After a brief stint of being the “festival bangers” from stage to stage, big room EDM tracks’ days are becoming numbered.
The all-too-familiar formulaic buildups and the all-too-obvious big — er, generic — drops have seem to run their course. Thankfully, artists like Zhu, Tchami, and, of course, Disclosure, are paving the way for a new kind of sound to enter the scene. Well, not quite new, but a revitalization of an old sound, rather. Whether you characterize it as deep house or UK garage, this soulful, fresher twist on house music is hitting clubs (and radio, in some cases) by storm.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy, president-founder of Ultra Music Patrick Moxey spoke out on the evolving EDM scene: “The great thing about electronic music is every time people want to put it in a box, it changes… Anytime one part of it becomes commercialized, new parts start to reinvent themselves. It’s in a constant process of refreshment.”
Grammy-winning house music producer Todd Edwards’s recent post on Thump further supports Moxey’s statement. Edwards was responding to a controversial Thump article that criticized Disclosure and their influence on the scene, but his comment is still pertinent to the larger picture of this evolving dance music scene when he says, “Disclosure has added to the legacy of garage and house, breathing new life into it. This newer house and UKG [UK Garage] has not only grabbed the attention of a younger generation both in the UK and America, but has given the opportunity for its earlier origins to be discovered and appreciated.”
As seasoned artists such as Dusky and Duke Dumont may be getting more exposure and appreciation due to this changing landscape, fresh, young talents such as Kygo and Klingande are also rising up to the scene. “You could pinch yourself because the song could have been made 30 years ago,” says Moxey. “Some of these 19-year-olds are making records that sound like they were made before they were born.”
It’s about time that we finally hear something different in our podcasts, live shows and festivals. The fresh emergence of deep house will be a welcome change.