Jules R1 28/10/06

[bigsteve]

I also honestly believe that trance has been superb this year too: Sean Tyas (and his many reworkings, but not forgetting Rememeber earlier in the year), Galen Behr, Ottaviani, Selu Vibra, Smith & Pledger,Ferry Corsten's album, Optik,...the list goes on...have been immense.

I admit the late 90s were trance's heyday, but I'm certainly not complaining about the output this year.

ASOT and TATW consistently are full of really good new trance. And what Briggsy's saying about the diversity of trance is spot on.

Roll on 2007 8-)

[Dewi]

electro bleepy stuff is where its at at the mo..

[KSheehan]

???

[Dewi]

Reinforcing your point...

[Max Kane]

Some trance music has gone a bit stale, i think that's why i've been moving more & more towards progressive tunes. But i would still class a good deal of what i play as trance, albeit progressive trance.

I think this year has been miles better than last year when things did start going downhill, i agree with many of the artists that Steve listed as having some wicked tunes out this year, all in the 'proper trance' (for want of a better analogy) mould.

Eddie Halliwell's 2nd CD on Cream Ibiza has some of the best trance from this year on it and there are a good few tunes there that would be up there in any year

[dormouse]

I cant help but feel ye guys are targetting me, especially you mouse?? Is it coz jules isnt playing 'obstruction' or wa coz thats the impression im getting from you. Fair enough my stuff isnt A1 or probably wont ever get a release but I just do it for my own sets and to get my name out there just like you tried to do with 'twist u'.. he obviously likes the mashups and they must work in clubs for him to be playing them on the show.. Some of the new stuff from up and coming djs must not appeall to him basically then or else he'd be playing them over the 'dodgy' mashups and 'edits', dont ya think?

Right, let me clarify my point.

I wasn't targetting you specifically. But mash-ups are piss easy to create. I know that was how I started my association with Jules, but as soon as it happened I got to know a lot of people in the industry, and you quickly learn that there's no career in it. They're cool ways of making a track unique to yourself, and having something that no-one else has. But Jules' sets now are littered with them. And half of them are sub-standard ones that people end up asking to buy, when they could easily re-create them themselves for nowhere near the same amount of trouble or waiting time.

I'm not gonna lie, I am frustrated about Jules not supporting Obstruction on the radio. Mainly because he played it soooo many times in the clubs, but every week in the saturday night mix, he'd play AJS 'Obsession Drop' or some other so called "mash-up" for the umpteenth time, which as Briggsy said, will never see a release. He continued to tell me how well it was going down and that he liked it. If he'd have played it (or any other track that has recieved similar treatment - I can think of many!) on the radio, it would have drastically improved its chances of a decent signing. As it happens many other DJs have been on board, and I've made contacts so I don't need to rely on Jules for DJ support as much anymore.

Jules' edits are, for the most part, dire. At his level, many many people will spot a mistake, and it can't look good on him! I spend so much time editing a track down to the finest detail, and I would never play out some of what he has. I'm sure all DJs on here would agree.

With regards to Briggsy's comments on the show, I believe it was pre-rec'd, but your point about the text votes has made me doubt myself, and perhaps the Sirius radio linkup came in to play after all. Dunno.

I also agree with his points on trance as a whole. Trance was corking and probably at its best in 99/2000 but it was all essentially the same sound. nowadays we see much more of the individual sub-genres of trance, and all have their big players and major successes. More than with house I would say, which is pretty much funky or electro nowadays, with very little of what I would class as real "house music".

Phew.

Essay over.

[Quadrant]

And I could go on all day about shoddy edits. OK, I can understand some tunes being edited - but Jules edits almost every one he recieves (and some quite poorly). There's no need to edit every single tune. Jules's reason for editing tracks is because "it makes his set more compact" - but I disagree. If he plays a really stunning tune, we want to hear it for as long as possible and not just 4 minutes of it. If Jules thinks that he needs to edit every track, then its either because he gets bored of tunes and can't wait 7 minutes for it to play fully (in which case, that would suggest he's not feeling his tunes as much these days and probably isn't enjoying the job - so should he still be doing it?), or because a tune isn't getting a good reaction o the dance floor for 7 minutes - so if thats the case, that would suggest its a weak tune that he shouldn't be supporting at all.

Being serious for once, I really agree with you here sir! The scene has changed so much that it seems Jules' club crowds have the attention spam of a gnat.... there's nothing boring whatsoever about long tracks if they're good enough - in fact quite the opposite: you think when you here an amazing track for the first time in a club, and you can't get enough of it, and its been going on for 5/6 minutes already, and you know the DJ will let the record play.... I love that feeling of "there's more" and it running onto 7 or 8 minutes. I remember Ferry opening his mix on Radio 1 during Jules live show from that Bolton cafe back in March 2003. He let that Masters & Nickson track go for nearly 9 minutes and I loved it when you knew he wasn't going to mix it out at the first opportunity after 4 mins

I'd disagree completely. Trance, in my opinion, is more diverse than ever before. The quality of production in 1999/2000 was the best for sure - but 2006 has been the best for Trance since then. We've had some quality productions out this year! The major difference between now and 1999/2000 is that the diversity of Trance wasn't as wide as it is now.

I agree with this too, although by 1998/9 I felt the trance scene was already fragmenting. Nowadays there's so many split-offs that you can't even put them in boxes and label tunes by genre very easily at all - and maybe that's a good thing. With the advent of the internet, us sirs our now spoilt for choice!

What amuses me is that Jules is seen as a House/Trance DJ but in fact he isn't either of those to. The Radio Times says his show is "2 hours of House music"...

[Aza]

Great thread guys - top stuff. There are loads of points I wanted to add as I started reading the post, but a lot of you brought them up here and thats great to see.

Also, its great to see such a discussion taking place and everyone putting their points across like a message/discussion board should be

Tim would be proud

[Briggsy]

I believe it was pre-rec'd, but your point about the text votes has made me doubt myself, and perhaps the Sirius radio linkup came in to play after all. Dunno.

One other thing that crossed my mind today is that if it is pre-recorded, perhaps Jules records two "conclusions" to the text vote, so that radio 1 can play the relevant one depending on the result? I'm sure that could quite easily be done - after all, the classic tune isn't played by Jules anyway - it comes off the Radio 1 back catalogue.

I can't believe that a company the size of Radio 1 would dare encourage millions of people to vote knowing that it all comes down to nothing because they've rigged the voting - I think OFCOM would make mincemeat of them for false advertising, and I dare say it could open a legal can of worms too should someone decide to get ultra-arsey over a wasted 10p text. Personally, it wouldn't bother me - but some people will compalin about anything to stir up trouble in the hope that they might get a bit of compensation.

[Briggsy]

What amuses me is that Jules is seen as a House/Trance DJ but in fact he isn't either of those to...

I agree with that actually, and thats why I think Jules is either loved or loathed. He's often put on Trance line-ups such as at Godskitchen, but will often play some bouncy high-tempo house tune at 140bpm sandwiched between two Trance tunes - although I don't mind that, some people like a typical orthodox Trance set - starting minimal and working up to something harder (which Jules rarely does). Those kind of sets won't go down well at venues which are mainly Trance orientated.

Jules is very much like Tall Paul and John Kelly - they don't pigeonhole themselves with genres, they just play a bit of everything. Jules plays bouncy energetic sets consisting of House, Trance and techno - which is right up my street, but for those that like a "Trance journey", then Jules isn't the right DJ for it.

The best sets i've heard Jules play have been at BCM in Majorca (where he was absolutely supurb last summer), and Slinky in Borunemouth. BCM is a general "have a good time" club and don't specialise in anything - giving Jules pretty much a free rein to do anything he likes - and thats when he plays to his best. Slinky is a Hard Trance/Techno venue - and, in my opinion, Jules always plays to his best when he's doing a harder set. If Jules played Hard Trance and Techno all the time, he'd be a quality DJ because the energy he puts into those sets is supurb.

Jules doesn't suit Funky House and melodic Vocal Trance in my opinion. he rarely played that back in the late 90's, and that was when he was at his best too. I think that sums it all up.

Jules still shows glimpses of his old brilliance (after all, I heard it just 18 months ago) - if he was to just stop the dodgy edits, cut down on the amount of "randomness" in genres at each gig, and play "serious" tunes rather than suspect bootlegs, then he'd gain back some of his respect again. Bootlegs are fine if they are quality (such as AJS's), but shoddyness such as that Marco V vs Fatboy Slim are just laughable and unprofessional.

[Chrissie Brown]

I also honestly believe that trance has been superb this year too: Sean Tyas (and his many reworkings, but not forgetting Rememeber earlier in the year), Galen Behr, Ottaviani, Selu Vibra, Smith & Pledger,Ferry Corsten's album, Optik,...the list goes on...have been immense.

And what Briggsy's saying about the diversity of trance is spot on.

I agree, well said.

[thirddrive]

Sooo many good comments that i'm not going to add anything except the Marco Fatboy one wasn't mine and really, what was the point of it being played out when the swearing was cut out, it's the point of Star 69!

As Bjorn and Tremor mention, I only made it for them anyway, as a favour. And i'm making original tracks now anyway haha, so i'm all good.

Re: Jules and music - it's just going to be one of those things he's going to move with the times and what works in the clubs, if his show is a reflection of how he plays out. Well, i know it is, the big tunes from nottingham gig back in June were in the Saturday night mix, so it makes sense to showcase them. Will have to see how he plays on Saturday at Crasher.