Photo by Shen Wei
For our second report, LWE correspondent Todd Hutlock passionately offers his top five irritating trends marring the state of techno (and its criticism) in 2008.
Musically speaking, I find a lot to love about today’s electronic dance music scene; there is a lot more good than bad going on, and I am very glad to be a part of it in whatever little way I can. I should also mention, lest I be labeled a hypocrite, that I am fully aware I am part of the problem on at least a few of these. Sometimes, you just have to swim with the tide, but that doesn’t mean I should keep quiet about things I see that bother me.
With all that in mind, I present a list of my personal top 5 irritating trends in techno: the things that I would change if I were running the universe. I don’t actually expect any of them to change — quite the opposite in fact — but perhaps by venting a bit, I can learn to live with them a bit easier.
01. “But what does it actually sound like?”
I’m not sure exactly which of my journalistic peers first started this movement, but I am none too keen on the nearly impenetrable wall of terminology needed to read and understand much writing about techno these days. With all of the labels and major trends and minor trends about on the printed and digital landscape, its a small wonder new listeners and readers can keep up at all. It appears we have all forgotten that every time we add a new catchy name for the latest musical trend to the list, we make it that much more difficult for newbies to know what we’re talking about, as well as assume that the reader knows what we mean without a single descriptive phrase. Would a 19-year-old understand what we mean when we talk about “progressive house”? Or even “garage”? I suspect a little more explanation and a little less thoughtless labeling will go a long way.
This also includes my ultimate pet peeve in this area: a reviewer describing a track as a “DJ tool” with little or no other explanation. Bearing in mind that at least some (if not the majority) of our readers 1. aren’t DJs and 2. listen to this music in some place other than a club setting at most times, this strikes me as a bit lazy on our part. The label does certainly apply to some records, just not as many as we seem to be tagging with it.
02. “The Robovoice” and other digital promo problems
This trend began creeping into other styles of music years ago, but today, more and more electronic labels are compromising their promos in one of several ways. Perhaps the most annoying is the “robovoice,” a recurring recorded message that pops up every 30 seconds or so to declare, “This is a promotional copy, please respect the music” or some other such message. I fully understand labels need to protect their artists and that digital piracy is at an all-time high, but surely there is a better way than this. Nothing ruins my listening experience faster than hearing this voice twice a minute; it ruins any momentum and flow of the music, and really does make reviewing a difficult task.
One label (who shall reMaIN namelUSs) has even gone so far as to issue its full-length artist releases as 20-minute “mixes” featuring a few minutes of each cut compressed into one long track. I’m sure this does, in fact, keep people from sharing the files. It also keeps people from wanting to review it; I’ve noticed a distinct decrease in coverage of this imprint since they instituted this new policy. Time will tell if this move will totally backfire on them or not, but I can already see it creeping in.
03. And while I’m at it: Doesn’t anyone mail out actual vinyl any more?
Enough said.
04. The digital-only bonus track
So let me get this straight: If I buy the digital version of your new single, where I get no physical artifact for my money or anything else with any sort of resale value on the secondary market, the sound is inevitably at least somewhat compressed, and it costs your label far, far less money to distribute, I’ll get a bonus cut the vinyl buyers don’t get. But if I’m a vinyl DJ and I want the record to play on an actual turntable, or because I have always collected your releases on that format, or because I simply prefer the look, feel, and sound of vinyl, I get to pay more and receive less music for my trouble. Yeah, that sounds like a great deal.
05. The death of the vinyl DJ
I’m sure there is a whole generation of club-goers and music fans out there who think nothing of seeing a DJ work on CD decks or a laptop, or a combination of the two, but to those of us old enough to remember when this wasn’t the norm, it is a bit disconcerting. It used to be that fledgling DJs would spend hours upon hours in their bedroom/basement studios practicing for their gigs on a pair of turntables and a mixer. They would put in the time to learn skills like beat matching, the finer points of pitch control, how to properly deploy a slipmat, and all sorts of other little things that made the act of DJing — as well as listening to a good one — so much more exciting. Many of today’s club DJs just don’t understand that the little mistakes in a set can lead to more creativity, and that a perfectly seamless digital mix can get boring over the course of a few hours. There will always be good DJs and bad DJs, regardless of what format they work in, but I can’t help thinking that technology has made many of them a bit more lazy than they used to be.
you make an interesting point for sure, and maybe my head hasn’t wrapped itself around the philosophy behind your arguement, but the comparisons just don’t make sense to me. cyber sex and real sex involve completely different stimuli. a blindfolded man will always know the difference. i honestly dont think the blindfolded dance floor could tell the difference between “cyber dj’ing”(digital?) and “real dj’ing”(vinyl?) because the stimulus is the same, just sound. yes a few could pick out the ‘warmth’ of the vinyl sound, but a good digital dj can sound just as warm and technology will only get better.
second, airplanes and shuttles didn’t make cars obsolete because of where you travel, its because of the cost of a shuttle or airplane. i would love to have a helicopter and never be late again, but i have a bike cus im broke. same goes for vinyl, i would love to have every classic track on nice pretty vinyl, but i’m broke! and technology makes dj’ing more accessible to all economic situations. we evolved into humans cus our genes could adapt, dj’ing doesn’t need to be a “limited activity” let us ADAPT and evolve! doesnt mean we still wont love our vinyl monkey ancestors hahaha. im starting PETVP people for the ethical treatment of vinyl purists. lets all go stand outside of the itunes online store and throw analog warmth all over the customers!!
really really like your blog btw tom/pipecock!!!
please never bring up the “broke” argument again, etan. just saying.
you’re rite james. a little too much coffee today, took it too far. didn’t mean to offend. i need to stay off the comment boards till i grow up i guess haha. i have to say before my ban from blogs begins that instead of being irritated at the trend, why not be happy that it makes your all vinyl sets more valuable?
“so why is it wrong to say that cyber “deejaying†is inferior to real deejaying? ”
because it isn’t “cyber” dj’ng that they’re doing, the club doesn’t suddenly turn into tron when someone’s laptop gets turned on.
btw, how are abacus’ sales doing these days ?
and relating to hutlock’s first irritating trend, what exactly does vinyl sounding ‘warm’ mean ?
>the club doesn’t suddenly turn into tron when someone’s laptop gets turned on.
Bit late for that, mate.
http://contakt-events.com/
“relating to hutlock’s first irritating trend, what exactly does vinyl sounding ‘warm’ mean ”
There’s a little bit of natural analog distortion when you’re playing a vinyl which thickens things out a bit (especially heavy vinyl). Unless you’re riding the gain you won’t get much distortion (unless computer generated) out of a laptop.
and by “natural analog distortion” lwe means harmonic distortion a la tube overdrive which is very pleasurable to the ears because it relates to the fundamental signal musically. digital distortion or clipping creates partials not musically related to the original signal and therefore extremely unpleasant. has to do with the physics of the electromagnetic force…wish i could understand it too…give computers 10 years and we will emulate it beyond aural perception. I HOPE!
Thanks for clarifying my rough estimate.
Tronstep– that is the most coherent and explicit explanation I have ever heard on the matter!
thx tronstep for the detailed description , gotta write it (analog) or copy/paste it (digital) somewhere so I remember! 😉
I think you can’t stop progress however not all the progresses are improvements.
Digital deejaying offers a lot of advantages (cheaper, softer on the back, more availability, quicker diffusion…etcetc…) BUT there are things that can’t be digitalized. You can’t digitize the feeling of putting your freshly bought vinyl on the slipmat when you’re back from the record shop. Neither you can digitize the pleasure of preparing your djbag (heavy or not, it’s part of the game). Scrolling down a list of song is nowhere near choosing a record from a bag, it’s not a matter of technology, quantity or price, it’s a matter of feeling, like music. Going to the record shop takes you longer and is more expensive but you can have a chat with the retailer, it’s more crowded than beatoport but at least you get to listen to the full song.
I’ve bought Traktor scratch a few months ago and I think it’s a wonderful tool, but I keep on playing also on vinyls because it’s just more rewarding. Further more i realized that i was downloading too many songs because it’s cheaper and in the end you just dilute the quality of your library without really knowing your tracks.
I don’t know how much will vinyl resist but when it’s gonna be gone there are a lot of related little pleasures that will be gone with him and they can’t be replaced by progress.
90% of this comes down to personal preference, though. For people who have grown up DJing with vinyl, anything else will of course feel less inviting and pleasurable. For DJs (like myself) whose experience is limited to laptops, having to pick up vinyl DJing skills/equipment is only a burden, not a pleasure.
What this is about for me is the quality of the DJ set. If it sucks, blame the DJ for not doing a good job of making it compelling, regardless of what they used. If it’s awesome and you enjoy dancing to it, salute the DJ no matter how they brought it to your ears/feet.
“For DJs (like myself) whose experience is limited to laptops, having to pick up vinyl DJing skills/equipment is only a burden, not a pleasure.”
ouch, i don’t think that’s true at all. I’ve only had a few goes at beatmatching on decks but I still find it incredibly fun. seriously, mixing records is very very enjoyable and you really do get a feeling of achieving something when it goes well. i definitely wouldn’t call vinyl DJing a ‘burden’.
buying the equipment is a financial burden, but if you just wanted to try it then you must know someone who has decks that you could try?
i’m pretty sure we’re all on the same team.
“That next generation IS out there and we need to take them into account, as well as casual fans of the music who are looking for those “gateway†records and artists to take them deeper into the scene”
this is the best thing i’ve ever read regarding house music to me, thanks.
i’m a bit late to this discussion, but re point 1:
i’m not sure you need worry too much about the next generation. i only fell for techno on 20th february last year(!), but for the most part haven’t found dance music writing impenetrable. anyone who’s intrigued enough by the music won’t mind trying to work it out for themselves.
although obscure sub-genre name-dropping is bound to fall on a lot of deaf ears, i think as long as the writer is sincere and means something by it, there’s no need to spell it out for the newcomers every time (wouldn’t that start get on the old-handers’ nerves?!)
in any case, if you got rid of all the catchy names, what language would be left to describe the music? the last time i heard a useful definition of a genre that didn’t rely on already-knowing-what-it-generally-sounds-like was, er…
that is, unless you could give an example of music journalism from a time before this became an irritating trend? i’d be very interested to see that!
(i didn’t put that last request very well: as in, examples of writing that do describe what the music ‘actually sounds like’ without relying on what would already be a lot of assumed knowledge for a 19-year-old new to the scene.
i’m not really disagreeing with your point – of course there are extremes of bad writing that are impenetrable, but i wouldn’t know if there was a recent trend for more of this, having not been around long enough… just saying, as long as there’s good writing too (which needn’t be too cautious about its terminology, as long as it’s sincere), the next generation will look after themselves!)
“because it isn’t “cyber†dj’ng that they’re doing, the club doesn’t suddenly turn into tron when someone’s laptop gets turned on.
btw, how are abacus’ sales doing these days ?”
lmao
some good arguments for both sides, but at the end of the day, can anyone disagree that it’s what comes out of the speakers that matters?