dematerialised dance

been sleeping on the deep tech lately

dom datwun points to buncha stuff worth checking

nightshift's label definition audio has a new comp



new hugo!




majesty my amour EP




mix from dom's label House Not House's act Clock Hazard



Audio Rehab still pumping it out










Now these new comps from Audio Rehab and Definition Audio reminded me of this chat I had with Dom a while ago, during which I asked if it was in fact the case - as it appeared to me - that there was no actual physical-form version of these compilations? Or indeed of the original single and EP releases from which the comps were compiled? It seemed to apply to all the deep tech labels, in fact: you couldn''t get CDs of the comps, or vinyl of the tracks.  You had to go to Beatport, or emusic, or...

Made me wonder if this was a dance scene where MP3s were in fact all you could access....

Did this make deep tech the first UK dance scene that was entirely dematerialised? Bassline, funky and even donk all put out vinyl...

Actually now I think about it, one of the US dubstep labels I interviewed for that EDM piece a few years ago had admitted - with a hint of shame, like they knew it breaking with dance music tradition - that for now at least their releases were available only as digital files...

So perhaps this is getting to be the new norm for dance music, especially the styles that are oriented to the youngest, most digitally-native listeners... the ones least likely to own a turntable, or even a CD-player... for whom music has never come encased in a physical husk...  who deejay with Serato

Which doesn't bother me particularly, except that I wish the labels would make the tunes available in FLAC....  Deep tech with its sculpted, intestinally-probing low-end-intensive basslines and all the detail and space in the production, really deserves lossless, untinny sound-reproduction.