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Alec Troniq, GABRIEL VITEL

Old Tortures

The longest track of The Aviating, the 2015 EP the Dresden live-act partners Alec Troniq and Gabriel Vitel wrote and produced together for Broque: almost nine minutes of what the label called swinging yet narrative house music, a song with words built for the dancefloor.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Alec Troniq and Gabriel Vitel made Old Tortures for the club, but not only for it. Their label, Broque, described the EP it comes from as swinging yet narrative house music, real songs that tell stories, clocked right for the dancefloor, and tagged it house, tech house, pop and vocal. Hypnotic is what a long house track aims for; the introspective side comes from a title, and a voice, that sound like more than a dance tool.

Song Summary

Old Tortures is the third of six tracks on The Aviating, released by Broque in November 2015 under the catalogue number brq 108, and at eight minutes and forty-eight seconds it is the longest. The label credits every song to the two of them as writers and producers. According to Broque, the EP’s stories are about life on the road, about clubs, festivals, airports and hotels; it does not say which story this track tells, and this page does not guess.

Musical Breakdown

No published review describes Old Tortures section by section, so this page offers a frame rather than a map. A house track of this length usually opens and closes in a way a DJ can mix, develops by adding and removing layers over a steady kick, and saves its few big moments for when the groove steps aside. Here a sung part rides on top of that frame. Listen for where the track follows the pattern and where the song takes over.

Concepts in Focus

The ground floor is the four-on-the-floor kick, a beat on every count of the bar. It lets a DJ blend one record into the next and lets dancers stay with a track for nine minutes, and it is what a vocal has to sit on without fighting it.

The track belongs to a particular club culture: a small German label, two musicians who play as a live act, and early feedback from DJs and radio hosts rather than charts. On Broque’s page, one radio DJ predicted it would bang clubs all over the world, and another thought it could even be tried on radio.

Gabriel Vitel’s own channel carries a live recording of the song with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker. A live version with an orchestra is a different recording of the same song, and a good test of what the studio version’s machines were doing.

Artistic Context

According to Discogs, Alec Troniq is a live act and electronic producer from Dresden, and Gabriel Vitel, from Schwäbisch Hall and now in Dresden, has been a songwriter since 2012 and an indie dance live act since 2013, playing live with Troniq. The Aviating was their first joint release on Broque. Compare Alec Troniq, GABRIEL VITEL – Faces, the track just before it.

Impact and Reception

Old Tortures is not a chart record. On the label’s feedback page one listener called it his favourite on the EP, and it earns that the slow way. Give it the full nine minutes.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Describe what the label Broque meant by narrative house music: songs with words that still run on a dancefloor pulse.
  • Explain why a club track can run for almost nine minutes, and who that length serves.
  • Tell a studio recording from a live re-arrangement of the same song, here with a symphony orchestra.

Listening guide

  1. the pulse House and tech house, the styles Broque tags the EP with, usually keep a kick on every beat; listen for whether Old Tortures holds it for its full length.
  2. the voice The EP is tagged vocal, and listeners on the label's page singled out Gabriel Vitel's vocals; hear how a sung song sits on a club groove.
  3. the length Eight minutes and forty-eight seconds, the longest track on the EP: listen for how slowly things are allowed to change.
  4. the live version Gabriel Vitel's own channel carries a performance of the song with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker; compare what an orchestra replaces.

Concepts in this track

club culture

34 tracks

The world of nightclubs, DJs, dancers and their rituals in which house, techno and much dance music were made and are judged.

live recording

32 tracks

A recording made in front of an audience rather than built in a studio. It captures energy, improvisation and the sound of the room, and often differs from the studio version.

four-on-the-floor

20 tracks

A steady kick drum on every beat of a 4/4 bar. It is the pulse of disco, house and most techno: the body always knows where the next beat lands, so everything else can move around it.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Broque called these tracks real songs that tell stories. Can a nine-minute club track be a song in the same sense as a three-minute one?
  2. One DJ on the label's page thought Old Tortures could be tried on radio. What would have to change for that?
  3. What does a symphony orchestra add to, or take away from, a track built on a steady electronic pulse?

References

  1. Broque. Broque 108: Alec Troniq & Gabriel Vitel - The Aviating (2015). Label
  2. Discogs. Alec Troniq & Gabriel Vitel - The Aviating (2015). Database
  3. MusicBrainz. The Aviating (2015). Database
  4. Shazam. Old Tortures (credits). Database
  5. Discogs. Gabriel Vitel. Database
  6. YouTube (GABRIEL VITEL). Gabriel Vitel - Old Tortures (Live w/ Dortmunder Philharmoniker). Video
  7. YouTube (Alec Troniq - Topic). Old Tortures. Video

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