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| quote: | Originally posted by Paradox Lost
Unless something dramatic his changed with his style, I think an appreciation for the technical way in which Zabiela works and has been long since reputed largely factors into whether you enjoy him on a night out, as his sound more than most headliners seems unpalatable to the unsuspecting club goer. You don't need to be a prog devotee to walk through the doors and enjoy a night with Cattaneo or Guy J (it's hard to miss your audience with pretty/driving 4/4 house music), but Zab-Breaks? It's gonna take a bit of acquiring, and don't think five hours is enough time to do it.
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I somewhat agree with this.
I remember when Zabs was coming up and a somewhat defining moment was when Sasha gave him the seal of approval (not to mention had somewhat mentored him).
It was poignantly elocuted that Zabs was to his "generation" was Sasha was to his; essentially far ahead of his contemporaries in terms of technical ability. Sasha was harmonic mixing as far back as the very early 90's (that's at least the first mention I can remember) and other Dj's (although a fair few might have been doing the same) didn't really catch on for most for at least another decade when MIK it accessible without a classically trained musician (Sasha apparently was nearly a concert grade pianist before starting to DJ).
the problem with Zabs vs Sasha in this respect, is that although Sasha was incredibly technical, it was primarily used to play music cohesively - granted with some effects like when he'd mix his own burned CD's of pads and FX over tracks - but he really just made incredible mixes that relied on that foundation of technical ability.
Zabs on the other had was layering all this technical ability over music, not within it if you get what I mean. I remember a certain thread on here where we were all complaining about "how a zabs set these days sounds like the beeps your phone makes when it's dying from a LSD overdose". While it was an electronic DJ tech showcase It's not really that great to dance to in a club or listen to.
In fairness, as someone once said, there will never be another sasha; he was doing things (i.e. Harmonic mixing) when no one else was, but over time, these things became the norm or level playing field if you will, even became automated via software, meaning that someone else would have to do a much bigger leap to stand out that far ahead again, but there's only so much and so far you can take a craft or discipline.
My problem with Zabs was the whole breaks and electro thing. It felt like he veered off a legacy of what was great prog, in to niches that served a trend, but then again, it must be mind numbingly boring to just bang out prog for two decades and seems he has the presence of mind to be self aware that those forways were possibly mistakes.
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