Seeks Beats : Chris Bassett August 2016
It’s been a while and this show marks a bit of a departure from Chris’ usual deep/tech house style with a mix that has a fairly distinct ‘indie’ sound… Since the dawn of house music back in the mid to late 80s the ‘indie’ and ‘dance’ scenes have often been uneasy bedfellows, with the indie tribe not really getting cheap, high energy, electronic music and the ‘cult of the DJ’ and the house tribe not going for the melancholy, shoe-gazing indie sound.
That being said, even back in the day, there were acts such as New Order and Depeche Mode claimed by both sides and as house music evolved into various sub genres through the 90s we saw the rise of festival friendly ‘cross-over’ acts such as Underworld, The Prodigy, Orbital and Chemical Brothers that were embraced by both sides of the musical divide and an emerging ‘indie dance’ genre.
Today we have indie and guitar bands using 303 acid bass lines in their tracks and likewise dance tunes have guitar-based bass lines and chords driving both their tempo and melodies. Genres, sub-genres and sub-sub genres are constantly shifting and evolving and you might find a dance record with strong ‘indie’ sensibilities in the cosmic disco, deep house or even techno sections of a record store.
Chris’ mix this month is his take on the current ‘indie dance’ sound as he sees it – as it’s mixed, it’s more ‘dance’ than ‘indie’, but you will hear a definite indie slant with contributions from Red Axes, FK Club, Vox Low and Lauer. Enjoy something a bit different… and if you do share it with others