- 22
- Sep
State-of-the-Union-esque, only music. Right? Right.
Convictions. Everyone I know has something to say about the type of music they like/dislike. They may say, “I like all kinds of music”, but 97.13548% of the time they’ll follow up with, “except <insert random variation here>”. Personally, I can’t handle Country (countless times I’ve expressed this), Death Metal (screaming/non-understandable) or realllly slooowww musssiiiccc.
In my case, I’ll admit that I’m a huge House & Electronica snob. If it doesn’t go nnnsta nnnsta, I usually don’t listen to it. Some occasions may require a change, since there are people out there that don’t like it (clueless… all of ’em!). I shall now include a few images to reinforce my statements. hahaha
A couple of things the last 2 weeks keyed up this conversation. Firstly, Dave brought up a blog post he was reading regarding an Oakenfold performance and the state of the “DJ Superstars” (mostly in the comments). After he mentioned how much of a hack Oakenfold really was (which I’ve also heard a minimal number of DJ’s say, too), I started thinking back to the days when I really started understanding what House music was all about and how much the music really put me in a happy place. Yes, the recognizable DJ’s have egos, but hell, show me a rapper or rock star without one and I’ll show you 17,000 that do.
To be completely honest, I really don’t know how Oakenfold got demoted to an opening act for Underworld. I get the feeling that maybe these 2 were the headliners, and then there were lesser DJ’s before him. Either way, I do agree that Oakenfold might be moving a bit too far into the “mainstream” since his release of Starry Eyed Suprise and Faster Kill Pussycat (with Brittany Murphy on vocals). I attempt to hold him to a higher standard than most and these were pretty pop-tastic and commercial. I miss the days of Bullet in the Gun & drastic remixes of Dido/Radiohead/U2/Sneaker Pimps/Madonna/Depeche Mode where he did some grassroots production, instead of the more prolific tracks for movies (Matrix Reloaded, Swordfish & Collateral).
I was, however, able to attend an Oakenfold set at Summerfest in Milwaukee 3 or 4 summers ago and it was pretty freakin’ awesome. Felix Da Housecat opened.
Here’s the photo album from that outing: http://pix.drewzilla.org/summerfest1
A short video clip of the event: Right-Click Here and Save
Another thing we were discussing was the quality of mainstream music and how bad it’s turned lately. Mostly, this was centered around Trent Reznor and NIN, since this is something we both relate to and appreciate in terms of artistic ability and creativity. Trent continuously reinvents their music, yet has the basic underlying concepts to how he produces his music. Good, loud music with a rhythmic electronic feel, intertwined with hushed ambient melodies. Trent’s big beef right now is with his record company, to which he currently owes another album, and the prices they charge the customer (of which he’s getting jack/squat). I’d probably say the last CD’s I bought in the store were NIN “The Fragile” and Chemical Brothers “Push The Button” a couple years back, which deserved their purchase price (in payment to the artists). I don’t plan on purchasing any albums soon, considering the front racks at Best Buy contain Chamillionaire, Rascal Flatts and James Blunt. On top of that, their Dance/DJ section (named in an annoyingly generic and lame fashion for the sheep) contains 99% compilation discs that probably don’t pay the artist 1/10th of what their production is worth. Give me a streaming audio of Pete Tong or Judge Jules on the BBC Radio1 or a white label bootleg and I’ll be content for hours.
This is a short list of some of the tracks that shaped my focus on electronica around the Y2K:
Paul Oakenfold – Bullet In The Gun
Underworld – Born Slippy
Felix Da Housecat – Silver Screen
ATB – 9pm (Till I Come)
Robert Miles – Children & Fable
John Digweed – Heaven Scent
Fatboy Slim – Right Here, Right Now
Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy, Hey Girl
A couple other producers & composers that deserve recognition:
Danny Elfman – Movie Scores/Themes & Oingo Boingo
Brian Eno – Father of Modern Ambient Music
Pharrell Williams – N.E.R.D. & The Neptunes
Timbaland – Timbaland & Magoo
Q-Tip – A Tribe Called Quest
That being said, Chemical Brothers (open by Ladytron) are spinning the Riviera up on Lawrence & Racine this Monday, and I doubt I’m going to be able to attend. Damn you, fundage! Tickets are like 45 bucks. *sigh*
In light of the above, heres a couple funny links for the “haters”:
Trancecrackers
DJsOnStrike
Bedtime. Ni-Ni!
