Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Post partum

Last night's gig was a resounding success (at least in my ears). I got to spin some SICK music and there were folks dancing a good amount of the time. It is also rumored that the host enjoyed my set and would like to have me back.

That's always good news.

Had a little trouble gauging what the crowd wanted at first (which is not unusual for me or any other DJ that starts the night). Once I hit my stride, though, everything folded in nicely. And what did the crowd want? Seems that drum and bass (jungle, techstep, whatever you want to call it) still has a place in the hearts of some folk in our fair city.

I had two Puerto Rican b-boys come up and ask me what I was going to spin. My reply? "Trance, breakcore, drum and bass, jungle, some other stuff." Their riposte? "Jungle, dude. Play lots of jungle."

I live to serve.

Funny thing is, the duo did not dance at all, but sat in a nearby corner and headnodded like you would not believe, turning to me for an occasional chest thump and thumbs up.

Yep. I held it down. Boriqua representin'.

I'm somewhat surprised that some folks still use the term "jungle" when they actually mean "drum and bass". I'm not one for genre labels, but to me, the difference is distinct, as true "jungle" has kind of died out.

"Jungle" was the precursor to "drum and bass", placing more of an emphasis on the drum patterns than on sound. Most of the bass in "jungle" was derived from the drums sounds themselves, so the style tends to sound a little tinny (in my opinion). However, artists soon started to incorporate more dynamic bass sounds (drops, runs, rolling lines) and "jungle" evolved into "drum and bass", which then splintered into a billion different subgenres (darkside, techstep, etc).

Again, not big on genre labels, but I grew up as "jungle" was developing and then mutating into "drum and bass", so there will always be a difference for me. That being said, the folks last night loved the music, regardless of what they or I called it.

Big ups to Bianca for landing me the gig and thanks to everybody who came out to hear me wreck shit (in order of appearance): Jason, Dawn, Katherine, Danny, Nado, Zack and Andrew (would that be Zoppi?), and Derek. Hopefully we can all do this again some time.

Audio soup du jour:

Deru - Pushing Air
(not only did Derek show last night, he brought presents; gorgeous glitch, delicious downtempo)

A Great Bird - Collection 1
(a myriad of electronic styles, all of them priceless and beautifully crafted)

Various - Trance Europe Express 2
(two disc set of vintage trance and ambient house, circa 1994; 10 years and still ravin')

Various - Trance Europe Express 3
(why limit yourself to two discs of 90s trance when you can have two more? 1995 thumps a bit more than 1994, though)

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