smile,
I agree with a lot of your comments, but I have some points to make.
way back when, people used to mix all kinds of jungle music together. ragga, atmospheric, dark, smooth, vocal, hardcore, and all kinds of jungle would assault the dancefloor across the span of a night. it didn't all sound the same, but people made it all work together, and the crowd felt it all. that was the most beautiful and productive time for both the culture/scene and the music.
I feel part of what's wrong now is that people care too much about the music. who made what track, when it's coming/came out, who is playing it on dub, who's saying what about it on message boards, how it was made, what label it's on, who owns the label, why that label signed that artist, how a track uses the same sample as some other guy's shit, yadda yadda yadda was not even something people in the crowd thought about in, say, 1994. you just showed up and danced like a maniac until you fell down with crippling cramps in your quads, lungs burning, voicebox destroyed. the fact you knew nothing about the whole process of how this music was made and who was behind it that much more "hype." it was mysterious, challenging, and confounding shit that totally set it apart from the simplicity and "obviousness" of (ware)house, trance, and techno music that most everyone else was into.
intimate djs+big parties: don't mix. I agree 100% (aside from terra and jim who are either/or). we know who we play for, where/when our music is appropriate. better yet, we know who we DON'T play for and where our music is NOT appropriate
big parties, big venues, big prices, big names, all ages events, and that whole brand of stuff can be handled by those who are good at that. nothing to do with us. we just do what we know we do best, because that's the best way to do things.
bedroom djs: I don't agree that the only people who care about the music are the bedroom djs, but I do agree that genuine progression truly tends to come from that certain percentage of bedroom djs who plays purely for themselves, thereby buying and playing music that represents them as an individually seeking an outlet for creative/personal/emotional expression. this makes them unique compared to people (known and unknown) who buy music to play for other people (ie crowds, ie promoters, ie friends) because that's the djs "job."
cohesion: to bring it back around to this whole hip-step thing. since everyone right now is either on the whole "mature+soulful" bandwagon or the big name big concert thing now, it would be nice to just break off for a second for a reality check. things will work best if people in Toronto would just stop copying each other and do their own thing. if someone else is already doing something, sit down and put some creativity and individuality into your event so that you can create some variation in the system. there's no reason that because a couple companies are succeeding at oldschool events that everyone should do oldschool events. same with mature+soulful events or big events or ragga events or hardcore thrash jungle events or turntablism events. the more people doing more of the same shit the more boring and flat and bland everything is, no matter how fresh it seemed to be when the first few people led the way.
yes they have happened before, but right now there aren't a lot of turntablism and hip-hop influenced jungle events going on. right now. that's key. there aren't a lot of ragga events going on right now. there aren't a lot of oldschool events going on right now. why is that exactly? because from the promoters to the producers to the djs to the punters paying at the door, we're all a bunch of monkeys and sheep? I feel that instead of exclusively homogenous bullshit we need ALL of these kinds of events to be offered in conjunction with what we already have going on. the more people who take risks and go against the current direction of (main)stream events (ie events that focus on the common bond that defines what mainstream is at any given point in time) while everyone else is occupied copying other people, the more variation we'll have, and the faster we'll go from bleak to bright.
much respect to jim for giving us variaton and choice.
-7-
ps speaking of variation. this syrous party tonight. what the hell? that's fucking variation kids. it has been done. but how long has it been since you were at a huge bash where all the musical genres were integrated. that's the key right there. I can't wait......
