I find it funny that it works a parallel path of the rocker/celebrity DJ mash-up can't DJ "eclectic aesthethic".
I know stirmonster hates the term "eclectic", perhaps that connotation is why?
And not to get all DJ theory or whatever, but I'm not saying my eclecticism always has to-or wants to-flow so smoothly...jarring changes in style/tempo/volume, etc, can be great.
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 22:13 (eighteen years ago) link
What is this in reference to?
― adamrl (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 22:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 22:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― stirmonster (stirmonster), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 22:28 (eighteen years ago) link
No matter where you look, whether it be DJs in the small venues or super-clubs, everyone seems to be building complimentary genres into their pre-existing formulas. Look at the evolution of the Fabric series...
― Isamu, Wednesday, 18 January 2006 22:36 (eighteen years ago) link
I wasn't so much seeking purism as a rule, tho I guess I like Lindstrom/Reverso/Chacona/Stranger etc etc mainly for just being new and interesting ways to skin a cat. Listening to that Lindstrom at Our Disco mix it strikes me how raw some of this stuff sounds, it's really close to some of the early house tracks, that kind of faintly psychotic actual "acid" and tribal feel.
So often the stuff that constituted nu-disco that I'd hear would be really slickly produced and you just think you might as well listen to house.
I wasn't worried that this style would replace house etc, just sometimes the discourse surrounding new forms of DJ music always implies this. And that does an injustice to the new stuff too.
The eclectic thing is interesting cos I sort of hate the term too, in so far as what it means to the man on the street, and also its status as a sort of holy grail, I mean people love to say "I like all kinds of music".
That said Dan's points are totally reasonable, I do think it takes a certain type of DJ to play a real mix of stuff, also I find the fuller the club the more I tend to plough a similar furrow. I mean I think anyone who's DJed well knows you have to vary it even within say "house music all night long" or people drift, but sometimes it can be a weirdly conservative force, the dancefloor!
I'm not saying I ever play stuff I don't like, just certain venues tend to have a certain crowd, and I find myself playing to that.
Oh yeah and finally about "Eurodans", I think it's pretty cool tho not as fresh as some of his other stuff, it's very Metro Area, just with that sloppiness added. The B-side is probably more interesting if not as big a hit.
― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 23:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 19 January 2006 00:47 (eighteen years ago) link
sorry, didn't mean to infuriate anyone as to the current state of house music. but that being said, yeah, i find it as annoying as the current wave of polyester smooth jazz. of course i'm paintingwith HUGE GIANT LARGE unrelenting brushes here, but it's just my opinion and nothing more... i guess my point was brought up by oneof the worst offenders in my book, kerri chandler... when he did that "raw" track... he even said himself... and music journalists do indeed overstate things as trends... it sells magazines and keeps them employed. my mother loves "eurodans" thanks to that times piece on the next new new newiest...
also, i DO think mixing matters and it takes a certain charm in order to connect all the dots properly... again, there are many different approaches...most djs (professional) get a booking agent and get slapped with some type of journalist jargon and leave it at that... thats what makes for on the floor club shit so boring in my mind...i suppose i am indeed looking for new avenues for something i find "old hat"...but in my case more like "old hater."
btw/ how many of you are musicians ? i've been a drummer since i was a kid...i used to have a preference for instrumental/experimental music and now my appreciation is toward song form... maybe that evolution as a player(hater) has something to do with it...?
― dr. gato, Thursday, 19 January 2006 02:36 (eighteen years ago) link
(i'm guilty of the following... so jump-in... i probably deserve it ... ;))
when it comes to AM GOLD, rupert holmes, or our imaginary band CHARDONNAY as well as christopher cross, loggins messina and the like the term is not YACHT ROCK... besides soulstrut.com came up with MARINA ROCK even before all that mess. My peoples records store crews here in detroit are calling all of you out by like five/six years... the journo-term is "DIVORCED DAD" music. learn it. love it. feel it. then replace it with the next thing...
but the sencerity test is like the scene from the film FLASH GORDON where he had to stick his arm in the creepy log, or THE NEVERENDING STORY (btw/ LIMAHL is also a style of music... possibly the next thing?) where he needed an open heart to pass through the gate... i'm serious about this michael mcdonald stuff. i grew up on a sailboat... no hating...
carry on...
― dr. gato, Thursday, 19 January 2006 03:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Keeping an open mind and having a large pool of things to play from can never be bad, even if it's a large pool of the same genre (like house.) I know that some people like it when it sounds like the DJ is playing the same record all night but I don't. Disco and house were built on playing non-disco and non-house records in a certain way that made them disco or house bcz there weren't any (or barely any) real disco or house records tat the beginning of those genres.
― Raw Patrick, at work, Thursday, 19 January 2006 11:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Graham Gouldman (Graham Gouldman), Thursday, 19 January 2006 18:15 (eighteen years ago) link
raw patrick's post has reinded me i haven't played 'ace of spades' out in waaaay too long. must remedy this.
― stirmonster (stirmonster), Thursday, 19 January 2006 18:19 (eighteen years ago) link
That's why I had a hard time engaging with house in the 90s. It went from those 80s sets that would have disco and funk and new wave in them to DJs who would only spin deep or tribal or hard house sets, and nothing else. I don't even consider those niche sounds to be house.
I always thought house was "anything and everything you can dance to..."
but I guess I was wrong....
― jsoulja, Thursday, 19 January 2006 18:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― stirmonster (stirmonster), Thursday, 19 January 2006 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link
The ironic thing is that during the birth of House, it was an exceptionally broad/open/eclectic thing, whether you're talking about the deep house Knuckes/levan kind of thing pulling from disco, rock, world music whatever...or the WBMX mash-up of deep house, italo-disco, pop music and early house. I just find most "house" djs have a much more narrow view.
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 19 January 2006 18:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― matt2 (matt2), Thursday, 19 January 2006 19:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 19 January 2006 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link
Also, during the last decade or so house has found a way to integrate previous instruments and their related technical/improvisational proficiency. The same can't be said for techno, recently grown out of aimless tribal banging and endlessy fascinated with the sound of it's own postIDM-twiddling Euro-kraut navel.
People here also keep mistaking house music with jazzish, 100-CD-changer-in-the-BMW type lounge drivel. Or forgetting that house, like techno or most music for that matter, has the usual 95% to 5% shit-to-good ratio (and then conveniently forgetting to discuss the top 5% altogether). Keep looking the other way folks /rant
― Correctional.House.Dept (blunt), Thursday, 19 January 2006 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 19 January 2006 20:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 19 January 2006 20:24 (eighteen years ago) link
sorry i don't have much to contribute thus farly, but great thread, carry on... (though i must say, i don't get the fuss over map of africa's "black skin blue eyed boys," i'd much rather listen to the original. shit, i used to play it quite a bit, actually! before i went all euro-kraut navel-gazish, that is.)
― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Thursday, 19 January 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 19 January 2006 22:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Thursday, 19 January 2006 23:06 (eighteen years ago) link
Confused about wording here but if you're getting at what I think you're getting at could you supply some examples that aren't, say, "jazzish, 100-CD-changer-in-the-BMW type lounge drivel"?
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 19 January 2006 23:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 19 January 2006 23:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 19 January 2006 23:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Friday, 20 January 2006 00:01 (eighteen years ago) link
Also - wasn't looking for an argument. I know what I like as far as house that's influenced by the musics you mentioned. And I do like a lot of it.
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 20 January 2006 00:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Friday, 20 January 2006 00:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:01 (eighteen years ago) link
Not the main ingredient, but one of them. At least that's always been my understanding....
― Giles Manius (jsoulja), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― blunt (blunt), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 January 2006 01:58 (eighteen years ago) link
from a personal perspective, having been a house and techno dj for ten years, i had to do something else for my own sanity (which i very nearly lost in the rave years). i still love going out to the odd night of proper house music but when i am playing it, my attention tends to wander after about 45 minutes. but, i don't think there should be any debate about purism vs the dreaded 'e' word. there is no right or wrong way.
― stirmonster (stirmonster), Friday, 20 January 2006 03:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:05 (eighteen years ago) link
This is my point precisely.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:14 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm saying that at present, sets by the likes of Chicken Lips or Chromeo or Jacques Lu Cont are to me much more fresh and inspiring (and in many ways traditional) house than anything the likes of Danny Tenaglia or Frankie Bones ever did (when they were doing house).....
― Giles Manius (jsoulja), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Giles Manius (jsoulja), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Don't make me link to my epic and lugubrious dissertation on p vs e on Dissensus!
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 20 January 2006 04:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 20 January 2006 05:03 (eighteen years ago) link
Anyone care to post some of his more ec***, er, diverse mix CDs?
― Giles Manius (jsoulja), Friday, 20 January 2006 05:12 (eighteen years ago) link
if he thought that, he was right.
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 20 January 2006 05:12 (eighteen years ago) link