Moombahcore..... Now we're just making up shit.

It started with Moombahton (House + Reggaeton), but then they started adding dubstep synths such as modulated bass, modern talking etc... and they are calling it Moombahcore. This is by far the most unrecognized genre, as even beatport just puts all Moombahcore tracks in the "Electro House" section.  I remember alot of people just referring to this as 110 Dubstep, since its usually played around 110 - 115 BPM,  but IMO I think this genre is more similar to Complextro  just slowed down to about 110 BPM.   Dillon Francis, Nick Thayer, Skrillex and Knife Party all have several Moombahcore productions.

Feed Me's epic new track

Last sat I got the chance to see Feed Me perform here in atlanta, Feed Me is an Electro and Dubstep side project of well known DnB producer "Spor" whose real name is Jon Gooch.   This was my 4th time seeing Feed Me and I really wasnt sure what to expect.   The very first time I saw him was at a grimey dubstep club here in atlanta and as expected his set was mostly really heavy non-melodic dubstep, he did include some of his original electro and dubstep productions in his set , but overall the set was just way to hard.  Second time I saw him was at The Loft / Center Stage. I went in expecting another hard dubstep set, but what I heard was the complete opposite,  He started his set off with a lot of Progressive House/ Electro, He then started playing some of his harder electro tracks and his encore was his hard bass driven drumstep track "Trap Door". His set was extremely similar to a Deadmau5 set I witnessed earlier in the year like how Deadmau5 starts off progressive and builds up into more of his electro house tracks and sometime encores with his Dubstep track "Raise your weapon.   Even the LED set up of "Feed Me"s teeth had similar patterns as Deadmau5 cube which makes sense as at the time Feed Me was on Deadmau5's label "Mau5trap" I can only assume he played his set this way because this was an all ages show. Third time was at counter point music festival here in atlanta,  he started his show with some heavy dubstep and trap and i just left after 15 min to go see Steve Angellos set.

Due to the hit and miss sets ive witnessed by Feed Me, i was even hesistant to go at all, This was club Opera a more upscale club where I had no idea what he had in store.  He started off with a drum n bass track or two from his Spor days, how ever he then started playing the tracks we all love such as "Cloudburn, Strange Behaviour, Blood Red, Pink Lady, Grand Theft Ecstasy" but he also kept adding in ID tracks that I have never heard before which were really fucking good.  He must have played about 13 tracks that I have never heard but every one of them was epic. His dubstep tracks were vocal and melodic but still had that nasty bass drop, he played one Trap track and even though it was  a little too crunk for my taste I was actually ok with it,  But I also noticed something new he's doing with some of these ID tracks. The intro will be a very melodic chill arrangement of progressive synth notes such as you would typically hear Deadmau5 do, but then it builds up and drops into a hard electro/ complextro style drop.

I would have to say his set was about 85% Hard electro / complextro and then about equal amounts of dubstep and drumstep, with maybe just one or two trap tracks and DnB tracks.  However his encore was one of the sickest tracks I have ever heard.  Before he played it he brought the music to a stop and got on the mic and said something about how this next track represents everything he has been trying to do in his carrer.  The track started with that beautiful arrangement of progressive synth notes,  then this rumbling bassy build up comes in and then the drop, the drop can pretty much only be defined as Big Room Electro, this goes on for a few minutes and then he changes the beat structure to a Halftime Dubstep beat out of no where and blows the crowd away with a short filthy dubstep section, finally the track  changes one more time, i believe he changes it in the end to drumstep.

So here it is from his most recently released LP "Calamari Tuesdays" under his own label (Sotto Voce) one of the most epic tracks I have ever heard "Lonely Mountain".

   

Whose ready to Rock It right now????

Drum n Bass is probably one of my least favorite genres, its just too fast to dance too at about 160 to 180 BPM,  it is played in a 4/4 beat structure like house and trance, how ever its unstraightened like breakbeats, which means that the kick drum doesn't have to hit on the qtr note.  For example House music would go as follows  Kick....Kick....Kick....Kick.... with a kick on every qtr note ,  where Breaks and DnB might look something like this Kick.Kick......Snare.Kick..... , and as the name might imply DnB consists of heavy bass lines.  The track above is "Rock It" by Subfocus,  which samples Daft Punks -" Robot Rock".
  

Pretty Lights

Pretty Lights (Derek Vincent Smith) has carved his own path in electronic music, he doesn't limit himself to any single genre, he produces dubstep, glitch hop, electro, etc..  and he is an absolute genius at his craft.  And since he pretty much creates his own genre, that saves me the time of putting the BPM and Beat structure down since it varies from track to track.  The track above is Pink Floyd - "Time (Pretty Lights remix)" and this is one of the sickest tracks I have ever heard,  I don't think there is anything he could have done different to this track to make it better. Its perfect just like it is,  the Glitch effect in this track is completely mesmerizing, even hardcore Pink Floyd fans have to appreciate this.

Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss.... Trance

Trance is one of the genres that started my addiction of Electronic Music.  Trance is usually played at about 132 to 136 Bpm and uses the 4/4 beat structure just like House Music, however where as House Music is usually played as Kick...Kick/Snare...Kick...Kick/Snare.  Trance tends to use an Open Hi Hat on every 1/8th note, so it would look like this Kick.HiHat.Kick.Hihat.Kick.Hihat.Kick.Hihat whichs gives it that Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss sound.  Trance also tends to be more emotional and uplifting. So you listen to House music and it makes you want to dance, if you were to listen to Trance you would feel more at home leaving your feet grounded on the floor and closing your eyes, swaying and just phasing out of this world.  Now my idea of Trance is about 132 Bpm , with Saw Synths, beautiful chord progressions and in most cases female vocals that consists of an emotional / uplifting message, this style of Trance could also be called Vocal or Anthem Trance, but some people are calling it "Trouse" due to it sharing similarities to Progressive House. A lot of people also consider real Trance to be played at 140BPM, but I personally consider 140 Trance to be more along the lines of Hard Trance. The track above "Waiting" by Dash Berlin ft. Emma Hewitt's angelic voice on vocals is IMO what Trance is really about.

Melodic Progressive House PR( Y )DA

     

Tonight I want to feature my favorite producer of all time,  he goes by the aliases  Pryda, Sheridan, Cirez D but most will just know him as Eric Prydz.  He is known for his hit pop track "Call on Me" which I'm pretty sure everbody in the world has heard whether you listen to EDM or not. After this track went #1 in 6 different countries Eric Prydz could have just continued to keep putting out mainstream pop tracks, but instead he decided to do something else.  He started producing very melodic progressive house music, similar to something like Deadmau5 produces.  A lot of people who like high energy Electro music will probably not like Prydz, as his sets are not very high energy, but you can't help but to just get lost in those beautiful chord progressions in his tracks.  This track is one of his newer tracks, and I just cant stop listening to it. Its called "Everyday",  its has the perfect vocals to go with his signature melodic style. 

Hard with Style

Hardstyle is a genre of Electronic Music that is played at around 150 BPM,  its most known for a heavy kick drum with reverse bass on every offbeat, giving it a distorted sound. Alot of Hardstyle producers such as "Headhunterz" will also use deep , sinister sounding vocal samples as found in the video above while some producers like "Brennan Heart" prefer positive, uplifing vocals in their tracks. I can only listen to Hardstyle in small doses, after a while it starts to give you a headache and makes you kind of anxious, I assume because of the very fast BPM accompanied with the distorted kick.

As of last year, i have heard a couple Big Room House tracks that sample elements of hardstyle.  While still played at 128 BPM, you can definateley hear that reverse bass after each kick. You can hear for yourself in the video below by Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Lil Jon and Coone.