House Is A Feeling

“Are you being sarcastic?”/”Dude, I don’t even know anymore.”

It’s funny how this decade’s techno meta-tracks seem encapsulated by the above Simpsons scene.

Marc Houle’s “Techno Vocals” was a good example, the low warbling vocal seemingly making fun of previous M_nus releases. Yet the record was released on that label and ended up being a pretty big hit.

How many DJs bought it for comic value? How many bought it because they liked the exact sound it was parodying so closely? It seems one person’s knowing laugh-in (in this case probably that of the producer and his friends) is another’s blissful ignorance. Or to put it another way, people hear what they want to hear.

The latest house track threatening to have an opinion is Koze’s “Dr Fuck”, forthcoming on Circus Company. It’s actually difficult to hear any of the vocals they’re pitched so low. But a faintly constipated sounding voice drones “Yeah boy, let’s rock, this is house music. And house is about a feeling, it’s a spiritual thing understand maaaaan”. The faintly monstrous chiding tone guffaws its way through 7 minutes of Koze’s (un)usual menagerie of sounds and dark warped bass, like Erich Cartmann in slow motion.

Who really knows what Koze’s point is, or whether he even has one? The track is great and the vocal is one of several elements that makes it distinctive. What’s interesting to me is the way even lyrics are as subjective as an instrument. You’ll probably see ten different interpretations of this track whenever it comes out.

The beauty of something like this is people will fit the weird vocal to whatever they want Koze to be saying. And actually he’s probably just goofing around. Perhaps in a way a hostile incantation about “house music maaaan” and what it is or isn’t is as much a part of the genre as any classic bassline or hi-hat or whatever. The chatter feels as authentic as Koze’s frothing deranged bass-heavy house, making it a perfect match.

This “is he or isn’t he” irony is something house and techno does particularly well, but not very often unfortunately. It never has I guess, though I think back to people like Green Velvet who always had something funny/weird/sad to say.

Back with Stefan Kozalle, I should say that the b-side’s not bad either. DJ Koze? “Yeah he’s cool.”

NB: I sort of feel like this record will be hotly anticipated, due to the huge popularity of the producer, its sweary title (people love swearing!) and the fact it has this noteworthy vocal. But you know, that’s not my intention, let’s all cooly anticipate it instead. Deep breaths. Fuck.