wow this is novel, a debate about music on the Ableton forum!
Some of my best ever nights out have been to what I would call techno - meaning high 130s into 140s bpm, with chopped syncopated conga-percussion type loops and mad synthetic sounds, but it takes a certain kind of mood, I dont have the constitution to handle listening to alot of it on a daily basis and for me alot of it only works loud
What I would have called tech-house would be slower and funkier/groovier and more listenable on a regular basis - mostly what I listen to - you get Tom Stephan playing alot on his kiss radio show (
www.kiss100.com )(although I think he calls it Tribal House which would probably invoke a slightly different image to my mind from alot of what he plays these days)
Also Alot of the weekend night DJs on Paris' Radio FG:
www.radiofg.com/live play what I'd be tempted to call tech-house, just because the vibe is housey, but alot of the sounds are techy, but it might well be being called something else.
In my mind to just call something "house" leaves it a little open to being slotted in with that vocal US garagey stuff that could probably be played by a real band with funk bass lines and diva singers - not that there's anything wrong with that but if I went into a record shop asking for house that's not what I'd be hoping to hear. So for that reason the term I seem to have settled on is "underground house", which seems to be close enough.
