Tracks and Trains

I’ve finally understood the distinction between {tech house} and {every other electronica genre}, where flower brackets denote set notation, and I’ve come to an interesting conclusion about why I enjoy tech house so much.

I like tracks that sound like trains.

Tech house sounds minimal when compared with more flamboyant genres such as vocal house, but there something about the often mindless looping that makes it endearing beyond the dance floor. Mindless loops in trance or techno do NOT lend themselves well to productivity for me (when off the dance floor), but tech house causes me to spout paragraphs on a whim. Now I know why.

Trevithick had no idea what a powerful metaphor he had created when he built his steam engine. Image courtesy: Wikipedia (click on image for wiki article)

Just as I work well on planes, I work exceedingly well on trains, real trains that are robust and comfortable (not tiny trains that buzz around cities). A majestic long distance train that has the characteristic “clackety clack” sound of being connected to broad gauge tracks provides a wondrous opportunity to be productive and have some of the best sleep one is ever likely to enjoy.

Tech house, while far from sleep inducing, does have a low rumbling rhythm that loops around, simulating the feeling of a particularly large and boisterous high-speed express. I LOVE that low rumble. It invokes the dichotomy of the production of the sound versus the people who enjoy it. Those who produce it skillfully engineer the vehicle to take the audience on an exhilarating ride, but the engineers themselves stay in the background and admire their efforts quietly. Those who stand on the tracks and watch the train coming straight at them get completely run over; they feel the frenzy of the rhythm, movement and the low rumbling roar under their feet. This is how I feel after a particularly excellent tech house set.

It is unfathomable that a collision with a train should invoke positive imagery. This is one of those sacred times.

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