Naming convention (was Re: Mark Farina)

dj bambi (djbambi@hotmail.com)
Wed, 28 May 1997 17:06:24 PDT


> > You can expect top-notch music and flawless mixing. Mostly chicago
> > sounds with a SF flavor when he spins house (check him out at a
> > Stompy party in SF), and his own ecclectic mix of mid-tempo
> > acid-jazz/dubs/old-school-hiphop when he has the opportunity to play chill
> eh> (his > numerous Mushroom Jazz mixtapes just rule).
>
> personal beef here:
>
> i always hate it when "downtempo" (i detest that term)/non-house is
> automatically classified as "chill". there's a lot of us djs that get
>crowds
> jumping w/o playing any house all night--there's some pretty fast breakbeat
> stuff even before you start talking about jungle (listen to "smile" by
> incognito or "break 4 jazz" and tell me that's downtempo)!

I agree with you, that's why I try to use the term mid-tempo and not
down-tempo (which automatically classifies you as an ambient dj).
As a "mid-tempo" dj, the most challenging is to find a compromise
between the chill and the dance tracks and satisfy everyone and
yourself. Well, actually the most challenging is to find a correct
name for your style of music. I'm sure as hell am not going to use
the tr*p-h*p word, experimental hip-hop is to narrow, down-tempo is
misguiding, etc... I've always have this problem and we've had
hundreds of arguments about it on this list (just do a search on
tr*p-h*p in the list archives :)

For those who got my Watchamacallit tape a couple of years ago, the subtitle
said something sarcastic like "HipElektroFunkHopJazz" or something like that.
The next one, Soundscape, is labelled as a "Journey thru electronic grooves".
And I have a feeling I'm not done looking for new naming ideas. Suggestions
welcome, but these days
I use "mid-tempo" cauz it's open-ended on both ends :P

dj bambi

ps: I'm glad to say that I have just discovered the wonders of
hotmail.com (and I can now use my personal email from work) and
will now be able to contribute to my favorite list again! yeah!

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