[demonrail666]

Don't think we've had a thread specifically about DJs. Any that you particularly like? Club or radio, any style.

[gualbert]

I am a DJ: I play records.

[demonrail666]

i cook my own dinners. it doesn't make me a chef

[atsonicpark]

Ken Ishii

[SYRFox]

Rob Hall (he often opens for Autechre) is an awesome DJ. When I saw him opening for Autechre for the first time it felt like he was writing a new composition using all the tunes he mixed. Really impressive.
BunZer0, a Belgian dubstep DJ, was also mindblowing when I saw him mixing... Nothing can beat nocturnal dubstep at 4 in the morning.
Skream & Benga were great the same night, I was mad into it. They're not great DJs by any means though... too many rewinds, transitions could be better... But hours of wobbling dubstep played on a huge bassy soundsystem is just awesome.

Mary Anne Hobbs is another one I respect a lot, though her voice is unbeareable when she mutters over the tracks. The tracklists and guests on her BBC1 Radio show always kill, and her three compilations on Planet Mu are great... my favorite being the last one, Wild Angels.

Hmm... Chris Cunningham did a great DJ/VJ Set at Dour Festival this year, but I'm not sure whether I'd really list him as a DJ. Great set nonetheless, with lasers and stuff. I had never heard Boards Of Canada "interlude" tracks used in a DJ Set before... It was great.

In terms of more "electro" DJs I loved Mr Oizo and South Central when I saw them.
I think that's it. Seeing Boys Noize, Laurent Garnier and others DJing in early september, I can't wait.

[gualbert]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

i cook my own dinners. it doesn't make me a chef

No, it makes you a cook (an amateur one).

Back to topic: thanks to John Peel for broacasting many great bands.
The modern dj's who bring their record at a nightclub and press "play", and everyone is thrilled: grotesque!

[SYRFox]

Originally Posted by gualbert

I am a DJ: I play records.

I am a pianist: I press keys.


And I actually really am a pianist. But to reduce a DJ to simply someone who plays records is a bit easy. Sure, some DJ sets may be this. But a good DJ will reflect his own musical personality while DJing, with the selection of the tracks, the way he arranges them (cause playing a certain track after a certain other may change the perspective on that track, give it a new vision, etc), the way he tweaks them using effects, samples, etc, the way he fades them into each other. There are good and bad DJs, fun DJs and complex DJs, DJs that make you want to dance and DJs that make you want to sit down and chill out, DJs that make you think, etc. In the end a DJ can express just as many emotions as a live musician can do. Sure, you don't get the visual aspect of the musician actually playing what you're hearing in front of your eyes, but that's not the point. The point if having fun / dancing / feeling melancholic / losing yourself into the complex rhythms / chilling out / whatever the DJ wants to achieve with his set.
I used to think DJ Sets were necessarily boring, but after having seen many of them I can appreciate them just as much as I appreciate a live show. They're a whole different experience, but they can give you the same feelings.
Besides, working out a great transition can be just as difficult, if not more, as playing a guitar riff.

[Toilet & Bowels]

dj shadow
cut chemist
q-bert
keb darge
dj premier
n-type (more for his chat than his dj skills though)
logan sama
dj target

[jimbrim]

kode 9 has put on a really great set the times i have seen him, which all included spaceape mcing over the mix

other memorable sets i have seen were cooly g, the bug, edan, and richard d james (with quality visuals as well from what i remember)

[atsonicpark]

It's time to slay the dragon.

[Genteel Death]

Derrick Carter
DJ Scud
DJ Rick
Severino Panzetta
Brian Turner

[ann ashtray]

I miss John Peel. I like the sorta DJ that plays an eclectic array of weird/punky music, w/ little interest at attempting to appeal to a large-scale audience. Those Nirvana Peel Sessions are fantastic....

Basically, I could care less about going to a club where people are dancing and some cliche weirdo in a cocked cap + Addidas zip-up is up there scratchin' and trying to get people to move. I don't understand the appeal + don't identify w/ it at all. I could probably understand if I sat around really thinking about it...but it's pointless...as that's a world I have no interest in being a part of. No offense to anyone that digs this sort of thing...I'm not trying to insult/etc.

If it isn't something I can listen to in my free time at home, I have no interest in it. Sway don't dance.

I think maybe I'm still in love with the guitar. I look at it and see an instrument that STILL has a lot to say, even if it sometimes boils down to repeated (but still meaningful) messages. I guess I appreciate the sort of DJ that feels at least similar, and plays this sort of thing. I do see how turntables ARE an instrument to some people...I do. I just always found the concept of mixing the music of others into little pieces used to express one's self a bit boring.

Lotsa great Peel Session out there...Mogwai, the Fall, Nirvana...it's endless.

RIP to that guy.

[stu666]

John was the best DJ ever, i hate to think what i'd be listening to if it weren't for him. I was lucky enough to know him and see his huge record collection, he took me to see lots of bands and festivals when i was younger, such a nice guy. Deeply missed.

[Green_mind]

wow that must've of been awesome stu, sadly I wasn't really aware of him until his passing unfortunately. I played new england (of all the songs..) by billy bragg in a Peel tribute show, there's a pic of it on my profile. The poor lass singing next to me had to bang a tamborine on her side to keep me in time.

[Glice]

Radio DJs: Sarah Mohr-Pietsch, Fiona Torkington, Andy Kershaw (still off sick I think?), Lucy Duran... shame to see Mary-Ann Hobbs going, she was great at picking records (but increasingly annoying when speaking). Steve Lamacq may be a bit indie and wet, but I likes what he does from time to time. Gideon Coe and Stuart Maconie are alright in their respective shows, but neither are the most engaging of presenters. I don't know if he still does them, but Simon Munnery's shows on Resonance were well worth it. And, obviously, eternal plaudits to Saint Peel. Radio 1, in my yoot, had a load of great shows that introduced me to a load of good stuff - Fabio and Grooverider, Goldfinger, Nightingale and even Westwood (though, obviously, he's a bit of a tool.

Proper DJs: Sy, Rush & Optical, Nicky Blackmarket, Krush, Dougal, Billy Bunter, Die, Richie Hawtin, Andy C... it occurs to me that the greatest DJs I ever saw were the ones whose names I couldn't remember. Locally, mad props going out to the funk from the trunk boys, Dutty Ken and the legendary DJ Derek.

There's an awesome documentary on Derek that I can't find at the moment. Will try again when I'm slightly more awake.

[_slavo_]

DJ Krush
DJ Olive

[Rob Instigator]

Terminator X

[chicka]

Sway it's a shame that you're so closed minded cause you are missing out on some serious entertainment. How many times in you life can you listen to Smells like Teen Spirit? As we all know I grew up in the sixties with all them great bands but today a lot of them bore me I have to be in the mood. I can't even tell you the last time I listen to the Stones, or the Doors or etc.

I really can't tell you any names of DJ's but I do enjoy them and I know how hard it is to keep a dance floor jumping as I DJ'ed in the seventies for a while at a couple of different clubs best one was a strip club talk about perks.

Threads like this one are ones that I love as I learn about new music to enjoy.

[Green_mind]

^^ What kind of stuff did you play at the strip joint? Did you ever drop Sabbath's 'Paranoid' like that awesome scene in Spun were Brittany Murphy rocks out on the pole??
Did you ever spin any atrocious disco records? :P


As for radio DJ's, I kinda of liked some of Mark Lamarr's shows, (reggae one was alright), but always out on friday nights so never catch his current show.

[chicka]

Yes on "Paranoid" and yes on Disco as the strippers picked out there own music. In the small intervals between the strippers I generally played Bowie, Queen, B52's and other musicians who were hot and fresh in 79 & 80 the two years I worked in the club.