DJ Rant and Raves...

I just came back from CODA. I really like the vibe in that place. But it got me thinking about DJing and what it means to me.

First off, I'm so over the labels. It just irks me. I completely understand that a particular DJ will gravitate or be known for one particular genre, but if it's music that I love and I think it's sexy and I want to share it with the world then I'll fucking play it. I love that Sven Vath plays Night of the Jaguar (still) and that the first time I heard it was on a Body and Soul compilation. Danny Krivit, Joe Claussell, Francois K and Sven Vath couldn't be farther from each other but they can appreciate a good tune.

I'm sick of people saying they don't like House Music. None of the hipsters would recognize it in New York City. House Music is such a broad label. Progressive House might as well be Electro with the right BPM pitched over 130. Where do people think electronic music came from anyway? It came from Disco. It came from the Garage and Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles. It came from New York to Chicago to Detroit Techno. You might as well call electronic music sexy bleeps with a hip-hop beat. Heaven forbid you use the word "House". It's so retro...I feel like every time I say I play House people look at me like I just said I fuck my mother or something.

DJs used to have to lug crates of records wherever they went. Back then the playing field was somewhat even. Maybe a mixer was rotary, but that was it. Today, DJs are lumped into different tribes. I bought my headphones off a guy who only spins vinyl and refuses to embrace the digital age. I just spun in a club in Toronto where the resident DJs no longer wanted their Allen and Heath because it didn't have the functions they needed when they were on the road. Every major club now has CD Pioneers alongside their Technics. Almost every DJ I saw in Toronto used their laptop. At Coda, every DJ they have is on Serato. They don't even have Pioneers. I probably could never play there until I could afford a Mac Powerbook and learn Final Scratch.

Once upon a time a DJ would spin for the entire night. From 10pm to 6am one single DJ would create a musical journey. These DJs would speak to the crowd through music. They would tell stories. Sometimes the stories would be so obvious, "I am feeling so sad right now, this is what my pain feels like." Other times it would be uplifting, inspiring. And on a good night it was everything at once.

Now, a "Guest DJ" is lucky to spin maybe a two hour set. It's probably all the Promoter can afford. People are listening to the music but no one is really LISTENING to the music. No one wants to be taken on a musical journey. Everyone wants their bangin' 4am beats now before the clock strikes twelve and we all turn into pumpkins.

Don't get me wrong, there are still good DJs out there, and people are getting into the groove, but people are so hung up on the medium, the gadgets, the kaos pads and efx boxes and i-pods and laptops. All the boys and their toys. I say use them all or use none of them at all. Who the fuck gives a shit?

Because when it comes right down to it, I don't care if you're scratching your vinyl plates and have an impressive array of mp3s in your itunes. I don't care if it's Drum and Bass, Happy Hardcore, Breakbeat or Minimal. If people ain't dancing, then you're not doing your job.

sorry for all the swearing. I blame my good friend, Jamieson