music and the atmosphere. The DJ is a transmitter of energy2, which goes through the machines: computers, turntables, mixer and the sound system, eliciting reactions in the audience. Electronic Dance Music prefers bass frequencies, whose waves are longer. They carry a bigger amount of energy, which amplifies its ability to resonate. This is the tactile aspect of hearing, the sounds resonating not only in the eardrums, but also in the stomach and the head, which gives goose bumps and makes the body vibrate, literally, reminding us that we hear with the whole body. The efficacy of a tune is tested on the dancefloor. Rhythm prevails. Melody has a secondary place in dancemusic and it’s absent in many of electronic dance music styles. “A good tune is not the same as a beautiful tune”3. Beauty can be measured by the degree in which music elicits and conveys emotions, which is not necessary to make people dance. The rhythmic efficacy is complemented by playing with timbres, with the sound grain, which are its expressive ground, the ability to evoke affects and worlds. The stress on timbre and texture strengthen the sensual effects of ecstasy, the touching and caressing feeling of sound. The evolution of these musical styles reflects a progressive awareness of this intensification of the MDMA effects. Different technical processes (EQing, filtering, panning, phasing and equipment such as the Aphex Aural Exciter) are used to adjust and pinch the frequencies and harmonics, and to make the different sounds stereophonic. The purpose is to make the sounds jump out of the mix with a mysterious three-dimensionality, shining with a hallucinatory vividness. The use of sound effects to intensify the effects of drugs
1. SZENDY, Peter (2001): Écoute, une histoire de nos oreilles. Editions de Minuit, París. 2. In words of Miguel Pellitero, former DJ of London clubs Fiction and DTPM in a personal interview in 2000. 3. Dr. Kucho, music producer.
shows how music plays with substances. Drugs from E to cocaine, as well as amphetamines, ketamine, marijuana and alcohol, take part in listening and music production. They are “chemical technologies of pleasure”4. MDMA makes the whole body turn into an ear, an ultra sensitive membrane that responds to certain frequencies5. Different styles highlight different aspects of the same substances, and different substances introduce different modifications of perception. For instance, percussion rolls and string cascades stress the festive, ecstatic, and community effects. Trance, hardcore and the most accelerated techno and (hard) house play with the more hypnotic and introspective aspects. Music itself often produces the psychotropic effects in the absence of other substances. The DJs and theirs techniques act as a catalyst allowing the dancers to get high with the music alone. In repeated listening, timbre evokes rediscovery. A forgotten experience is recovered in the thrill of the unexpected, when we listen again to the specific timbres from a zone between memory and oblivion6. Instead of reacting to the presence of the performers, the audience resonates with the music and its forces in the space created by them. Dance music becomes a machine to free the sound itself. The stress on the sounds of the sound, timbre and texture, which are the sound features more difficult to remember, makes them disappear from memory7.
4. GILBERT, Jeremy y PEARSON Ewan (1999): Discographies. Dance music and the politics of sound. Routledge, London. 5. REYNOLDS, Simon (1998): Energy Flash. A journey through rave music and dance culture. Picador, London. 6. JOWERS, Peter (1999): “Timeshards: repetition, timbre and identity in dance music”. Time & Society, 8 (2), 392. 7. VANHANEN, Janne: “Loving the ghost in the machine. Aesthetics of interruption” http://www.ctheory.net/printer.asp?id=312.
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