Discodust

Discodust is an electronic music blog that specializes in the sort of music that ignorant people think of when they think of electronic music ("techno"): repetitive, one pleasant vocal line repeated over and over, and a style that sounds like Daft Punk except… actually, there is literally no discernible difference between any song posted on Discodust and a Daft Punk track from the mid-90s. For those of you that don’t follow house, over the last couple years, people have mostly woken up from a Justice hangover and tried to make house- sorry, electro house- that’s more accessible and melodic, because if there’s anything that sounds great attached to a four-to-the-floor beat it’s an Ashlee Simpson melody.

Discodust distinguishes itself from literally thousands of similar blogs (such as the one it’s often confused with and vastly superior, though with a far less colorful layout, Discobelle) by simultaneously posting songs by any random producer with a pirated copy of Reason and also posting the same song thousands of times. I don’t know when people will read this, but just look at the first blog posting: is there a producer in an obviously posed picture with aviator sunglasses looking somewhere other than the camera with an expression of complete indifference? If there isn’t, you might have accidentally gone somewhere on the internet with interesting content. The dark secret to the genre of really boring house is that most of the producers are either fresh out of high school, or are recovering from a former life of playing drum and bass when it was popular and wearing camouflage in urban areas, just in case someone who knew them when they liked Pearl Jam recognized them on the street and they had to hide.

As of this writing, the latest track is by "gasaida," and since they look like the Gallagher brothers I'm going to assume this is a top-secret Oasis side-project and that Noel leaving the band was an elaborate ruse. Anyway, this new Oasis song has a two-note disco loop played really softly with an accompanying re-sampled vocal, to let you know the only three words you'll be hearing for the next seven minutes. After that, it has the standard kick-snare-kick-snare pattern and a sample that resembles C3PO falling apart. It's not really necessary to listen to the song to see if you agree or disagree; since every song on the blog has the same drum pattern (which is fine) and the exact same feel of a classic disco song that you can only hear through iPod earbuds set a couple feet away (which is not), you can choose one at random and form your own opinions. I'm a bit confused why this song was made so long: any DJ desperate enough to use it in a set could give people an idea of the song with just a minute and a half of it; since everything in it repeats without any elements entering or leaving it (the point of the extended dance mix), if you desperately wanted to play that much, just set it on an 8-bar loop and do some coke off your Macbook.

It’s pretty difficult to keep up with what’s posted on Discodust, since they usually post about two new entries a day (though it seems they went on hiatus recently). What this really does is reinforce the fact that the music they’re posting is supposed to be ephemeral: you’re not really supposed to enjoy it for longer than three minutes out of a five minute song. Instead, you’re supposed to download it twenty minutes before your opening set at a sleazy nightclub and play it to people who aren’t quiiiiite sure if they’ve heard THIS generic track before. Then, after playing it once, you leave it on your computer for a while until you forget what it sounds like and delete it. Quality and innovation is almost never the objective, it just has to fit in with the sound that people currently enjoy.

Rather than go back and soak up influences from a few years back, it just looks at those tracks and makes them over and over. Most genres, once they're established, have their own feel and aesthetic. The songs on Discodust, on the other hand, completely avoided this and just took the entire idea and feel of 90s filter disco and try to pass it off as a new thing. Discodust will never post anything of worth, because it’s fundamentally opposed to worthwhile music.