So, what's that picture about then? What does a cartoon character wearing a cape and a top hat has to do with the production of house music? Well, that character is no other than my favorite comic book superhero Mandrake the Magician! He had the ability to hypnotize people (and other creatures as well) by simple gestures. And that's what good house music often does, it hypnotizes people with very simple ingredients, often with nothing more than a simple loop that changes in minor ways for the whole duration of the track.
The question is, what makes something hypnotic and alluring while something else that's superficially similar bores you to death after 3 seconds? What's the secret trick? The answer is, sadly, that there is no secret trick. Knowing how to make something simple, yet interesting is what separates the men from the boys, the Kerris from the amateurs like me. It takes lots of practice, good taste and a deeper level of understanding of what works in the context of house music. Ie. things I don't really possess.
Which makes this particular post rather hard to write. I don't feel I'm qualified to say anything meaningful about the subject but it's an important subject so I must at least think about it, even if I don't manage to say anything of worth in the end.
What I do know is that music I consider hypnotic is often very loopy and subtle, as drastic changes break off the hypnosis. There's also almost always some sort of a catchy, yet simple riff and the drums advance the track in a subtle way instead of banging in your face. Chords are often involved in the equation as well, in one way or another. Naturally, these qualities are not unique to hypnotic music, they pretty much cover most music in the deeper end of house, at least on a superficial level.
What separates a basic, half-decent loop from a stroke of genius is in the details. The riff works on a musical level as well as on a rhythmical level. The chords accompany that riff well in a kind of a dreamy, ethereal way and of course, sometimes the chords are the riff. The drumming is simple and rolling, but every drum sound and beat is well thought of. There's nothing extra that the ear and the mind would find distracting. Everything just works. Every note and drum hit brings you closer and closer towards a dream-like state, that special vibe that allows you to dance for hours without even noticing how much time has passed. The hypnosis only breaks off when the lights come on at the end of the night. And of course, when a bad DJ plays something that doesn't work but that's an entirely different subject.
Dance music is rarely musically very complex. There isn't that many notes and at least in house and techno, the drums are usually fairly basic four on the floor type of rhythms. Getting down a basic idea of a track is thus often quite a quick process. If a melody consists of just three notes repeating, it doesn't take that long to find a good combination of them. But and this is quite a big but, the job doesn't end there. Because it's so simple, every note must count. Every note must be just perfect. The perfect sound, the perfect notes, the perfect combination of all the variables that affect how that simple melody is perceived by the listener. It can take quite a bit of time to get those three notes working together just right. While I usually work quite fast, I typically spend the longest time on getting those tiny details of the main loop the way I want them to be. After that process, the track more or less just writes itself. If the main loop doesn't work, it can actually take more time to sort out the mess later, that's why I spend a considerable percentage of my music making time on those little details that make a boring little loop into something that can, at least in theory, be listened to for a very long time.
What kind of details are important then when you want to write a track that allures the listener? That one is impossible to answer without the context of an actual track. Sometimes stuff just happens almost automatically, all the pieces of the puzzle fall right in their places in a very short amount of time. Sometimes you spend 2 hours on editing just one tiny thing. You also got to learn out of the habit of over-editing things. When they sound right they are right, even if spending just 30 seconds on something important may seem like a mistake of some kind. Learn to trust your ears! Making music has no rules, the only thing that counts is you.
And that's it. More or less, just another episode of Seinfeld (ie. a show about nothing). I've been busy making tracks so this blog has slightly suffered as a result. I'll try to write something a bit more meaningful in the future.
I also made a track, where I tried to emphasize the hypnotic effect. With or without success, how the heck should I know? The track also turned out almost techno-like. It's a constant issue I have to deal with, as I used to make techno for a long time and the things I learned during those years can easily overcome my housier side. Anyways, it is what it is. House, techno, something in between, I have no idea.
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