#TRAXRECORDS

[djspangleman]

Renaissance!!🍾 Trax records's boss @screaminrachael played my new work @pro.one79 's"Don't stop" spangleman remix!(@traxrecords) Thank you for playing and supporting everytime!! #spangleman #trax #traxrecords #traxrecordschicago #minimal #microhouse #techno #chicagohouse #chicagohousemusic #screaminrachael #marcusmixx #marshalljefferson #phuture #tb303 https://www.instagram.com/p/CQaO_kPh1AZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[marcusmixxshannon]

#Show #Share #House #Pride #Love- TRAXGEAR.COM #Official @TRAXRECORDS #Gear #Fashion #Accessories #TRAXRECORDS #Store #Giftshop #Browse #Purchase #Now- TRAXGEAR.COM #Techno #HouseMusic #Dance #HipHop #Party #Friends #Gifts #COVID #LGBTQ #Townhall #Acid #Smile #BidenHarris #ravemusic #retromixtapes #wearhouseparty 

[stradarecords]

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A post shared by Strada Records (@stradarecords)

BASTI GRUB / DESTINY : CROSSTOWN REBELS(12")   HöhenreglerやHot Creations、Mobilee等からの多数の作品リリースで知られるドイツのBasti Grubが人気レーベルCrosstown Rebelsから12インチを発表！バウンシーでノリの良いベース・ラインにハスキーな男性ヴォーカル、そしてもちろん彼らしいトライバルなパーカッションをフィーチャーしたキャッチーな作品！さらに注目はB面！Frankie Knucklesによるシカゴ・ハウス・クラシック「Baby Wants To Ride」オマージュのブーミーなファンキー・ハウスをカップリング！これは見逃せません！ https://www.stradarecords.com/shop/item/23394/index.php #bastigrub #crosstownrebels  #housemusic #deephouse #tribalhouse  #tribal #funkyhouse  #frankieknuckles #traxrecords #chicagohouse #minimal   #12inch #dj #record   #vinyl #vinyljunkies #stradarecords  #recordcollection #vinylcollection #recordshop #recordstore  (Strada Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-vCoMWgchG/?igshid=1gkvox3v03str

[dddxie]

MJ

[trascapades]

👏🏿#ArtIsAWeapon Good for them!! #HouseMusic originators #LarryHeard (a.k.a. #MrFingers) & @this_is_robert_owens have won their lawsuit against #TraxRecords, according to @guardian. It's a bittersweet victory on #FrankieKnucklesDay, which honors and celebrates another House music legend #FrankieKnuckles. (Excerpts from August 25, 2022 "The Guardian") ‘It gives me peace’: house legends Larry Heard and Robert Owens on winning their Trax legal battle... A successful copyright action against their former label means the celebrated producers can reclaim their back catalogue after decades of struggle... For the past two years, Heard and Owens have been plaintiffs in a civil suit against Trax Records, house’s equivalent to Stax or Motown and their former label. But the fight goes back decades. Heard and Owens are among house’s most celebrated figures – as #songwriters, #DJs, #vocalists and #producers, and collaboratively as Fingers Inc, alongside Ron Wilson. Heard, who started as a jazz-funk drummer, is known as the godfather of deep house, which led to him being sampled by Kanye West and working with Dua Lipa. Owens’ tracks are among house’s most beloved; they include I’ll Be Your Friend and Tears, a collaboration with Frankie Knuckles. In the 2000s, he worked with the UK dance duo Coldcut on Walk a Mile in My Shoes. Sadly, though, their careers have been stunted, and made infamous, by Trax... At its core, the lawsuit argued that despite the label generating “millions of dollars in income stemming from their exploitation of the compositions and recordings”, neither Heard nor Owens had ever been paid a cent – so they sued, for copyright infringement. Read full story: www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/25/ihouse-legends-larry-heard-robert-owens-trax-legal-battle-copyright #RobertOwens #HouseMusicIsBlackMusic #Chicago #HouseMusicWasBornInChicago #FKAlways #HouseMusicHistory #HouseHead https://www.instagram.com/p/ChtgtZ3gwwk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ottottorecords]

Farley Jackmaster Funk - Funkin With The Drums Again Trax Records TX106 A1:Jack��n The House A2:Jack’n The Trax A3:Clap’n The Pella B1:Oh My God B2:Farley Knows House B3:Farley Faley format:12’ condition:g #farleyjackmasterfunk #funkinwiththedrumsagain #traxrecords #jacknthehouse #jacknthetrax #clapnthepella #ohmygod #farleyknowshouse #farleyfarley #housemusic https://ottottorecords.stores.jp/items/61753ecda92a785e2fb2b787 https://www.instagram.com/p/CVaMNQEB1zI/?utm_medium=tumblr

[echovoice17]

#nowspinning #traxrecords #7inch #4singleset #1986 #1987 #2018 #reissue #getondown #getondownrecords #chicago #chicagohouse #chicagohousemusic #marshalljefferson #larryheard #mrfingers #housemusic #adonis #frankieknuckles #vinylcollectionpost #records #recordcollection #echovoice17 #northeastohiovinylclub #vinylcommunity #vinyl #vinylporn #vinyligclub #vinylcollection #neovc

[rye-know]

Be On The Look Out! 👀 In The Near Future, I Will Be Having Some New Fresh Music Coming Out On The Legendary Trax Records! #ryno #ryanrauert #traxrecords #chicagoisinthehouse #housemusic #screamingrachel #rachelcain #marcusmixx #trax #records #digital #vinyl #gottahavehouse #legendaryhousemusic #chicago #house #music (at Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLKwDAHg0lJ/?igshid=cryct3qgm2qr

[musicplayperformance]

Let Yourself Go: Ludo-musicality in the Roland TB-303

By Illés Plompen

When I think of a ‘ludo-musical object’ (an object that contains elements of both music and play), one of the first things that comes to mind is the musical instrument, since the act of making music – whether alone or together with other people – always has a certain degree of playfulness to it. How this playfulness manifests itself really differs from genre to genre: in blues and jazz it is mostly in the act of improvisation; in classical it is in the way musicians react to the movements of the conductor; in pop and rock it is in the musician’s lively performance style and the way they interact with the crowd; and so on. This is obviously a very generalized, surface-level analysis of ludo-musicality in the performance of these different genres, but it shows that the concept of ‘play’ can be applied to music-making in a lot of different ways. Despite that, many would argue that it falls a little flat when talking about music that relies on ‘electronic instruments’, meaning things like synthesizers and drum computers, because these instruments allow you to play a set musical pattern at the push of a button. The concept of play would therefore not really apply, since you are mostly composing and arranging the music as opposed to actually physically playing it like you would on a traditional instrument.

I do not subscribe to this point of view. I think electronic instruments are just as ludo-musical as, if not more ludo-musical than, traditional instruments. It is just that the way you interact with these instruments is fundamentally different – something Mark Butler thoroughly discusses in his book Playing with Something That Runs (2014). <1> Because these instruments allow you to play the exact same pattern over and over again at the push of a button, they give you the freedom to manipulate the timbre via filters and effects, or even add new musical layers on top of it. Plus, these instruments allow you to create patterns that would be humanly impossible to play, opening up new possibilities in terms of tempo, dynamics, rhythmic complexity, you name it. Because of all this, new forms of play start to emerge. And if there’s one electronic instrument that exemplifies this best – both in terms of its practical use and fascinating, myth-like history – it is the legendary Roland TB-303 Bass Line.

The Roland TB-303 Bass Line (also known as the ‘Roland 303’ or simply ‘303’) is a bass synthesizer-sequencer, first released by Roland Corporation in 1983. Its rectangular shape resembles a modern-day computer keyboard (albeit much thicker and heavier) and its light grey colour, shiny knobs and playful red LEDs make it almost look like a toy. According to the owner’s manual, the TB-303 basically works as follows:

“In order to memorize a Bass line, divide it into each measure (pattern) and memorize one pattern at a time. Each “pattern” can remember various musical factors, such as ‘pitch’, ‘length of note’ and ‘accent’, individually. After memorizing several patterns, these patterns may be joined in order to produce the Bass line of a musical piece.” <2>

While this sort of digital sequencing technology seems simplistic, almost primitive, by today’s standards, creating and looping a rhythm or melody without first having to manually record or even play it was an incredibly novel idea in the early 1980s – an idea that has changed the way we make and think about music forever. And although Roland did not invent the synthesizer or even digital sequencing, they were one of the first companies to bring this technology to the masses, by making it affordable to people outside of the major label music business.

That said, the Roland TB-303 was a complete commercial failure when it came out and Roland decided to cease production of the instrument as early as 1985 (only two years after its initial release). And honestly, it is not hard to see why people initially weren’t taking to the 303: the synthesizer was meant to emulate the sound of a bass guitar and was mostly marketed toward solo-guitarists as a sort of imaginary bassist to play along to. <3> This seems almost too absurd to be true (especially in retrospect) because if you have ever heard a 303, you know that it sounds nothing like a bass guitar. The instrument’s strange, rubbery tone and synthetic timbre sounds more like a futuristic digeridoo than anything else! But, as author William Gibson first declared in his science fiction classic Burning Chrome, the street finds its own uses for things. And in 1985 – shortly after Roland ceased production of the TB-303 – a group of up-and-coming producers from Chicago by the name of Phuture would use the instrument to create one of the most important pieces of electronic dance music of all time, “Acid Tracks”. <4> <5>

To create the iconic bassline of “Acid Tracks”, Phuture used the TB-303 to make a simple, one-measure pattern of relatively high-pitched 16th notes, which is played in a loop throughout most of the track’s 12-minute runtime. While this is already a very strange way to use the TB-303 – since the octave-spanning, 120-bpm stream of 16th notes would be impossible to play on a real bass guitar – Phuture takes it even further, by constantly adjusting the knobs ‘cut off freq’, ‘resonance’, ‘env mod’ and ‘decay’ while the bassline is playing (see the image bellow this paragraph). As a result, the bassline has an everchanging timbre that, combined with the extremely repetitive rhythmic- and melodic pattern, makes it very hypnotic to listen to. This inventive use of the Roland TB-303 as a kind of squelchy arpeggiator instead of a real bassline synthesizer makes “Acid Tracks” a shining example of the experimental nature of the early Chicago house scene; one that planted the seeds for the acid-house revolution. <6> <7>

Because soon after “Acid Tracks” caught on in Chicago clubs like The Music Box, the sound of the TB-303 popped up everywhere: first fellow Chicago producers like Adonis and Mr. Fingers started using it; then came a whole wave of British house acts, making the 303 the defining instrument of a new style they called ‘acid-house’ (808 State’s “Let Yourself Go (303 Mix)”; New Order’s “Fine Time”; LFO’s “LFO (Leeds Warehouse Mix)”; A Guy Called Gerald’s “Voodoo Ray”; Orbital’s “Chime”); and by the late 90s, the 303 had become such a staple of dance and rave culture that it was used all across the electronic music spectrum (Daft Punk’s “Da Funk”; The Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up”; Aphex Twin’s “Cornish Acid”; the list goes on). In his book Energy Flash (2013), Simon Reynolds described the ubiquitous presence of the 303 as follows: “[…] it’s like the wah-wah guitar: instantly recognizable, yet capable of infinite variations and adaptations, and forever drifting in- and out of fashion.” <8> What makes the typical 303-bassline Reynolds describes (also known as the ‘acid-bassline’) so addictive is hard to pin-point, but I would argue it has a lot to do with how well it complements the use of MDMA; electronic dance music’s drug of choice. Whether it is the continually evolving tone colour, or the repetitive, disorienting nature of the fast arpeggio’s: the sound of a 303-bassline has a very trippy, psychedelic aesthetic.

And I would argue this aesthetic also has a strong sense of ‘play’ to it, with the notes gradually moving up and down the scale and the person operating the instrument knob twiddling their way through a never-ending climax – it is like a child playing with their toys. And I think this playfulness also comes through in the strange history of the 303. The fact that a group of house producers discovered the untapped potential of some flopped piece of equipment by using it in a completely different context, says something about the playful nature of making music and creating things in general. It might not be as obvious as literally playing a guitar, piano, violin or any other traditional musical instrument, but it is playing nonetheless. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun!

<1> Mark J. Butler, Playing with Something That Runs, (New York : Oxford University Press, 2014).

<2> Roland TB-303 manual, 4. http://www.synthdiy.com/files/2013/tb303.pdf (consulted on May 11, 2020).

<3> Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave and Dance Culture, (London [New York]: Faber and Faber, 2013), 30.

<4> Geeta Dayal, Roland TB-303 in Grove Music Online, published January 31, 2014. https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.proxy.library.uu.nl/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002257226?rskey=0F2Q2H&result=1 (consulted on May 10, 2020).

<5> Although it would not be officially released until 1987, “Acid Tracks” was created and played in local nightclubs in 1985 according to the members of Phuture, producer Jeff Mills and DJ Ron Hardy, which would make it the first house track to use the Roland TB-303.

<6> Reynolds, Energy Flash, 31.

<7> Sarah Thornton, Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital, (Wesleyan: Wesleyan University Press, 1995), 236.

<8> Reynolds, Energy Flash, 33.

[djstuartpilling]

After finally sorting all my Trax Records into my digital library, time to sift through them for a little ‘best of’... watch this space! #comingsoon #traxrecords #lockdown2020 #housemusicalllifelong https://www.instagram.com/p/B_KPxPthxSeRWctdhsDsR_BpIiAqpEMy_SIY3A0/?igshid=zpp10ace7swb

[djabeatz]

Rest In Peace to Trax Records Co-Founder Larry Sherman. The record label put out numerous classic house tracks including my personal favorite of all time Larry Heard’s “Can You Feel It”. Thanx for inspiration and beautiful music. #traxrecords #larrysherman #larryheard #classichouse #cantoufeelit #chicagohousemusic #housemusicanthems #mrfingers (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/B--hMxqDppK/?igshid=zsu7bte7qsua

[guys-and-chicks-in-da-house]

#frankieknuckles presents: #marshalljefferson #moveyourbody #traxrecords #1989 #radicalrecords #1990 #remix #chicagohouse (presso Chicago IIlinoιs) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8rjhwMo3cL/?igshid=1o7xa2xfzk44k

[screechingcrownperfection]

At Danceteria in NYC Madonna was jamming to @screaminrachael “My Main Man” on TRAX RECORDS @screaminrachael @madonna @johnargento @traxmag @k.c.mulcare @traxrecords @aliciagrimes71 @eileenshapiro @billyhessphotos @marcusmixxchicago m@marcusmixxchicago #nyc #housemusic #housemusicchicago #chicago @markdealwissalon @markelbeauty @patrickcoatescibyf #traxrecords #keithherring #andywarhol #artinstituteofchicago https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Ly62MHuPh/?igshid=1vczazirngm8r

[ottottorecords]

Phuture - Acid Tracks Trax Records TX142 A:Acid Tracks B1:Phuture Jacks B2:Your Only Friend format:12’ condition:vg- #phuture #acidtracks #traxrecords #phuturejacks #youronlyfriend #djpierre #spanky #herbertj #acidhouse #housemusic https://ottottorecords.stores.jp/items/5f8ec8494606907a6a77ce6c https://www.instagram.com/p/CGkETN5gmXo/?igshid=193xccb0ccvbs

[jessicakleffner]

#todayisthenighttonightistheday #chicago #drawing #warehousechicago #chicagocreatedhousemusic #warehouse #traxrecords #illustration #boelnbureau #i❤chi #chicagohouse #chicagohousemusic #ukiyo-e #ukiyoeart #housemusic #chicagobybike (hier: Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx9kwX6IWtS/?igshid=1euefxgtibayu

[danceloudmusic]

Hang out with some fun peeps last night. #Ministry drummer and the main woman behind #TraxRecords pants were images of #CDs!!! 😍♥️💿 #bestpantsever #musicmodernizationact (at 2112 Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsxkRdrlkcs/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cw0pprxpks0g