Tech House
Minimal · 1994 · 120 to 128 BPM · also known as Techno House, House Techno
Tech house is the London compromise of the 1990s between the groove of house and the pull of techno, embodied by the Wiggle and The End club nights. It trades in round basslines and dry percussion, keeping neither house's soul nor techno's hardness, but achieving a formidable dancefloor efficiency instead. By the 2010s it had become the best selling style on streaming platforms, though at the cost of a standardization that its pioneers do not always recognize as their own creation, the genre having drifted far from its original London club roots.
10 reference tracks
- Paperclip People: Throw (1994)
- Rozzo: Into Your Space (1994)
- As One: We No Longer Understand (1995)
- Peace Division: Feel It (2001)
- Fisher: Losing It (2018)
- FISHER: You Little Beauty (2019)
- John Summit: Deep End (2020)
- Chris Lake & Armand Van Helden: The Answer (2022)
- Stromae: Santé (2021)
- Charli XCX Feat. Billie Eilish: Guess (2024)
At a glance
- Tempo: 120 to 128 BPM
- First appeared: around 1994
- Machines: Ableton Live, Roland TR-909, Akai MPC, Novation Bass Station
- The sound: Basse ronde bouclée, Percussions serrées, Hi-hats swing, Vocal hooks coupés
- Labels: 20:20 Vision, Eukahouse, Hot Creations, Wiggle, Solid Grooves, FUSE
- Key artists: Terry Francis, Eddie Richards, Jamie Jones, Michael Bibi, Enzo Siragusa
Producing Tech House
Sit between 124 and 128 BPM, where house meets techno, and unlike minimal techno, embrace the swing: 55 to 58 percent on the sixteenths for hats and percussion while kick and bass stay square. A round 909 kick with a short tail holds every beat, with clap or snare on two and four doubled by an offset rimshot, and closed hats alternating velocities 100 and 60. What sets tech house apart is its layer of dry percussion, congas, shakers and blocks with no reverb filling the free sixteenths, plus a swung shaker driving the groove. The signature bass is round and looped, sine and square mixed, filtered low around 300 Hz, playing short notes on the offbeats and sidechained to the kick. On top, chopped and repeated vocal hooks, short minor stabs, and filtered noise risers keep things lean.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Tech House?
Tech house is the London compromise of the 1990s between the groove of house and the pull of techno, embodied by the Wiggle and The End club nights. It trades in round basslines and dry percussion, keeping neither house's soul nor techno's hardness, but achieving a formidable dancefloor efficiency…
What tempo is Tech House played at?
Between 120 and 128 BPM.
Who are the key Tech House artists?
Terry Francis, Eddie Richards, Jamie Jones, Michael Bibi, Enzo Siragusa.
