Fidget has arrived!

Fidget has arrived!

9 October, 2008 | 11.01AM

• Written by: symblog
• Filed under: Music News :

What we’ve seen over the last 3-plus years is a dance music rebirth and one has to believe that fidget is at least partly responsible for it.

Fidget is a culmination of all types of electronically-made music; the shuffled feel of house, the wonky, wobbled basslines of drum & bass, the crunked-up and raw attitude of hip-hop, crunchy techno breakdowns with an overall electro, breakbeat sound.

Most importantly, fidget marked a triumphant return to “having fun and losing your mind to electronic music”.

The year was 2005. Electronic Dance Music was at a crossroads.

Vinyl was being phased out and replaced by CD’s; purchasing music online was rapidly becoming more popular amongst both DJ’s and the average consumer; and the scene, as a whole, was shrinking, especially in the US, where The RAVE Act had pretty much spelled the end to underground parties.

But something strange also began happening: rock and hip-hop artists had begun to embrace electronic music in a way they never had before.

This would be the official starting year of the electronic dance music subgenre these days referred to as “fidget”; a term coined by the very inventor of this genre…UK-based Switch (Dave Taylor), who actually began using the term as a joke, to describe this perfect storm of genre-bending electronic music.

What we’ve seen over the last 3-plus years is a dance music rebirth and one has to believe that fidget is at least partly responsible for it.

Fidget is a culmination of all types of electronically-made music; the shuffled feel of house, the wonky, wobbled basslines of drum’n’bass, the crunked-up and raw attitude of hip-hop, crunchy techno breakdowns with an overall electro, breakbeat sound.

Most importantly, fidget marked a triumphant return to “having fun and losing your mind to electronic music”.

Currently nearing the end of 2008, despite a backlash for the term, fidget has proven to be a commercially viable and longlasting subgenre of EDM.

Artists such as Switch, Trevor Loveys, Herve and Jesse Rose have built quite a foundation for the new generation of fidget-type producers like Stupid Fresh, Calvertron, Santiago & Bushido and HeavyFeet to take to the next level and progress.

Here’s what Jon DeFiore (artist name: Sexual Chocolate and owner of Junky Trunk Records in Chicago) had to say:

When I started producing (back in 2001), my intention was to make “house beats with drum’n’bass basslines” and I kinda was able to translate that with my first few productions (as JROCKELECKO) but I was still in “Chicago house” mode. I mean, that’s what I grew-up on and had the most inclination to make. But I also have always loved techno, hip hop and drum’n’bass, so hearing true “fidget” in all it’s glory for the first time was a life-changing experience. I thought “now THAT’s what I was aiming for”.

Jon also runs Junky Trunk Records in Chicago, which is one of only a handful of labels that releases fidget.

Our first several releases were pretty much straight-up Chicago house, but I caught the fidget bug while touring in South Africa with Pimp Squad (Guy Herman and Jon S) back in 2006. I didn’t want to scrap Junky Trunk or start a new sub-label, I just wanted to build-upon my artist base with the focus on more of the fidgety sound. Don’t get me wrong: I love straight-up house, but fidget was like a musical re-awakening for me. I’m a classically-trained musician, always searching to expand my sound and I needed to be reinvigorated about electronic music at that moment

So…is Junky Trunk now a full-fledged fidget label?

You know, I want to push this sound that I really believe in, but…like any musician, I don’t want to be pigeonholed into one sound or a label. The basis to all electronic music is house. I will never stop releasing house music on Junky Trunk. What I totally do not understand is how some people just absolutely HATE fidget, as if it ran over their dog when they were a kid.
Now, I’m not absolutely enamored with the name or title, but it’s got to have some sort of a classification or it doesn’t exist; it’s also way too difficult to explain the sound without a blanket term or word. I say: let’s just own the term. Who cares what it’s called? People are freaking-out to dance music again…isn’t that the point?

Name some fidget producers that are on your radar?
Well, I hate to show my cards here, so I’ll tell you about a few upcoming projects. I’m really stoked to have a pair of remixes of my latest original (Sexual Chocolate-Assbackwards) by UK-based HeavyFeet and South Africa’s Guy Herman. Guy is not only an amazing producer and one of the most technically-sound DJ’s I’ve ever seen, but one of the best all-around friends I’ve made in this business. I am also excited to have Australia’s Wongo & Ladgroove on-board for a pair of original releases; one of the remixers on that project is Rene Van Munster…I’ve really wanted to get him on Junky Trunk for awhile. His sound is truly unique.

Do you think fidget is just a fad?
When you’re talking about singles-based artists, everything, in a sense, is a fad. I think the one factor that will keep fidget “in the game” for awhile is it’s molding of all different styles of electronic dance music. Look…music genres are becoming a thing of the past. Every style of music draws from another style of music and artists are influenced by so much different music that they end-up making something completely new…and I love that! I also love how this particular scene has bred so many younger producers and DJ’s (by young, I’m talking about 18-24 year olds). That is something we really need to keep pushing electronic dance music forward. There’s a whole generation of people (in the US, at least) that doesn’t even know what “house music” is; that’s scary. We missed exposing an entire generation to house music. Now, with fidget, we can reintroduce it.

Jon DeFiore has run Junky Trunk Records in Chicago since 2006; a label that has released over 40 singles and remixes by artists such as HeavyFeet, Bryan Jones, Guy Herman, Latenight Society, RUDDER and Geoff K. In addition to running the label, Jon produces and remixes (under his Sexual Chocolate, JROCKELECKO, The Archetype monikers) for many successful labels like Junky Trunk, Spatula City, Control Recordings, More Music, Union Recordings, Blockhead Recordings and Flexual.

“SymBlog” is Symphonic Distribution’s editorial/commentary/interview piece. 
Symphonic Distribution is a Digital Distributor distributing hundreds of labels, providing marketing initiatives, education, and many more services to new and established labels.  (www.symphonicdistribution.com)

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