Sonic Footnotes

 

Although one of my biggest regrets is never having learnt a musical instrument, (yes, I know there’s still time), I don’t think that there’s any better way of playing music than being a DJ. There are the obvious benefits: not having to play the same instrument all the time and being able to diversify into relative infinity should you so want. Practice is very important in order to improve, and mixing should require the same amount of it no matter what. Anyone who thinks they can just turn up somewhere with the same bunch of tunes time after time having put in little or no effort beforehand in order to hone skills will get seen through.  In any case, this last month I have mostly been listening to anything guided by the hands of Sean Johnstone, similarly Alex Downey, Skatebard at Lente Kabinet, Bassiani DJ Nobu, Duncan Grey and Rubsilent’s stupendous Avenue Red poddy (the latest). And during time spent with these soundscapes, I have never stopped wondering and contemplating the skill involved in constructing and conveying the respective sonic missives. It annoys me that playing carefully selected records in a logical/melodic sequence on specific set ups, the result of which elicits an emotional response still isn’t taken more seriously. Other, associated stuff also annoys me, such as a lack of track lists for uploaded mixes, as well as a huge amount of DJs never posting sets because “you should come and experience me live”, not taking into account, of course, the expenditure, difficulty and absolute impossibility of the vast majority being able to do so. Houghton was a thing recently, (in case you didn’t know), and rightly so. A DJ centred festival where the music takes control. Tickets for the whole weekend were £230, plus parking. Hats off to Craig Richards for what was for many, a transcendental experience. Money well spent for an exclusive event. It would be nice to think the occasion could reach more though through sets being posted, or at least accessed in some way that doesn’t contravene any copyright and possibly helps a good cause. I would love to have gone, it’s not far from where I live, but I’m always on holiday then. Might have to think more strategically next time. Having said that, once at such an event, where do you go, what do you do? So much to see and listen to. I hope it’s not like a wine tasting where quality can become overwhelmed by quantity and everything merges into a huge aural agglomeration. I doubt it though. It must be like swanning around a tastefully arranged sonic smorgasbord, cherry picking groovy nuggets as you go. In any case, I’m one of those boring people who finds the very act of playing music to be an alchemical and deeply fascinating experience. Format is of no relevance whatsoever, and differences between it/them have contributed to the most fatuous argument in virtually any context in living memory: ie vinyl trumps all. This of course is bollocks. It’s also environmentally unfriendly in this day and age. I love the stuff, have a lot of it and still like to buy the odd bit. However, digital has been the way forward for a long time now and the frustrating habit of labels releasing only vinyl surely can’t continue for much longer. I really have no time for this purism. Keeping it alive for the digging is cool, and if punters want to be ripped off on Discogs let them be. No one’s putting a gun to their heads. However, if everything was already available, the situation wouldn’t exist in the first place. Anyways, watching a DJ is possibly a more interesting pastime if they’re spinning vinyl rather than WAVs. What are they doing, nothing of any real consequence as a spectacle. Should they be dancing while they do it? There have been berks sounding off on Twitter about this a lot recently, who gives a shit? A lot of the reason for this is the elevation of the DJ from dank, dark corner to centre stage. There is no performance in playing music in this way, except to dance, which isn’t the same thing at all; but there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s pretty natural. There’s no skill in it though, unlike that of playing music through the requisite hardware, along with the aptitude to choose the correct music for the correct time. Cultivating a crowd is of almost equal importance, unless the DJ in question wants to live in a vacuum. I’d be interested to know if the online clamour for “track id(s)’ is still in any way replicated in real life. I remember being a pain in the arse with Derrick Carter, Marl Farina, Tom Middleton, Andy Weatherall (to name a few). Completely battered skywards so I didn’t care, I can only wonder what they thought of me. Myself and John Hassay once dragged Derrick back to Andy Mac’s place in Brighton after a gig and pummelled him for tune info for a good few hours before disappearing into the early morning sunrise. He was great and didn’t seem to mind a bit. Practically every Instagram film post relating to a set tough inevitably collapses into the track id conundrum. This is particularly redolent on posts which include sets from the Romanians (Raresh, Rhadoo, Pedro Insperescu and tons of others; Praslea, Dan Andrei, etc . . . ) as well as Uruguayans (Nicolas Lutz, Omar, DJ Koolt). Others are rising, or have already riseninto that same firmament (DJ Masda, Binh, Eli Verveine spring instantly to mind). Sean Johnstone and his sporadic ALFOS EBS broadcasts are not just notable because they are brilliant in every way, but also because they often come with a complete track list. I mean digging is great innit, but nothing beats a track list which turns the listener onto something he/she can readily find and possibly buy. Artists like Maelstrom and DVS1 have come up with imaginative ways to ensure that the artists behind the tunes get at least some recompense for their work, through mixes classified as NFTs and Aslice (a software-based project that seeks to pay producers on the basis of their music being played in sets) respectively. Without such initiatives, or the simple act of acknowledgment, artists will remain largely in the shadows and unrewarded. In any case, no one seems at all arsed by this. Maybe preserving track anonymity is far better than making sure the artists in question get paid? I suppose a lot of the DJs in question might argue that because a lot of the stuff they play out are old, then it doesn’t matter much as the artist isn’t releasing any more and isn’t in a position to benefit. It’s not a good look though, as far as I’m concerned. In an industry that relies on mutual back scratching and the financial benefits of which are relatively meagre compared to other work, it would be really good if everyone stopped thinking about themselves, ditched the petty competition and realised that the idea behind releasing the music in the first place to let as many people hear it as possible. Wasn’t it?