The DJ Thread - Page 2

I don't think it's that big of a loss. A rave is really about the party, not seeing some superstar DJ celebrity. As long as the music is proper, then party on. Promoters will continue to book those who draw. If anything, I think this shift is great for electronic music, because the consumer is getting more for his money. They get to see producers who can DJ, or live PA, etc., rather than just a guy blending other people's music. I don't care if we lose some non-producer DJs. Now if we can just get rid of those dnb MCs...

Yeah I guess. But having somebody on your flyer who you know is going to take control of things and create hype for people to attend was always awesome. Maybe I'm coming at it from a different perspective too. As a promoter, we would draw close to 3000 people to our parties, which is a decent sized party for Chicago standards. The amount of work that goes into something like that, booking the talent, getting sound, lighting, dealing with shady venue owners, etc. was pretty involved but to see it all come together at the end made it really special. So I guess I miss the scene in that regard. It was also pretty cool to have your job consisting of going to clubs from Wednesday to Friday to promote and then getting into every rave for free on Saturday as well. Saw some great DJ's and some great live PA's doing that.

And I guess it depends on where you're coming from too that determines what you valued in the scene. In Chicago, where house music is king, if you couldn't do three minute blends then you shouldn't have been up on the decks in the first place. I saw a lot of trance producers turned DJ :cough BT cough: who were booed off the decks because all they were doing were one minute blends and they were shaky blends at that. When you're used to seeing DJ's like Derrick Carter, Miles Maeda, Mark Farina, Acidman, etc., then you came to expect quality DJing. And guys like Miles and Acidman weren't prolific producers either but they still had huge followings because they knew what to do with other people's records.

Now, when I was out in LA or NYC, that was completely different. For them, they loved a guy like BT or Paul Van Dyk, who in my mind are shabby DJ's but excellent producers. So yeah, as a Chicago-style DJ the demise of the beatmatching skill hit me pretty hard because it seems like all of the other ancillary DJ skills that came with it, have atrophied as well.

As for DnB MC's...yeah at best they provided a lot of comic relief for myself and my friends. My younger brother is one of the most talented DnB DJ's I know and even he finds the majority of them irritating. The best was listening to them when they got tripped up on their own words and tried to recover. Howls of laughter.

Anyway, it's hard to tell at this point where the scene is going or even if there is still a scene period. I really do believe that once pirating is curbed that you will start to see it recover and re-imagine itself.

That somebody is still there. They're just different people now, people that also create tracks in addition to putting on a great set and show. People like Excision, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, Kill the Noise, etc. Hell, some people go to see Bassnectar for his DJing moreso than his tracks anyways. Pirating will not be curbed, that is just not the direction that music is going. 320k released exclusively to friends/followers on soundcloud/myspace/twitter accounts and then later publicly on places like beatport, that seems to be the trend. So really, anyone can be a DJ and put together solid mixes and sets, true. But that also means the bar is set higher for what you see when you go out. The producers will have to make up the money on how much they charge for bookings and 320k and maybe merch. It will never be like the 90s again. But attendance is really healthy in Baltimore at parties with dubstep and glitch hop, FWIW. Starscape, the annual massive that's been around for over a decade, sold out for the first time this year. It was fucking bloated and terrible, though, filled with burners and hippies and bros and just all around dirty/trashy. I'm too old for that shit, never again.

Man, is Scott (Henry) still running that? Being from DC I attended quite a few Starscapes in my time (even flew out with Paul Johnson from Chicago one year) to go. Some great memories from the Armory, but yeah I could only imagine the riff-raff that would be there now.

You're right though. It will never be the 90's scene again. It's kind of funny because now I can kind of see why my parents had such great memories of the 60's and Woodstock whereas before I really couldn't. A sign of getting older, no doubt.

Yes, most of the huge clubs are closed since time ago, even some of the big european summer gardens were sold and are now huge buildings due to urbanistic pressure. Most of my dj friends got deep depressions by the abuse of what we all know.. I study psichologie due to all the abuse I have seen in my pro years of djing. By the way I´m selling a devilfish tb 303 , one of the early ones in case anyone is interested. I got from Australia.

Since theres talk about Chicago clubs, I'm heading there in 2 wks. What are some decent electo style clubs? I'll probably also end up at a Polish club as well pumping some euro techno.

Electro and euro techno are both pretty subjective terms that can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

http://www.smartbarchicago.com/calendar/

This is the only place I know left in Chicago that is still musically centered and not meat market-y (guidos, hoes, etc.). You'll still find some true heads here.

Looks like if you're going to be here on the weekend of the 14th you'll get treated to some quality techy house from my friends Justin Long and Tyrel Williams. Tyrel is actually the guy I mentioned earlier who worked with Jeff Mills on getting his clothing line going.

If you're going the weekend of the 21st, you'll get some German dude named Alex Bau. If he is indeed German, expect some pretty deep techno (many read "deep" as boring though).

If you do want the meat market scene then go to Sound Bar where you can wait in long lines at the door and then go inside and wait in long lines for $10 drinks with people from cultures who probably have different ideas about personal hygiene than you (read: none).

I dunno what else to say. Ten years ago I could have recommended 5 or 6 other really good places to go for an incredible night of music (Red No 5, Big Wig, Red Dog, Zentra (this still has electro), hell even Crobar had some decent people booked). Now you go to all these websites and you can't even find a bookings calendar (Smartbar is the only one) and that's a bad sign.

Good luck and report back with what you experienced. I'd be interested to hear.

When this things comes too comercial, things as that Berlin Love Parade with 1,2 million people and deaths and then bad name to electronic music happens.

So it was better to have in underground.