Posts by Simon Grigg
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its milli vanilli with turntables
the really funny thing about MV was how surprised the Americans were. They don't play instruments or sing on the records? Really? You didn't know that when you gave them a grammy? Really?
Next thing you'll be telling me that The Beach Boys played on their records.....
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I saw Fatboy Slim do the very same thing.
but on the other hand I spent a day with Norman Cook once upon a time, interviewed him for Rip It Up and we had a big discussion about a variety of Jamaican riddums currently going around, then I watched him merge those same riddums (with a large grin) into a bunch of old funk and soul singles at the Box that night. Pretty much in the way he'd created Dub Be Good To Me (although in that case the riddum was pulled from The Clash).
The man has some skills but decidedly went for the bucks at some stage.
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John Lennon:
"I'm not a musician, I hate musicians, they're so dull...I just put sounds together"and someone who physically molds chunks of sound in new and amazing ways. both pull the groupies but one deserves them more than the other.
agreed...
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What you're talking about is electronic music performance, which is not really what I think of as DJing
No I think for many its the same thing. The DJ set performed by, say, Derrick May or Kevin Saunderson is as much a part of him as an artist as the record he made. It's a part of the whole whether he uses an synth or anything else as a part of it.
I sat in DJ booths for years, as a (shabby) DJ and as a tutor and observer and the best DJs are always performing musicians. The Mixer, the effects used, the various players etc, are simply tools, are instruments in their own right.
Are we to write off Grandmaster Flash as simply a guy playing tunes or elements thereoff (and he only used turntables and a mixer), or give him, and dozens of others credit as musicians for advancing (and creating) the genre we call hip-hop.
The dominant musical force in the world today (and it still is), house and its varied forms, was created by DJs in booths in Chicago playing records and seeing how far they could push the elements.
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Sure, it takes some skill in putting a DJ set together, but the idea that (as performance) playing records is on a par with playing music, somehow reminds me of this line from Bad News:
no you miss my point..see above
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on the dj thing I've never seen DJs as performing artists in the sense that Greame Downes or Michael O'Niell is a performing artist.
well, you know I'd disagree with that. Many of my favourite recording artists in recent decades are DJs. That they are a DJ is a very much a part of what they do as an artist, part and parcel of their art. Take Carl Craig for example (whom I deem to be perhaps the greatest electronic artist ever), his live performances are his djing (and his gig in Auckland a few years back where he was running from turntable to synths was an example...but even when he just plays records, its a part of the whole). I'm not talking about the wave yer hands in the air big room hit playing glowstick kinda DJ...thats akin to a good covers band playing a good party, but it's impossible to separate Manuel Bundy the Dj from MB the very talented recording artist. It's the same thing, and when he's DJing its' the part of his art where he is akin to a conductor taking you on an often thrilling journey through a part of what makes him Manuel Bundy the artist.
And there are very very few established DJs for whom making music is not an integral part of what they do.
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Helen....in the centre of Java it never ceases to amaze...when the inevitable "anda berasal dimana?" question comes (where are you from?), and I respond "Dari Selandia Baru". A smile is as as often as not followed by "Helen Clark!".
She has legs.....
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Those are the people that are left out of the current trend, along with the back catalogue artists, of whom you and I know many.
yep, and those are often the innovators too, but I guess most musicians don't do it for the money in the first place and there is an alternative performance stream for non live-performing acts.
How many acts actually have ever made money out of the sales of their recordings. The money has always been in the composition.
Then again I've always thought of a DJ as a performing artist, although the concept is a hard sell to many.
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whoops:
"But they play to thousand" -
I was just starting from your comment that the record industry was in good health.
I'm not in NZ so it's hard to comment but I was there in July for two weeks and was absolutely blown away by how much was going on in Auckland and how many people I knew who were actively going to grass roots gigs again.
I know in the USA that live door takes are well up at the moment as is merchandising, and the smart acts are regarding their recorded work as just a part of the parcel (and more and more they're opting out of the label system..take a step back and ask how many of the albums that have made a critical impact this year are major label A&R driven...almost none).
Here in SEA, a friend who manages some rather successful acts said a few weeks ago "Limewire is our best friend" and he actively works with pirates and the like to ensure the music reaches as many ears as possible. His main act plays to tens of thousands of people weekly and his job is to ensure they have currency (although I'm not sure what his major label thinks of all that). But they put thousands, sell merchandising, get syncs, sponsorship, and it works. Healthy as hell.....