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The DJ isn’t doing anything there, though. That’s just the breakdown of the four tet remix of Eric Prydz — Opus. He’s just playing it straight. To really under

The DJ isn’t doing anything there, though. That’s just the breakdown of the four tet remix of Eric Prydz — Opus. He’s just playing it straight. To really understand what an edm DJ does you need to listen for an hour plus. It wasn’t that breakdown that made the crowd explode like that, it was the hours and hours of music building up to it. I used to be a trance DJ and when I was preparing for a gig, I would build a two-hour set around two or three moments. I’d find a couple of records that I knew would get a big reaction and I’d basically treat them like a jewel that I had to find the perfect setting for. Every other song I played was about building up tension and contrast for those moments. If I had a track with a big vocal in the breakdown, I’d be sure to lead into it with nothing but non stop instrumental tracks with few or no breaks in the beat, playing repetitive songs to build up tension so when it finally opened up into a recognizable melody and lyrics people would have this huge feeling of release and I doubt most of them even knew why. There was nothing better than getting a crowd to jump up and down and scream when you knew they would do it. It was like casting a spell. If you’re not obsessive about dance music and haven’t tried djing, it’s really hard to appreciate what a DJ does and how hard it is to really move a large crowd. It’s not just about playing good songs. I used to think it was and cleared dance floors playing nothing but really popular songs when I first started. It took me two years of being a bad DJ before I really started to figure it out.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> The DJ isn’t doing anything there, though. That’s just the breakdown of the four tet remix of Eric Prydz — Opus. He’s just playing it straight. I think that's the problem with trying to explain this stuff. I don't go to shows like this; to me, a DJ clicking "next" in iTunes is indistinguishable from someone practicing a craft. I just don't know enough, and I think a lot of other commenters in here don't either.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- beamatronic 9y ago
  A good indicator is no visible electronics other than headphones, turntables and a simple mixing board.
- kev009 9y ago
  The easiest way to see authenticity is to seek out producers doing shows. They may play a lot of their own music as well as a curated set of other music. There's an old interview of BT in the 1990s where he thoroughly debunks that he is a DJ even when playing other people's music. He incorporates as much live control and variation as he can handle. BT is a neat guy.. he restored a Fairlight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI) as well as computers like the IBM PS/2 model 70 to use in his productions so he's a bonafide technologist aside from being a phenomenal classically trained musician. Matt Darey is another that does a good job, invites the vocalists to perform live whenever he can. His radio show is my favorite thing to listen to when doing software development. He's been working with Dolby to incorporate Atmos into new and old productions so he's pushing the state of the art. https://soundcloud.com/mattdarey https://soundcloud.com/mattdarey
  - taneq 9y ago
    I'm a long time fan of BT but the one time I saw him live, it was 3AM in a prime DJ slot and he just wanted to show off his turntablism. Which was technically great, but it was 3AM and we just wanted some banging tunes.
- empath75 9y ago
  The hard part isn't clicking 'next', it's picking the songs.
- nradov 9y ago
  If the output is good then why does the equipment or technique even matter?
- toast0 9y ago
  At the very least, a nice transition between tracks is a skill. Part of that is selecting compatible tracks, part of it is getting the timing right, tweaking speeds, picking when to switch. I usually listen to recorded sets and shows, but I imagine people like live sets for the same reason they like live music: you can see the magic happen, there's a shared experience, and there's some amount of crowd interaction with the performer. Sure, most of the magic happened earlier, when the tracks were recorded, but there's still some magic left. I think there's more to a DJ than an old school film projectionist switching projectors between reels, but maybe the future is premixed sets so nobody has to sit in the booth.
- deadmetheny 9y ago
  >I just don't know enough, and I think a lot of other commenters in here don't either. That's not going to stop people from pretending they do. DJing well is hard, and it's obvious that most people in this thread have never attempted it before.
jdietrich 9y ago
>The DJ isn’t doing anything there, though. That’s just the breakdown of the four tet remix of Eric Prydz — Opus. He’s just playing it straight. No, no, a thousand times no. What you witnessed in that video is one of the most inspired moments in the modern history of house DJing. For the benefit of all readers, I'll try and explain the context and subtext of what's happening. Opus by Eric Prydz is a truly absurd piece of music. It takes the build-and-release of tension that defines modern "EDM" and teases it out to the point of self-parody, relentlessly building up over the course of four minutes, exploiting every psychoacoustic trick in the book. It is the ne plus ultra of cynical house music, a track that basks in the vapidity of the commercial "EDM" scene. For all that, it carries real emotional weight, primarily because of the underlying dissonance between the adrenaline-fuelled hype of its structure and its harmonic progression; at the great climactic moment, it modulates from A major to the relative F# minor with a series of descending arpeggios, simultaneously soaring to the heavens and dying away to nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRA82xLsb_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRA82xLsb_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcpFCit6r5c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcpFCit6r5c The Four Tet remix profoundly subverts the original composition, reverting to the more contemplative structures of traditional house music. It hints at formulaic tension-and-release, but it never delivers, it never reaches that climactic moment of euphoria. Opus is the sound of four thousand people in a superclub going absolutely wild; the Four Tet remix is the echoes of that moment on the taxi ride home, the ringing in your ears as you lie in bed in the early morning, the bitter aftertaste of the MDMA comedown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47nIoXraa_Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47nIoXraa_Q The Amnesia closing party is the full stop at the end of the Ibiza season, a non-stop 12 hour bacchanal to say farewell to the summer. Once a semi-private affair mainly attended by DJs and club workers, it's now the hottest ticket of the season, a landmark event for those who consider themselves veteran clubbers. Maceo's decision to play the Four Tet remix wasn't a track selection, it was a philosophical statement. The sun has risen and the last moment of the last party is looming. The crowd are cheering and whistling, they're raising their arms to the heavens in anticipation of this great moment of euphoria, the drop to end all drops. They know what's coming, their phones are recording in anticipation, but the moment never arrives. Through his choice of track and cue point, Maceo pulls the rug from under the feet of the crowd, turning climax into anti-climax. He turns a moment of euphoria into a moment of contemplation and self-reflection. If you watch closely, you can see the confusion and disorientation of the crowd, you can see a room full of people who don't know what to do with themselves. https://thump.vice.com/en_uk/article/78jvne/this-video-of-confused-clubbers-is-an-ode-to-the-beautiful-disappointment-of-life https://thump.vice.com/en_uk/article/78jvne/this-video-of-co... That's the artistry of DJing in a nutshell. It all exists on a meta level, it's a conversation that's happening entirely in the audience's heads. The American "EDM" festival scene has tried to turn this conversation into a mere transaction, but there are still DJs with the skill and sophistication to challenge their audiences and confound their expectations, to create moments of profound complexity out of sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

> The DJ isn’t doing anything there, though. That’s just the breakdown of the four tet remix of Eric Prydz — Opus. He’s just playing it straight. I think that's the problem with trying to explain this stuff. I don't go to shows like this; to me, a DJ clicking "next" in iTunes is indistinguishable from someone practicing a craft. I just don't know enough, and I think a lot of other commenters in here don't either.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
beamatronic 9y ago
A good indicator is no visible electronics other than headphones, turntables and a simple mixing board.
kev009 9y ago
The easiest way to see authenticity is to seek out producers doing shows. They may play a lot of their own music as well as a curated set of other music. There's an old interview of BT in the 1990s where he thoroughly debunks that he is a DJ even when playing other people's music. He incorporates as much live control and variation as he can handle. BT is a neat guy.. he restored a Fairlight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI) as well as computers like the IBM PS/2 model 70 to use in his productions so he's a bonafide technologist aside from being a phenomenal classically trained musician. Matt Darey is another that does a good job, invites the vocalists to perform live whenever he can. His radio show is my favorite thing to listen to when doing software development. He's been working with Dolby to incorporate Atmos into new and old productions so he's pushing the state of the art. https://soundcloud.com/mattdarey https://soundcloud.com/mattdarey
- taneq 9y ago
  I'm a long time fan of BT but the one time I saw him live, it was 3AM in a prime DJ slot and he just wanted to show off his turntablism. Which was technically great, but it was 3AM and we just wanted some banging tunes.
empath75 9y ago
The hard part isn't clicking 'next', it's picking the songs.
nradov 9y ago
If the output is good then why does the equipment or technique even matter?
toast0 9y ago
At the very least, a nice transition between tracks is a skill. Part of that is selecting compatible tracks, part of it is getting the timing right, tweaking speeds, picking when to switch. I usually listen to recorded sets and shows, but I imagine people like live sets for the same reason they like live music: you can see the magic happen, there's a shared experience, and there's some amount of crowd interaction with the performer. Sure, most of the magic happened earlier, when the tracks were recorded, but there's still some magic left. I think there's more to a DJ than an old school film projectionist switching projectors between reels, but maybe the future is premixed sets so nobody has to sit in the booth.
deadmetheny 9y ago
>I just don't know enough, and I think a lot of other commenters in here don't either. That's not going to stop people from pretending they do. DJing well is hard, and it's obvious that most people in this thread have never attempted it before.

jdietrich 9y ago

>The DJ isn’t doing anything there, though. That’s just the breakdown of the four tet remix of Eric Prydz — Opus. He’s just playing it straight. No, no, a thousand times no. What you witnessed in that video is one of the most inspired moments in the modern history of house DJing. For the benefit of all readers, I'll try and explain the context and subtext of what's happening. Opus by Eric Prydz is a truly absurd piece of music. It takes the build-and-release of tension that defines modern "EDM" and teases it out to the point of self-parody, relentlessly building up over the course of four minutes, exploiting every psychoacoustic trick in the book. It is the ne plus ultra of cynical house music, a track that basks in the vapidity of the commercial "EDM" scene. For all that, it carries real emotional weight, primarily because of the underlying dissonance between the adrenaline-fuelled hype of its structure and its harmonic progression; at the great climactic moment, it modulates from A major to the relative F# minor with a series of descending arpeggios, simultaneously soaring to the heavens and dying away to nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRA82xLsb_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRA82xLsb_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcpFCit6r5c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcpFCit6r5c The Four Tet remix profoundly subverts the original composition, reverting to the more contemplative structures of traditional house music. It hints at formulaic tension-and-release, but it never delivers, it never reaches that climactic moment of euphoria. Opus is the sound of four thousand people in a superclub going absolutely wild; the Four Tet remix is the echoes of that moment on the taxi ride home, the ringing in your ears as you lie in bed in the early morning, the bitter aftertaste of the MDMA comedown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47nIoXraa_Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47nIoXraa_Q The Amnesia closing party is the full stop at the end of the Ibiza season, a non-stop 12 hour bacchanal to say farewell to the summer. Once a semi-private affair mainly attended by DJs and club workers, it's now the hottest ticket of the season, a landmark event for those who consider themselves veteran clubbers. Maceo's decision to play the Four Tet remix wasn't a track selection, it was a philosophical statement. The sun has risen and the last moment of the last party is looming. The crowd are cheering and whistling, they're raising their arms to the heavens in anticipation of this great moment of euphoria, the drop to end all drops. They know what's coming, their phones are recording in anticipation, but the moment never arrives. Through his choice of track and cue point, Maceo pulls the rug from under the feet of the crowd, turning climax into anti-climax. He turns a moment of euphoria into a moment of contemplation and self-reflection. If you watch closely, you can see the confusion and disorientation of the crowd, you can see a room full of people who don't know what to do with themselves. https://thump.vice.com/en_uk/article/78jvne/this-video-of-confused-clubbers-is-an-ode-to-the-beautiful-disappointment-of-life https://thump.vice.com/en_uk/article/78jvne/this-video-of-co... That's the artistry of DJing in a nutshell. It all exists on a meta level, it's a conversation that's happening entirely in the audience's heads. The American "EDM" festival scene has tried to turn this conversation into a mere transaction, but there are still DJs with the skill and sophistication to challenge their audiences and confound their expectations, to create moments of profound complexity out of sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.