Another fucking conversation about the different formats DJ’s use. It seems to be only vinyl purists that have this debate. But you are a vinyl purist you bulb! O Yeah! For a record beardo though I think I have quite a liberal attitude toward the subject compared to some militant vinyl purist DJ’s that I know who would spit at you if you had a CD in your hand. However things did start to irritate me with the whole laptop free downloadable music malarkey. Not like genital warts irritates but more like sand in mi japs eye. The main couple of reasons being the complete lack of effort a DJ has to put into building a collection of music. How can you say “my music collection” when you actually don’t have anything physical to hold, look at or read? Just because you use a laptop doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy vinyl or CD’s. Your part of a culture you dick-wad. You don’t have to know it all but you still have to some understanding of and be apart of the path laid by others that gave birth to the scene your into you fuck. (Rant over)
The only other slight irritation has been the introduction of the
‘vacant screen stare’ that removes the passion and can leave a DJ
“expressionless". Imagine Aretha singing without screwing her face or
Stevie Wonder playing piano without lurching about. On a Stax documentary I
watched it was Rufus Thomas that said “If a band member aint pullin an ugly
face or movin around like crazy they aint putting enough soul into it!”
For years I became engrossed in a culture
that was exciting because you had to hook up with friends and travel to find
good records at great prices then reveal your finds to a room of anticipating
vinyl munters. Hanging around the record shops at the weekend we would look up
to the generation of old school collectors and DJ’s in our city and would
rightly fine tune our tastes from their selections any ace new releases that were available. My
rant is probably more about the importance of shared experiences through music
and not just showing off in a club. I once met a proper cretin that had 3 hard
drives full of music. He left his computer on all day and it just downloaded
constantly on its own. 20,000 records and not one dirty finger. That’s weird to
me!
(Restarts Rant) Now my purism line is really being poked at
via the depressing news of U fukin S fukin B Stick DJ’s. WHAT!!!! Turning up at
a club with nothing but two USB sticks full of music just isn’t DJ etiquette
Gee!!!. Why not make it interesting by downloading the set onto your nana’s
dildo, plug that into your arse and beatbox David Guetta hits you cunt. You
will definitely produce a better quality of sound anyway. DJing isn’t just
playing music to its also the collecting and researching to develop your style.
The best news I’ve heard regarding this was the rise in USB Stick theft by
punters in clubs (Heroes if you ask me) that are causing uproar among the big
club DJ pioneers of this new format. “Il Bosco supports USB theft”
Anyway mi old mate and outstanding DJ Jon K
recently did a belter of a mixtape for FACT Magazine (link at bottom of page.)
in which the write up had an interesting quote from Theo Parrish. He claimed that it’s “genuinely hard
to remember a time when the art of DJing was as simple as … collect records,
build a collection, exhibit that collection in front of an audience.” That is exactly the kind of thing i like to witness in a club and Jon K is renowned for this approach
Jon has
been obsessed with music for a long time. I met John in about 1998 and soon
after we were sharing a house together. Call it a house but it was more like a
squat and actually it was more like a storage facility for Jon as he was rarely
there but still we had a laid back policy to our vinyl collections and John
wouldn’t mind me using his room when he wasn’t there and listening to his
records (Plus other shit that involved girls and his bed ha ha) and vice versa.
I remember pulling a record from its sleeve while I was DJing and was surprised
to see a list of BPM’s in Jon’s handwriting written in blue marker over the
paper center I found about 3 more as well the fucker!
Even back then everybody knew Jon was on
another level when it came to selections and would often have a club dancing to
‘shit you aint heard before’. He is a DJ that younger people with a developing
passion for music and technology should be looking too for guidance on “The
right way to do this shit” A man with an old skool ethos of collecting records
while embracing new technology’s. His record collection is something to behold
and his style is unique as a result of the years of effort.
Il Bosco
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