> No ... see, listening to this sort of stuff to me holds its interest in=
to
> how it changes over time.
>=20
> I was taping DB once, and I'm in the pit of this large auditorium behin=
d
> the barricades watching the levels on my gear and making sure I'm getti=
ng a
> good take ... Everyone's dancing and the fog machine's going (it got my=
DAT
> -- natch -- digital and anti-freeze don't mix), but DB is switching sty=
les
> left and right ... he must have gone through 20 styles in a 2 hour set.
> Everything from "Funk Train" to "Rocket Man" to a couple of exclusives =
I
> got white labels of .... people came up to me constantly saying "who's =
the
> dj? who's the dj that was playing jungle a few minutes ago? what do y=
ou
> mean it's the same dj that's been playing for the past hour and a half?=
"
> And all I could do was just grin.
>=20
> Here's the deal ....
>=20
> When you go out to eat (let's assume you're not vegetarian like I am), =
say
> you order chicken vindaloo. Now with that, you don't want chicken
> vindaloo, chicken vindaloo, chicken vindaloo, chicken vindaloo, chicken
> vindaloo, and chicken vindaloo. That would be kinda heavy, wouldn't it=
?
> Hey, it's the culinary top-40! Instead you'd want a salad here, a leaf=
y
> thing there, some starchy thing there, and so on, and I don't know abou=
t
> you but when I go out to eat I have my potency, my coffee, and my glass=
of
> water with a lemon in it. Variety is the key, man .... The minute you
> start defining it is the minute you have to steer away from it to keep
> pushing further and keeping it interesting.
I've never had 5 courses of chicken vindaloo before, but I could eat a
dinner and say that I ate food. Or I could eat a dinner and say that I
ate chicken vindaloo, a salad, a potato, a cup of fruit, and a Cup of
Tea=99. Labels may not help while you are listening, but they sure as
hell do when you are trying to describe what it is you hear.=20
> There is such a thing as stylistic diversity and keeping a dancefloor
> moving ... without regard as to what style you're playing. A great exa=
mple
> of another DJ who is very good at doing this is Double D from Calgary,
> Alberta. She's absolutely stunning to me .... she mixes a bunch of thi=
ngs
> together that my ears identify as goa, illbient, jungle, breakbeat, and
> gabber, and it's just furious ... and she gets jazzy too .... DJ's like
> here are the ones that I really look up to .... and she tackles every s=
tyle
> you can think of and just pins it to the wall ....
>=20
> But back to definitions ... I think that the less definable the music i=
s,
> the more interesting the genre is in the long run, and I try to keep my
> listening tastes as varied as possible ....
I agree with you here. The undefined is always on the cutting edge of
music. But in order to recognize what is undefined, you need to know
what is defined, and this is why the labels are there. =20
What exactly is a chicken vindaloo anyway? Is that a deep food or a
progressive one?
long live Avery!
randy