Let's talk about Derrick May

"It's just cool music, who cares about 'soul' or mythmaking or whatever, i'll bet you like some pretty shitty music yourself, mr emporor"

― brimstead, Saturday, November 8, 2014 1:14 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I stand corrected, I was being a contrary prick earlier today.

I dont play Derricks records as often as others from that time perhaps, but this is probably the one i play the most, great stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxiyXoY3vVk

The track on NDATL is great too, not sure if unreleased from the vaults he contributed or recent recording

i think im always more interested in how music is situated in the world than strictly how it sounds but i understand others who dont share that feeling, i dont think thats the best or only approach. but i do think its generally easier to dialogue with

to square this off, I agree with this, but I think most of "how music is situated in the world" is really in people's heads and the power of that really derives from how many heads get swept up in or changed by that, or to put it another way, the persuasiveness or the contagiousness of that frame.

Which is what I mean when I say I think of the "Detroit Soul" of Derrick May's music as an effect rather than a cause of its greatness.

yeah i'm feeling your sentiment a lot, lamp. as much as i'd like to think i treat all music as just sound/air, there are obvious accoutrements like visual style, historical or geographical context that play a part in my enjoyment of music. not to mention my own biased preconceptions based on past experience or whatever.

I don't disagree with that but I do think a lot of people wed themselves to a very narrow interpretation of it

not to mention my own biased preconceptions based on past experience or whatever.

I really dislike this feeling, making a subconscious decision about a record because of the name on the sleeve, before I've even heard it, though Ive got better at shutting that feeling away I prefer hearing new (to me) music without knowing who its by first, which kind of happens through mixes anyhow.

Though there are so many records I'm so often like 'ah shit whats this one again' that i invariably end up losing all the context stuff

seeing derrick tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he let the side down on the bbc4 kraftwerk documentary last night, saying that most techno producers dont deserve to be associated with kraftwerk because 'a lot of techno is shitty'. what are these genres where 90% of the music is pure gold?

He's been saying that since the early 90s, right? Something about how the European rave scene corrupted his beautiful utopian music or whatever... Seems like he couldn't just deal with the fact that once you let your child into the world it'll no longer be yours.

his set was pretty wack

Isn't basically 90% of things derrick may says self-posturing nonsense anyways?

The true rebels always walk alone anyway.

maybe it wasn't wack, it just wasn't what i wanted to hear

What kind of stuff did he play? Can't actually think of all that many name DJs that play interesting sets!

very straightforward tribal tech house

nothing i recognized

tony humphries, who came on before him, was much more exciting for me. he played "voodoo ray" pitched up and closed out his set with http ://www.y outube.com/watch?v=KiKnM31VY3c

derrick couldn't stop cutting the midrange, wouldn't stop dropping the bass

What you're saying is no surprise, I dont blame him for phoning it in but its kind of par for the course

I've herd his sets described as "Derrick meh..."

Same could be said for Stacey Pullen who churns out pretty bland tech house when he dj's these days.

Would anything different really be expected? ...same can be said for most, how many people are (currently) good producers AND (currently) good DJs?

Levon Vincent
Omar S
Floating Points

There's probably some others

Of course it comes down to personal taste and who those people are will vary from person to person, but people trade manage to trade on their name for seemingly...ever

There's probably some others...

Dan Snaith
DJ Pete
DJ Sprinkles
Theo Parrish

Objekt

"how many people are (currently) good producers AND (currently) good DJs?"

My experience has been... most? (Usually it comes down more to working with a sound than a particular aptitude, which is much harder to pin down in a set anyways). The real question is why do some people think being a good dj 25 years ago means being a good dj today. as mentioned here and elsewhere, derrick may, kevin saunderson, and stacey pullen, and even occasionally carl craig aren't stranger to sets full of middling tech house. DJ pierre played some of the worst electro-acid house ai've heard when I saw him, and more recently, Joey Beltram wasn't any better. None of this is the rule nor the exception, and it's heartening to hear about people like Tony Humphries still delivering, but what this comes down to is yeah, I'm not surprised Derrick May goes on records talking about the degradation of techno while playing sets of straightforward tribal tech house.

Also, I just read the post about whether he has copies of his records that stay on time. Ha! good question.

OK, I"m going to now add "Derrick May's quirks" to the things that make you irrationally angry thread.

Carl Craig was fucking awesome when I saw him fwiw

mind you tony humphries played three tracks in a row that had sax solos so i'm not sure it's for all tastes

xpost: I seem to remember a lot of complaints about Carl Craig - mind you, back in like 2007/8 - about playing the sort of middling tech house that, well... was being released on planet e at the time. I still need to see him play proper (not the 10 minutes I saw at Mutek in 2008 where I literally could not figure out what he was doing - he was using like 3 CDJs but was on his laptop the entire time, and trainwrecking stuff), but don't doubt he delivers.

also, A+ work, Tony Humphries.

I saw him 2 or 3 years ago he was mostly playing classic detroit stuff and ended with "Strings of Life", which he played air piano to in the booth.

when i saw carl craig in 2006 he did a laptop set that sounded exactly like his studio k7 "sessions" mix, it was pretty rad

or 07 or 08 i forget which year

i love that mix

the time i heard carl craig play it was unfortunately middling tech house, but it was at a party that was part of festival in miami and the vibe there was not cool

Carl Craig, Darren Emerson and Mr C are the most disappointing DJs i've ever seen. Carl Craig played a very generic set that included a few detroit classics but was very dull. Emerson and Mr C just played the most obnoxious, predictable commercial house sets. I had a japanese DJ mix from Derrick May but the mixing on it was so awful I sold it.

i heard a half hour of derrick dj'ing last night. not much fiddling with the eq, mixing still exceptional and full of energy, room with about 1000 people in it going nuts. tempo around 135 bpm. musically there was nothing i would have wanted to find out what it was and yes i guess it was "very straightforward tribal tech house".

yeeeeeeesh

When Eric Morillo died, people talked on insider threads that Derrick May is next, that it's something people "known" for a long time. I'm not sure why people sit on that kind of "knowledge", as it only endangers more women to become victims, but no more: https://t.co/rGVUPogSnI pic.twitter.com/S3N4Z7agME

— ØPĮÛM HUM / Michail 🏳️‍🌈👌🏻Ⓥ (@opiumhum) September 9, 2020

Michael James has been posting about that for months (years?). Also taking credit for collaborators work.

Jesus, that sucks

I don't understand pressuring the journalist for RA to publish the full interview. That's entirely her decision surely.

Looks like I just deleted by accident the original post about Derrick May and the reporting done by Michael James on the matter. You can find all of it below and I recommend to go through his archive, as he's been covering this for quite some time.
https://t.co/3oeRj6CkqY pic.twitter.com/qiSsSoejO9

— ØPĮÛM HUM / Michail 🏳️‍🌈👌🏻Ⓥ (@opiumhum) September 10, 2020

this is a good thread (the ilx thread, not the twitter one about derrick being an abuser)

it's heartening to hear about people like Tony Humphries still delivering

did i mention he played seated with a lollipop headphone?

sad news abt derrick, i’m still not convinced about his dj skills but “it is what it is” and “nude photo” are still in my all time top 10 of any genre. i wonder if i’ll ever feel comfortable playing them again

also brimstead’s posts still fill me with joy

want to know if he can still listen to derrick

I know it's less important, but I do want to learn more about who deserves credits for some of those classics. Stories about how collaborators contributed much more to tracks known solely as Mays, to entire songs actually being by Carl Craig. Relics changed me.

This has always intrigued me. I see Thomas Barnett released Nude Photo under his own name. Does anyone know if this is the same Rhythim Is Rhythim version?

No, it's completely different.

https://www.discogs.com/Thomas-Barnett-Nude-Photo/release/109013

These Derrick May accusations are extremely disturbing.

I'm not shocked at any revelations these days but I still used to harbour ridiculously naive assumptions about unassailably cool musical hero types 10 years back. It still sucks shit though :(