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Interviews with Above & Beyond and Jon O'Bir

It's Slinky's 12th Birthday in the UK coming soon and in advance of that they've interviewed some of the acts who will be DJ'ing.

You can see the interviews here @

http://www.slinky.co.uk/interviews.php

Nice interview. These guys have some really off the wall commentary to offer in their responses. Strange way of wording things, but interesting.

I'm starting to get more in to Above and Beyond, I think there is some real truth to the observation that they have a smooth mix of the euphoric and the melodic.

I've downloaded one of their "Trance Around the World" radio broadcasts, but am interested in hearing more. Does anyone have their 2005 Essential Mix that won mix of the year? That's probably a good place to start.

Trance. Man, what a genre. I think in 50 years trance will hold the level of status that jazz does today. I'll try to limit the old sinful pride of being in on the ground floor when that day comes.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Mission I think in 50 years trance will hold the level of status that jazz does today.

I wouldn't be too sure about that.

But on the other hand. This reminds me of the movie Starship Troopers which depicts the future. In that movie the youth dance to HORRIBLY OVERDONE cheesy music. If that will happen then I'm sure trance will have a bright future in the future

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Mission I think in 50 years trance will hold the level of status that jazz does today. I'll try to limit the old sinful pride of being in on the ground floor when that day comes.

In terms of elegance? It will never happen anyway since the trance-listening scene consists mainly of white teenage kids that sooner or later find something better. There are no intellectuals listening to this since it doesn't satisfy anything but a childish need of "freedom" which so many kids want to reach during those early days when mommy won't let him/her go to the concert. Cute - but not stable.

quote:

Originally posted by Chimney In terms of elegance? It will never happen anyway since the trance-listening scene consists mainly of white teenage kids that sooner or later find something better. There are no intellectuals listening to this since it doesn't satisfy anything but a childish need of "freedom" which so many kids want to reach during those early days when mommy won't let him/her go to the concert. Cute - but not stable.

You talk some crap mate you know that?

This arguement can be used for any form of EDM (within reason) so pull your head out of tech house's arse.

quote:

Originally posted by Lunar Phase 7 You talk some crap mate you know that? This arguement can be used for any form of EDM (within reason) so pull your head out of tech house's arse.

Not a fan of tech-house and no it can't be used towards every type of EDM since some can be considered more evolved and for a mature audience than others. Things have taken a turn (in certain places) for the more drink-being-able-to-dance type of music which concentrates on all aspects of clubbing and not only jumping up and down like an idiot.

I would've asked how many times Jono could orgasm in one minute.

while listening to Tri State naturally.

Also, has Paavo ever felt like giving Justine Suissa a black eye?

*hand clasp and intense stare*

quote:

Originally posted by Chimney Not a fan of tech-house and no it can't be used towards every type of EDM since some can be considered more evolved and for a mature audience than others. Things have taken a turn (in certain places) for the more drink-being-able-to-dance type of music which concentrates on all aspects of clubbing and not only jumping up and down like an idiot.

No it can. People don't dance any more sophisticated to house/breaks or whatever then they do to trance.

All aspects of clubbing? What are they exactly?

1. Go to club.
2. ???
3. Profit?

Don't be a douch�. Trance can be brain dead simple and formularic, it can be brilliant too. Just because it may not be as subtle as other forms of the scene does not disqualify it from being evolved.

quote:

Originally posted by Lunar Phase 7 No it can. People don't dance any more sophisticated to house/breaks or whatever then they do to trance. All aspects of clubbing? What are they exactly? 1. Go to club. 2. ??? 3. Profit? Don't be a douch�. Trance can be brain dead simple and formularic, it can be brilliant too. Just because it may not be as subtle as other forms of the scene does not disqualify it from being evolved.

Douche in what way? Because I'm expressing my opinion in a mannered way or because it contradicts yours? Let's keep this civilized. Most of trance today is not primarily "dance" music. Hit any club in any country and tell me what DJ spins an Above & Beyond track (making an exception to tech-trance)? Exactly. This genr� has now taken a step towards being concert music. Armin, Ti�sto and all the big hot-shots of the so called trance industry today are not your regular club DJs, are they? You don't see people go to a Tijs gig to pick up girls and dance, but to see mainly Tiesto / Armin et cetera. However this applies also to great techno-djs such as Hawtin et cetera.

People DO NOT need to dance more sophisticated and that's the point. Imagine being at an A&B gig and everyone is jumpin crazy while they play some uplifter. How would you seem if you just stood there like a pole in the middle of the crowd?

Now imagine being at a club where deep-house or techno is playing. These types of music adapt to all kind of audiences and that's what so cool about it. You can both dance, but also relax on a sofa, take a minute to drink while chatting with that good looking brunette at the bar.
Tech-house is good for teenage-parties with hormoned-filled kids that want to bang that hot chick dancing wildly and they need some "phatt-beatz" to manage to come in closely or what the fuck...

On the last point I care to disagree with you. A quality trance song is a very rare thing today however it can be enjoyed as well as all other types of EDM. It's all a question of entourage.

The aspects of clubbing are many and everyone has a different opinion, idea, vision. However the music is there to serve the people whatever their intention might be, not the other way around like it with let's say trance music. That is what I call evolution and innovation.

quote:

Originally posted by Chimney Douche in what way? Because I'm expressing my opinion in a mannered way or because it contradicts yours? Let's keep this civilized. Most of trance today is not primarily "dance" music. Hit any club in any country and tell me what DJ spins an Above & Beyond track (making an exception to tech-trance)? Exactly. This genr� has now taken a step towards being concert music. Armin, Ti�sto and all the big hot-shots of the so called trance industry today are not your regular club DJs, are they? You don't see people go to a Tijs gig to pick up girls and dance, but to see mainly Tiesto / Armin et cetera. However this applies also to great techno-djs such as Hawtin et cetera. People DO NOT need to dance more sophisticated and that's the point. Imagine being at an A&B gig and everyone is jumpin crazy while they play some uplifter. How would you seem if you just stood there like a pole in the middle of the crowd? Now imagine being at a club where deep-house or techno is playing. These types of music adapt to all kind of audiences and that's what so cool about it. You can both dance, but also relax on a sofa, take a minute to drink while chatting with that good looking brunette at the bar. Tech-house is good for teenage-parties with hormoned-filled kids that want to bang that hot chick dancing wildly and they need some "phatt-beatz" to manage to come in closely or what the fuck... On the last point I care to disagree with you. A quality trance song is a very rare thing today however it can be enjoyed as well as all other types of EDM. It's all a question of entourage. The aspects of clubbing are many and everyone has a different opinion, idea, vision. However the music is there to serve the people whatever their intention might be, not the other way around like it with let's say trance music. That is what I call evolution and innovation.

Yeah, but speaking about music in terms of audiences and what are you supposed to do in a club/stadium and who goes and at what age etc. doesn't say anything about the music itself. So, house and techno is more mature because people shake their booty picking up girls in clubs whereas trance is "immature" because kids with glowsticks (or hippies for psy-trance) go there to jump and down? Who is the judge (and by what criteria/indexes?) of the "level of maturity"? Maybe its the other way round? Is the 17-year old who attends the Above and Beyond concert with the lasers and jumps up and down whislt on E really less mature than the average joe who, after a boring suppressed week at the office, shakes his body to r'n'b or house desperately trying to pick-up girls whilst wasting himself to cheap beer?



And what about the music itself? I have listened to a lot different genres of music (outside EDM) and i have to admit that a lot of "over-done kitsch" music that teenagers listen to (e.g. some forms of metal etc.), is a lot more musical and closer to "classical" (in terms of complexity and musicianship) than the usually more "mature" forms of music (a very interesting phenomenon IMO which brings to mind the fact that all humans are born with perfect pitch but they lose it as they grow-up...except for some few). And we all know that a lot of (i would say most) "mature" people don't listen to classical and jazz, unfortunately...


My point is, that people these days seem to judge musical genres more in terms of societal norms and cultural stereotypes rather than the music itself, like you did. And IMO this is deadly wrong. I also find the inter-genre EDM war stupid as fuck, at least if you consider that all forms of EDM are made on extremely similar procedures with similar types of knowledge. EDM seems to be truly the genre of fashion rather than substance. This type of thinking can make quality even more abundant.Nowadays, i think that most EDM fans search tracks in terms of awesome new-fashioned (or retro-fashioned) sounds (e.g. "Kompakt is on the rise", "german minimalism is the bomb, bringing a new electronic revolution" were some of the subjects of the DJ Mag from 1-2 years back) rather than good electronic tracks, e.g. good trance, techno, progressive, house, minimal techno whatever. People these days tend to confuse quality with what is "hot", "in", "trendy". I guess it always happened (with many genres as well) but i think that EDM got that type of thinking to the next level.

quote:

Originally posted by PETRAN Yeah, but speaking about music in terms of audiences and what are you supposed to do in a club/stadium and who goes and at what age etc. doesn't say anything about the music itself. So, house and techno is more mature because people shake their booty picking up girls in clubs whereas trance is "immature" because kids with glowsticks (or hippies for psy-trance) go there to jump and down? Who is the judge (and by what criteria/indexes?) of the "level of maturity"? Maybe its the other way round? Is the 17-year old who attends the Above and Beyond concert with the lasers and jumps up and down whislt on E really less mature than the average joe who, after a boring suppressed week at the office, shakes his body to r'n'b or house desperately trying to pick-up girls whilst wasting himself to cheap beer? And what about the music itself? I have listened to a lot different genres of music (outside EDM) and i have to admit that a lot of "over-done kitsch" music that teenagers listen to (e.g. some forms of metal etc.), is a lot more musical and closer to "classical" (in terms of complexity and musicianship) than the usually more "mature" forms of music (a very interesting phenomenon IMO which brings to mind the fact that all humans are born with perfect pitch but they lose it as they grow-up...except for some few). And we all know that a lot of (i would say most) "mature" people don't listen to classical and jazz, unfortunately... My point is, that people these days seem to judge musical genres more in terms of societal norms and cultural stereotypes rather than the music itself, like you did. And IMO this is deadly wrong. I also find the inter-genre EDM war stupid as fuck, at least if you consider that all forms of EDM are made on extremely similar procedures with similar types of knowledge. EDM seems to be truly the genre of fashion rather than substance. This type of thinking can make quality even more abundant.Nowadays, i think that most EDM fans search tracks in terms of awesome new-fashioned (or retro-fashioned) sounds (e.g. "Kompakt is on the rise", "german minimalism is the bomb, bringing a new electronic revolution" were some of the subjects of the DJ Mag from 1-2 years back) rather than good electronic tracks, e.g. good trance, techno, progressive, house, minimal techno whatever. People these days tend to confuse quality with what is "hot", "in", "trendy". I guess it always happened (with many genres as well) but i think that EDM got that type of thinking to the next level.

Exactly.

quote:

Originally posted by PETRAN Yeah, but speaking about music in terms of audiences and what are you supposed to do in a club/stadium and who goes and at what age etc. doesn't say anything about the music itself. So, house and techno is more mature because people shake their booty picking up girls in clubs whereas trance is "immature" because kids with glowsticks (or hippies for psy-trance) go there to jump and down? Who is the judge (and by what criteria/indexes?) of the "level of maturity"? Maybe its the other way round? Is the 17-year old who attends the Above and Beyond concert with the lasers and jumps up and down whislt on E really less mature than the average joe who, after a boring suppressed week at the office, shakes his body to r'n'b or house desperately trying to pick-up girls whilst wasting himself to cheap beer? And what about the music itself? I have listened to a lot different genres of music (outside EDM) and i have to admit that a lot of "over-done kitsch" music that teenagers listen to (e.g. some forms of metal etc.), is a lot more musical and closer to "classical" (in terms of complexity and musicianship) than the usually more "mature" forms of music (a very interesting phenomenon IMO which brings to mind the fact that all humans are born with perfect pitch but they lose it as they grow-up...except for some few). And we all know that a lot of (i would say most) "mature" people don't listen to classical and jazz, unfortunately... My point is, that people these days seem to judge musical genres more in terms of societal norms and cultural stereotypes rather than the music itself, like you did. And IMO this is deadly wrong. I also find the inter-genre EDM war stupid as fuck, at least if you consider that all forms of EDM are made on extremely similar procedures with similar types of knowledge. EDM seems to be truly the genre of fashion rather than substance. This type of thinking can make quality even more abundant.Nowadays, i think that most EDM fans search tracks in terms of awesome new-fashioned (or retro-fashioned) sounds (e.g. "Kompakt is on the rise", "german minimalism is the bomb, bringing a new electronic revolution" were some of the subjects of the DJ Mag from 1-2 years back) rather than good electronic tracks, e.g. good trance, techno, progressive, house, minimal techno whatever. People these days tend to confuse quality with what is "hot", "in", "trendy". I guess it always happened (with many genres as well) but i think that EDM got that type of thinking to the next level.

For a person posting on widely-known and respected EDM forum you kind of defend a taboo principle. Besides, that argument was kind of evasive to your general posts about music, probably because you were trying to show me a point and you, yourself just juged music from your own social perspectives which pretty much proves that even you once thought about it from where I'm seeing it.

To go back to the roots of the guys picking up chicks of the 17-year olds and deepen ourselves in social perspectives would be unnecessary. Maybe I didn't manage to forward my idea clearly enough and what I actually meant was that music where "people shake their booties" is the kind of music which gives the audience the chance to choose what they want to do and that - according to me is innovative music and creativity whereas trance really puts you into a singular "glow-stick" position. You mention that there is a big mistake that people glance upon this from cultural stereotypes. But wasn't EDM music evolved for the clubs? Should it fall into place and be judged from a clubbing perspective?

I might also add here that I've listened to trance for some years now and definetly do not try to jump from the glowsticking to the elitism-techno-fanboys. After all things are not dark or white. To some extent I agree with you that this EDM-war is foolish, however there are so many unknowledgeable people out there that are keen on sharing their opinions that arguing is more or less inevitable.

As a lost note I'd want to mention here that I'm just testing my own perspective here and do not mention that I am correct or anything else. I've seen from previous posts that you're wiedely experienced into different sorts of music and I assume that the age-difference between us is somewhat relevant in the topic at hand.

There will always be different perspectives to see things from. That doesn't only apply in EDM but also to life.

quote:

Originally posted by PETRAN Yeah, but speaking about music in terms of audiences and what are you supposed to do in a club/stadium and who goes and at what age etc. doesn't say anything about the music itself...........................................................................................................Nowadays, I guess it always happened (with many genres as well) but i think that EDM got that type of thinking to the next level.

I agree.

If you just want to see Armin or Tiesto you better buy the DVD. Also I think people which go to Tiesto, Armin or others are the same which also would go to events like Sensation, Dance Valley or Trance Energy. The majority just wants to have a good time and that how it should be.

Another point is that when I went out (years ago) at Friday we went to a club which mainly played House and Techno and at Saturday to a much bigger club which played Trance in one area and commecial stuff in the main area.
Two completely different things but the reason we went was for both the same.

I think there shouldn't be such a focus at Armin and Tiesto events, because they only are just once or twice a year and not weekly, like your favourite and local clubs.

quote:

Originally posted by Chimney I might also add here that I've listened to trance for some years now and definetly do not try to jump from the glowsticking to the elitism-techno-fanboys. After all things are not dark or white. To some extent I agree with you that this EDM-war is foolish, however there are so many unknowledgeable people out there that are keen on sharing their opinions that arguing is more or less inevitable. As a lost note I'd want to mention here that I'm just testing my own perspective here and do not mention that I am correct or anything else. I've seen from previous posts that you're wiedely experienced into different sorts of music and I assume that the age-difference between us is somewhat relevant in the topic at hand. There will always be different perspectives to see things from. That doesn't only apply in EDM but also to life.

Well, at least if you write it like that it's much better input for a discussion. I understand you're point and for a group of people this is true. But that doesn't mean it's the same for all. Like you said, it's not all black or white.

Sweet I am going to check this out later when I get a chance, I love Above and Beyond.

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