use toms.
don’t say it art.
say it gorge.
Gorge is a subgenre of Japanese electronic music that loves toms. An insular group of bootists (Gorge-makers) have been releasing manic, cyclical tracks on net labels like gorge.in and Terminal Explosion since about 2012. As the genre has matured, the bpm has increased and the music has splintered off in different directions. There’s Gorjuke, a tom heavy, maximalist vision of Chicago-area Juke and Footwork, and Gorap, which, unsurprisingly, is Gorge with people rapping over it, usually in Japanese.
<a href=”http://out.gorge.in/album/a-hidden-peak-ep” data-mce-href=”http://out.gorge.in/album/a-hidden-peak-ep”>A Hidden Peak EP by DubbParade & Kazuki Koga</a>
Lurking in the background is the Japanese tradition of Taiko, or kumi-daiko, drumming, which connects these very forward-looking producers with an ancient, ancestral past. Hard to really know how much to make of that connection, but it does fit nicely within a broader sense of theoretical minimalism and self-imposed restraint at play in the genre.
Aesthetically, Gorge is fond of appropriating caving and climbing stock images, images of mountains, spelunking, etc. Rocks and other sublunary things. It’s also pretty deep into the net art scene. The genre is supposed to have started in the mountains of Kathmandu, Nepal. It’s all very intentionally opaque, but mountains are important.
<a href=”http://out.gorge.in/album/gorge-is-gorge” data-mce-href=”http://out.gorge.in/album/gorge-is-gorge”>Gorge is Gorge by hanali</a>
As far as beginnings, hanali’s Gorge is Gorge is the right place to start. It was released in August of 2012 and is a good touchstone for gauging how much has changed since then. I’ve provided links to some of the heavy hitters in the genre (Ax, kamingcar, Yuko Lotus, ToM Network, etc.), a few of my favorite tracks, and some record labels that put out Gorge as well. Dig in!