scuba i think is a digital DJ, which is okay w/ me because so am i, and i'm impressed w/ how he regularly manages to get 50 tracks into 90 minutes, but at the same time i think the digital thing kind of knocks him out of the running for "best DJ"
klock, dettmann, steffi, cassy, prosumer, etc (and i guess by extension the whole underground quality crew) are obviously legendary but at the same time playing 9 hour sets of straight-ahead four-to-the-floor techno and house and letting tracks play out for 10 minutes or whatever doesn't seem quite as challenging as what a lot of "urban-influenced" DJs do
ben UFO though is doing something that a lot of people have assumed for a long time to be impossible ("serious" techno/house w/ heavily swung urban stuff like ukg, post-dubstep, dubstep, grime, etc) AND doing it 100% w/ vinyl AND doing it w/ tons of energy and excitement and dj tricks and whatnot
someone i would nominate for best DJ would be RRRRRRRRRUSTIE
http://boilerroom.tv/rustie-50-min-mix/
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 17:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol @ this list
― Lamp, Wednesday, April 18, 2012 9:37 AM Bookmark
― hologram ned raggett (The Reverend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 17:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
poll nadir.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 17:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
i was going to put you on!
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 17:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
then i'd have had to shoot myself. :)
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
ben UFO is... doing it 100% w/ vinyl
Pedantic corrections: have you seen scuba DJ live, though? The man can work a pair of CDJ's to. the. bone. The speed, reflexes, and utter precision (not to mention consistency) of his mixing is incredible.
The two times I saw ben UFO play he was using serato. Not that that changes anything, he's still amazing, and I might just pick up his Rinse CD sometime soon.
Another mention in a similar note, is that, seeing Jackmaster play a week and a half ago was one of the most fun sets I've experienced.
― EDB, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
No offensive, but I don't see how anyone could have thought yet another of these polls was a good idea after the resounding success of all the other recent electronic ones.
― EDB, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
No offence don't know anything about any other polls
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
No offence taken, i mean
Lol@everyone taking this seriously.
But also surprised late great surprised at zip being on the list
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'd vote for zip.
anyway, sorry coal but it just seems like such an arbitrary, random list. and what does "current" mean? several of these have been doing it or 20 - 25 years. i'm probably taking it too seriously but always find dj polls weird.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
think this was specifically meant to be a joke
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
tho can't be sure
Current as in seen them play lately...put a few residents type DJs in there for that reason
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
"seen them play lately" = ok. does compute.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is another list that is heavily skewed toward the list-makers taste. afaict there are a lot of undistinguished deep house / tech house / post-minimal house names on this list
^^^this. A very narrow definition of "dj" here based on certain related genres (but no mentions of the genres in the title)
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 19:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
didn't zip do the first superlongevity?
iirc i saw him at a perlon thing in san diego (!) but he skewed to local taste and played kinda boring west coast tribal deepish tech-house
maybe it was another perlon dude tho
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 19:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think we got most everyone important though
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
yo wait we forgettin someone real important? you know who we forgettin man?
Rheji BurRELL
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
Rheji, my brother!
lol i have heard of 3 people on this poll
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
i don't really care about scuba but this is also hilarious, GIMME MORE
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
k but first tell me why so i can keep bringing the lulz
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
seriously carrying the distinction between digital or not as a most important factor in one's quality in 2012 is deserving of some animated gif tumblr post
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
most every dj on this list will play a high percentage of music that has no digital release
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think coal just proved my point
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
really? so in a "best photographer" poll you wouldn't see a distinction between digital cam + photoshop vs film?
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
take it to ILP
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
k brb
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
I really like Ben UFO but thought his Rinse CD was pretty much just okay to quite good. ""serious" techno/house w/ heavily swung urban stuff like ukg, post-dubstep, dubstep, grime, etc" is a great concept but the results can seem a lot less startling than you'd think.
Though speaking of which where is Surgeon on this list.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
If you want to account for these differences then do not call this "best current dj" . How about "Best current tech house/minimal non-digital dj".
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
fwiw i agree his rinse mix was not quite thee best representation of his talents and btw it is quite strange how almost every rinse mix has been underwhelming given the quality of the DJs they pick (well excepting like n-type)
though it also took me many listens to really get into it
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
a high percentage of music that has no digital release
loads of djs buy vinyl specifically to digitise it.
― stirmonster, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 20:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
i've found that a lot of "official" cd mixes have been underwhelming, especially in comparison with what those DJs actually play out
levon vincent's new fabric mix is an honourable exception but that's in large part b/c he did a ricardo/omar-s and made it largely about his own stuff
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
^ this all day long
― coal, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
licensing issues maybe?
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
The more hyphens on this thread, the more interesting the discussion.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
maybe partly that, maybe partly because the djs seem to try to compress everything they're about into too short a time when they're handed the reins of these projects, and partly because too many of them have a weakness for thom fucking yorke
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
there are so many unlicensed mixes that the ones that filter to the top are always going to be great. it's an unlimited testing ground. i can only imagine that licensing issues must be huge though given what must be a miniscule buying audience for licensed mixes.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
first sentence sounds a bit optimistic, but basically mean the djs get as many goes as they want with unlicensed mixes, it only takes one good one.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
excellent point
but what are you getting at re: hyphens??
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
also lex sadly otm re: thom fucking yorke, esp wrt "idioteque"
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
fucking "idioteque", ugh
it's kind of sad in a way cuz there have been so many classic licensed mix CDs but kind of not now that we're unbelievably spoiled with the amount of free mixes available
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
i guess enough of a market for them is still there that fabric, djkicks, berghain et al haven't just wrapped up their CD series
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
hyphens
just i find post-adjective-genre really grim.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
eh come on more complaining about dance genre names?
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
Sonny D. Moore
― diamonddave85, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
there is a certain context in which the genre names vying against each other is just like the disintegration of discussion.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
which i'm prob way too circumspect about, but still
is it brostep?
― the late great, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 21:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
you just make them and force these poor people to pick from your arbitrary list you twisted fuck
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
you know, i think the "you can only judge them if you've seen them live" thing is a canard
ime as much as there's sometimes something "special" about seeing a DJ live that you don't get from a recording, there's also a lot of subjective factors that can distract or interfere with your enjoyment - how the crowd is acting, whether you have a headache, how many drugs you took, etc.
is jeff mills a good DJ? yeah. i've heard a lot of jeff mills live sets that confirm that as well as videos and video streams from clubs and other settings. the one time i saw jeff mills i had an awful time. they gave him a 3 am slot, after a few hours of deeply underwhelming prog/electrohouse. the crowd was an odd mix of hollywood / santa monica douchebags & douchebitches as well as a big contingent of extremely cracked-out looking vietnamese and korean people in their late 30s and 40s. the sound was off, the space was uncomfortable and had a boomy room echo, many people were jostling to take cellphone photos, mills was pissed because the decks were a millimetre off from where he wanted them (and he had them replace all three needles as well as his headphones) and trying to dance while sober to his music after three hours of dancing to west coast tribal deep house in a different room was punishing, to say the least
― the late great, Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
i've never seen ben ufo live, because i don't think he's ever done a show in america. i've seen him "live" on upstream videocasts and listened to many livesets and podcasts on the internet. he DJs in a way that's technically impressive and that pushes the boundaries of my thinking about dance music. theo parrish has done the same, and even though i find theo's thing is a little more tiring and a little less impressive, he's managed to do the same.
― the late great, Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
yep - is why i didn't explicitly say about having seen them - really it was more about who you would like to see this weekend - wherever you might live or go would have a bearing on the outcome
also, the outcome doesn't matter
― coal, Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
show me one of these boundry pushing ben ufo mixes, i'm really up for being converted, especially now the sun's coming out. and i wasn't dissing rinse or ufo upthread? just isn't too much to my tastes atm. i haven't heard anything from him that's jumped out and made me go woah and the times i've seen him i've been underwhelmed.
on that youtube upthead he cuts tracks out all over the place, sends a text, people are just standing around gawping at him. it's clinical and controlled and little bit boring, i'd find it hard to lose my shit and get into the music if i was there and that's his job, to aid that whole process
interesting about seeing djs live vs just listening to mixes. i'll judge a dj on where they play and with who they play, on what soundsystem as much as what they play and how they play it. also rarely get the time to listen to a 3hr dj mix so i tend to judge people mostly on seeing them out.
― Crackle Box, Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
i mean he may not just be to your taste, i really like all of the boiler room mixes, podcasts, rinse mix CDs, etc. but i know some ilxors whose taste i respect don't find him nearly as impressive as i do (tim finney comes to mind) ... as far as people standing around gawping isn't that like the front row of every "big dj" set ever?
― the late great, Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
ben (like zip actually) is pretty adaptable to different scenario's imo and can take in whatever direction
― coal, Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
I like the UFO, he's a great digger who also picks up on some big tunes early on and he usuually keeps the transitions interesting - that clip up there seems like a typical after-party-style eclectic set though. There was a great UFO/Jackmaster B2B on Rinse a few months ago, but again it's a radio show rather than a club set.
Here's the link, but I think it's drop offline: http://podcast.dgen.net/rinsefm/podcast/BenUFO160212.mp3
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 26 April 2012 17:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
I can stick it up somewhere in case anyone's interested.
sure
― mr. jane goodall (toandos), Thursday, 26 April 2012 17:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Actually I really like Ben UFO, vahid, I just thought the Rinse mix was just okay.
My favourite Ben UFO sets I've heard were from 2008/2009, which may reflect the fact that this was when his style seemed most new and exciting.
When I get home I'll see which ones I like most and maybe even upload them.
I doubt the problem is that he's gotten worse since then - maybe he's even gotten better - but his style has since become one vein of post-dubstep orthodoxy, which makes it a lot harder for it to strike me as exciting (in the same way that nu-deep post-minimal DJ sets became radically less exciting circa 2008 even though there wasn't necessarily any drop in quality from the best DJs).
― Tim F, Thursday, 26 April 2012 23:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ah yeah that's right, Ben UFO Hessle Audio Fabric Takeover mix (from 2009) is the one:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/n4xhiq
I'd concede his style has gotten more wide-ranging since then (here's it kind of consistently a technoid broken beat) but I just love basically every tune on this (and props for including Aphrodisiax's "Unfinished Business"!).
― Tim F, Friday, 27 April 2012 23:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
have you heard the pearson sound mix from the same night? so great!
― the late great, Saturday, 28 April 2012 00:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh wait i see it's fabric, not boiler room, forget it
I've decided that Hessle Audio Fabric Takeovers are one of the few reasons life is worth living.
― EDB, Saturday, 28 April 2012 00:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ricardo Villalobos turns up at gigs in a canoe
― hologram ned raggett (The Reverend), Saturday, 28 April 2012 06:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
Does Theo's heavy EQ-ing really work in live settings? Because from some video clips and recorded sets I sometimes feel it is a bit excessive and disrupts my enjoyment of the tracks.
― dan138zig (Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 12:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
in the live setting that i saw him in it certainly did not work at all, it seemed like a joke.
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
seeing as this is the only thread with Alexandra on it, anyone know what this track that she and Miss I are playing in their b2b set at sunwaves?
― coal, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 09:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
nice, can't name it tho.
new mix from Vera on Clubberia;http://www.clubberia.com/music/podcasts/128-CB128-Vera/
― mmmm, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 13:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
someone srsly needs to id that track.
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 13:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Problem is a lot of the stuff those guys play never gets a release
― coal, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 17:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
the new ben ufo LWE podcast is all-time
― the late great, Friday, 18 May 2012 22:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
new? you mean the one from march?
― dan138zig (Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr), Friday, 18 May 2012 23:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
yep
― the late great, Friday, 18 May 2012 23:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
I saw Jubilee last week and she was amazing. Trina, snap mini-set(!), vogue, MORE TRINA, dancehall, "Club Rez". Talked to her for a min afterward and she said she was playing for me. <3
― The Reverend, Saturday, 19 May 2012 06:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
not really sure about judging a DJ from a short recorded mix (especially if you like djs that play long records and let things breathe rather than a more jumpcut style) but this binh mix is pretty much what i want to hear when out
http://soundcloud.com/nightclubber-ro/binh-holy-sunday-at-club-der
― coal, Monday, 28 May 2012 09:39 (11 months ago) Permalink
Heard Intergalactic Gary play a excellent 4 hour set last night, which I think was recorded too. I will try and remember to post it on here if it comes online.
In the meantime, my favourite new (to me) DJ is Semantica label head Svreca: https://soundcloud.com/arma17/svreca-aux
― Chewshabadoo, Sunday, 17 March 2013 16:40 (2 months ago) Permalink
Get involved! http://www.slabsofthetabernacle.com/2013/03/18/slabs-174-intergalactic-gary-live-the-star-shadow-160313
― Chewshabadoo, Monday, 18 March 2013 23:36 (2 months ago) Permalink