DanceMuse.net

The social networks Facebook and Twitter are flooded with posts, Youtube is jammed. It’s after 1 am and have been following news that Michael Jackson is dead. He was slated to do 50, yes 5-0, shows here in London starting next month that would have marked a major comeback and solved his recent financial issues. I didn’t think he could do it – pull off 50 shows after not touring for years and at the age of 50 but never expected him not to make at least the first few.

Poor taste jokes and his more recent strange behaviour, child abuse allegations and general downwards spiral in front of the world’s media over the past decade aside, I can’t help but reflect on the impact that Michael Jackson has had on the music industry and fans around the world.

I still remember as a kid in the early 80’s seeing the ‘Thriller’ video clip on TV for the first time and being blown away. In the ‘Billie Jean’ video when he started walking on the sidewalk and the stones lit up as he did – ground breaking stuff that set the scene for MTV and the modern music video industry as we know it. The ‘Thriller’ album is still one of the all time best selling albums ever – estimates at between 50 and 110 million copies sold – at its peak selling a million copies a week – unheard of – to put it in perspective artists in recent times would be excited about album sales selling in the tens of thousands.

His early work in the Jackson 5 instantly highlighted his talent as a singer and performer – listening to his voice in tracks like ‘Ben’ and feeling his stage presence in ‘ABC’ amongst others. His later stage performances were awe inspiring – the way he could move, pop, slide and manipulate his body just blew all others away. Look for his live ‘Billie Jean’ performances with that one glove and hat and those tap shoes…

Kids the world over imitated him, wore the same outfits he wore and tried to emulate his dance moves – am sure most have attempted his legendary “moon walk”. Dropping Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” in a house party DJ set – that starting kick drum, that first breakdown – always gets a dance floor moving and any high school dance, local club night or wedding that you go to there are tracks of his played that have a similar effect.

Despite the last decade of controversy (and am sure there will be more to come now that he is gone) you cannot not acknowledge his amazing creative talents as a singer, songwriter and performer and his influence over the music industry as we know it today. Michael Jackson RIP.

Tags: Muse, News by NickCDJ
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This photo doesn’t really do it justice…

It shows part of my CD collection that I need to digitise.

Those shelves stand about 4ft tall and are stacked 2 CD piles deep. Anyone else out there digitised a collection like this? Any tools anyone can recommend – hardware or software?

At present it is many many hours in front of Windows Media Player, ripping and then manually entering and editing the meta data as it is normally all wrong or non existent for this type of dance music…

Tags: Muse, Music by NickCDJ
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I regularly seem to encounter extremes of view on this and on reflection break it down into 2 areas: Medium and Delivery.

Medium (or format) is what the music is actually originally recorded on – be it vinyl, CD, DVD, or digital file (.mp3, .wav). Delivery is what you play it from – be it record turntables, CD decks, or laptop/computer driven.

You will have many schools of thought around each – that vinyl is truer to the artists original sound and sounds much better, that CDs are more flexible, that digital allows for so many possibilities etc.

After much thought around this I have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter what medium or delivery method you use, each has their pluses and minuses, rather the choice of both is initially dependent on when you started getting into music. If you started collecting and playing with vinyl then that is going to be your preference, for me the main part was CDs so that is my chosen medium.

In saying that technology moves forward and in the last 5 years many vinyl purists have moved to CD DJing for convenience (it’s much easier to carry 500 CDs in your bag than 500 pieces of vinyl) and flexibility – what you can do on CDJs and an EFX unit is truly amazing – real time loops, hot cues etc.
There are also those that have moved to incorporate digital laptop DJing as well – again much easier to carry 10,000 .mp3s on a hard drive than it is to carry the same in vinyl in record bags. also if you lose the laptop or hard drive on the road you still retain a master copy of everything back at home base unlike vinyl that would often go missing in transit. With software like Ableton Live and the more DJ orientated Traktor you can create tunes on the fly from component parts and let the software beatmatch it for you allowing you to concentrate on the combination and track selection.

Arguably there is an element of risk at being left behind as things move forward if you don’t keep up with technological advances.  case in point a few years back I remember seeing Fatboy Slim play at Global Gathering. He played his typical vinyl set and had the crowd enjoying themselves but was immediately followed by Erick Morillo who on 3 CDJs and EFX units just killed it. There was no comparison between the two. Both were entertainers so had the performance element but in Erick’s case the techology really shone through. With advances on the digital front as well now will it in a few years be the same – if you are not playing on laptops will you be left behind?

There is one important element that is universal across medium and delivery methods and that is performance. In my view the DJ is an entertainer and so there has to be a level of performance and animation in what he/she is doing up the front of the crowd behind the decks. Arguably the punters aren’t going to know what he is playing on or from, from down on the dance floor but they will notice how he/she is playing it. Case in point – early adopters of Ableton when DJing straight from laptop would look like they were checking their emails Vs actually mixing tracks. I’ll never forget seeing Sasha do it early on and it really made an impact on the crowd – sure the music was OK but part of the experience is seeing the DJ get into it as well. Compare this with Nicky Siano (The Gallery, Studio 54 resident and 1st DJ to mix on 3 decks) who also made the switch to Ableton and absolutely goes off behind the decks bouncing around and tweaking knobs and having a great time of it all – thoroughly recommend you see Nicky if he ever comes to town a true performer!

PS As a CD man myself I love winding up a vinyl only DJs – best way is to just mention that there’s just no love/soul/feeling in the medium and that it just doesn’t compare to CDs for looks, sleeve art, taste, sound range etc!

Tags: Muse, Tech by Nick
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After the final straw with my useless last provider (123reg don’t use them bad technical support) I have now moved this site to Justhost.com. These guys are very reasonably priced and so far so good – have things up and running. A few more design tweaks to go and we are there. Will post more later on…

Tags: Muse, Tech by NickCDJ
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Well good to be back again and posting after a long time off!

Was down at Ministry of Sound last night to see Erick Morillo – coinciding with his new mix compilation ‘Strictly Erick Morillo’ (I recommend you pick up a copy of it – I have been playing in the background here for the past few weeks). 

I have to say when Erick is on form he is truly amazing and he was just that last night and absolutely smashed it! Mixing loads of old house tracks from Strictly label and others definitely got the room going. Moreso than other nights in the past he really worked the accapella side dropping the likes of ‘Missing’ by Everything But The Girl, Red Carpet’s ‘Alright’ to name but a few over underlying beat tracks.

The CDJs (Pioneer CDJ 1000’s) and the EFX (audio effects) units have taken the art of Djing to another level and Erick is at the top of it – live remixing of tracks using loops and effects to tease out highs and build breakdowns and his signature use of EQs to cut the track right out and then slowly bring it or something new back in is truly something that has to be seen and heard to be believed.

If you are into your DJing or even if you are the least bit curious to how it’s all done and ever get the chance and the venue gives you a decent point to see it watch what he is doing behind the decks. Pacha in Ibiza is great for this as there is a walkway above the DJ booth that you can look down on and watch it unfold. Watch the loops, the use of EFX and how he works the CDJs – amazing!

Tags: Gig, Muse, Music by Nick
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Been a while since I last posted – since that time I made it out to Ibiza for the annual trip. I must say that despite the new club opening hour restrictions – ie no after hours/day parties b/w 6am and 4.30pm – the island seemed to be pumping. Am normally out there early on in the season and it was good to see things looking busy.

I made it to Eden for Pete Tong’s Wonderland with Groove Armada and Smoking Jo in the back room, Defmix @ Pacha for David Morales and Hector Romero & Hed Kandi @ El Divino, We Love for the must do Space on Sunday, The Shapeshifters at Defected @ Pacha and MN2S at El Divino again for Kaskade, Armada @ Amnesia for Armin Van Buuren’s big trance night and that was it – gutted i couldn’t make David Guetta’s Fuck Me I’m Famous and Erick Morillo’s Subliminal nights but a short trip – still a busy 5 nights broken up with the odd sunset and good beachside meal.  

Of Special note Bora Bora seems like it is returning to form after last year’s closures – the beach and area outside the bar seemed busier than ever and as has been tradition in previous seasons the music volume and tempo cranked up a few notches mid afternoon and the open air dancing commenced beneath the compulsory overhead air traffic of new arrivals to the island.

Hopefully get back there again later in the season…

Tags: Gig, Muse, News by Nick
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For the dance music industry the Miami WMC marks the start of the dance music year. Tracks and new artists are introduced to the industry and punters alike over this week long event that has expanded in recent years to encompass many spin off parties, receptions, private villa bashes and parallel events. Recent years has seen the timing of the WMC coincide with the US’s Spring Break week – combined you can only begin to imagine the debauchery after a few Mohitos in the sun by the pool! Getting back to the topic at hand tracks are picked up here, played back in the UK and other underground clubs and then pushed/caned in Ibiza as/on white labels/cdrs. From here they are picked up and signed by more major labels and several months and an dance music events later (ADE, etc) start cutting across into the main stream. Phew! So what were the big standout tunes (if any?) this year? Watch this space as I hit up a few of the artists that were out there for their thoughts in the coming weeks.

 Every year as part of the WMC the Internatioanl Dance Music Awards (IDMAs) also are staged mid week by the pool of the resort hosting the conference. The full winners list can be found here at the WMC IDMA site but I will list a few highlights below:

Best Underground Dance Track – went to Home – Above & Beyond – Ultra Records – beating the other stiff competition of
Heater – Samim – Ministry of Sound, Anthem – Filo & Peri ft. Eric Lumiere – Ultra Records
Riff – Sander van Doorn – Ultra Records, Rise Up – Michael Procter – Mychan Records, and
Feels Like Home – Meck ft Dino – Yoshitoshi

Best House/Garage Track & Best Breaks/Electro Track – Love Is Gone – David Guetta and Chris Willis – Ultra Records

Best Progressive House/Trance Track – Let Go – Paul van Dyk – Mute

Best European DJ – Armin van Buuren beating Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, David Guetta, Ferry Corsten, Sander Kleinenberg

Best American DJ -  Gabriel & Dresden – beating the likes of Markus Schulz, Roger Sanchez, Christopher Lawrence, Danny Tenaglia and Deep Dish.

Best Global DJ   – Tiesto – beating Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Above and Beyond, Gabriel & Dresden, Carl Cox and Ferry Corsten.

Tiesto also won Best Full Length DJ Mix CD for In Search of Sunrise Vol. 6 – Tiesto – Nettwerk Records beating some tough competition with the likes of�
 A State of Trance 2007 – Armin van Buuren – Ultra Records, Anjunabeats Volume 5 – Above & Beyond – Ultra Records, In Between – Paul van Dyk – Mute and Mass Movement – Joe Bermudez – Nervous Records

Best Producer – Timbaland

Best Remixer – Robbie Rivera

Best Break-Through Artist (solo) – Sander van Doorn

Best Break-Through Artist (group) – Justice

Best Dance Artist (solo) – Bob Sinclar

Best Dance Artist (group) -  Daft Punk

Best Dance Artist (group) – Daft Punk
 beating  Above & Beyond, Chemical Brothers, Filo & Peri, Gabriel & Dresden, Freemasons, The Killers

Best Global Dance Record Label – Ministry of Sound edging out again stiff competition from

Black Hole Recordings (Tiesto’s label), Global Underground, Armada (Armin Van Buuren’s label) and the one and only Defected.

Best Global Club -  Amnesia Ibiza !

Pioneer totally cleaned up once again firmly establishing itself as the leader in digital DJ hardware picking up Best Manufacturer of the Year, Best Headphones – Pioneer HDJ-1000 (I must try em!), Best Mixer – Pioneer DJM800 (I want one!), Best CD Player – Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3 (must upgrade my MkIIs!), Best New Product of the Year – Pioneer CDJ 400.
Ableton Live 7.0 – Best Audio Editing Software of the Year & Best Audio DJ Software of the Year

finally Lifetime Achievement Award  posthumously went to Mel Cheren who died late last year. I was fortunate to interview Mel late early in 2007 and will post the interview to this site at a future date.

As I said the above are some of the highlights that caught my eye – complete list is online.

Tags: Muse, Music, News, Tech by Nick
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Easter weekend saw the close of another of London’s clubbing institutions: Turnmills. I remember first going there religiously for The Gallery most Fridays back in ‘96 when i was first in London – hard to believe that was 12 years ago and even harder to believe they are closing after so many good nights!

The weeks leading up to and the final Easter weekend sported lineups to die for with acts spanning the last 20 years of clubbing. Mates went down to Saturday night with The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim – the former playing an amazing set as did resident Anil Chawla with a classic underground set that went down well with the emotional punters. I made it down for the Sunday Last Dance catching CJ Mackintosh’s set (first time I had heard that wicked Dimitri from Paris remix of “Music Sounds Better With You” – nice have to track that one down!), who was followed by Frankie Knuckles in his usual good form – dropping his trademark classics like his new rework of the “Whistle Song”, “Your Love” and more. Frankie played from 2am to 5am with Danny Rampling taking the reigns energetically from then till close – I hear that Danny carried on until 4pm – (un)fortunately my legs ran outta steam just after 8am and I left a still up for it crowd having it on the main dance floor amidst slideshows of Gurnmills signs, DJ faces from the past and of course the club’s trademark lighting and lasers. I walked out into the frosty morning glare one last time smiling at all the good times I’d had there over the past 12 years… 

To all the Turnmills crew – Danny, Stix, Tom on the door and all the others that made it such an experience thank you!

ps It’s not all doom and gloom as the nights will relocate to other locations around London – The Gallery Turnmills Friday night of trance and progressive house will be relocating to Ministry and Together and other nights will be moving to The Scala at Kings Cross… watch this space for more updates in the coming weeks..

Tags: Gig, Muse by Nick
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Just a quick post to say that after 3 weeks in the internet wilderness I am now back online and will be posting again shortly.  The Easter longweekend is just ahead so loads on including the last hurrah for Turnmills! See you out there…

Tags: Muse by Nick
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After being caught with a small amount (a little over 2g) of cannabis in his pocket as he entered the UAE in November last year Radio 1 presenter and Drum & Bass DJ Grooverider has just been sentenced to 4 YEARS JAIL in Dubai. He said he hadn’t intended to bring it with him, forgetting it was in his pocket, calling the charges against him ”ridiculous” for such a small amount which back home in England he wouldn’t have even got prosecuted for.

Unfortunately for Grooverider he wasn’t in England at the time and worse yet Dubai has a record of typically handing out such sentences for minimal possession charges – bagel poppy seeds on your person included!

What’s the moral of the story here people? When travelling to and from anywhere and in particularly those destinations and cultures that are different/tougher/less liberal/more militant/extreme in their views than you are used to, be extra careful/conscious and double check all your pockets and bags before you leave just in case!

Grooverider has 2 weeks to appeal the decision.

Tags: Muse, News by Nick
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