Brock Suter writes:
quoted 6 lines I've seen a lot of artist spinning lately and noticed this:> I've seen a lot of artist spinning lately and noticed this:
>
> Most of them can't dj for shit, but they always play really good music,
> better in fact, then 90% of the dj's I've seen.
>
> And usually their sets are quite interesting.
there is a strange fear on the part of most DJs i know about doing
anything that might be perceived as weird. it's like, throw down 90
minutes of straight 4 on the floor stuff that mixes together
seamlessly. i don't know about you, but i find that to be utterly
dull.
i recently had a chance to do some tag-team DJ'ing with daum of freaky
chakra at a benefit. a lot of people were only there for the
performance so they cleared out once we got on the decks. but it was
cool, we played a whole lot of weird shit that wouldn't ordinarily get
aired, we didn't worry about perfect robotic beatmatching, and we had
a blast. people danced too. (well, they stopped when i put on Senor
Coconut, but that just shows that All People Except Me Are Stupid.)
quoted 5 lines One example of this was the last ninja tour with Ollie, Amon Tobin, that> One example of this was the last ninja tour with Ollie, Amon Tobin, that
> Funky Porcini geezer and the rest of the ninja sophomores.
>
> Although none of them was very tight (by dj standards), I loved the shit
> they were playing. I'm sure every show they play, they get better.
well now i don't know about "tightness"... the ninja guys are
obviously extremely talented and versatile on the decks, but they come
from the hip hop tradition which is a little more rough and ready.
i guess i'm just a bit picky about the word "tight". they are tight,
but not in the traditional smoothed out devoid of interest DJing that
seems to be the norm.
quoted 2 lines 'Talvin would let the record run out, light a cigarette, then put on> 'Talvin would let the record run out, light a cigarette, then put on
> another record.'
too bad. when i saw him in SF, he didn't beatmatch but he did
smoothly segue from one record to the next.
quoted 4 lines I don't mind seeing artists spinning (since it's not always practical to> I don't mind seeing artists spinning (since it's not always practical to
> play a live set), but I still like to see live acts, because it's
> usually quite different then someone playing the same records I have,
> not very well...
well, there's DJing and there's turntable artistry. any bozo can
beatmatch two 4 on the floor records. the ninjas and the skratch
piklz and the rest of the "battle" DJs use the turntables as deadly
scratchnological weapons. i'd rather watch koala scratching madly and
missing a few beats here and there than some attitudinal wanker with a
cigarette dangling carelessly from his lip while he listlessly fades
between two perfectly matched boring thump thump records.
--
Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com SpotMedia Communications
...I was an infinitely hot and dense dot...