Re: vadim

Scott Tennent
Mon, 06 Apr 1998 03:05:15 -0700 (MST)

I have to more or less agree here.
I really, really admire what Vadim does. I feel like he's a very
reactionist DJ (especially in the face of jungle, which took the
breakbeat in the exact opposite direction). And for me, being reactionary
to art is the core of true art. He's not just a DJ, he's an artist. ANd I
think that, for me, this is why I like DJ Vadim but I don't like DJ Krush
or DJ Cam as much. (they aren't bad at all, sometimes they do great
things, but...) Vadim intently focuses on minimalism as an artform,
whereas a guy like Krush lays down a basic beat with a basic bassline and
maybe scratches over it a little--though the scratches are usually low in
the mix and infrequent. (I'm talking about recent solo Krush--meiso and
milight). This gives me the feeling that Krush, while he definitely can
come up with great stuff (usually depending on who he is collaborating
with), he is not a very imaginative DJ. Vadim, on the other hand, seems
to know exactly what he is doing, even though that is very little.

Here's an analogy: There's an indie rock band called Low. THey are
EXTREMELY slow, mellow, slow, slow, and slow. They formed their band as a
reaction to the loud angry punk rock scene in their hometown. They spent
many a year annoying the hell out of everyone because their bpms were
just too damn slow. But enough people "got it" so by now when they play
live everyone shuts the hell up and listens.
Vadim isn't dance music. He's reacting against a dance genre. So you have
to approach it in a different way than you would the X Men or even
Herbalizer.

Anyway, this is just an angle. I'm not disagreeing with anyone here, I
don't think.
the ninjas pass through this neck of the woods on WEdnsday, so I'll
report onVadim and the rest then.

scott

On Mon, 4 Jan 1999, Tony Reid wrote:

>
> it's a certain *type* of hiphop. i love hiphop, but i don't always get down
> w/vadim's stuff--it's *really* slow, sometimes the beats are off-kilter, and
>
> he's quite abstract sound-wise. i can respect where he's coming from (i.e.
> trying to push the boundaries) but i pretty rarely hear stuff i would buy.
>
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