part 2 re: sharing music vs. DJ ego was re: Hypersampling (was re:
Hawtin's "mix" for RA's 100th podcast):
Perhaps Hawtin DJs for a different reason that to share music he loves.
Perhaps it is purely an ego thing or perhaps his ego as a DJ and/or person
is now over-riding his urge to share (cos I'm sure he had this urge to
share
at one time) music he loves. If so, that is his prerogative. Obviously
there
are DJs who DJ purely for ego, so if that is now the case with Hawtin, he
certainly isn't the only one.
Personally, it would have spared me an hour of my time (plus all the time
I
have spent re-typing and re-posting my response to Arturo's post) to just
have
someone direct me to the sound clip for Dan Berkson & James What's
Reflections
featuring Robert Owens on Pokerflat. (You can find it at
http://clone.nl/item11837.html
by the way. Cos that was the song in Hawtin's tracklist that I wanted to
hear and check out.
Unlike the way it is "featured" in the Hawtin "mix", on the Clone site you
can actually hear Owens singing and hear the music from Berkson & What! :)
Don't get me wrong, I've been to parties (4, perhaps 5) where Hawtin
was DJing, and I was right up front and enjoying his in-person mixing,
but these chop-the-heck-out-of-tracks-and-present-them-like that "mixes"
don't please me as a listener, a dancer (dancing with my daughter as I
re-type this to a mix from a DJ that is obviously sharing the music she
loves vs. DJing for ego--Hannah Holland; far from Detroit-related, but
lots of fun to listen and dance to), or as someone looking to appreciate
the music
that a DJ has chosen to SHARE. They might be promoting Hawtin's
name and get him bookings, equipment, and software endorsements, and
the like, but I certainly don't think (writing now from an artist's
standpoint)
that it would help promote my music if, say, one of my tracks got featured
this way in a Hawtin "mix"--heck, I might not be even able to identify it
if one of my songs was featured in a presentation like that!
And, as an artist, that is a scary thing to me.
I'm not Hawtin-bashing here, mind. I'm just trying to explain in detail
why I strongly dislike this type of "mix"--whether it be from Hawtin or
anyone
for that matter, though luckily Hawtin seems to be the only one--at least
with a
"name"--that is bastardizing music and re-presenting it this way. And
Resident
Advisor are complicit in this whole thing in that this isn't just a
podcast from
them--this is the 100th podcast and they make a big deal over it.
I love a well-done mashup, edit, or remix of a song/songs. I still fondly
remember
how BMG (where he lately?) used Ableton Live to DJ and re-present songs.
So I'm
certainly not anti-technology. Heck, I teach a class called The Digital
DJ
that focuses on mashups, editing, remixing, and programs like Traktor.
And 2 others re: making music with computers. But, and this is a huge
but, I agree with those who have said this style of "mix" sucks the soul
from the songs being used. And I focus on the word "used" here, because
the songs are not being presented with love, they're not being shared,
they're
serving merely as tools for the person who is presenting this style of
"mix":
Hawtin in this case re: RA100 podcast.
So, to sum up, I enjoy the majority of the mixes on Resident Advisor,
but I feel that there was not a lot of positivity (re: music itself) in
the
RA100 podcast from Hawtin. I almost took it personally/emotionally
(thus the long rant from me) because for me I've always looked at music
as a positive thing with great potential--so to see it bastardized in this
RA100 podcast, well, it was somewhat heartbreaking.
This presentiation comes off as a sad PR stunt for RA and Hawtin; it,
in my opinion, again, treats the music in the "mix" as dirt. Shame on RA
and
Hawtin for this, I say; Shame.
I'll continue to check out RA and Hawtin, but I sure hope that Hawtin uses
technology,
especially now he's apparently dropped vinyl and endorses NI's Traktor
soley as his DJ-software of choice (I find Ableton Live great for
remixing,
production, mashups, and the like, but not so great for DJing), for
sharing
music, not dissecting the soul out of it and presenting the result as a
"mix".
I shudder to think what will happen to the future of DJing and "mixing" if
other DJs
listen to and look at what Hawtin has done in this case and try to emulate
it.
And yes, I realize Hawtin has done this sort of thing before; I was just
hoping
that that was a one or two-time thing; this April 2008 "mix" and the
accompanying interview
on RA show that, unfortunately, this is not the case and he's still going
to continue
doing this to music--using and abusing it for his own aims.
My long-winded CDN $0.02.
Thoughts, 313ers?
Andrew
--
Andrew Duke--sound design/recording/composition/production courses:
http://andrew-duke.com/course.html
Andrew Duke--Chain Reaction downloadable sound FX samplepack:
http://www.audiobase.com/product/SACR
Andrew Duke--Consumer vs. User album:
http://www.phthalo.com/cat.php?cat=phth40
Andrew Duke--columns/features/commentaries/more:
http://cognitionaudioworks.com/read.html
http://linkedin.com/in/AndrewDukeCognitionAudioworks
http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew_Duke/852160229
http://myspace.com/AndrewDuke
http://myspace.com/CognitionAudioworks
