More Horns!

Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker has a post up at his blog ostensibly about DJ Sega but with a quick and even-handed dive into the confusion one has differentiating “Baltimore Club”, from “Philly Club”, from “Jersey Bass”.

It connects well to some of the stuff still going on in the comments fray of my regrettable DJ Sega hater post, in terms of the way the music overlaps itself and changes in way that sometimes I’m not exactly comfortable with or ready for all the time. The only complaint would be consulting only Philadelphia people and New York people (and not Baltimore or Jersey musicians or writers), but it’s a casual blog post namely there to highlight DJ Sega’s setlist, and Philly’s Emynd does a good job of contextualizing the music’s history:

“Honestly, while I absolutely love everything DJ Sega and the Brick Bandits touch, I don’t think there’s any good reason whatsoever to separate Jersey Club or Philly Club (known as “Party Music” within Philly) from the godfather of it all, Baltimore Club Music. If you ignore geography, there’s no arguing that the Club Music that comes from these three cities, but even the Club that comes from as far away as Paris and Helsinki is firmly based on an aesthetic tradition that was established in Baltimore in the early 90s and continues to this day through the work of Scottie B, DJ Technics, KW Griff, DJ Booman, and DJ Class, amongst others. I don’t understand how anyone could intelligently argue that there’s anything so unique and/or aesthetically unifying that justifies differentiating these songs geographically. It’s all Baltimore Club Music to me.”

Also interesting–Julianne Shepherd’s quick break-down of the differences between the three city’s respective spastic dance musics: “Jersey bass (emphasis on bass), Philly club music (more well-known tunes being disassembled), and Baltimore club music (more horns)”. I found the description of Baltimore Club as “more horns” worth unpacking because it’s certainly true, but it’s also moderately out-of-step with what’s going on in Baltimore right now in regards to Club but has a lot to do with the Club from Baltimore that gets spins in New York.

I was reminded of Baltimore’s DJ Pierre–about the same age as DJ Sega, equally dope, similarly A.D.D and trebly-electronicish–whose comments on New York’s vision of Baltimore Club were mentioned Al Shipley’s “Club Beat” profile below:

“Still, Wilkins [Pierre's real name] shows his age, and his new-school bias, when he recalls his recent trip to DJ in New York, where he was surprised by how behind the times out-of-town DJs were with their Baltimore club selections. “It was kinda weird. They didn’t really have the updated club music like we did. Older tracks, like, wow, ‘30 and over crew’ music,” he says, referencing the popular local term for retro club music.”

That’s to say, Baltimore Club music, the most recent shit, while still heavy on the horns, is mixing and mashing with Philly Club–especially when Philly Club’s defined as “more well-known tunes being disassembled”–while heavy bass (like Jersey Bass) is becoming even less prominent. It’s important to note, as Emynd did, that “well-known tunes disassembled”, if it is the hallmark of the Philly sound–I’d differentiate it by a starker, more electronic sound that’s even more A.D.D, edging on Girl Talk style –undoubtedly stems from Baltimore Club of the past, which especially in the late 90s up to today, went from grabbing a line or two from a song (Method Man on DJ Class’ “Rolldatshit” for example) to swiping and restructuring melodies, hooks, vocals, etc. from well-known songs (any number of songs, find a Club mix and you’ll hear 15-20 of these).

Bass though, has never been the key part of Club music for whatever reason (despite deep, deep, deep House origins), the power of the songs came from the build-ups and hard, hip-hop style drums. Now though, Club’s moving closer to a darker, forward trajectory rather than the conventional rise and fall structuring of past Baltimore Club–this is what older heads mean derisively when they say there’s no songwriting anymore…they’re right, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The influence of Blaqstarr too, can’t be overstated in terms of Baltimore Club’s shift and Philly Club’s growing aesthetic and the intersection of the two.

And less a corrective and more a Bmore-centric footnote to DJ Sega, I’d point everyone towards DJ Pierre (there’ll be an interview up here with him tomorrow). Here’s his MySpace and his Volume 6 is excellent and more of what we’re all talking about.

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