God, the other night I felt like such a music snob for a while. Went out to a techno party and the 1st DJ on decks was /terrible/. People always say 'bah, DJing is easy, its just playing other peoples music', but when you've heard some of the best DJs in the world, then hear a bad DJ - its easy to see that there is a difference and its more than just flicking a cross fader.
The best I can describe it was - the DJ was simply over-stepping his skill, he should of stuck to mixing intros/outtros of songs, because what he was doing was bloody TERRIBLE. I 'got' what he was going for, but he just lacked the skill to pull it off infront of a crowd.
He'd keep trying to mix the 'strong parts' of a song -- but would just end up sounding like boots in a fucken dryer. He'd trainwreck into the 'heart' of a song, play the good part for all of like 30 seconds, then trainwreck it right back out -- a few moments of dancing followed by boots in the dryer mixing that left me standing scratching my head.
His track selection was good - the songs were good songs. But fuck, the programming, mixing and flow just were NOT there.
When a DJ is good - you dont even notice stuff like that, the songs just seem to seamlesly flow from one track to another - and at times it can be hard to hear where one track starts and the other ends, and the 'mix' between the tracks sounds like a new song in and ofitself just from the layering of two (or three, or four - depending on how good the DJ is) tracks. A good DJ knows how to order the songs to keep people moving, to create tension and release but at the same time not baraging you with too many builds/breaks to make it annoying.
But bleh, he just kept mixing from hit to hit after another, mixing the 'heart' of the track into the big build of the next one --- doing it VERY poorly and never staying on one song long enough to get into the flow of the song.
Its not often I rip on a DJ and usually try and find the positive in a set/party/whatever and make the best of it, but this guy was TERRIBLE.
and you know? I know I couldnt do any better myself - thats why I was on the other side of the decks trying to dance.
That being said : *IF* he had the technical skill to pull off the style of mixing he was trying, he would of been rather good. The tracks were good, his programming was off here and there, but if he could of actually pulled off what he was trying to do without trainwrecking - it would of been good. Either he was having an off night, or he needs to get back into the bedroom and practice alot for another year before playing in a big club again.
On the upside, the DJ after him was much better.
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