Not to be outdone by Cor and Flicker’s recent Electro Swing posts, I’d like to bring my own bouncy house sub-genre to this party: Carnival House!
Like many EDM sub-genres it’s a bit hard to describe what makes a House track Carnival, but you definitely know it when you hear it. Does it call up images of carnival rides whirling around, lights blazing against the darkened sky? Probably Carnival House. Does it make you think of clowns on acid dancing?? Definitely Carnival House.
In reality a lot of the tracks have Balkan, Latin, and Swing influences, rely heavily on the up beat and often feature horns of some kind… but I just like to think of them as cotton candy and Ferris Wheel influenced. Check it:
A: A simultaneously visceral and cerebral experience induced only by the seductive, deep, groove heavy, underground techno inspired music that you hear the kids listening to .. - Common side effects include: unrelenting head bobbing giving way to complete surrender to physical movement commonly referred to as ‘dancing’.
American producers Kaveh Soroush & Charles Gudagafva (yeah I can’t pronounce them either, they needed a name change even more than this guy did) gave that little definition of their tag-team group that goes a long way in describing what Pleasurekraft is: interesting, catchy, well produced tech house. They go on to explain in another interview for House Music Essentials:
We both feel that when you go to a club and you hear 3-5 hours of tech house or housey techno – whatever you want to call it – you walk out of a club and MIGHT be able to sing back 5 tracks (assuming you are sober enough). And to us that isn’t what we wanted to do. We wanted to make instantly recognizable tracks. And because we have such diverse musical influences – we wanted to make tech house that was fun and approachable while still maintaining artistic merit and not being too commercial.
Hells yeah! My thoughts exactly. Let’s see what they got:
Introducing Pleasurekraft
In late 2009 we were treated with the “Kaveh Soroush & Charles Gudagafva Present: Pleasurekraft” EP, the kind of landmark debut most EDM artists dream about. Along with the first track on my mix “Love Lost” the EP features this gem:
In a flurry of work in 2010 Pleasurekraft reached #1 on the Beatport charts with “Tarantula”, realized their dark proggy manifest destiny by doing a track with Green Velvet, and solidified their progressive carnival house sound. I was thiiiiiis close to throwing them in SYTYCB 2010, if their “Present: Pleasurekraft” EP woulda been in 2010 I would have.
You can hear this track in the mix on my podcast “A Winter Chill”, but to fully appreciate its genius I really think you must listen to it next to the original. “R.Y.A.N.L” is nice little electro house banger from long time EDM producer Sander Kleinenberg. Fit for the clubs but not necessarily anything to write home about. The Pleasurekraft remix though, now that is inspired. The original is hardly recognizable, but still present.
Great stuff right? They don’t even have a Wikipedia page yet but I’m expecting more inspired, unique, catchy tech house bangers from this duo who named themselves after Dexter’s boat: “Pleasure Craft”.
PS - If any of you producers out there are wondering what they use to tweak out their voice samples, it’s Steinberg Voicemachine, finally available on Mac!
As I’m typing this DJ Jay is 30,000 ft. over Central America somewhere, coming back from a particularly intense visit to Bolivia and Peru. In his absence I’ve decided to take the opportunity to stop by. Say hello. Check in on old friends.
I’ve been thinking: what does it mean to love? Well no, not exactly. This is a question greater writers, philosophers and artistes than I have tackled over the centuries…. a tired question that, really, we all know the answer to, even if we can find it difficult to express.
What I’ve been particularly dwelling on recently is: How is love lost? Why isn’t love forever? What does it mean when we no longer love something we once held so dear? And how do we know if we’ve failed to seize love that was laid out rite in front of us, or if that love was just an unattainable mirage to begin with?
These question are brimming throughout this set. On the musical side of life I have loved progressive trance for a long time. DJ Jay had to move on, however in my heart it remains. He’ll be back with some more banging, dance floor ready mixes soon. But for now lets just enjoy this subtle beauty, and wonder about things that might have been…
First and foremost, on behalf of the whole Beatery crew I’d like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much that we all have to be thankful for, and we here at the ‘ol Blog want to give special thanks out to all of you for your amazing support. Somehow this thing has been going for a year and a half now, we’ve grow to four members, have put up 59 DJ sets, 44 exclusive podcasts, have had over 20,000 visits, almost 1,000 comments, and are on the verge of launching monthly parties. We do this ting because we want to share the music we are passionate about with all of you, and without your participation and feedback it would all be a big waste of time. So thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving with friends, family, food and are ready for some more beats!
It’s back around to me for the podcast this week, and I wanted to change it up a little bit. There was a time where I would exclusively play progressive house and trance and while I still love and actively follow the music I’ve haven’t made the time to get it in a podcast since “The Golden Hour” over a year ago. With winter setting in, the short, cold days, the chill in the air, it seemed like the perfect time to cuddle back up with some cozy progressive medleys and bundle up in a blanket by the fire.
In our new “Friday Five” format it will roll through you like a chill, and maybe help you see the hidden beauty in our darkest season. Enjoy!
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