The Bat's back
I haven't been out too much lately. Kinda need to recharge. But I used to go out alot, especially this past winter/spring. Why did I stop? Hipster nightlife music in Philly went stale. If you don't like Hollertronix, or Club (MT's preferred genre as of late), or really, really bad disco, or ?uestlove, or Britpop or "Sweet Caroline", you're pretty much fucked. I don't know if there ever was a time or place when it really was just about the dance music, maybe like the very nascent days of DFA and dancepunk, maybe now with DJs like Optimo and Tim Sweeney, but I don't think this ever really caught on in Philly. I think it's always been scene first, then "phillying" the shit out of the scene. Now part of "phillying" is that you have to do everything just harder and so lots of drugs started getting done. Now I know Optimo loves the snow too, but they're just so many light years ahead of the rest of us, they can do whatever they want, but I really think the drugs, and the Philly mentality, the urge to freak out, the urge to be dirtier/sluttier chic, and therefore, paradoxically, somehow more of a pure hipster than the polyester shirt/sport coat clad one, and a lack of care about dancing in general, all together, have created this void of really good, which I would say would be both extremely eclectic and cutting edge, dance music nights in our city. Let me just say to all you fucking Philly DJs who might read this and be like "Hey, I'm cutting edge", no you're not, and you need to pay attention.
***Class In Session***
Here are some songs that I have not yet heard in Philly clubs, that if you want to be the next best thing in Philly DJing you should start playing.
1. Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
If you play it, they will dance.
2. Daft Punk - Revolution 909
Still in my opinion Daft Punk's best dance song. Still haven't heard anyone play it.
3. Matthew Dear - Dog Days
Now's the perfect time people.
4. Medeski, Martin and Wood - Bubblehouse
I want to talk about this one for a second-- this song really being the quintessence of what I'm talking about. Here is a song that you've probably never heard at a party, but has enormous potential, that has rock and house and funk all combined, that you can freak out to, but also geek out to. I guess nobody in Philly ever listened to MMW that much or, again, none of DJs have the gift of foresight, of how many light years ahead of itself this song still is, the gift to be enlighteners.
5. Kaito - Color of Feels (Album Mix)
Once or twice, the Making Time guys have dropped Gui Boratto's "Beautiful Life", to surprisingly results, the crowds being more than receptive, but this Kaito track of the same pretty, micro trance-y type genre, so shits on the Gui one. It's so pretty it could deep freeze ya, but somehow can still be danced to, leaving you cold and hot at the same time, and generally feeling great.
6. Paperclip People - Parking Garage Politics
A classic, plain and simple.
7. N.E.R.D. - Things Are Getting Better
You may have never heard this one, but it too is a classic, plain and simple.
8. The Rapture - Sister Savior
Philly says, "With all the other bangers The Rapture have made, you want to hear that?" Just so we're clear, I'm not talking about any remixes either.
9. Spektrum - May Day
If you want bangers, here's a good one.
10. !!! - Heart of Hearts
Why hasn't this song been played at a Making Time? Seriously?
There's so much more, so much dirty disco, and funk, and hip hop, and rock. Trust me, city of mine, there's music to get people moving and shaking and freaking out and just having fun and enjoying their youth other than Baltimore House (isn't Philly supposed to scoff at Baltimore anways) and Nu Rave.
6 comments:
When referring to the N.E.R.D. track, are you thinking of the Pharell, J. Timberlake version? Is there only one? I ran to this song every day of freshman year at college. Because I drank too much beer and loved chicken finger wraps.
Are you saying that the Optimo DJs are into blow, or the crowd? Please tell me the DJs aren't using it. That would break my heart.
Everything you describe as "Phillying" is relevant in Austin too. It's good to have a word for this.
Agreed on the need to hear "Sister Savior" more often. "Heart of Hearts," if I remember right, has an abrupt start that's not conducive to mixing. Also, I've never warmed up to the song because it always seemed like it was mixed wrong for the dance floor. The payoffs don't have the force that they should and it sounds generally chaotic and noisy. I'd like to hear more Out Hud in the club.
Lastly, I've never had as many people come up and ask me the name of a song as when I was playing "Beautiful Life" last semester. I never did play anything by Kaito but it's a good suggestion.
hey man, phil,
unfortunately, i have to be the bearer of bad news re optimo. but i should say that they do things so much differently than we americans. it's like their connoiseurs, like it's tasteful. and they are definitely music first-- maybe it's how they deal with the crowd not being that way.
and in my opinion optimo are without doubt the best djs on the planet. the best night of my post-college life, was the first time i was lucky enough to catch optimo live in philly, they're that on point.
which leads me to "Heart of Hearts." Optimo has this style of DJing so far ahead of everyone else. they just get pacing. it's not all perfect mixing and beat matching. it is very much, not sloppy, just imperfect, human really. they know when to let a song unwind naturally, when to have shifts in the bpm, which gives the party a sort of narrative, and in my opinion makes for an epic night of dancing. which makes me think the abrupt lead-in, and the female vocals, those are the key, of "HoH" would just kill a crowd, litterly slay them. think "house of jealous lovers". i find the two tracks paced somewhat similarly, full-force dancepunk, that somehow has its high and then even higher moments. clearly, the song needs to be used with caution, and should serve as like a centerpiece/acme/spike in the action and transition to something entirely different, something with as abrupt a lead in as the song's exit. haven't much thought about it, but there's got to be something that would work, maybe "Sister Savior." the point here being djing w/out perfect beat matching, maybe for some songs and moments no mixing necessary-- let the songs do the work.
guess it came across wrong, but i really like "beautiful life." but i just think that kaito song is so perfect, like a more "beautiful life." to try to describe it again, i would say it's a pretty, restrained, blissful fight song. i love songs, especially when they're danceable, that can communicate tension and paradox, and the more i listen to this one the more i hear that tension, and the more i'm compelled to get it going. but yeah, "beautiful life" is great.
what about no big names other than optimo or t.s. or dfa guys playing good house music? i think that anyone playing house music should be made to play one track, remix, whatever by Carl Craig. there's this really great kerri chandler track "bar a thym" and a middleton cosmos remix of it that i'll never get to hear unless sweeney's djing, and also i can't fathom how i haven't heard anyone spin Trentemoller's "Le Champagne", by far his best song.
Well, I guess that's why they call him Twitch.
I'm half Colombian and have this big problem with yay'. It made me feel like such a narc around my college friends.
But I agree that they really are the best DJs on the planet. I probably say this too much but I was in Glasgow all through the fall of '05 and I went to Optimo every Sunday for three months straight. Everything you say is true. They really do love to play with the crowd. For instance, one night they put on "The Flight of the Valkyries" straight from the helicopter scene in Apocalypse Now, playing it all the way through to the "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" quote. They would also just outright slam on "Paint It Black" or "Search and Destroy" or "Teenage Kicks." There were a lot of rock songs they wouldn't bother mixing in but they always shifted to that type of abrupt pacing following an extended dance set that always came right after the guest artist/band finished.
Other crazy shit: on Halloween they mixed in John Carpenter's Halloween theme. Twitch put on "Welcome to Jamrock" one night out of nowhere. He also played just the instrumental from "Pon de Replay" on a couple of occasions. And near the end of my stay in Scotland they did Justus Kohncke's "Timecode" into the "Time goes by so slowly" in "Hung Up" before jumping all out into the song. "Time of the Season" and "Come Together" also got mixed in a couple of times. Twitch was never scared to go all-out pop. It's great that they're both record connoiseurs who are never above cracking a joke.
I can also vouch for the crowd in Glasgow, saying that they know what to expect and are very receptive so you don't need to do a couple of lines to cope with that audience.
I don't know of anyone really who's doing it like Tim Sweeney and those guys but I live in Texas so what do I know? What's Dave P's deal? I guess, besides his love of running.
cocaine totally scares me. the whole thing about the drip. i guess the possibility of a bloody nose scares me too. i totally forgot how you went to optimo in glasgow. like i'm one to talk. i need to get over there some time in the not too far off future, for something that twitch and wilkes will be psyched to do, something big, like maybe if they have the juan maclean play optimo.
the philly moment: i forget what they came out of but twitch slammed on the chorus of fucking "black betty".
dave's usually pretty solid, but as of late he's veered too far into the nu rave territory for me. it isn't that i couldn't get behind an occassional nu rave track, my friend nick made a good point about the carl craig remix of "in the trees" having nu rave elements in it, but in my opinion such songs need to be used sparingly. hearing them one after another after another after another after another after another after another after another, is just too much for somebody like me who can put down like seven vodka tonics, max. put more simply, dave, by far one of the coolest and most welcoming people you're ever going to meet, would never play "pon de replay", which is tragic cause it's a really great song.
discerning good pop is so important. it seperates the men from the boys. and like you said when you hear optimo "drop" something like "come together" (the annie song, right? if so, sooooo good!) it makes for one of those moments that you never forget. what frustates me now is not having anyone other than optimo or tim sweeney come through.
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