Guy McAffer / The Geezer...

[Si the Sigh]

What are your opinions on Guy? I used to really love his tracks & looked forward to his releases. Now I feel, and from comments on this board I know some of you feel, that he seems to be stuck in a rut. His tracks are so formulated now, and are becoming boring. For example, the RAW releases started out being spot on. 1 - 10 were excellent, then the label went through a really bad patch IMO until RAW 19, but now they are starting to go back into the same old same old formula. I have to say, I do really like the Top Shelf & Shark releases, as they are trying to do something a bit different. I hope they don't go the RAW way. Has he run out of ideas? Or do you think he's still producing quality tracks? A good point I suppose, is that with a RAW release you know exactly what your going to get. I'm not trying to diss Guy too much, because like I said, he has produced some amazing stuff in the past. It just seems he's not progressing much at the moment. Your thoughts?

[sim]

Personally, I think that his stuff is rather boring these days as well.

Some of my favourite tunes have been produced by Guy, (suf 15, loads of the old smittens, etc). However, these days I find myself not buying his tunes, even if it means ****ing up my collection - didn't bother with cluster 49 even though i had most of them up till then. The thing I don't like is that all of his beats sound the same - if you listen to the percussion on RAW 5, then on the most recent releases, it shows how little, imho, he has been pushing the sound in the last 4 years (or however long). One thing I have found with DAVE's tunes, on the other hand, is that he still manages to come up with new sounds & ideas, each tune that I buy of his sounds different to the last, which I think is great.

Personally, I would buy more of Guy's tunes if the percussion was different, as i like a lot of the samples, noises, etc that he uses, i just find the beats too ploddy. It pisses me off as well, as skank & wah wah have the makings of great acid labels, with a welcome return to the 303 sound, but every ****ing tune has Guy's beats all through it. :cry:

Well, thats my uneducated rant over with, anyway....

Sim.

[Si the Sigh]

100% agree with you there mate...

[davethedrummer]

yeah i must admit to not playing too much of his tuff myself these days.
i used to play nearly whole sets of raw etc
but these days i find them too bass heavy, and not enough cut and slice in the percussion, (if that makes any sense)
also the samples and sounds are getting a bit samey.

they are useful records for mixing and all that
but i wish that guys would get out of this sloppy production rut and experiment a bit more.

i know he has it in him, he's a talented bloke , and has some great concepts but i think he's just blowing cold with techno and maybe he needs to do something else entirley to get that freshness back.

sorry to have to say it 'cos i love guy dearly but it's so frustrating to hear him just trotting it out these days.
:cry: :cry: :cry:

[jonnyspeed]

Nar - RAW is really ****ing shite these days - only bought #20 and #5 because I've talked to Anodyne and Rachel - and wanted to support them. It just sounds like he's pressed the 'techno' button on his Bontempi and recorded a break off his old record collection. But I bet its a bit of a cash cow for him.

... but Shredder stuff on Cluster, Audio Pancake and Top Shelf are slamming - and WAHWAH is just unashamed 'avin it acid.

:clap:

[dan the acid man]

thats the thing, we all love guy, he's produced some amzing tune's and we all know he's a talented man, but most of his tune's are following the same structure now.

[Si the Sigh]

Someone should tell him...

Henry?

:lol:

[sim]

I don't think its necessarily a new thing, however. A little while a go, I was digging around & listening to some older Geezer tunes & found they were often very similar (such as organgrinder 10, with a lot of his smitten work, & some of the bastard's tunes). I often find myself judging a producer by whether I call tell, blind, who a tune is by. I mean, sure, most producers have sounds that they like & that crop up often in their productions, but thats just their style. But, if you can tell from the first 4/8 beats who a tune is made by, it puts me off, especially when they're releasing 2/3 tunes a week....

Having said all that, I love all the old Geezer stuff that is similar, so I guess if Guy was making tunes that I liked to start with (I admit I've never been keen on the RAW sound), I'd probably be happier than a pig in shite!!!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're as prolific a producer as the Geezer, it would be nice to see some innovation...

But then, I don't have the first idea about making tunes, so I'm probably talking out my arse!!!

Sim.

[Paul Zykotik]

Been bored as hell with RAW for ages now. He is capable of making that formula work really well though - his remix of Serious Mind**** is a brilliant track, and came out around the same time RAW was getting stuck in a rut. The thing is RAW just consists of the same heavy bass, chopped up hiphop/disco sample and ride cymbal every 16 bars every time. There's no other attempt at a melody or even some ****ed up sounds.

That latest release on Highwire shows he's more than capable of doing quality tunes as well, the a-side is one of the funkiest tunes I've heard in ages!

[Si the Sigh]

SIM: I know what your saying, I can tell an Ant track by the kicks instantly on some of his tunes.

PAUL ZYKOTIK: The best things Guy is working on IMO is the Highwire tracks. I love every single release he's put out on that label.

[Spooney]

I also think that RAW has gone to pieces, Guy just seems to be sticking to what he knows, he's lost his creativity/originality. The stuff he's been putting out on other labels has been good imo, far better than RAW anyway. Personally I prefer the tunes he makes when he collaborates with other producers.

[dirty_bass]

It`s obvious that guy is a class producer. He (along with the rest of the London acid techno old guard) is probably a major factor as to why I got into doin raves, and therefore records.
So for me it is a little bit of a shame for me to see Guy`s standards slip.
I think the problem is very simple. The man is doin too much. He releases so much there is little time in his schedule for experimentation or really reworkin the formula.
I spend a hell of a lot of time in the studio, and there are some times, when I go for a peroid of 2-3 weeks, when nothing works at all. So I just stop and do something else. I don`t think Guy has this luxury, so if he comes dry in the inspiration department, he falls back on his tried and tested.

Take a break man!!!!

[Slink]

The best set I've heard Guy do was a classic funk set at a mate's birthday party in Brixton - he rocked the place!

But yeah, his reliance on the same template in his productions is saddening, especially because he obviously has a good set of ears on him and his talent still shines through even when he's not on top form.

I almost buy a lot of his tunes, but then give them a second listen or hear them out when I'm dancing and always get bored of the same overly busy loops just churning away and not progressing.

I have heard that he's a very quick worker and can get a track done in a day, maybe this is his downfall - if he just spent more time on putting some detailed sequencing and progression into his loops and edits, his tracks would work so much better on the dancefloor and have a much longer shelf life.

[dirty_bass]

Waheeeey Jude!!!
Just got me copy of Squelch one dude.
That`s the stuff fella!!!

[Slink]

Wicked! I just my copy of Dirty Bass 004 - how's that for nepotism?

[anx]

if he can produce more stuff like the serious mind **** remixes still then he will be onto something.

Maybe techno just isnt guy's thing? i find that all his best releases have somewhat of a trance (by trance i mean, the style of trance that stay up forever and old smittens are) feel to them, or old school acid techno.

[anx]

k that sounded a bit harsh im not saying guy sucks at techno, im just trying to say he is better at trance/acid techno than he is at his raw style techno. im not saying he hasnt made any good techno either, he has made some ass whipping techno tracks.

[John Vella]

I think Dirty Bass hit the nail on the head!!

Slow down!!

-j

[Metadog]

gotta say i agree with the general consensus about RAW and da geezer

if one RAW side is great the other will usually be a bit bog standard

i love raw tracks with a stand out vocaly bit e.g. 18A, 22A or 24AA

not bothered that they have not got much by the way of melody in there - they rock

i really liked RAW 20A - total stand out track for RAW - simple yet awesome inspiring and even melodic

seems maybe guys better tracks are often made with someone else - maybe he makes so much techno that he does better with a bit of inspiration from another body in the studio

skank and wah are great labels but are becoming a bit samey already - some ripping acid tracks tho for sure, some great set enders !

not too bothered about highwire, although i got HW17 recently, side A being my fave

you can totally tell it is geezer even tho he does not put his name to it

fuct 01 B is pretty darn cool techno with not such an obvious geezer sound

atomic 03 is a standout track - wicked energy to it - best he has done in ages - atomic 05 rocks big style too !!!

crash and burn (geezer and aaron lib) have done some excellent tracks - suf 71 for instance

can't be bothered to list any more but i do reckon that guy rocks

at least a quarter of my techno has been made or collaborated on by this man

he has made so many tracks it is not surprising some sound a bit like each other

not too keen on his efforts as dick capitate but hats off to the dude for trying something a bit different

my box has got far more dave the drummer tracks in it right now than geezer - henry writes loads but seems to get a wider variety of techno sounds than geezer - his tracks generally are much less formulaic and fresher sounding, pushing the boundaries of techno a bit further if you ask me

henrys bass is always fat but for some reason as henry said and funny enuff i was talking about this same subject last week with a mate - geezers tracks seem to be almost a little bass heavy - it is usually very obvious when his bassline comes in in a mix - not that i mind fat bass of course and it's only a minor point really but they can be almost overpowering at times

geezer does seem to be able to get a certain type of woof that noone else hits tho !!!

:clap:

[Metadog]

oh and to get a bit personal does it seem to anyone else that da geeza has got a bit of an obsession with wanking ?

have you checked the inner scratching on RAW 24 ? lololololol piss funny :lol: :lol: :lol: