Scouse house

Scouse House is one of the dominant forms of House music in the North West and North East of England. It is a UK crossover of Happy hardcore and Uplifting Trance/House.

History
Scouse House originates from a Liverpool record shop, 3 Beat Records. A Disc jockey called Lee Butler who was a resident at the 051 nightclub in Liverpool had been playing a slightly more pop-friendly and vocal take on the 'UK hard house' and 'House music' styles that were more popular in Southern England, pioneered by BBC Radio 1's Judge Jules. 3 Beat Records had categories for UK House and Euro House/Trance but nowhere that this new variant that Butler was playing would happily fit. At the time there were only a handful of releases but to categorise them something was needed to be done and during a meeting with staff, Pezz the store manager as a joke, coined the phrase 'Scouse House'. Whilst having a witty rhyme to it and being by definition a true representation of a musical style at the time only being presented in Liverpool, it also gave the young 'Scouse' crowd something they could call their own.

Structure
The structure of the music is characterised by its 'bouncy' texture found on Uplifting Trance/house and use of samples from happy hardcore and various dance/Hip hop tracks. The choice of 'bassline' sample used in scouse house tracks is normally a 'pipe' sample with added audio effects, and when heard can be characterised as a donk noise. The donk sample is so prevalent within the scouse house scene, that donk is often used as an alternative name to the scouse house genre.

Such is the rising popularity of "Scouse house" that it has been mistakenly been merged with the genre of electronic dance music called "NRG", diluting the traditional "scouse house" sound. In Liverpool itself, the biggest club to play scouse house, Club 051, was forced to close in 2005 and some others have declined while many others such as Pleasure Rooms have emerged on the scene and the genre continues to flourish overall.

Key areas
Nightclubs in towns and cities including Wigan, Burnley, Warrington, Liverpool, Carlisle, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Glasgow can be heard to play scouse house. Further afield, clubs such as "Bananas" in Magaluf, Majorca, "KKO" in Torrevieja, Spain and Club UK in Malia, Crete are clubs where scouse house is popular. In particular, the genre is popular in Spain (where it is known as "bumpin' house"), the Netherlands, and Australia where the genre is known as "NRG". In these countries the music heard is typically harder than it is in the UK.

Although there are now many clubs playing the genre, perhaps the most famous within the scene are Wigan Pier and the now closed Club 051 in Liverpool. Other clubs are starting to get a very big following in some areas such as the Pleasure Rooms in Liverpool, The Boat in Newcastle and Maximes in Wigan.

Major Producers / DJS

Like many genre's of dance music, the terms producer and DJ is often interchangable. The vast majority of well known Scouse House DJs are also producers.

* Alan Aztec
* Alex K
* Alex R
* All Access
* Bad Behaviour
* BCD Project
* DJ DBC
* DJ Fitzy & Rossy B
* DJ Nemesis
* Head Hornys
* Hodge
* Hypasonic
* Hyper Deejays
* John Neal
* KB Project
* Klubbheads
* Lee Butler
* Lee S

* M-Jay
* Naughty Boyz
* Nick Skitz
* Outsource
* Sound Selektaz
* Stevie B
* Rush Pusher
* Tony N
* Ultrabeat

Brands and events in the Scouse House scene include 'Big & Bangin UK', 'Menace of tha Whopage', 'All Klubbed Up', 'Bashment', 'Killer Kombo', 'Sanctuary', 'Frequency', 'Re-Creation' , 'KlubbedOut' , 'Blackout' 'Essential-Bounce' 'Wigan Pier' 'Maximes' 'Naughty' 'La Bounce' 'Scouse Nation' 'NRG'

Music releases
In 2006, one of the highest UK chart entries for a Scouse tune, was at #10. The song was Mickey Modelle vs Jessy - Dancing In The Dark. Although the song could also be classed as commercial dance, its roots belong to scouse house. The tune spread initially through the scouse world by forums and downloads, known as "Ignostikz Vs The White - Donk in the Dark", and became so popular that white label 12" vinyls were produced from the MP3 that was circulating the internet. After being one of the most popular scouse tunes of the year, but still not very commercial, this fueled All Around the World (AATW) to sign Modelle's version and seek authorisation to use Jessy's vocal.

Due to licensing fears over samples and melodies used, records are often released on white labels as a form of protection for the artist.

Many Scouse House clubs often use an MC live over the top of the music, however most material released onto CD does not contain such MCing.

Key scouse house artists and remixers include Ultrabeat, Alex K and Hypasonic.

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