By Joel Colbourne (Contributer) – Email
For those who have never dabbled in techno music and are looking for a soft entry into the genre the new album My Bedroom Floor, by Teen Daze, is an opportunity too good to miss. This particular sub-genre of techno is called IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), and its main influence is the electronic dance music scene which appeared in North America at the end of the British rave era in the 1990’s.
The rhythms and sound on My Bedroom Floor are not as intense as many techno preconceptions, but more gentle and atmospheric; the tracks don’t just build to a climax and then move on. Instead, the one-man-DJ-act’s tracks move smoothly from one to the other, lulling you to a sonic dream space.
Teen Daze, an Abbotsford musician, takes you on sort of a journey through his music, changing his sound constantly and smoothly, sometimes without you even noticing. If you are a smoker like me, it can be an almost spiritual experience to sit and smoke while you listen to the album all at once, letting your body move to the music, while Teen Daze’s unique approach to electronica washes over you in an almost seductive way.
Teen Daze’s sound is somewhere between house and ambient techno. At just the right beat and pace for relaxing and enjoying, Teen Daze is neither too fast nor too slow.
The first track on the album, “Keep the Girls Away,” stands apart from the rest of the non-vocal album as it starts out with a group of people shouting “do a hand stand get low” a few times before an electric guitar drives you into the rest of the track. Different from the rest of the album, it is also its best cut. Despite its stand-out aspects, it right away puts you in a good mood and sets a great tone for the rest of the album. The other track that particularly sticks out is “I Need to Get the Power.” It has a fast paced build and really brings out the music’s dance and hip hop roots. It builds to a cool drum track at the end before the song climaxes.
So let Teen Daze pop your electronica cherry. It won’t hurt. And look forward to listening to much more of it in the future. Don’t forget to check out Teen Daze’s myspace for show times and many more tracks and remixes from this talented and prolific local boy. It’s not everyday you get to enjoy a talented musician’s work who also resides here in our little city of Abbotsford.
