So I decided to reset my charts... again (after about 23,000 scrobbles). Here are my top artists and albums from early January up until late November. It seems I can't go more than 25k scrobbles without resetting... I would probably have over 100,000 scrobbles if I never reset my charts (combined with my scrobbles from my old account).
Albums
1. Boards of Canada- Geogaddi- 283
2. The Prodigy- Music for the Jilted Generation- 251
3. Bethlehem- Sardonischer Untergang Im Zeichen Irrelioser- 249
4. Agalloch- The Mantle- 246
5. Steve Roach- Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces- 243
6. Organized Konfusion- Stress: The Extinction Agenda- 240
7. maudlin of the Well- Leaving Your Body Map- 227
8. Slowdive- Souvlaki- 192
9. Global Communication- 76:14- 166
10. Stendeck- Faces- 162
11. Stars of the Lid- The Tired Sounds of...- 159
12. Sun Kil Moon- April- 157
12. Cannibal Ox- The Cold Vein- 157
14. Warning- Watching From a Distance- 149
15. Bjork- Vespertine- 139
16. Mayhem- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas- 136
17. OutKast- ATLiens- 120
18. Gorguts- The Erosion of Sanity- 118
19. diSEMBOWELMENT- Transcendence Into the Peripheral- 111
19. Mayhem- Wolf's Lair Abyss- 111
19. Autechre- Amber- 111
22. The Future Sound of London- Lifeforms Disk 1- 109
23. Steve Roach- Dreamtime Return- 107
24. Biosphere- Substrata- 103
25. Harold Budd- The White Arcades- 101
26. Red House Painters- Red House Painters [Rollercoaster]- 100
27. J-Live- The Best Part- 97
27. Tool- Lateralus- 97
29. Air Liquide- The Increased Difficulty of Concentration- 96
30. Ulrich Schnauss- Far Away Trains Passing By- 95
30. Low- I Could Live in Hope- 95
32. Lykathea Aflame- Elvenefris- 94
32. Eluvium- Copia- 94
34. Walknut- Graveforests And Their Shadows- 93
34. dälek- Absence- 93
36. Tiamat- Wildhoney- 92
36. DJ Shadow- Endtroducing...- 92
38. Hypocrisy- The Final Chapter- 91
38. Boards of Canada- Music Has the Right to Children- 91
40. Emperor- Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk- 89
40. Jeru the Damaja- The Sun Rises in the East- 89
42. Enslaved- Below the Lights- 88
42. Nas- Illmatic- 88
44. Tiesto- Magik, Vol. 7: Live in Los Angeles- 87
45. Bathory- Under the Sign of the Black Mark- 84
46. maudlin of the Well- Bath- 83
47. Negură Bunget- Om- 82
48. In the Woods...- HEart of the Ages- 81
49. Deep Puddle Dynamics- The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel- 79
49. Aphex Twin- Drukqs Disk 1- 79
51. Atheist- Unquestionable Presence- 77
51. Deepspace- World Ocean Atlas- 77
51. Smif-N-Wessun- Dah Shinin'- 77
54. Jedi Mind Tricks- Violent By Design- 76
55. Tenhi- Kauan- 75
56. Johann Johannsson- Fordlandia- 74
57. Have a Nice Life- Deathconsciousness- 73
57. Agalloch- Ashes Against the Grain- 73
59. CunninLynguists- Strange Journey Volume One- 70
60. Death- Human- 68
60. Natural Snow Buildings- The Dance of the Moon and the Sun- 68
62. Pestilence- Testimony of the Ancients- 67
63. Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)- 66
63. Weakling- Dead as Dreams- 66
65. Amorphis- Tales From the Thousand Lakes- 65
65. Thomas Koner- Nuuk- 65
65. M83- Saturdays=Youth- 65
65. Drudkh- Autumn Aurora- 64
69. Genelec & Memphis Reigns – Scorpion Circles- 64
69. Devin Townsend- Ocean Machine- 64
71. Fen- The Malediction Fields- 63
71. The Orb- The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld Disk 1- 63
73. Have a Nice Life- Voids- 62
74. Burzum- Filosofem- 61
75. Drudkh- Forgotten Legends- 60
75. Arcticology- Eternal Now- 60
75. J-Live- All Of The Above- 60
79. Cryptopsy- Blasphemy Made Flesh- 59
79. The Marcia Blaine School for Girls – Halfway Into The Woods- 59
81. Sodom- Persecution Mania- 58
82. GZA/Genius- Liquid Swords- 57
82. The Higher Intelligence Agency & Biosphere- Polar Sequences- 57
82. Isis- Wavering Radiant- 57
82. Lifelover- Konkurs- 57
86. Stars of the Lid- Avec Laudenum- 56
87. Proem- Socially Inept- 55
87. Burzum- Det Som Engang Var- 55
87. OutKast- Aquemini- 55
87. Edge of Sanity- Purgatory Afterglow- 55
87. Elliot Smith- Either/Or- 55
93. Isis- Oceanic- 54
93. Jesu- Jesu- 54
95. The Cure- Pornography- 53
95. ColdWorld- Melancholie- 53
95. Terrorizer- World Downfall- 53
98. Enslaved- Blodhemn- 52
98. Massive Attack- Mezzanine- 52
98. Aphex Twin- 52
101. October Tide- Rain Without End- 51
101. Carbon Based Lifeforms- Hydroponic Garden- 51
103. Depeche Mode- Black Celebration- 51
103. Wolves in the Throne Room- 51
103. Robert Rich- Calling Down the Sky- 51
103. Darkthrone- A Blaze in the Northern Sky- 51
BENTLEY & BEN GOMORIare two rapidly rising stars in the UK electronic scene. Their debutAlpha EPwas released onSeamless Blackearlier this year, with support from the likes ofOmid 16b, Sarah Main and Onionz, and has been compared to earlySashaand Lexicon Avenue by at least one reviewer. Remixes followed onBig In IbizaandGrin Recordings, with another one due soon on can you feel it. But first they deliver a new track on Plastica: Out Comes Fabianski.
Ben Gomorihas been a keen follower of dance music since he first heard his older brother’s hardcore and jungle tapes aged 10, and works in the dance music industry as a PR and journalist, probably best known as editor of DataTransmission. Ben is a resident for Twisted Disco @ Pacha London, having played alongside the likes ofClaude Von Stroke, Paul Woolford,Deepgrooveand Rene Amesz at their parties. He has won 4 separate DJ competitions and has played twice at Europe’s largest festival – Sziget in Hungary. He has played on Budapest’s Tilos Radio, the country’s most respected independent station, and recently played forBBC 6music. He made his Ibiza debut in 2006, playing at The Orange Corner and also played twice at both Global Gathering and Creamfields – the two biggest dance music festivals in the UK.
John Bentleycame onto the dance music scene in early 2006, after a three year period abroad and away from the music industry. Since 2006 John has played many of the top promotions alongside some of the world's greatest DJs, such asAbove & Beyond, Tall Paul,Judge Julesand Sander van Doorn, at venues like The Gallery (London and Brighton)Electronic Sessions, Addiction, Nu-Religion and Cyclone.
Whilst working together a lot, Ben also has a 3-track tech house EP coming out on berwick street recordswithSaytek, while John’s Peak Lovetrance alias recently made his debut onBinge Records, doing well in the trance charts.
"Two nice chugging electronic housers there, one with lush key swoops and a tighter, dubbier one. Good work, though not sure about the Arsenal references ;)" -Guy Hornsby(4Clubbers)
"Very cool and extremely melodic prog housers with two producers who deliver a really differently sounding EP from their previous one. Really groovy and spicey." - Dimitri Kechagias(VIVA 95,3 fm - Greece)
"Rotation support on BLN.FM radio, Berlin!" -Tim Thaler(Berlin FM)
"Sounds gooooodddd!Will play it LOUD!" -Erwin Kelemen(Plastic Lounge)
"A wicked release from some great DJs." -Oli Cassidy(Filth & Splendour)
Progressive House and Trance remixes of the Anthem "See The Sun" are out today exclusively on Beatport. Aurosonic remix is rocking the sets & radio shows of Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten and others. Over the next couple of months Matt will be touring in India, Malaysia, Russia, USA, Cyprus & Malta. Over the last few months Matt's been rocking the party people of the world. Thank you to everyone who sent in video clips, we have compiled them all into one world tour video of Matt Darey live in Denver Colorado, Poznan Poland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Moscow Russia, Los Angeles, NYC, Kazan Russia and Helsinki.
Unsurprisingly to most of us clubbers, Armin van Buuren has snagged the top DJ spot for the third year in a row. And he got the call that he'd won yet again whilst on honeymoon.
"I couldn't believe it," he says with a huge smile. "I still can't believe it. I expected David Guetta to win so I was totally blown away. This was the least expected one. I can understand that people might think that if you win it for the third time it's not that special anymore. But, for me, it's the most special." Hear his gratitude for his fans in his own words in the video below.
DJ Mag has tacked up substantial articles on a lot of the top 100 DJs up at their site. You can find Van Buuren's here. In it, he reveals that Ben Liebrand has been Holland's best kept secret since the ’80s, and why the Pioneer CDJ-2000 is his favourite tech toy.
Also, Armin Only, a book about his work and successes, has finally been translated from Dutch to English.
To celebrate, I'm posting a video of him performing this year at Opera nightclub in Atlanta, the very club where I had the honour of clasping his hand. (I'm still sore from seeing Sasha there a couple of nights ago.)
Now, looking at the title of this journal, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I was on the brink of giving up on last.fm, this being a sort of self-indulgent “suicide note”. That isn’t the case. Like the two journals that precede it, this entry could end up being ever so slightly narcissistic, but it’s not intended as a goodbye. More a series of New Year’s Resolutions, 3 months early – in addition to a few more things I need to get off my chest. Musically speaking, I’ve just reached a personal juncture, a crossroads where a journal doesn’t just feel appropriate, but essential for my sanity. As Depeche Mode put it, it’s a question of time, of how much time a person can afford to invest enriching their own musical life. Music plays an important part in a lot of people’s lives. Many of us here on last.fm are beyond obsessed and last.fm itself further fuels that obsession. But, as I’ll go on to explain, I need to start channeling that obsession a little better. If the last 3 or 4 years have been an Open University course in the world of electronic music, then at this point I have to accept that I have well and truly graduated. It’s time to take what I’ve earned, consolidate and move on. It’s time for a change. But first, one last amble through my musical consciousness… Be warned though, this is not a journal of sunshine and rainbows all the way. In fact, brace yourself for some pretty brutal generalisations and a dose of, to borrow a phrase from George Carlin, “free floating hostility”.
Art isn't a commodity that you haul in and out ... like dildos
- Dean Learner
Philosophical problem for you… If a manufactured pop band replace all their original members over the course of 11 years, are they still the Sugababes? Answers on a postcard please. May I also draw your attention to the fact that each departing member’s replacement has been that little more attractive than the person they replaced. Of course, the testosterone fueled male in me isn’t complaining, but the music purist does die a little bit inside. Because according to their bio on last.fm, “Sugababes are widely credited as being the UK’s most credible girl group, and their audience spans a huge demographic.” Well, my response to that is, if sampling Right Said Fred and replacing all 3 original band members without changing your name is credible in the world of UK girl groups then what about is not credible in the world of UK girl groups. But that bio is indeed correct. Their passable, if hit-and-miss, pop output is as credible as it gets. This, my friends, is a tantalising glimpse into the world of mainstream music.
Attacking mainstream music is obviously very fashionable these days. But the fashion, or the “sport” if you want, is not normally that of deconstructing what it is that is “abhorrent” about the current mainstream, but simply of bashing certain artists for seemingly joining the ranks of the “sell outs”, for essentially departing their core scene and becoming more popular. In other words, people decide they dislike artist X for being mainstream before they actually decide what it is about the mainstream that is so anti-music. The question people don’t often ask themselves is, is the mainstream against the spirit of music because of the very nature of what it means to be mainstream or are “we” just doing something wrong? Is the mainstream just controlled by the wrong people for the wrong people? More to the point, can it only be controlled by the wrong people?
As I say, some people just don’t like popularity. That’s not the problem I have with the UK mainstream as it is exists now. The problem I have with it is the apparent insincerity and general insipidness that emanate from most parts of it. The institution that most typifies those problems for me is BBC Radio One, the UK’s national, government funded bastion of youth culture. In my current job I often put the radio on to help the hours pass. Being a massive sports fan I tend to listen to TalkSport at home, but at work I can tell that the poor medium wave signal and constant adverts annoy the people I work with. To keep people happy Radio One inevitably goes on. But by the end of the week, hearing the same 10 songs day in day out and listening to Edith Bowman’s rabbiting on about how “awesome” everything and everyone is really starts to take its toll.
To me, Radio One’s daytime playlist is particularly limited in terms of numbers. Currently, their A-List contains 20 tracks. And the vast majority of the tracks you’ll hear on daytime Radio One are from that playlist. And that playlist changes VERY slowly from month to month. Considering how much is going on in the world of music at any given time and given how many great songs from years gone by that could be played, this seems pretty limited to me. Often, even if you hear a song on Radio One that you vaguely like, you can guarantee that they’ll play the record so many times throughout the month that you’ll end up hating it. But I wonder whether the rest of the population is getting bored of the same 10-20 songs day after day. And if they aren’t, why aren’t they? Is the UK population that easily entertained, that bereft of a need for variety or that starved of imagination? Surely, most real music fans need far more musical nutrition than is provided by daytime Radio One. But still people listen.
And what about the music itself? Well, it’s almost as if by blurring the lines between “commercial” and “underground” and making the mainstream “hip”, “sexy” and “indiefied”, the mainstream has sold its soul. Now it’s clichés plucked from every represented genre rolled into one homogenous ball of clichés, a hybrid of super clichés: Indie bands with lead singers that can’t sing and play the same chord over and over again, indie songs with choruses that sound like they were intended for the terraces of football grounds, R’n’B collaborations with whiny “emo” choruses, wall-to-wall autotune and robotic clapping percussion, over-stated but under-produced electro, mockey-cockney singers half rapping about living in “Landan”…
These clichés are all well and good within their own genres but when, for example, David Guetta produces a track with Akon, the clichés from electro, R’n’B and pop music join to create a horrible mess of stereotypes. Middle-class “studenty” music, British and American black music and various types of miscellaneous dance music don’t just stand together but are copying each other. And not in the interests of art, but in the interests of taping into all the available avenues of image and accessibility. Artistic merit is lost in favour of pulling together predictabilities and “ticking the right boxes”. And while BBC Radio One does claim to try and give diversity with its daytime playlist, I still think most of the tracks they select for their playlists conform to a broad formula of fashionable clichés.
I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve said to myself “who buys this shit?” But I now know who buys it. And its not necessarily kids of between about 7-16 anymore. I remember the days when one of the main functions of the mainstream was to get the next generation of genuine music lovers passionate about music from a very early age by spoon-feeding them exceptionally cheesey but annoyingly memorable pop records. Getting kids into music by bombarding them with music videos, lip syncing “live” music shows and hopeless dance routines. That was excusable, almost necessary. But that’s not the primary target audience anymore. The mainstream now attempts to cater for an age demographic that in years gone by would have long since flown the nest and developed its own sense of musical freedom and individuality. We have a new group of music “fans” in this country who, well into their early twenties, male and female, are happy to be spoon-fed the same banal, image conscious bullshit day in day out.
There are two groups who buy this shit: Studenty middle-class indie hipsters who can’t appreciate a record before its coolness has been ratified by Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe or NME, the types that pitch up at music festivals like Glastonbury year in year out more for the kudos of saying they were there than genuine passion for the music that is on show; And, on the other end of the spectrum, airhead “blondes” whose hobbies include dancing provocatively in clubs playing David Guetta, buying overpriced shoes and giving handjobs to complete strangers, the types that follow the “careers” of Katie Price and Peter Andre as if they’re both genuinely talented and important people. And that includes the utter twats who shed crocodile tears for Michael Jackson, people who, until he died, were only interested in his bizarre celebrity private life and not his unique musical talent and now, to continue the soap opera, pretend to mourn him like a family member… We all saw it.
This is the new mainstream 17+ demographic. And I actually think it’s that second group that is most consistently appealed to. Undiluted and sexual charged post-feminist girl power and vomit-inducingly “sensitive” new age men whining about their doomed relationships and about how their “hearts won’t beat again” … the girls love it.
And that’s the difference, for me. The concept of “the mainstream” is not anti-music per se. It’s just that today’s mainstream is full of, and support by, so many people who are either painfully insincere and fickle or just generally dumb when it comes to music. That’s what’s so anti-music, in my opinion. Anti-music in the same way hero-worshipping one or two artists is anti-music.
But what skin is it off my nose? I and most of my closest mates have flown the mainstream nest. So, it’s not me that loses out in all this. Well, maybe just a small amount of short term discomfort whenever I’m forced to listen to Radio One or get dragged into a shit mainstream club. But as I say, my main point is that the mainstream doesn’t have to be shit, it just happens to be shit at the moment, and shit in a way that is that little bit more unpleasant, superficial and, when it wants to be, shamefully sycophantic.
Some people will say what I’ve just written here is pure snobbery. Maybe it is. But music is such a wonderfully self-expressive medium, such an amazing way of defining your own individuality and channeling the energies that make human kind such a unique species. And it pains me to see people whose music taste and methods of consuming music say nothing more about them other than their capacity to be bought and sold by clichés, to be easily entertained and easily molded, and to conform rigidly, without thought or question, to the core values of our consumer, image conscious, celebrity obsessed culture.
2. IBIZA 2009
Those who have read my previous journals, particularly part 3 of my trance journal, will know that Ibiza is a pretty big deal for me. If I’d have had more money and more friends into dance music over the last 5 or 6 years I’m sure I would have been more than twice. But such is life. And, in visiting Ibiza for the second time, I learnt some valuable life lessons this year. Lessons in the management of expectations and the capacity for life to kick you in the balls when you least want it to. I built up Ibiza 2009 so much. I was checking Ibiza-Spotlight daily, planning our clubbing itinerary, turning pub conversation towards it at every opportunity. This was going to be the best two weeks ever… Two weeks off work, Ibiza followed by Global Gathering. The best two weeks ever?… famous last words?
Well, don’t get me wrong, it was a great two weeks with a number of highs. I saw Armin van Buuren and Gareth Emery twice, Sander van Doorn for the fourth time, Above & Beyond for the second time and saw Tiesto play for about 5 hours in the biggest club in the world. And I spent most of those two weeks with some of my best mates in the blissful summer sunshine. But things didn’t quite go to plan. It didn’t match my vastly overblown expectations and could have been so much better. So what was the problem? Ibiza lost its magic?
Well, no. The main problem was something largely out of my control, that being…getting ill. I was already developing a bit of a sore throat on the plane out there but whatever it was I had didn’t fully take hold until the 3rd or 4th day. So I’d managed to enjoy Tiesto and most of Armada with few problems. In fact, Tiesto at Privilege was the finest night of clubbing I’ve ever had. The crowd was enormous, the lights and production were stunning and, after he’d finish throwing out his indie remixes, Tiesto got back to trance basics in a way that I never expected to hear. Hearing the In Search Of Sunrise mix of Delerium – Silence in the biggest club in the world was really special.
But by the Thursday I was really starting to struggle. I missed Cream on the Thursday and Pacha on the Friday, having to make do with trips to the West End dosed up on paracetamol. And without the pain killers I felt seriously rough… Paracetamol…not the drug I was expecting to use to survive the week. So, Tiesto alone had been worth the trip but how could this be best week of my life?
The other problem with this trip was that I was there with a group of mates who, generally-speaking, were looking for a different Ibizan experience to the one I was after. I was the only dedicated trance fan in the group, the only “proper” clubber, the only one interested in the island’s spirituality and mysticism. Most of the lads were after cheap booze, easy birds and cheesey tunes, an attitude typified by their mid-week “Pull A Munter” competition. I was more after proper DJs, serious sunshine and abnormal levels of serotonin. To me, you can go to any holiday resort for booze, birds and cheesey tunes. You go to Ibiza for the best dance music and the beauty of the island. The tackier aspects are the bonus in Ibiza; they’re not the main attraction.
There was definitely a split in the group, and I was in the minority. I knew that as soon as the holiday was booked. But we agreed from the start that there was no reason why we couldn’t split and do different things. For example, only one of the other 7 lads joined me for Armada at Amnesia (part of which was actually broadcast on ASOT Radio as episode 413), while the others went to AATW’s Clubland at Es Paradis. But after getting ill, it was more difficult to justify wandering off on my own (or with one other person) to see whatever it was I wanted to see. I just didn’t have the energy. Without the paracetamol and pints of lager I would have been in bed. So, not quite the trip to clubbing paradise I'd had planned. More a case of a good laugh in the sun with some good mates.
But rather than be angry and overcome with disappointed, on returning I decided to take what had happened on the chin. I figured it would be better just to take some important life lessons out of the situation. However, it wasn’t the lesson of “if it can go wrong, it will go wrong”. That’s not a lesson because you can’t really do anything about it. It felt like more a case of, “the more you want something the more you can’t have it.” Amazing as a place like Ibiza is, you can’t guarantee the attainment of a flawless, timeless experience just by virtue of being there. So, to talk up a place having been there is fair enough, but to talk up an experience, wherever it takes place, before you’ve even had it is more or less pointless. It’s a recipe for disappointment.
And, secondly, if you go to Ibiza choose who you go with carefully. For me, the problem wasn’t who I went with but who I didn’t go with. Going with people who aren’t necessarily passionate about dance music isn’t the end of the world, it isn’t even a problem. But I just needed one or two more real dance music nuts with me, like my old clubbing crew from Uni, to balance out the group and really search out the Ibiza experience I was after.
In a sense, I think it's almost better to be in Ibiza alone than it is to be there with a group of people who predominately aren't into dance music in the same way you are. You either need a good number of people to share and fully appreciate the experiences you crave with, or the total freedom to just go and do your own thing. And Ibiza is obviously an expensive place, now more so than ever. Because of that, I can now see there’s no point in compromising. But, we live and learn. And they’ll be other times, other opportunities. Of that I’m sure. Of that I’ll make sure.
3. CLUBBING & ITS FUTURE IN THE UK
It was left to Global Gathering this year to rescue the clubbing I felt I’d missed out on in Ibiza. And it did go a long way to squashing any post-Ibiza self-pity. On the Friday we raved it up outside in the early evening sunshine, Karim bashing out the hard house, and closed the day seeing Paul van Dyk, complete with live guest vocalist. And on the Saturday we were destroyed by 7 hours of Sander Van Doorn, Above & Beyond and Armin Van Buuren, appearing one after the other. And being at Global with my old clubbing mates from Uni and my two trance loving mates from home did reinforce to me how important it is to find and connect with people who share your passions.
But I did come away from Global with a few negative thoughts as well. The main one being that I think I can see clubbing in the UK being pushed down a route that no longer reflects the idealistic philosophies I talked about in my final trance journal.
The main problem is the lack of MDMA, which is now much harder to get in pure form after a chemical used in its production was banned internationally. Now, some, particularly those who have not read TRANCE CULTURE , will say, “You shouldn’t be taking it anyway” or, “Well, that proves dance music culture is nothing without drug culture.” It’s a bit more complicated than that.
Clubbing will continue regardless, as will people’s passions for trance, house and techno music. But the fact remains that a lot of people in this country, whatever their musical preferences, like getting completely fucked on a regular basis. And if they can’t get proper MDMA, they will turn to other drugs that don’t have the emotionally magnifying effects that bring crowds together and energise them, drugs like ketamine, cocaine and, in a way, even alcohol, which anesthetise and either dull sensory acuity or boost the ego. And this will have to have a negative effect in long run – almost the exact opposite effect of MDMA. I actually think much of the good-will and communalism could be retained in clubbing without MDMA, but a noticeable increase in the use of drugs that dramatically slow down motor skills, promote insularism or encourage further alcohol consumption by their very nature will damage clubbing’s sense of communalism. To me, such drugs can’t and shouldn’t be regarded as substitutes. The sad fact is, in some quarters, they will be.
I was chatting to my mate Rob only a month after Global and we seemed to agree that clubbing’s best years are behind it and that, even though we both wish we’d been born 5-10 years sooner, we’ve both had a decent run at it – that although today’s dance music scene is great, it’s still lost much of the rawness and youthful optimism of its earlier incarnations.
The film Human Traffic, despite its sense of idealism, itself made some interesting, albeit brief comments about the decline of clubbing, about the ways it’s got fetishised and hijacked by people just looking to boost their street cred. But that film was released 10 years ago this summer, and there’s probably been further decline in that time. Certain well-known festivals have got a bit too popular and a bit too corporate; some events are plagued by groups of chavs looking for trouble. Maybe our outlook was unnecessarily pessimistic. Maybe these things come in cycles. We can but hope. All you can do in the meantime is make the most of what’s on offer, which, at the core of it all, is the music. That’s still there and going strong, of course.
A good quality video of Above & Beyond wipping out On A Good Day (followed by Breakfast - Air Guitar) at GG this summer. This isn't my video by the way, so thanks to whoever posted this on youtube.
4. DOWNLOADING MUSIC & ACHIEVEING MUSICAL KARMA
As I said in the introduction, in my own musical life a change has been needed for a while. The amount of time I spend on various music related activities has grown year on year since about the age of 15 or 16. Whether it be chatting to fellow music fans on music forums, tagging up reams and reams of new music or just mindless staring at last.fm, many hours have been wiled away. Maybe it was unnecessary amount of time, maybe it was an obscene amount of time, who’s to say?
But I don’t regret that time spent. Not one bit. That time spent has brought me along way: it’s made me passionate in a way that I can’t imagine not being, educated me, entertained me, broadened my horizons, and even developed my outlooks and perspectives on life. The last 4 or 5 years of my life have been a real musical journey, of searching, discovering, learning, piecing together the various scenes in my head like some great patchwork. And, as sentimental as it may sound, nothing has taught me more about myself over the course of the last half a decade than music.
That’s the amazing thing about music. If you put it in focus enough, if you think about the messages in its universal language, the world of music becomes a little microcosm of life itself. But not just any old life, but life as it should be, life with all the irrelevant and meaningless parts taken out. It’s a bubble of personal idealism and the more you enjoy it, the more you know about it, the more you personalise it, the more unburstable the bubble becomes.
But alongside and inseparable from this personal journey, there has been a sizeable degree of “digital gluttony.” I left for Uni in the summer of 2005 with my 30 gig music collection, an amount of music that some would say was already enough. I sit here today with a music collection of 286 gig, according to iTunes, approximately 120 days of music, including just short of 700 albums. Now these things are all relative. There are people out there with double, even triple that these days. But, given that HDD storage sizes seem to be growing rapidly, where do you draw the line? Can you ever have enough? More importantly, when you’re as OCD about tagging and ordering your music as I am, who has the time?
I think there was a time, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, when collecting music was just pure habit. I knew the avenues for getting it so I just did it. It was like watering a plant and enjoying watching it grow.
But I think, as my tastes started to seriously broaden, the need stopped being expansion for expansions sake. It was actually to fill gaps in my listening; trying to cover various moods and making sure all the bases were covered in the various new sub-genres I was listening to. It wasn’t about quantity anymore; it was about breadth and depth. And, of course, as I took up DJing, the reams of full length 320 kpbs trance and hard dance tracks I’d collected out of habit the years before now served a much more valuable purpose. This was now my digital DJing material.
Of course, a large part of my assembled collection has been illegally downloaded over the years. Maybe that is a dangerous thing to admit in these days of ISP litigation. But my conscience is clear, and I think it has ever right to be. Because, while I’ve picked up a lot of music for free, I’ve still poured a hell of a lot of my own money into the music industry, particularly in recent years through sites like Trackitdown.net. I support artists whenever I can afford to and when I feel the music is worthy enough of being fully supported.
Downloading has produced as many positives as negatives in its time. The internet has without doubt spread electronic music into areas of the world it would have had no chance of reaching previously, building its reputation as the ultimate culture crossing musical medium. And I think there are plenty of artists out there that I would never have had the chance to hear had buying it been the only way to hear it. The problem comes when people take ALL their music illegally and don’t put back into it at all. Artists have to make a living, so, when an artist’s work really moves and shakes us, sometimes they deserve more than a message on their official forum saying, “I thought your album was great!” It’s about give and take.
But my music collection has got to a stage now where it feels more or less complete. In terms of “old music”, every avenue feels covered. And I don’t say that just because my HDD is looking a bit full. To be honest, I think it’s more because I’ve recently added a small folder of rock music into the collection. Just obvious stuff like Muse, Oasis, Blur, R.E.M. etc. Much of it is just pure nostalgia for me and, of course, it’s another musical base covered. And it was adding that rock music which actually created a strange of musical karma in me. As if that was the last real piece in this jigsaw. Yes, me – the self-confessed electronic music nut, trance to the absolute core, given musical karma by rock music… the irony is not lost, believe me. A couple of hundred rock songs in a collection of over 280 gig is indeed outrageously modest, but it is a hole that needed filling and I didn’t realise how much it needed filling until it was actually filled.
There are others things as well though, other milestones. My iPod too now feels pretty much complete, with only 7 gig remaining and with all my playlists as I want them. I’ve also recently finished recompiling and reburning my trance DJing CDs, weeding out tracks that I don’t mix often or of low bitrate. And the final, and most recent thing, was my last.fm subscription running out. All these small milestones, all coming around the same time, and in the wake of the lessons learnt post-Ibiza, made me think, “Yeah, I’m done – It’s time to rethink how I do this.”
And, simply put, the main change will just be reducing the number of scenes I try to keep up with, in terms of new music, keeping my eyes more firmly on trance music. UK hard dance is dying on its arse, electro-house feels like its stagnating and has been hi-jacked by the mainstream, and I have enough psy-trance, minimal, tech house and drum & bass to satisfy my occasional cravings for them. And, of course, no more "old music"... if it's not new, I won't be downloading/buying it.
But even the amount of trance I collect can be reduced now. Instead of trawling Trackitdown and Soulseek on a daily basis, if I use radio shows like A State Of Trance and Global DJ Broadcast on a biweekly basis, making a note of what tunes take my ear, I can concentrate on quality rather than quantity and specifically download the tunes that I want to DJ with. The point is, I don’t need to hear and download everything that is released. I just need to put my ear to the ground, so to speak, once or twice a week. Maybe even only a couple of times a month. And, I suppose, I don’t want to be the kind of DJ, whatever level I end up getting to, that only plays new stuff anyway. There are too many of those kinds of DJs around as it is.
Obviously, the other thing that has caused me to download in huge amounts is last.fm itself. More and more recently I’ve used the site’s radios, particularly the ambient stations. And if the station throws up an amazing piece of music you’ve never heard previously, it’s incredibly tempting to go out and download half that artist’s discography. That’s what last.fm is all about – discovery.
For example, you might leave a message in an artist’s shoutbox, someone will see it and randomly view your profile. They see your charts and decide to leave you a shout recommending an artist. You check out the artist, like them and download most of their material. At that point you might decide to listen to that artist's tag radio station and on that radio station you might hear 2 or 3 artists that absolutely blow you away… Before you know it, you have more or less full discographies of about 5 artists you’d never heard of the month before.
But now, especially since my last.fm subscription has run out, I’m going to try and visit last.fm much less often in future, only checking my profile and charts when I receive an e-mail about a shout or a friend request. I’ll continue scrobbling of course, but I think I’ve had my fill when it comes to using last.fm as a proactive searching and networking tool. And I will continue doing my end of year review journals, but, because I won’t be paying as much attention to certain scenes or collecting new albums on a daily basis, there’s no way they’ll be anything like as comprehensive as they have been previously.
The bottom line is, I have to curtail the amount of time spent searching for, collecting and tagging music and reinvest that time in practicing mixing and actually enjoying the music I’ve already collected. If you want to be a successful DJ, bedroom, semi-pro or professional, you have to invest time in keeping up with the scene and putting together your collection. But there are more efficient ways of doing it than I am now and I think you do get to the point where you’ve acquired enough knowledge of labels and artists to be able to afford to invest fewer hours without it affecting your own standards. And that is a lesson for all wannabe DJs out there – Invest time in expanding your knowledge, but don’t over invest. You need a balance.
Although, all this doesn’t mean I’m no longer open to the recommendations of other last.fm users. In fact, being as I’ll be doing less active searching myself, I’m sure I’m going to come to rely on the recommendations of fellow last.fm users more and more to help me make sure I don’t miss out on the not-to-be-missed new releases. Friend, neighbour or just passerby - do leave recommendations in my shoutbox or inbox if you hear anything you think will blow my socks off, from whatever genre. I’ll more than appreciate that. And I will get back to you eventually, I promise.
5. THANK YOU LAST.FM
Last.fm is such a simple concept. An ambitious project in internet databasing maybe, but a simple concept nonetheless. On the face of it, almost too simple. If you’re a last.fm user and describe what this site is all about to a non-last.fm user, trying and failing miserably to explain to them what a “scrobble” is, the non-last.fm user will probably be thoroughly unimpressed and be left wondering why the hell you’re wasting your time with it. At least that is how I’ve often felt after describing it to people. Why the hell would I want to make a log of all the music I listen to? It’s not until you actually set up a profile, get scrobbling and start having a look around, that you realise how much there is on offer here, how much opportunity there is.
Whoever came up with the concept of last.fm is, in my book, a borderline genius. If utilised properly, it’s the kind of concept that keeps on giving, like a lemon that you can just squeeze and squeeze, the juices just keep on coming. And by utilising it properly, I mean actually using the tag radio stations, the artist links and interacting with fellow users. Unfortunately, not every user does. Last.fm provides the tools you need to be truly proactive and self-motivated in broadening your musical horizons. The charts aren’t there for charts’ sake.
For the most recent and, up until now, most important leg of my own musical voyage, last.fm has been absolutely indispensible. Without it my taste would be far narrower and far less developed than it is today. In fact, I can’t even begin to imagine what I’d be missing out on now if it weren’t for last.fm. So, to whomever it is I should be thankful, I am indeed thankful.
But, as I say, time for a change... Onwards and upwards.
If you're a last.fm user, are planning to put it on your iPod or simply want to skip to your favourite track with ease, the .rar file is a better option!
Hi! So I figured it was probably time to give the podcast series some loving after 6 months of silence. After many live sets in the last few months, I have tried to steer away from using the tunes I have played frequently in those.
Having convinced myself I was going to have a James Bond themed 007'th podcast, I slowly dawned on the realisation that there weren't many trance and progressive tracks that had any thing to do with James Bond. With sadness, I ploughed on, and this is what I came up with! Enjoy!
Above & Beyond
