R Funksmith Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 What do you guys think? Imagine a band that was bass, drums, percussion, guitar, keys, a horn/flute player, another horn, maybe a violin. And someone was composing badass library-sounding 70s-esque songs. Would people like that? Cuz you know, library music has a certain cheese to it. But if it were done well would that be actually a good thing? How would you even brand a band like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I'm not in a position to look up names right now but there have been bands like this before. Personally I find the concept of modern day muso hipsters recreating a vibe captured by some Italian session players in a 70s studio a bit contrived to say the least. A lot of the library music that's revered today (which is actually less than 1% of Library music) was actually the product of a very unique moment and circumstance in time. Like so many musical moments that were the result of very unique circumstances or moment in time, I don't feel you can recreate them years later... even if it just comes down to the fact that it was new the but now retro. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 there are various bands who effectively do that on one level or another. you could argue that El Michel's Affair do it & likewise the Natural Yogurt Band. I've heard MRR-ADM and the Dirty Drums collective as being modern library music and I can understand that perspective to a degree 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vet Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I saw Zero 7 live before...pretty library-ish if I recall... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike-L Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I remember Big Daddy Magazine covering a gig by Alan Morehouse with loads of the original musicians playing "Champ" and such like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Funksmith Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 I've heard most of the bands you guys mentioned and they're not quite what I meant. Rock Well, I think you undervalue the composer's contribution to these recordings. It's all well & good to talk about a "vibe" but it's not like a bunch of Italian session players just went into a studio and started jamming. Parts were written for them. That said, I think it's yet another of my ideas that look good on paper. Most of my ideas are like that. Like the guitar pedal I invented yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacken Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 I think that recent Heliocentrics EP is the best example of modern library music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 agreed - Chop's stuff too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Can someone post some examples of library music? I think of stuff like this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I think library music is generally apeing another style of music. Be that jazz, film scores, rock, etc. Most of the library players and composers were at least trained in an area of music before becoming library musicians, if not actively pursuing careers in other areas of music. The only thing I think separated library music as a seperate genre rather than than just aping other styles was the opportunity for experimentation and the fact that the records they were making didn't have to please an audience in the same way that commercial releases would have to. At the same time there were albums, particularly jazz and soundtracks, that sound like a lot of what's regarded as library music and we're played/composed by the same people... but I'm sure at the time things like like the Psychomania OST was being cut, Cameron et al thought they were recording an experimental soundtrack, not using library music for a film. Likewise, when Nick Ingman made Terminator I'm sure he thought he was making a jazz album rather than library music. I guess I just struggle with the idea of library music being a genre, although I appreciate there are some library recordings that would struggle to be classed as anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I guess I just struggle with the idea of library music being a genre, although I appreciate there are some library recordings that would struggle to be classed as anything else. that basically sums it up I think. in essence, it isn't a genre because there are all different styles of library LP (did you know that Deckwrecka did one for KPM for example?) but you're right in that a lot of the stuff just doesn't fit into anything else. at best you'd get "soundtrack" - which again, isn't really a genre either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Yeah, funnily enough I did know about Deckwrecka's library stuff. He lives in Hastings, about 10-15 mins away. When he first moved down here about 3 years ago he came into the shop to check the place out. He was pretty cool, although it was a strange meeting... He explained how he'd just moved down because he'd bought two houses as an investment after he'd done pretty well from music placement/library work and selling his London place. He was very chatty about his current work, explaining how he was producing full time for a living. At the same time, when I expressed an interest in his production skills and pointed out that I was trying to learn stuff like that myself and would love to hook up with someone more experienced he cut me off completely, saying that it was his livelihood and their was nothing he could teach me because he just does his own thing and that he wouldn't if he could because he has to protect his living... weird. Then he asked for a very long list of really obvious digger's records - Quincy Jones soundtracks and such. My totally honest answer was that most of the titles he'd asked for had only turned up once if at all in my time here and if they had turned up, I'd taken them home. His response was kind of "fair enough, but obviously there's no point in ever coming here again". So he left after our very brief meeting on sort of a nice to meet you but there's no point or reason that our paths should ever cross again vibe. Like I said, it was all a bit odd. One bit of trivia though, the other house he bought he rents out to Skitz. In fact there's a bit of a growing Hastings hip hop community at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 ha - well odd! I've only met him once. we have a mutual friend in a guy I've known a lot of years called Emmet and he gave me a copy of the KPM album back in the days when you'd give people copies of things by taping them and sending them through the post. good to hear that he's producing full time for a living - I have to admit, I never imagined he'd manage that as his stuff always had a very britcore kind of feel to it. in fairness, the KPM thng was a bit different and I'm not knocking his britcore sound - the MUD fam EP is one of my favourite UK releases ever and he had a knack of bringing the best out of skinny that only skitz could really touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 quite funny that a hastings scene is developing. my mate griff the visual behemoth moved there when he decided he didn't want to raise his family in london. he was the guy who did my sci-fu sleeve and it still galls me that I never managed to get him a 12" of that artwork pressed up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Yeah, Hastings is up and coming allegedly... it'll never be the next Brighton really, but it's better than Hackney et al, plus it's still pretty cheap. There used to be a bit of a Hastings hip hop crew back in the day (Roc Records and all that), but as some of them did better for themselves they all moved to Brighton or London. Now there's Skitz and Deckwrecka, plus local boy Wizard has made a bit of a name for himself, plus there's people connected to Skitz regularly popping up down here. There's a new place opening up very soon my mate is doing the sound system install for and all of the above plus Rodney P are doing the opening bash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 damn, all those guys remind me of the late 90s. i bought everything that ronin put out for a while - titan sounds too. some of it still stands up nicely. i was digging through all the 12"s that I lost the covers to when my boiler exploded lots of years ago and found the rodney p EP dobie produced years ago on pussyfoot. quality record - shame about the sleeve though. wasn't as nice as all the others i lost i.e. my entire collection of Mo'Wax, Jazz Fudge, New Breed and Function8 releases... fucking gutted (still) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Harsh times. The other recentish Hastings immigrant I forgot to mention was First Rate, but he's a whole other story altogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 haha - he is. I always had a lot of time for him as a DJ. never really spoken to him much but him and Mr Thing were pretty much my favourite of the scratch perverts when it came to party rocking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 The couple if times I've met him he's been super cool, if a little random... What must gave been 4-5 years ago, the Crypt in Hastings had him twice as the headliner with myself and Paul doing warm up. Got to chat to him for quote bit before the gig which is where the odd bit came in - bearing in mind the time, he was looking a Paul's Traktor setup and was asking about it like he'd never seen DVS before, he'd heard the name Serato but claimed not to know anything about it. Pretty much everything he did have or know about he credited to Mark (Mr Thing) showing him or giving him (like his battered 07 he was still spraying up with WD40!). Even talking about production, he said he didn't really know anything about it, he just had Reason and played with the presets. When he played his set it was tight was doing all the exact same thing he's been doing when I saw him play 10 years before. Also, when he played the second night he just played the same set as the time before. He does a monthly night in Hastings now but generally plays cheese and chart music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Yeah, from when they did the Sugarhill remix I always got the impression that Mr Thing was the main producer out of them. It doesn't surprise me to hear that his monthly night is cheese and chart music. They got Prime Cuts to play at the after party of the 3DOM free festival we played in Sheffield in the early 2000s. mickey blue eyes and non-stop used to do all kinds of good shit like that - free breaking sessions with Noize etc. it was an awesome time to be in and around Sheff. anyway, Prime Cuts clearly figured he was going to be the star of the show irrespective of what he played so he turned up with a bag full of AV8s and dropped a stinker of a set which was made even worse by the fact that Mink was on just before him and absolutely killed it in his usual style, dropping doubles of everything in a supremely danceable way. he seemed a bit rattled that he'd been obviously shown up by what he probably expected to be a lesser DJ, but he hadn't brought the records to do anything about it. classic thing was - I saw him a few months after (also in Sheff) and he dropped exactly the same AV8 shite. "SMH" as I believe is the correct phrase in modern internet parlance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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