AWESOME article on the current state of dance music/DJing in light of recent events
There have been a lot of articles recently on this subject but this one really gets the big picture and point across and is very well written.
Press Play? Hit Start
http://hotwaterinc.tumblr.com/post/25938207447/hitstart
Awesome.
x2
Amazing. Makes me want to travel back to the days of old trance; makes me want to get out there and show the people at nightclubs what they missed/don’t know.
I think the greatest and most educational part of this article is playing what people don’t know. Its a bloody huge risk but its the risk people like see taken and, should you perform it right, it’ll pay off dividends for you and the crowd.
Thanks for the fantastic find, Xonetacular!
haven’t read it yet, but I will say that I have stopped caring about wtf some famous producer, big magazine, or random blog writer has to say about DJing or the EDM “Scene”.
Invoke- that’s a shame since this is the first article that really gets it
I did not grow up in the club scene and I’m kind of traveling backwards in my journey discovering music- I started on the more accessible electronic stuff around 2006-2007 in college and never was a part of the scene the article talks about. Now I have broadened my horizons and am finding ways to experience this kind of vibe and I would have love to have been to some of these NY clubs that are now gone and experience some of these sets.
I like the part about no cameras and cell phones on the dance floor being enforced- I feel like places should do that now.
Neither did I. I live in Utah so there’s a very small EDM community to begin with; to make it worse, trance music is a much less popular genre in the US so its pretty surprising that I ever got into the scene. Used to pull from the big name artists for a while (Tiesto, ATB, etc.) until I listened to some more progressive trance from artists like DNS Project and KhoMha. In addition, I got exposed to some trance anthems and I just lost it - now I’m on a continuous search for great tracks pre-2002, and I hope someday I can get to hear some of these great tunes being played by other DJs than myself.
Well it probably would’ve been a good idea not to read a thread about exactly that then.
That is a fantastic article, reminds me of what I loved so much about this in the beginning. My Tenaglia was always Digweed. From the first time I saw him 11 years ago as an 18 year old… This shit still exists though you just need to look harder, a newer and more commercial element has just been added to dance music which clogs up a lot of the scene ie. festivals, still plenty of clubs and plenty of DJs around that can give that same feeling though. Heck 4 and a bit hours of Chris Liebing a few weeks back reminded me of exactly that.
Nice find, really good article.
I like how he talked about dilution in the EDM scene. More people meant more music being made. That will inevitably lead to some good, but a lot of bad as well. This goes for almost anything in life, and needs to be taken for what it is, and with a grain of salt. Look at skateboarding. When it started to get big again in the 90s, small skateshops were replaced by corporations (west 49) and skateboarding became about the money. Pandering to the masses, who may not be skaters, but sure wanted to be. Same goes for music. Crate digging and finding a gem nobody has heard was replaced by banger after banger every weekend.
The trick is to find those local DJ nights where everyone there is looking for something new, something to make us move, something to make us remember why we like this kind of music.
Agreed. Especially the part about cameras and such.
This.
I don’t know about the rest of the world but in Australia there is plenty of clubs and nights like this around, places where you can hear extended sets, fresh music, basically everything the writer laments about disappearing from the scene. Heck there are even loads of touring international DJs that still deliver quality time and time again, guys that haven’t fallen into the trap of playing the same shit every night.
You go to a big festival or commercial club. Expect to hear music to match the setting.
A great article. Took me back a bit to my day sin the club. The community aspect of it. The aspect of having to participate in order to get the whole experience. I too remember the days when everyone wanted to control a crowd like your favorite dj could, but didn’t want to try as to not ruin the music for themselves.
I also love it when old heads (such as myself) reference the way guys used to mix (house/trance/ethereal) music. We used to title all of our mixes “seamlessseaofgroove”. When I was learning, the point was to mix for hours with a minimal number of audible transitions. So much fun to try, and to hear when someone could actually do it.
The DC local boys did it for me. Scott Henry, Charles Feelgood, Dara, dj sun, Dieselboy, Lovegrove, Bagadonuts, and even some left coast guys like Doc Martin and the Hardkiss brothers.
We have lots of clubs around me, that play the same top 40 songs every week, but there is also a night that some friends of mine put on in a little hole in the wall bar that is all drum and bass. Not your little brothers radio play, and that’s why we all go. Maybe only 20-30 people, but the scene is tight because of its size.
Yeah, I’m from a much bigger city (Melbourne), shit loads of crappy clubs, but quite a few decent ones. Basically no matter what you listen to you can be sure there’s a scene for it. A respectable scene.
But this is city thats responsible for Anthony Pappa, Phil K, Infusion, Nubreed, Luke Chable, Ivan Gough etc etc. It was a hub for progressive house in the 2000s and lots of clubs have always kept that ethos.
thanks xonetacular that was a great read! tenaglia and steve lawler were actually the guys that inspired me to become a dj around 2001 or so. well, them and the musical renaissance i went through when i discovered that there was way more to music than what was on the radio. it blew me away to see that there were so many passionate people creating beautiful art that most people will never hear. i wanted to make it my mission to spread the word of these heroes that changed my life during that period of time.
tenaglia is one of the greatest djs to me and i was lucky to see him here once at a club in vegas. the thing i love about him is the broad range of house and techno he plays, but at the same time he isn’t perfect. in every set that i’ve heard from him, both live and on cds there are always mistakes. it’s endearing to me. it makes me feel human and connect with him in a way since i too make plenty of mistakes when i dj or create. when you listen to him play you just understand that he is a part of something bigger than himself and he loves all of those gems that he’s slinging at you.
when i saw steve lawer on the turntables my mind was blown. i’ve never heard a more technically perfect set full of brilliant, darkly sexy tribal tracks strung together in my life. not at one point did even a kick waver in the slightest bit when he was mixing, with some tracks overlapping by large amounts. there were many times that evening i could not even tell if a transition occurred and i was in heaven.
The thing is that massives used to be like this, for the most part. Go to a huge party see a ton of great DJs throw down, go to another and get blown away again in a new way.
Lots of truth in the article!
This is the point many people don’t seem to get. The main function of a DJ is as a kind of curator or filter (like it’s also stated - with exactly the same words - later in the article), he’s the guy you trust for his instincts and taste in music. That’s why requests are bullshit, that’s why mainstream music is shitty per se (I mean, if you want to hear the same crappy charts music that’s playing on the radio all day, what do you need a DJ for?) and that’s why all those stupid sync-button-debates are moot (because it isn’t primarily about beatmatching, never has been).
Yeah pretty much.
Same- Lawler was great when I saw him. Say what you want about ultra music festival but away from the main stage there was tons of quality acts and even seeing lawler, hawtin, carl cox, etc. there was pretty mindblowing.
The problem with today, is that DJs only get to play an hours set and the promoter fills the rest of the bill up with other big/small DJs / producers. DJs dont get time to build a set these days.
Awesome article.
Sorry in advance. This clears up the DJ thing that rat was talking about (that’s sarcasm). Like I said before its not about the light show. It’s about the emotion you feel from the music. Not the awe from the visuals. But that’s just me.