James Zabiela tearing it up in Osaka Japan, close look at his gear and set
Awesome vid showing his set up and his live performance!
Maybe one day someone will record one of these with an audio feed off the mixer so we can actually hear what’s going on.
his techniques are great, but his music selection is a bit all over the place for my taste…
This. But maybe more people are coming to see him perform than to dance.
He’s always been a bit of a “mutt” DJ wise, walks a very fine line and he doesn’t a have foot in one camp or another.
I was thinking the same exact thing as I watched the vid.
I know as a performer thats why I would go. I really want to see his set up, how he plays, and what innovative stuff he is doing.
I’m all for innovative, but I prefer for things to sound good too.
He’s kind of the stoned as fuck jazz brass player of the dance music world. That definitely has its place, and I’ve heard interesting mixes of his…but nothing I’d go back to hear again.
This is the first vid Ive seen of him performing instead of just showing his kit off.. it’d be a bit weird as just an audio set I must admit hmmm
HEY! What’s wrong with that!? 
I thought it was interesting to see the performance side of things.
Nothing. It just is what it is.
I don’t like Coltrane. I can only stand Brubeck in a few recordings. And I don’t really like this style of DJing either. I was just saying they’re kinda the same thing.
In 10 minutes? You and I must have very different ideas about what DJs do.
Been a massive fan of Zabiela for years. The guy is nothing but positive and I just love his attitude to what he plays. basically if he likes it, he’ll fit it in somewhere, somehow.
His “Moon” concept essential mix from a couple of years ago is quite amazing.
i have a cracking vid of James 
managed to get literately right next to him and watch him play with his toys the guys immense !!!
The guy is using everything he has, he’s doing crazy shit on that ipad, using those cdj’s, that LPD…i wish i could integrate my ipad like that, i have absolutely no use for this shit.
This is what the future is becoming. Forget DJing. Learn to press buttons and perform an “act”. People don’t dance anyway.
Check out the “fake” scratching over a lame beat at 7:40. This is the future.
I love Zabiela, and when i saw him on boxing night he was nothing short of spectacular, his set had the place rockin, and his scratching and beatmashing goes down a treat, i never imagined house and techno heads would go off for a bit of scratching. Loved his and Sashas WMC b2b sesh as well, thought he outshone Sasha that night tbh!
It’s not fake scratching he’s probably got some noise and it’s being gated with the DJM 800 effect, i saw it on the DJm 800 introduction vide, plus what’s wrong with doing couple tricks every now and then on your sets? If Dj’s i saw only played music and beatmatched intros with outros i’d get bored.
He is totally manipulating a 16 note sample using effects and hot cues. That is not live scratching.
To get that sound with real scratching you need some serious crossfader work.
In the end I don’t care if it’s real or fake if it sounds cool. What gets me pissed is when people like you think it’s real and praise him like a scratch God.
REAL SCRATCHING:
NOT REAL SCRATCHING:
