'Real' DJs - what do they do

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Leftfield's Leftism (and by extension Rhythm & Stealth) & Daft Punk's Homework, I would consider to be seminal works in the history of dance music, and still today sound as fresh and as amazing as they ever did.

Maybe nowadays in the age of David Guetta and the likes, it has simply become Pop Dance, and like all the generic pop rubbish of today, it will not stand the test of time.

This reads like you imagine good electronic music isn't made any more - get out of the house a bit. It's at it's peak now, it didn't die in 1997.

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Dance music is all a bit of a whizz isn't it? Disposable and mostly forgettable music made on computers by people who don't have the skill to make real music using instruments.

Is there anything you're not a wizened curmoudgeon about? Aphex Twin is forgettable and lacks skill, sure thing. Must be why Philip Glass and Penderecki wanted to work with him, his idiotic bleep-blooping entranced them.

grindle wrote: »

This reads like you imagine good electronic music isn't made any more - get out of the house a bit. It's at it's peak now, it didn't die in 1997.

There's some brilliant techno being produced today. I've been into dance music all my life and have seen all the big name djs over the years (Garnier, Mills, Cox, Hood etc). Unexpectedly ended up at Ben Sims a couple of weeks ago and he was as good if not better than any of them.

IMO Carl Cox is the most talented DJ since the start of the Acid House craze in the late 80's.

His signature 3 turntable mixing, which is really hard, without the fancy new stuff CDJ's & Mp3j's have at their exposel. Having to count in your head the beats (kick drum) 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 16, 32 etc... to the match the speed of the other record (s) playing so the beats match up when mixing is not an easy skill by no means.



Paris Hilton is very good also.

One thing that can be certain when a music thread such as this is started, that music snobbery is to the forefront.

It really seems to be the medium whereby people are criticized for their personal preferences more than any other.

GinAndBitter wrote: »

Where exactly is the scene you speak of? At least 10 dance clubs have been closed in Dublin over the last 15 years. What exactly is left bar one or two places. The scene is undeniably in serious decline and has been for a long time.

The problem is the music nowadays is so over produced. The analoge sound was much better quality sounding than the stuff nowadays. A 303, 808, 909 & a JP 800 made some amazing sounding music. Compare a "good" techno record to a old Harthouse record or a "good" new trance record to a Eye Q record, there is no comparing them, you can just tell by listening to them a lot more time & effort was put into the records that came out of Frankfurt Beat, Suck Me Plasma, Le Petit Prince etc.. everything, the strings, synths, snares, kicks just sounded so much more crisp & natural sounding.

thecornflake wrote: »

House or garage?

Techno always.

Early on there was some drum n bass as well, and some hip hop/scratching later on, but it was always techno.

Seen the likes of Adam Beyer, Chris Liebing, Surgeon, Carl Cox, Ben Sims, Dave Clarke, Dj Rush, Par Grindvik, Derrick May, Laurent Garnier, Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin plus many many more over the years.

Played around at a few parties and the odd pub/club here and there, and had a few goes on the radio too but the awsomeness from above was a regular hits party. I love that too, playing normal music at regular parties, especially with turntables and Serato. You have all your music, but on vinyl so you can have fun with it (see hip-hop/scratching above)

We were a very DJ family. My dad was a radio/club DJ through the 70’s / 80’s. So we were always around the scene and the equipment used. Then in the mid 90’s, my dad put a new counter in the shed* for a set of turntables and that was it. 1210’s moved in soon after and that was it.

*he had purpose built the shed for his own DJing days, so it was sound proof and perfectly set up for djing in.


Haven’t played in a good few years, but still have all the stuff, and about 30,000 tracks (digital tracks from roughly 2006-2013)

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Any pirate radio stations in Dublin anymore? I remember going on trips to Dublin for records and listening to a couple of pirate stations while up there, cork had radio friendly, good while it lasted.

Phever is the main one now.

Power FM was the GOAT. Think they still broadcast online.

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Any pirate radio stations in Dublin anymore? I remember going on trips to Dublin for records and listening to a couple of pirate stations while up there, cork had radio friendly, good while it lasted.

Phever does sometimes usually around the 88 fm mark, also 24x7 at phever.ie

Agree that a lot of the big name DJs are effectively twiddling a few knobs, but if you check out some smaller electronic acts like Jon Hopkins for example, you can see a lot more going on in his live sets

GinAndBitter wrote: »

Here is a good example of what the OP is talking about, while I love oakie he is a legend, what exactly is he doing here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI_H_LMLO9g

Earning €50k for waving his hands and playing shít music.