johnb

Just surfing around the other day and I saw on Home's website a separate page for Home, New York. It said "we will be in NYC in 2000." Is this going ahead? Anyone know the what, where, when? JohnB ------------------

On July 2nd he will spin at the 22 hour party Home@Space. He's due to play 3 hours outdoors on the terrace during the day, and then 3 more hours at night inside the club. Then Carl Cox for the rest of the night. I'll be there, anyone else? This will be worth the trip in itself! JohnB ------------------

Don't you people understand what Sasha is doing? Just as everyone and their mother falls in love with trance, he changes his style so he won't play himself out. Don't forget, Sasha was a very famous DJ long before there was trance, or even progressive house. I have a 1990 mix tape from him in which he was playing old Chicago house with Whitney Houston mixed in, and he originally got famous doing just that. PVD on the other hand was a B or C-list techno DJ all his life till trance suddenly got popular and now he is temporarily the hottest thing going. You will see, Sasha will be around long after no one remembers who PVD is. Coming soon in America, pop trance on every radio station and MTV. Believe it, it's been that way in Europe for years. It's not as far off as you think. JohnB ------------------

Hopefully it will be soon. I'd much rather hear Satoshi. JohnB ------------------

More people who are really into the music=more innovation, new styles, and less cheese. Don't get the wrong idea, the UK is really the exception. Most of the rest of Europe plays cheesy radio trance, painful industrial techno, or very commercial pop house. People in the UK are really into good music though. It's very popular but still not commercial in a way because it's popular to not be commercial. And most places in London dropped dress codes and have a simple door policy. They ask you why did you come, and if you say to hear the DJ and name him you're in. If you say something like, "I came to party" no chance. Thus only people who come for the music and know what it's about get in, not the most fashionable. BTW, interesting stat I saw the other day. In 1999 turntable sets outsold guitars in Europe by more than 3 to 1. As much as some complain, I would still say that among major cities, New York as the best non-UK club scene, with Berlin being the only one that could challenge that. JohnB ------------------

The reason I thought Dad House was appropriate was because you mentioned Jr Vasquez so many times, and when I hear his name Dad House is the first thing that comes to mind. I wasn't making any assumptions about your age. He is an example of a legend brilliant for his time who the world of music has passed by. peace JohnB ------------------

You know just the other day about 2 weeks ago I picked up my very old Danny Tenaglia tribal CD which was my favourite when it first came out, "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?," from 1994 I think, and put it in. I still like it, but it made me realise how far music has come, and how Danny has always been innovating and staying on the cutting edge, while many others (Junior Vasquez for example) seem stuck in a time warp while the rest of the world has left them behind. People are doing so much with harder more banging styles today that make it great and smooth to listen to, unlike early rave music or the pounding techno of the mid-90s. Dance music really is getting better. It's also gradually getting more popular, which creates other problems, like tons of commercl DJs running around to play for clueless crowds. Don't get me wrong, I have frequented Body and Soul and really like that style of music, but there's more things happening people, things change, enjoy it. JohnB ------------------

Quote from UK Mixmag, May 2000, which I think is very appropriate for this post and several others I have read recently: "...listening to the growing ranks of 30-something deep house obsessives you would think the world had somehow stopped in 1990. Welcome to the sorry world of Dad House....You've had your shot and, no matter how much you try and convince everyone that nothing will ever be as good as Tony Humphries at Shoom, what you mean is that nothing will ever be as good again for you. Rubbish. Get yourself a Fergie mix CD, head down to Insomniacz in Sheffield and open your mind. You'll never want to hear another bass guitar solo again." JohnB ------------------

The reason I am moving soon to New York is that I will do a master's degree at Columbia. And no one who knows me during the day would recognise me at night. During the day I'm all about jeans and dorky glasses. JohnB ------------------

1) Let's say 80% of the time yes 2) I went to my 1st rave in 91 when I was 16. 3) I dropped for the first time at my first rave. 4) Never really stopped that, but stopped everything else but in 96. Still enjoy an occasional pick-me-up, maybe once every 2 or 3 months. In my opinion, it's not a matter of if you do drugs, it's a matter of if you can do the same thing and enjoy youself without it. If you need it just to go out, you may have a problem. I'm happy either way, although maybe it shows more one way than the other. JohnB ------------------

Well other than keeping the good people at Global Underground in business, I like a lot of Arabic and Pakistani stuff. Also acid jazz and Beethoven. JohnB ------------------

Please don't enter a contest to see who can build the biggest club. That gets annoying because then you have to get a bunch of commercial DJs and let everyone in to fill it up. The way to build an internationally-known "superclub" I am convinced would be to have about a 1000 capacity, get a lot of DJs who are not yet well-known but who are basically as good as the superstars but who don't just copy them either, have a door policy to only let in people with good vibes, and within 2 years you and your DJs would be just like Gatecrasher and PVD now. The problem is very few club owners seem to understand music, so they build clubs with all these cheesy theatrics to make up for it. Well, whether you'd have the next superclub or not, I'd love you for doing it. JOhnB ------------------

I haven't even moved to New York yet (July) so it's a little early for me to start complaining, but I have noticed that it seems like Twilo brings the same superstar names you hear everywhere and no one seems to bring the lesser-known names that have similar talent level. To me their Wednesday night lineup looks more interesting than their Friday. But they seem like the only ones doing this. Someone else needs to get a night going and bring some good DJs over. A little competiton would improve things and educate more people about what good music is. But I've been living in Hungary for 3 years, and Nick Warren was really the first big-name DJ to start playing here regularly (other than Sven Vath, but I don't really like him so he doesn't count). I've seen him here 5 times now, including that party where they made the GU 11 Budapest CD. Personally I enjoy his stuff more than S&D. Not so many drumrolls, and more interesting tracks. The other DJ that plays here really regularly is Anthony Pappa, and I saw him play an 8 hour set once that I would put up against any DJ. More sort of banging hard house than trance, but with lots of different sounds blended together. Really brilliant. They don't have the same star-studded names like S&D, PVD, Cox, etc. but they can spin with the best of them. Someone needs to realise that as great as these guys are, and I love them too don't get me wrong, they are not the only wicked DJs in the world. Not only that but if someone could get a club night up and running I'm sure they could book these kind of guys much cheaper than the superstars. So what are we waiting for? JohnB ------------------

I think it goes pretty strong from mid-June to mid-Septmber. Probably a little more crowded in August, but all the clubs are going by the end of June. I'm going the 1st week in July. It was already quite difficult to book a room for these dates 3 weeks ago. I know Oakie is due there then among others. If anyone else is going then e-mail me: johnbtravels@yahoo.com. JohnB ------------------

I'm going July 1st for a week. And I'd love to chat about it. Let me know when and where if you work something out. JohnB ------------------

There are usually a lot of hookers standing on streets near Twilo, maybe that's more your scene. BTW, I'm 25, but my best friend turns 30 in a couple of months and she can tell you more about electronic music and artists than 95+% of the people on this board and she doesn't even work in the industry. I think that's pretty ignorant to say that anyone who is 28 is too old or mature to care about the music just because you don't. JohnB ------------------

They don't ever play together? Deep Dish did some gigs in the UK with Digweed where they would play first, then for an hour Digweed would come on and spin records while Deep Dish played live on top of it. MUSICAL ORGASM! I saw Seaman spin once and thought he was every bit as good as Digweed. This will definitely be my night in Twilo when I get there (2 more months, looking forward to meeting all you crazy peeps!) JohnB ------------------

Yeah that awakening CD is WICKED! It seems stuck in my CD player too. Actually that and Deep Dish Yoshiesque and GU 14 Digweed are the 3 best mix CDs I've heard. JohnB ------------------

What the British started in the early 90s they call progressive house, which most non-Brits refer to as trance, which is the distinctly British form of trance. The pioneers were people like Darren Emerson, Justin Robertson, and yes, Sasha and Digweed. They were the first to play it at a superclub and get attention, which Renaissance. Actually Sasha had already made a big name for himself playing light house music (I have a 10-yr old mix of his in which he was playing a Whitney Houston track on top of another track, and believe it or not it sounds good) but no one knew who Digweed was at the time. He was Sasha's opening DJ. But the lion's share of what they and most of the British "trance" DJs play is the same "progressive house." Oakenfold plays more trance. But yes trance was originally pioneered by Germans including Oliver Lieb. JohnB ------------------

Who cares? Josh Wink absolutely sucks! He was cool maybe 3 or 4 years ago but now he only plays his old hits and tries to promote himself to death. I saw him spin in March and he played the shittiest stuff, including the worst remix I've ever heard of "Music Sounds Better With You." And a friend of mine interviewed him, and he was the most arrogant self-promoting bastard. He kept calling himself legendary, and compared himself to Jeff Mills. If you've ever seen Jeff Mills spin, you will be badly dissappointed by this punk. I can't believe Twilo would book him with all the real DJs they have there. Whenever he's spinning is definitely a night to skip. Just warning you, JohnB ------------------