Santessa :: Just When I Needed You :: (Joe Claussell - Sacred Dub) ~ DancefloorResolutions.blogspot.com

Monday, February 9, 2009

Santessa :: Just When I Needed You :: (Joe Claussell - Sacred Dub)

"Music is an art form..."

Santessa :: Just When I Needed You :: (Joe Claussell - Sacred Dub)

Santessa is the UK’s best kept secret. Her debut album DELIRIUM, produced by Stuart Matthewman, (Sade, Maxwell, Sweetback) released through Sony UK in 2000, was critically acclaimed across the board. It has gone on to become a highly sought after collectors item worldwide.

Born on the Isle of Man, but without a drop of Manx blood; Her mother is half English, half Ghanaian, and her father hails from Ireland. After Santessa’s parents separated, she spent her childhood partly on the Isle Of Man, partly in the rough estate in Manchester where her grandmother lived. They later moved to Barcelona before she came back to London aged 19.

She began joining bands, forming a few of her own, trying on different music styles; funk, rock, folk, whatever people around her wanted to play, but finding none that fitted comfortably. Supporting herself with a job in a casino, she took singing classes, studied drama and dance, listened to rare groove and R&B in the clubs, to the bass-heavy dub of Jah Shaka at sound system clashes, to reggae songs by Gregory Isaacs, Black Uhuru, Steel Pulse and David Bowie.

Influenced by the sound of Bristol and Bjork she began writing her own material. Meeting Stuart Matthewman of Sade led to the 2000 release of “Delirium” on Sony. In in a style reminiscent of Portishead and Sweetback, Santessa combined trip-hop, downtempo, and 70’s soul to create a sound both new and familiar.

During her brief stint in the US her recent works include collaborations with Ayatollah and Anthony Hamilton, admonishing her sound with an upbeat, urban flavor.

Electronic Music

Is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology.Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar. Purely electronic sound production can be achieved using devices such as the Theremin, sound synthesizer, and computer.

Electronic music was once associated almost exclusively with Western art music but from the late 1960s on the availability of affordable music technology meant that music produced using electronic means became increasingly common in the popular domain.

Electronic dance music is a broad set of percussive music genres that largely inherit from 1970s disco music and, to some extent, the experimental pop music of Kraftwerk. Such music was originally borne of and popularized via regional nightclub scenes in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, the presence of electronic dance music in contemporary culture was noted widely and its role in society began to be explored in published historical, cultural and social science academic studies.It is constructed by means of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, and generally emphasizes the unique sounds of those instruments, even when mimicking traditional acoustic instrumentation. It sometimes encompasses music not primarily meant for dancing, but derived from the dance-oriented styles.

Today electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music.

Deep House Music

Deep house music is a style of house music which fuses elements of Chicago house, disco, 80's soul, jazz-funk and Detroit techno. The Jazz influences of deep house are most frequently brought out by chords using more complex than simple triads (7ths, 9ths, 13ths, suspensions, alterations) which are held for many bars, which give the tracks a slightly dissonant feel. The Disco music sound is a heavy influence in Deep House. The use of vocals is also more common in deep house than in many other forms of house music.

Techno Music

Techno music is a form of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, USA during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built.

The initial take on techno arose from the melding of synthesizer-based music with various African American styles such as Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz. Added to this was the influence of futuristic and fictional themes that were relevant to life in American late capitalist society—particularly the book The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler. Pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Toffler's phrase "techno rebels" as inspiring him to use the word to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the aesthetic referred to as afrofuturism.

To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central preoccupation; essentially an expression of technological spirituality. In this manner: "techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness".

Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use of the term; so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related but often qualitatively different styles, such as tech house and trance. "Techno" is also commonly confused with generalized descriptors, such as electronic music and dance music.

Minimal Techno Music

Minimal techno music is a form of dance music (EDM) that is considered a minimalist subgenre of techno. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition, and understated development. This style of dance music production generally adheres to the motto less is more; a principle that has been previously utilized, to great effect, in architecture, design, visual art, and Western art music. The tradition of minimalist aesthetics in Western culture can be traced to the German Bauhaus movement (1919 to 1933). Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detroit based producers Robert Hood and Daniel Bell.

Monday, February 9, 2009