DMZ Diary

#2 - March 8th 2003 - Building Momentum

Shoehorning so many styles into a show requires some creative mixing at times, and at others you just have to bite the bullet and forget any notion of matching beats or keys. This episode starts out conventionally enough with a few representative house tracks, but once the audience is warmed up we just go all over the place - dirty breaks, electro-trance, demonic-techno, euphoric-trance,  elevator-chill music, experimental-storytelling.... That's one of the great things abotu dance music is that there are so many new genres being creates all the time, either in the studio or on paper. I mean there's the music journalists, there's at least 2 kinds of them - one group still has their brain in the mainstream and still uses the term 'electronica' - nobody that actually listens to dance music uses this term, at least without sarcasm. Then there's the real members of the scene who like to create genres and write articles about them, look at 'Electroclash', in early 2002 some people were calling it 'Synthcore', while others were more descriptive, although frequently geographicaly innacurate, with 'Wierd Ass German Shit'. Personally I liked the last version, since it raised a smile, and lets face it, the whole scene was very up front about not being taken seriously. I'm sure there's some glory to be attributed to the individual who came up with the name of some modern classification, just like the way the WareHouse and Paradise Garage are held in some reverence by historians of the scene.

I could write a book on the whole genre, sub-genre, micro-genre, nano-genre culture that exists, but it would never be complete, new genres are created all the time, some springing from inspired moments in recording studios (Swing time Jungle anyone?), and others coming from looming publishing deadlines. Doesn't really matter in the end, I'm only going to play what's good, well unless it's Drum n Bass, in which case you can hear that on jungleZone, unless of course it's swing time Drum n Bass - then I'll claim that back for myself.

So this weeks guest mix isn't really a guest mix, since the forces of fortune managed to conspire against my scheduled guests, instead I tasked some guy called DJ S&M to come up with a themed mix that would be enjoyed by everyone.... Well excpet those that really don't like trance.

So, on with the show. Stay Funky People.

Scott Manley

Tracklising - Hour 1

Artist Track Label Buy? (readme)
Bassbin Twins ESW Marine Parade
This is the intro track we play at the start of every show. Slammin Beats!

Coloursound
Fly With Me
City Rockers
This was the best records from last year, it appealed to a lot of people, with it's simple production, funky bassline, and fantastic sing-along vocals. This record is so good I considered singing along with the intro, count yourselves lucky I chose not not.

DJ Rasoul Oh Baby (Red Jerry Mix)
Hooj Choons

I played the breakbeat version last week, this week is the house mix on the B-Side. At this rate I might even get round to playing the original deep house mix. I just love the rolling syth bleeps, it makes it feel like a Sunset party in Golden Gate Park.

Gus Gus
David
Underwater

This Icelandic house creation is a dead on hit, not sure where the title comes from, but those beats and synth chords definately come from the dancefloor and go straight to the motor centres in your brain.

Nu-Breed
Midi-Killa
Boom Box

Australia's Nu-Breed have been compared to Hybrid by many people, while they lack the symphonic breadth, they dfinately mix well with the tough breakbeats and deep basslines.

Ira
Dariush
Nukleuz

Electro-Trance or Punk-Techno? I've no idea what this record really falls under except that it just kicks ass, it's definately a lot less serious or precise than techno, and the shouty vocal (which I can't understand) just gives it bucketloads of energy.

Dave Clarke
The Wolf
Skint

Techno Predator, from Dave Clarke who's on the same record label as Fatboy Slim, Dave is the best counterargument to anyone who ever claims techno is boring. Either as a DJ or a producer he rocks any joint. Can't wait for his album.

Tillmann Urmacher
On The Run
Direction Records

One of the Few really good Trance records from 2002, managing to avoid fall nicely between pop trance and hard-trance. Just the right amount of euphoria for any party.

Chris Coco
Falling
Distinctive Breaks

Chill Out with members of rock band Bush? Chris Coco recruited Gavin Rossdale and Sacha Puttnam to provide some vocals and keyboards on his album of proper chill out material. 'The Next Wave' features more guest stars than a robert altman movie, singers, musicians and even author Iain Banks all contribute to make a great album.

Earl Zinger The Story Of The Heaviest Bassline In The World K7
Basslines can be scarey.... Earl Zinger manages to produce a modern jazz album which has an amazing sense of homour, especially if you're a DJ - He is the official commedian of clubland.

Joey Beltram Energy Flash R&S
Thundering monotonic bassline over wibbling 303 sounds, this record is timeless, even a decade on from it's original release it gets everyone going. Maybe not *the* heaviest bassline in the world, but about as close as I can get without endangering the audience.
The Chemical Brothers Come With Us (Fatboy Slim Mix)
Freestyle Dust

Chems vs Fatboy - it's like the big-beat boutique again, I wasn't a huge fan of the original mix of this track, but this cranked the speed up and thickened the production. The rest of the album is pretty good too, I'm a big fan of the Beth Orton track 'The State We're In' and the way it effortlessly mixes into the following house track.
Junior Cartier Women Beat Their Men (Ashley Beedle Mix) Nu-Camp
DJ S&M Theme Tune - but more from him later. Jon Carter is like a younger, better looking, version of Fatboy Slim - at least when he's DJ'ing, playing proper groovy house music and avoiding anything described as 'Deep'.

Plump DJ's Plumpy Chunks Finger Lickin'

I wanna F, F, U, F, U, N,K! Plump DJ's just rock the party, this is one of their older records, it's definatley got a housier feel to it, but even breakbeat fans love it.

Drummatic Twins Miss you Finger Lickin'
Finger Lickin' Good eh...Drummatic Twins are on the same label as the Plumps, they've actually put together a full length album of breaks and dirty house music, look out for Drummatical if you get a chance.

DJ B-Side Light Sabre (Hedrock Valley Beats Mix) Backroom Records

DJ B-Side lives in San Diego, I think I owe him an apology because I only play a short chunk of this, maybe I'll try and get him to do a mix for the show and you can appreciate just how the California breakbeat scene spreads across the whole state.
Andrea Doria Bucci Bag Southern Fried
Southern Fried is Norman Cook's Record Label, and pretty much every track released on it gets played by the man. This record was apparently around for a while and it's just been discovered and played out by all the big names. I *am* ready to *rock*!


Hour 2 - Remember When Trance Was Good?

Trance appeared, then around 1998 to 2000 it ruled the world of dance music. Then all the copycats rushed in a diluted it down into nothing. Here's the best records from that Era, mixed by DMZ resident backup DJ S&M, digging into his extensive collection of old records and coming up with an excellent cross section of classics.
see ya Next Week.

Scott Manley 08/03/03