Electro house

Characteristics

Electro-house is typified by its heavy bass. This is often in the form of buzzing basslines, such as those created with sawtooth waves and distortion. It is also often in the form of large bass drum sounds in a four-on-the-floor pattern. The tempo of electro house is usually around 130 beats per minute. Electro house sometimes resembles tech house, but it can contain melodic elements and electro-influenced samples and synths.

History

The genre has been described as a fusion genre of house and electro, either in its original form or as fused with electropop and techno in its late-1990s revival, electroclash. The word electro is now often used as an adjective, such as electro-house and electro-pop.

Early songs that have been labelled retroactively as electro-house include "Dark Invader" by Arrivers in 1996 and "Raw S*it" by Basement Jaxx in 1997. Mr. Oizo's 1999 hit "Flat Beat" has also been considered an early example of the genre.

Benny Benassi, with his track "Satisfaction" released in 2002, is seen as the forerunner of electro-house who brought it to the mainstream. By the mid 2000s, electro-house saw an increase in popularity. In November 2006, electro-house tracks "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" by Fedde Le Grand and the D. Ramirez remix of "Yeah Yeah" by Bodyrox and Luciana held the number one and number two spots, respectively, in the UK Top 40 singles charts. Since then, electro-house producers such as Feed Me, Knife Party, The M Machine, Porter Robinson and Yasutaka Nakata have emerged.

Big room

In the early 2010s, a type of electro-house known as "big room" began to develop, particularly gaining popularity through EDM-oriented events and festivals such as Tomorrowland. Big room now is beginning to subside from the classification of a subgenre of electro house and develop more as its own genre. Big room songs resemble Dutch house, often incorporating drops, minimalist percussion, regular beats, sub-bass layered kicks, simple melodies, and synth-driven breakdowns. The layout of a big room track is very similar to the layout of a typical electro-house song. Big room is thought of as a subgenre of electro-house.

Complextro

Complextro is typified by glitchy, intricate basslines and textures created by sharply cutting between instruments in quick succession. The term, a portmanteau of the words "complex" and "electro", was coined by Porter Robinson to describe the sound of the music he was making in 2010. He has cited video game sounds, or chiptunes, as an influence on his style of music along with 1980s analog synth music. Other producers of the genre include Adventure Club, Kill The Noise, Knife Party, Lazy Rich, The M Machine, Madeon, and Wolfgang Gartner

Dutch house

Dutch house, sometimes referred to as 'Dirty Dutch', is a style of electro-house that originated in the Netherlands and found prominence by 2009, mainly pioneered by Vato Gonzalez and DJ Chuckie. It is primarily defined by complex rhythms made from Latin-influenced drum kits, a lower emphasis on basslines, and squeaky, high-pitched lead synths. Influences on the subgenre include Detroit techno, hip hop and other urban styles of music.

Notable Dutch house artists

Fidget house

Fidget house, or fidget, is "defined by snatched vocal snippets, pitch-bent dirty basslines and rave-style synth stabs over glitchy 4/4 beats." It contains influences from Chicago house, Detroit techno, Baltimore club, Kuduro, Pimba, bassline, bouncy techno, dubstep, techstep, hip hop easy listening and world music. Purveyors of the genre include The Bloody Beetroots, AC Slater, Danger, Hervé, Sinden, Jack Beats and Switch. The term fidget house was coined by DJs/producers Jesse Rose and Switch, "as a joke, which has now gone a little too far."

Moombahton

Moombahton is a mixture of Dutch house and reggaeton. Its identifying characteristics include "a thick, spread-out bass line; some dramatic builds; and a two-step pulse, with quick drum fills", but it has "no real rules beyond working within a 108 bpm range." A portmanteau of "moombah" and "reggaeton", moombahton was created by DJ Dave Nada when he slowed down the tempo of the Afrojack remix of the Silvio Ecomo & Chuckie song "Moombah" to please party-goers with tastes in reggaeton. Other producers of the genre include Dillon Francis, Diplo, and Munchi.

Moombahcore is a style of moombahton with elements of breakcore, dubstep, gabber, and techstep. Characteristics of the genre include chopped vocals, dubstep-influenced bass sounds, and extensive build-ups. Artists who have produced moombahcore include Delta Heavy, Dillon Francis, Feed Me, Knife Party, and Noisia.