I opened this thread and anticipated some hardcore flaming, which is pretty much what has happened, but within those flames you guys made some valid points.

I did want to chime in with my opinion and give you some insight on a few things.

We all are in agreeance that Oakenfold was on top of his game for a long time. Sure within that time he had some bad nights, or bad essential mixes or maybe a bad mix cd. But in general, Oakenfold was worthy of respect in years past.

He has clearly lost alot of that passion and pride to be the best that he can be, and yes, maybe he should take some time off. Maybe he will find the love for the music again or wahtever. But I dont blame him for these gigs now. If anybody is to blame for this, its the promoters and clubs who want to make a fast buck. Everybody knows that all you have to do is shell out $40,000 (which alot of times is covered by Cigarette companies or Alcahol companies), have Oakenfold play at your club, and sit back and watch the cash registers spin. Hell if people are calling YOU and offering you that kind of loot, you would take it too. Even if you didnt know how to mix that well, you would still take the money. So what if you would be hurting the scene because you didnt know how to mix well, you would take it anyways. If you deny that, then you are a saint, and please PM me and I will hire you to work for me for free.

Another thing I want to bring up is about DJs tracklists when they go on the road. Markus Schulz just recently went to Europe for 6 weeks. During this time he played out of the same box every gig. Before he left he had to go through his box and take only the bare essentials, because you cannot take a huge record box on board an airplane. Sure you can stuff it full and try to check your record box, but most of the time your record box does not make it to its destination. Imagine arriving at the Ibiza airport at 6pm, with a gig that night, and the airline tells you that your box will be in on the first flight tomorrow morning. Not a good situation, therefore you have to carry your record bag on board. Getting new music to add to your playlist while on the road is also not very easy. Internet connections are very slow in hotels, and if you played a gig till 6am, and check out time at your hotel is noon, chances are you dont have much time to DL new music from your FTP. 6 weeks playing out of the same box would drive me crazy.

back to the main topic though, if you have pride in your work and you are still into it, then you will overcome obstacles, and if you are burnt out and dont care, it will show. But dont blame Oakie, if promoters werent interested in just making a quick buck, then Oakie would not be booked.

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GOD is a dj, life is a dancefloor

Of course - promoters are generally evil money grabbing swines - its just the way that the money seems to have one straight to Oakey's head. He now totally believes he is a god - you only need to see him play and look at the way he sticks his arms out like some sort of messiah. Anyone who really took his job that seriously would at least attempt to mix well too

DJs like PvD and Sasha seem to have kept their feet on the ground - why couldnt Oakey have done the same? Maybe if he had, he wouldnt have so many people laying into him.

quote:

Originally posted by globalgirl I opened this thread and anticipated some hardcore flaming, which is pretty much what has happened, but within those flames you guys made some valid points. I did want to chime in with my opinion and give you some insight on a few things. We all are in agreeance that Oakenfold was on top of his game for a long time. Sure within that time he had some bad nights, or bad essential mixes or maybe a bad mix cd. But in general, Oakenfold was worthy of respect in years past. He has clearly lost alot of that passion and pride to be the best that he can be, and yes, maybe he should take some time off. Maybe he will find the love for the music again or wahtever. But I dont blame him for these gigs now. If anybody is to blame for this, its the promoters and clubs who want to make a fast buck. Everybody knows that all you have to do is shell out $40,000 (which alot of times is covered by Cigarette companies or Alcahol companies), have Oakenfold play at your club, and sit back and watch the cash registers spin. Hell if people are calling YOU and offering you that kind of loot, you would take it too. Even if you didnt know how to mix that well, you would still take the money. So what if you would be hurting the scene because you didnt know how to mix well, you would take it anyways. If you deny that, then you are a saint, and please PM me and I will hire you to work for me for free. Another thing I want to bring up is about DJs tracklists when they go on the road. Markus Schulz just recently went to Europe for 6 weeks. During this time he played out of the same box every gig. Before he left he had to go through his box and take only the bare essentials, because you cannot take a huge record box on board an airplane. Sure you can stuff it full and try to check your record box, but most of the time your record box does not make it to its destination. Imagine arriving at the Ibiza airport at 6pm, with a gig that night, and the airline tells you that your box will be in on the first flight tomorrow morning. Not a good situation, therefore you have to carry your record bag on board. Getting new music to add to your playlist while on the road is also not very easy. Internet connections are very slow in hotels, and if you played a gig till 6am, and check out time at your hotel is noon, chances are you dont have much time to DL new music from your FTP. 6 weeks playing out of the same box would drive me crazy. back to the main topic though, if you have pride in your work and you are still into it, then you will overcome obstacles, and if you are burnt out and dont care, it will show. But dont blame Oakie, if promoters werent interested in just making a quick buck, then Oakie would not be booked.

Good points made indeed. On the other hand, as many cd's as these guys play, a book of cd's changes everything. I can understand touring with a crate or two making for complications, but PVD, in particular, could stock less of his own. If he were less known and didn't release the hell out of his records, it wouldn't be as annoying, but I had the records he was overplaying. That was more my point. I also doubt he goes on long tours anymore without going home in between. I may be wrong.

If Markus came to Denver, his tracks that are well known globally would be fairly new to people here. I have a few of his remixes and like them a lot, but he's not well known here yet. He could get away with it a lot more easily. And don't get me wrong, I sent him an e-mail for booking info, in case I can figure a way to get him out here. Denver is such a fickle seen that it would be a huge risk. I hate that about my city. Dj's like Hernan Cattaneo don't even fill our popular Thursday venue.

As far as the promoters and Oakie taking money, I couldn't agree more. I would love to play in Miami for you for free, but I'm not gonna lie and say I wouldn't take the money. Of course I would. However, I wouldn't get in front of a pile of coke before my set. That's the only thing that makes me lose respect for him. I appreciate Oakie and the tracks he brings to the table, still. But he has never been the best technical mixer. He sure has been innovative though. From Goa to Jungle/D n B to Trance to Breaks to Progressive, he's done them all. A lot of people don't realize the span of what he's done over the years. And if I'm not mistaken, he discovered the Fresh Prince as well as other famous hip-hoppers. I certainly have more respect for him than Tiesto.

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Old Norsk Sessions every 4th Monday from 4-6pm EST on Digitally Imported Radio (Progressive Station), and 7pm CET on Trance.fm every 1st Saturday

quote:

Originally posted by davidclarke He doesnt produce, and he doesnt mix his CD's. The person you really like is called Andy Gray.

Whats next the easter bunny doesn't exist?




now I am ammo-less in defending oakenfold, I guess I will just join the many anti-oaky people.

Oakenfold, legend, pioneer, the epitomy of 99', Ibiza, nuff said.

Ok, for everyone that posts and says they saw Oakenfold and he sucked there is typically at least one person who says they saw him and he rocked.

I suspect that the majority of the 'Oakenfold Sucks' bandwagon jumpers have never seen him live recently and are just talking out their ass.

God forbid the guy have an off night and have a few trainwrecks. I'm sure that at your job you are always perfect all the time. Shit maybe he was drunk or high or hung over, who knows, who cares.

Bottom line is he deserves a lot of respect for what he has done for trance. He may not be on top of his game like he was in '99, but who can stay on top like that forever. He is still one of the better DJs out there.

And there is always someone bitching about him getting paid a pile of cash to do a set. Who the hell cares, he is one of the world's top DJs, he has earned it. Do you bitch every time you go to a sporting event or a concert? In the US most major sports stars or musicians get paid a hell of a lot more that $40K per event. For a major recording artist, earning $500K to $1 million+ per concert is normal. Look at a football player who makes $3 million a year to play 15 games, you do the math.

@ Creamfields, i thought he was quite good. Then again i wasn't equipped with a pen so unlike you i am in no position to judge!

quote:

Originally posted by XaNaX I suspect that the majority of the 'Oakenfold Sucks' bandwagon jumpers have never seen him live recently and are just talking out their ass.

I posted this as soon as I got home from watching him. This was not an off night, an off night could be 3, 4, 5 trainwrecks er so in any 1.5 hour period, but this was a solid 7, not just beat galloping either, total loss of control.


and he played here 2 or 3 other times in the past 2 weeks and I heard it was pretty much identical mixing.



So wtf am I suppose to think now?

quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 and he played here 2 or 3 other times in the past 2 weeks and I heard it was pretty much identical mixing.

Again, hearsay. For every show that someone says he sucks there is always someone that says he was good.

Maybe he is not putting 100% into every small show he does anymore

quote:

So wtf am I suppose to think now?

Just mindlessly go with the fact that he is god and everything will be fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 the ones below that are when he plays a track until the end and then just started a new track.....that was 3 times (not including the first song of his set).

Dood - this is classic Oakenfold style.

Frankly - I'm surprised that more DJ's don't do this. What a great way to emphasize the next track!

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- rabbit.joker [funny¿rabbit] | www.rabbitjoker.com |www.ddtt.org

Dark Dirty Tech Tribal. | Hands in air (trance) and feet on the floor (house).

quote:

Originally posted by Nite-Mer But his record selection, if not good now, used to be phenomenal. He played all of the dope tracks, and they were tracks that not everyone had.

Bottom line is people love to hear great music, AMAZING music.

I don't care how technial or proficient you are at DJ'ing - unless you can lay down amazing tracks and build a flow - you're not going anywhere.

You think the world DMC champ will EVER make as much as Oakie does for one night? No.

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- rabbit.joker [funny¿rabbit] | www.rabbitjoker.com |www.ddtt.org

Dark Dirty Tech Tribal. | Hands in air (trance) and feet on the floor (house).