicians, including Ricardo Villalobos and Akufen. The advent of easily reproducable and transferable media has created a harsher and less forgiving environment for new artists to thrive in, but Jay Haze has managed to do quite well for himself and meanwhile, produces some fantastic and unsual music.
The style of Jay Haze’s music varies greatly from record to record and label to label, but an overall attribute throughout his musical endeavors is a tendency towards minimalism, almost to an extreme. His future dub record label and music released under it all has a very minimal and dubby-reggae sound. On the other hand his Philadelphia based label Tuning Spork and Berlin based contexterrior label focus on bringing sub bass, click- and glitch-heavy music and also showcase his talents as a microhouse musician and producer.
Jay Haze is without a doubt a leading microhouse purveyor time and time again releasing increasingly compelling tracks and records. Some fine examples of his work can be found released under creative commons lisence throughout the internet. To hear some examples of his music for yourself, check out any of his labels to listen to samples or full free downloads of his music. Please remember that music sounds better on vinyl!
[As ridiculous as this may sound, it’s true. Try listening to records for three hours straight, loud, on headphones. Repeat with CDs. The CDs will hurt your ears within 40 minutes or so; you’ll hardly notice with the vinyl. -ed]
Some minimal sounds can be heard right here:
super fried freak
guitar experiment
To visit any of jay haze’s labels follow these links:
Textone
Contexterrior
future dub
Tuning Spork
Info on electronic music taxonomy and relations:
ishkurs guide
music map
Some good minimal electronic music sites with free downloads:
clevermusic
3hive
kitty-yo
Good radio station: deepmix
As I stressed before, some styles of electronic music are not for everybody. Minimal music tends to be difficult to understand at first, but as you become more confortable with the style, you’ll begin to appreciate its subtleties.
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