This time, the topic is going to be...
Artists: Live vs Spinning.
I've stated that I didn't give a shit about missing Talvin Singh because
he was 'just spinning records'.
This isn't the whole truth. I wouldn't have minded to hear him spin,
but it really wasn't that important.
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.
The reason for this is pretty obvious. If you like the styles of their
original material, there's a good chance you might have similar tastes
in other peoples music. Plus, they don't have years of experience doing
the same old thing (ie: playing dance clubs), which makes them open to
trying wacky shit more often.
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.
Most of these artists didn't have a background as a DJ, but they got
thrown into a tour and had to figure it out really quick.
Now the flip side of this, is Talvin Singh.
I heard from an employee of Squaresoft (the company that threw the Grand
Central Station party) that they paid him $12,000 and though he was
going to play live.
Well, he didn't. And from what I heard, he wasn't very impressive.
One of the guys I do music with, who is an artist and not a DJ, said
they he though both of the sets he saw (two different nights) were
great. Other people I know, who are DJ's, said he was shit.
I'd prefer to believe my friend, but little things he told me like:
'Talvin would let the record run out, light a cigarette, then put on
another record.'
and
'people would be dancing really hard then he'd turn off the turntable
and let it spin down to nothing, then bring up the next record'
and
'the first time he did it, I thought it was a mistake and he just didn't
give a shit, but the second night, he did the same thing, so it was
intentional, which makes it cool...'
These comments lead me to think that Mr. Singh is either very arrogant
or very inexperienced when it comes to djing a dance floor type
environment.
But who am I to make judgments?
It's just that, if your going to spin, at least TRY to make it
interesting, like Strictly Kev and PC or Morris...
Which leads us to my point:
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...
peace out,
brock out.
ps. I don't have anything against people who shut off the power
on the deck and let it spin down (I've done it), but IMHO,
you can only do it once a night, not 5 times like Talvin did.