noobie question - do you buy older tracks? (not talking about hits)
all my life i’ve been a crate digger. from my early days as a scrawny kid looking for that one live bootleg of his favorite rock band to my love affair with electronic music that has grown over the past 5 - 6 years. why it took me so long to think of dj’ing myself, i have no idea. but here i am
as i make the transition from a listener of mixes / podcasts to actually building my own library however, if i run across what i think is a hidden gem but i discover the release date is two or three years ago, i find i have this hesitation to buy it. like i’m breaking some unwritten rule.
i love long deep house sets. it’s not a genre that really focuses on recognizable anthems to begin with, so it some ways it seems like it shouldn’t matter.
but i was just curious to get the opinion of the more experienced folks on this board - when you’re making a mix, does every track have to be from the past 6 weeks? (exaggerating, but you get my point). what is the average shelf life of the tracks you buy? is there some cutoff point for a tracks release past which you wont buy it?
If a song is a gem, its a gem. I have a couple songs that are 3 years old but still fit into my playlists and gets the crowd going everytime I play it. I personally wouldn’t buy it tho.. mind you I scour for free DLs often
Agree with AllDay, in fact I am kind of obsessive about keeping mixes varied, I feel like I’d be cheating if the set would consist of newly acquired stuff exclusively; I gotta put a gem or several in there. Or maybe that’s just my programming style.
As a side note, I only do mixes for upload (for now of course, I am not too long “in the game”) so that might not apply to live. For me music is timeless and even if the tune shows the sign of age, the fact that it could work with newer stuff always gives me tingles.
I think these days more than ever old gems are just as if not more important than the newest ones. Everyone know’s the new tracks and has access to them online, the older tracks (especially with Deep House) can make your set fresher then a set full of only new tunes. If you’re into Deep do your self a favour and some turntables if you don’t have a pair so much good old (and new) stuff on vinyl only.
As has been sort of said above, a great track is a great track, irrespective of age. If you’re keen about looking back over say the last couple of decades for House/Deep House, then a turntable is a must, you’ll also enjoy the thrill of picking up classic tunes on vinyl, I still love it now despite going digital for the last few years. I still play much of my vinyl I’ve collected over the years although I must admit to being lazy and rebuying the odd tune digitally, if available that is - this is one of my biggest issues is finding tracks digitally which have been deleted or the label no longer exists. Traxsource is very good for older house tunes, look under Classic House.
yup, i don’t care how old a track is, if i like it i will get it. i still spin deep house tunes that i’ve had in my collection for 10+ years. also if i’ve never heard something, it’s new to me.
Same as squidot; I spin deep house and mix old with new. Actually been spinning a lot of tracks form 2010 because I am finding a lot of good releases from then but my head was up my ass at the time and I missed them. When playing a set, I pay no attention to release dates.
Thanks guys. I’m here for the love of music and I’ve always felt that good music is good regardless but sometimes I feel like there’s this underlying competition to always be on the bleeding edge rather than just enjoy great tunes.
I think you need to find your balance of educating your crowd with new tunes but also reminding them of the old ones as well. Theres nothing like hearing a song you have heard in like 2-3 even 5 years. If a song is good it will last the test of time and will always be a hit imo.
Ive found at more underground/off the beaten tracks events, nobody can name half the the songs anyway.And if they do go ‘‘whoop whoop’’ it because it has a well known sample in.
Then at top 40 type places, its hits or nothing.
I dont think it matters in the slightest what you play, as long it works in the mix!
That’s the great thing about Techno and House, there’s no huge difference in tracks old or new. Most stuff from the last 10 years will fit into any mix.
i know, right? all of my schmoov! tracks are on vinyl except one song i got from beatport (spirits). i have the robosexual ep from winding road, the while you wait album…damn now that i look at discogs, it seems i have a pretty good amount of their stuff, especially the earlier releases around 2001.
i fell in love after hearing destinations on groove armada’s back to mine. that’s such a timeless mix.
I’m not sure how the scene is where everyone else is from but here in London it moves FAST. A lot of the labels and producers here keep tracks very exclusive for a long time so by the time they do come out people are tired of them. Obviously if a track’s a banger then it’s a banger and you cop it as soon as you can but you might hold off on playing it out if it’s one of those that’s been played at every night for the past year or so. The beauty is that when you finally feel like you can play it out again people go crazy for it like they used to. Buying older tracks does the same thing. People remember how they loved it before and it becomes special again cause they haven’t heard it for a long time.
Additionally a lot of the scene here has been built up and evolved from DJs playing very old tracks (think back to 70s, 80s, early 90s) because the kids at the nights and parties these days weren’t around the first time. Whatever you play there’ll nearly always be someone who hasn’t heard it yet and whilst the old guard might moan about it when they hear the first few bars of a classic they’ll still end up skanking away with the rest.
Ah yeah, great opening EP that on WR. I’ve always enjoyed Seasons Recordings from the early 00’s and still releasing lovely Deep House now. Although I’ve been distracted quite a bit with Future Jungle/Rave Breaks recently but still keep my ear in in Soulful/Deep House terms.
