DNB Dj caught miming to recorded set.. thoughts?

[CTRLS]

Recently, in the dnb world, we had 2 acts exposed for dancing around behind the decks to a premade mix cd and pretending to mix (mistabishi and chase & status). A lot of us were appalled (he was seen stacking vinyl on top of vinyl and messing with a cdj not even turned on) but there was a lot of people that didnt seem to care saying "it's all about the music". Now i agree that there's nothing inherently creative about beatmatching but surely this is taking it way too far?

i know its pretty normal for big trance/psy/eurodance acts and djs to do 'playback' but i've got no idea of how widespread it is in techno. i'd imagine/hope with all the tradition in this scene that it'd be frowned upon severely. anyone come across anything like this and what's your thoughts on it?

pictorial evidence:

[teknorich]

I am always amazed when a story like this comes out and people defend the DJ in question, saying it's the music that matters etc etc. You paid your $$$ to see him DJ live, and he's stood there fobbing you off miming to a mix CD... Not good! I think it's disrespectful to the fans, and it says a lot about the DJ/artist too. If you've got so little respect for your fans and the people who enjoy (and buy!) your music that you would pretend to DJ and make fools of them, then that's a pretty sad state of affairs.

[ritaheed]

its shocking tbh.... getting paid to play a cd youve done in a studio... nah!!

might be cheating the crowd but most of all your just cheating yourself as an artist if your doing that

a know so called live acts that pre make there ableton sets and just hit play and pretend to do shit behind the laptop - feel pretty embaressed for them

[DannyBlack]

Jesus thats bad... Never heard of a Technoist doing it though. Well apart from Ableton users that is.



:-P Im joking.

[koma]

apparently the guy above took mixing lessons from Peter Hook...

[teknorich]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[DannyBlack]

heres a vid of them in 'action'

YouTube - CHASE & STATUS INTRO @ DETONATE - 6/3/09

[koma]

chase and status faking it too?

watched one of them last year, cant tell if he was doing it then, was just jumping around and waiting for panacea anyway...

[SlavikSvensk]

yeah, you're not paid to play a CD.

and how hard is it to mix dnb anyways? all most of them do is:

play record...drop new record at break...play record...drop new record at break, etc.

[-LETHAL-ONE-]

what a joke... its sad...

[Darkmode]

its shocking tbh.... getting paid to play a cd youve done in a studio... nah!!

might be cheating the crowd but most of all your just cheating yourself as an artist if your doing that

a know so called live acts that pre make there ableton sets and just hit play and pretend to do shit behind the laptop - feel pretty embaressed for them

I do as well it's total lazyness when I play out live using Ableton I use loops from each parts of my tracks it's time consuming but it's worth the effort people like that are in it for the wrong reasons

[CTRLS]

yeah, you're not paid to play a CD.

and how hard is it to mix dnb anyways? all most of them do is:

play record...drop new record at break...play record...drop new record at break, etc.

sure a lot of dnb djs do that, but check out an andy c set or an old randall set and you'll see there's alot more to it then that. you can do some cool stuff with eq's and bassline switching. a few (me inc) make of use fx and such as well. dave clarke made exactly the same comment and got schooled in exactly the same way on white noise from i love techno a week or two ago :lol:

part of the problem is that nowadays the dnb tunes do all the work. so much of it has these ridiculous buildups (kickrolls sigh) and the tunes are super busy and overcompressed, which leaves little room for any serious mixing. luckily this is mainly something you get with the more mainstream formulated stuff.


alternately you could just make 15-20 min mashups and burn them to cd like some (future prophecies and adam f) of the other big name dnb djs do :embarrassed:

[SlavikSvensk]

not saying all dnb djs tend towards the boring and excitement-free, mate. just that the scene doesn't generally ask much of its djs, or perhaps a better way to put would be that the scene is flooded with even more bland djs than normal for electronic dance music. for as long as i can remember, most dj sets have relied on the tracks having dramatic breakdowns, and an MC going on about something or other. so why bother even making a CD in advance? you can be a perfectly mediocre dnb dj with less hassle :)

(obviously it's better to approach music with some thought and effort, as you say)

[CTRLS]

not saying all dnb djs tend towards the boring and excitement-free, mate. just that the scene doesn't generally ask much of its djs, or perhaps a better way to put would be that the scene is flooded with even more bland djs than normal for electronic dance music. for as long as i can remember, most dj sets have relied on the tracks having dramatic breakdowns, and an MC going on about something or other. so why bother even making a CD in advance? you can be a perfectly mediocre dnb dj with less hassle :)

(obviously it's better to approach music with some thought and effort, as you say)

dammit i'm trying to stick up for dnb here but you're pretty much right (allthough in copenhagen djs that can barely hold together a 120-130bpm 4/4 mix are a dime a dosen). there's a reason why i tend to check this forum more then the dnb ones now. things like mcs (a curse!) and formularic music with no shelf life are pushing me away.

[SlavikSvensk]

i've always liked it when dnb djs introduce some cutting and scratching, and personally have never been a fan of having the MC go on and on, because then no one pays attention to what the dj is doing (or not doing).

there are lots of crap djs in other genres...certainly techno is not immune. but i think the music in some other genres is specifically built to make mixing quite easy. that's fine as long as you venture to more interesting stuff!

[CTRLS]

i'm not a fan of the mc going on and on because 99% of them are dreadful hehe. also i know me and a fair few others dont make our tunes to have someone chatting up cars and clothes on top of them.

yes things getting too focused on being dj friendly i think is a large contributor to dnb being in the state it is now. i've had arguments with dnb label heads about changing a hihat pattern in the intro to make it more dj friendly. the only challenging aspect left is the speed.

anyhow i'll stop ranting and be happy that there is a deeper movement building, hopefully it'll bring a trend of more involved performances.