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The TA Worst DJ Poll. (part 2) (pg. 19)
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| sg_57 |
| quote: | | Originally posted by nefardec what DJing has turned into for so many people. |
In the next chapter of our story, and to his great amazement, our hero discovers that sound systems do not end at the edge of the speaker boxes rather that it and the room it's located in are just part of the same thing (so even if club spend millions on the hardware and forget acoustics as most of them do it'll still sound like sh*t, albeit extremely impressive-looking sh*t), and in a similar vein that DJs and the crowd they play for are not so separate from each other, so in order to attain greatness a DJ and the crowd he plays for have to be deeply attuned to each other and a love affair needs to be going on between them.
Which is to say that if the crowd is composed of people whose expectations are borne of years of constantly being bashed over the heads with a steady diet of the same sort of repetitive sounds, (be it Techno, Prog, Trance, Minimal) it would sound exceedingly difficult for any DJ like those you quote as examples to make them appreciate what he does and for them to think that he is any good, because he would fall so far out of their point of reference and what they have known that it would require too great a deal of time and effort to get accustomed to this. And there would be no connection.
It not that the DJ is bad, or the crowd either. They need to find common ground on which to connect and have a party together.
The people you cite as examples were not traveling so much, they spent years developing a homegrown scene every week for long hours. So of course this gave them time to establish those connections and make those parties truly spectacular. When traveling and coming to play a 2-hour set, a good question to ask would be to wonder if the person who gets booked should just cater to what the local crowd wants, or (as Theo did) play what they are known for doing, but possibly without any regards for what the punters who paid at the door want to hear in order to have a good party. Isn't the promoter's/talent booker's job to sort these types of things out, so it ends up being a memorable time for all concerned ? |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by nefardec
Yeah, actually I would say he's a bit of both in that he is carrying the lineage forward, and also to new crowds (the indie kids now like theo because of his LCD Soundsystem remix etc) |
Remixing LCD Soundsystem does not make you a forward-thinking visionary.
| quote: | | Why isn't what Theo doing 'highbrow'? Is it because he's a black man? |
Yes, it's because he's a black man.
| quote: | Originally posted by nefardec
looks pretty ing awesome to me. Lots of people screaming and partying with his 'bad mixing'. |
Man, you must go to some ing boring parties. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Yes, it's because he's a black man. |
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| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Remixing LCD Soundsystem does not make you a forward-thinking visionary.
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Learn 2 read |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by nefardec
Learn 2 read |
I don't seem to be able to read anything forward-thinking about Theo Parrish. Please help me. Is he forward-thinking because you used the word "forward"? Is he forward-thinking for playing like a 1970s disco DJ? Is it forward-thinking to keep doing the same thing until a new crowd of people turn up who've never heard it before? Is it forward-thinking when you were born in 1972 but none of your records sound a day younger than 1990?
The guy is essentially deeply regressive, and you are actively fetishising that property. You like innovative music, as long as it's already happened. |
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| LAdazeNYnights |
It's incredible how quickly this thread blew up based solely on an account of one DJ performing poorly on one occasion.
I'm only on page 11 now, so it's possible that my post here will just be an echo of something said earlier. If so- my bad.
I don't think it fair to lump a DJ into the "Worst DJ" category based solely on one night out. If he had been a disappointment on multiple occasions or, better yet, if he were consistently lackluster behind the decks then such harsh judgment could be warranted.
There are so many factors that go into your perception of a DJ and your overall enjoyment of a night out. System-J noted that Theo wasn't playing the sort of music that would work well in such a room. When the music doesn't work like that your enjoyment is instantly impeded --and often in those people are likely to be more critical of anything else that happens.
I'm not saying that J was wrong about how poor he was mixing, but rather that many little things likely came together to make Theo's performance seem much worse. I don't know enough about Theo to attempt to explain anything but I can speculate that on an occasion like that perhaps he, as an artist, found himself with a crate full of tunes he couldn't get enough of at a venue that was far less likely to subscribe to that sentiment than he anticipated.
My contribution to the thread: Manufactured Superstars. I caught them twice over the past year and both times they seemed to suck the life out of the crowd. Their sets had no discernible rhythm, or flow if you will. Energy seemed to enter the room and leave of it's own volition. They'd play Top 10 Beatport Bangers followed by Pop Songs (and no, we're not even talking about pop remixes here...) and then it was onto random electro house hits and a little bit of dubstep flair for good measure. |
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| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I don't seem to be able to read anything forward-thinking about Theo Parrish. Please help me. Is he forward-thinking because you used the word "forward"? Is he forward-thinking for playing like a 1970s disco DJ? Is it forward-thinking to keep doing the same thing until a new crowd of people turn up who've never heard it before? Is it forward-thinking when you were born in 1972 but none of your records sound a day younger than 1990?
The guy is essentially deeply regressive, and you are actively fetishising that property. |
First of all, I didn't call him forward thinking. You used that word first in response to SG 57 calling him 'visionary'.
Visionary != Forward Thinking necessarily.
Theo's own productions and label are quite forward thinking. I don't think his DJ technique is forward thinking at all.
As I said, he is the contemporary bearer of the torch of the classic DJ technique and the general perspective, goal, or scope of the performance pioneered by people like Ron Hardy and Larry Levan.
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
You like innovative music, as long as it's already happened.
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That's probably true. I love music or anything that was innovative or challenging for its time. |
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| Ian |
| Jesus christ. Are we still flogging this dead horse. I thought fanboys only turned up when we said Armin sucks :o |
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| Voci |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ian
we said Armin sucks :o |
WHAT? :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: |
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| jupiterone |
folks, it's theo parrish, no one really cares about theo parrish, or 'underground' house music, or the traveling kung fu dj master to begin with but a couple thousand. no need to get into such a heated debate about technical skill. it's mixing from one record to another, it's not recreating the entire musical spectrum, where it sporadically gives you an orgasm just through hearing transitions.
there is a reason many have to hold a second job to maintain this endeavor. no. one. really. cares. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by nefardec
First of all, I didn't call him forward thinking. You used that word first in response to SG 57 calling him 'visionary'. |
I used it in response to him comparing Parrish to Delia Derbyshire. Derbyshire was a pioneer who was making experimental electronic music before synthesisers existed. She managed to create alarming likenesses to techno in the mid-1960s using only tape manipulation. To compare her to Parrish and suggest he too is so far ahead of the curve he'll only be understood in decades to come is an absolute joke.
Again, it's this insistence of using avant garde, high-brow and canonical reference points to try and elevate Parrish through association. That's now comparisons between him and Picasso, Duchamp, Cage, Davis and Derbyshire in this thread - all people who completely changed the gameplan in their respective fields, all being compared to a man who DJs like it's 1976. I find this grating because it reinforces that pretentious and condescending subtext that Parrish is doing something complex, wildly different and worthy of comparison to canonical ground-breakers, something that his critics simply do not "get". Cross-fading, it suggests, is on par with Cubism, or Dadaism. |
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| Domesticated |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I used it in response to him comparing Parrish to Delia Derbyshire. Derbyshire was a pioneer who was making experimental electronic music before synthesisers existed. She managed to create alarming likenesses to techno in the mid-1960s using only tape manipulation. To compare her to Parrish and suggest he too is so far ahead of the curve he'll only be understood in decades to come is an absolute joke.
Again, it's this insistence of using avant garde, high-brow and canonical reference points to try and elevate Parrish through association. That's now comparisons between him and Picasso, Duchamp, Cage, Davis and Derbyshire in this thread - all people who completely changed the gameplan in their respective fields, all being compared to a man who DJs like it's 1976. I find this grating because it reinforces that pretentious and condescending subtext that Parrish is doing something complex, wildly different and worthy of comparison to canonical ground-breakers, something that his critics simply do not "get". Cross-fading, it suggests, is on par with Cubism, or Dadaism. |
Don't try and backpedal, you ing racist! You already said it: the colour of his skin means he can't be highbrow. |
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