Briggsy

I think to say its been crap all the way through from 2003 is a little unfair - It did have a drop in 2003 - but to be fair, it did pick up again for a short while. 2005 was fairly good, and 2006 was a particularly strong year and there were some excellent vocal free tunes around - but it did start to go downhill again from late 2008 onwards. I guess it depends what sort of stuff you're into really. 2006 was "the year for 140bpm+ vocal-less driving Trance" - so it was right up my street. 2007 seemed to be a year for the mid-paced Tech-Trance stuff similar to what Richard Durand, Randy Katana, Mac Zimms, etc were releasing. 2008 was far too overloaded with light, uplifting Trance with girly vocals (what I refer to as Anjuna-esque girly shite ) - and then from late 2008 onwards, Trance just seems to have lost its identity. 95% of Trance DJs started playing really slow sets, Trance productions started becoming more and more 'Housey' (and developed the rather gay name of 'Trouse') - and productions in general just seem rather unimaginitive and 'copycat' or Swedish House Mafia-esque. if you compare Trance now, to Trance from 10 years ago, its like a completely different genre now. I can't think of any other genre that has changed as drastically as Trance has. There was quite a lot of instrumental tunes around during 2005-2007. I've never been a huge fan of vocals. In my opinion, vocals aren't needed unless they "make" the tune. For example, "Silence" by Delerium would never have worked without a vocal. These days though, it seems that vocals are used just for the sake of having a vocal. I've heard some tunes that would have sounded amazing without the vocal - but for me, the vocal just spoilt it. If producers are going to do that, they should at least release the dub version too for those that don't like vocals - especially in the digital era when it doesn't cost any extra to release a dub mix. Anyway, on a side note, its a good job I don't work for a music magazine such as DJ Mag. I don't think my descriptions of "gay Trouse" and "Anjuna-esque shite" would go down too well with the "Trancefamily". #Trousefamily

This is one thing that really annoys me - and something that J00F and John Askew used to rant about quite often in their infamous outbursts too. I just don't get it. I'm not sure if its always down to being clueless - I think, on occasions, its just some of them being ignorant/arrogant and just wanting to "do their thing". They think their making an impression or "rocking the place" because they've hoofed it out early, or anthem bashed for an hour - when in fact, they're just making themselves look stupid. Then there are those that play leaked illegal downloads at big events two months before they're released and then think they're a hero and making an impression because they're playing it before anyone else. One of my old mates played a leaked Genix tune at Nu:Passion weeks before it was released (with Genix present at that event). Fail! I'm not sure whether she was brave or just downright stupid. Thankfully, because my style was generally quite pacey and hard, I used to play last and never had the problem of DJs playing too fast before me - apart from one occasion when I was playing at an event in Loughborough and one of the Nu:Passion guys was on before me and finished a Trance set at 147bpm!?! Yeah, that does drive me mad. I've heard so many DJs that will play any style just to get a gig - and it shows in their sets. They become "jack of all trades, master of none" DJs. There are a few that are brilliant whatever they play - but very few. I feel that if you "specialise" in something, you'll know all of your tunes inside out, you'll "feel" your set more, and you'll be able to give 100%. If you play every genre and style imaginable, and download tons of tunes each week, its inevitable that you can't possibly know all of those tunes inside out. I hear so many mixes and podcasts where DJs "kill the energy" in sets because they let far too much intro and outro of tunes play - and I think the only reason for that is because they're not 100% comfortable with their tunes and unsure of where the 'mix points' are - therefore, they go for the play it safe option of leaving the mixing until it gets to the part of the tunes where there's not much going on. The result = a really boring mix with lots of drops in energy. I think a bit of flexibility is required - I always carried a few "crossover" tunes with me so that if a DJ before me finished a slot slower than expected, I could "bridge the gap" with a few crossover tunes until I could bring the tempo up - but I think its unfair to ask any DJs that play 128bpm prog to hammer out a 142bpm set - or a 142bpm DJ to play a 128bpm warm-up set. I once got accused of being 'arrogant' and 'thinking i'm bigger than I am' because I turned down the opportunity of warming-up for a "Fire It Up" night at The Syndicate a few years ago. I'm not arrogant, I don't think i'm anything special as a DJ, and I certainly don't think i'm bigger than I am. Nobody knows who I am when they seem my name on a flyer. I've never played any really big gigs, never played alongside any major DJs or for big brands, and never begged or spammed for gigs. I wait for them to come to me - and then I politely decline the ones that don't suit my style, and accept the ones that are ideal for me. I was always been quite selective over gigs and only played certain gigs because a) I don't really feel slower-paced music, so therefore i'd be shit at playing a warm-up gig because I wouldn't really enjoy it enough to give 100% There are Djs out there that do enjoy that music and would therefore be better at it (and more deserving) than me - so i'd be taking up a slot that someone else would love to play. I don't think thats being arrogant or thinking i'm "bigger than I am" - I think its being fair and honest. I don't see the point in me playing something I don't enjoy, then playing a poor set because i'm not enjoying myself, and then spoiling other peoples nights out as a result - when there is someone else available that specialises in that particular time slot that could play an amazing set.

That comment wasn't aimed at you - so i'm sorry if you feel offended by it. I wasn't suggesting that all of the Nu:Passion/MoS guys are like that - what I was stating is that there are a few DJs out there that think they're bigger than they are and have a really massive ego just because they've played for one of those brands - I don't need to name names, it'll only open a can of worms and they'll register on here just to kick-off. I think the initials "JH", "RS" and "SW" are suffice. They're all appalling DJs that shouldn't be allowed near a set of decks (although to be fair to the latter, he has worked quite hard by running his own nights, learning to produce, etc - so he deserves some recognition) - but the other two have 'cheated' their way there. Again, if you know who i'm referring to, you'll be aware of their 'tactics'. Unfortunately, Nu:Passion have had some bloody good DJs in yourself, Matt Farmer, Leibo, etc - but you, and them, haven't had anywhere near as many bookings as you should have because you're DJs, not ticket-sellers - whilst they've got a couple of appalling DJs that play there on almost every line-up, because they sell 30 tickets each every time. Its these same few DJs that have a massive ego too. I can see promotors points about needing ticket sellers to pull punters in - but I can't help feel there's a bit of "catch 22" there too. If people are buying tickets, and then hearing those DJs that can't beatmatch or string a set together, that can hardly leave them (the clubbers) with a burning desire to go back again to the next event? Maybe i'm just getting too old. I've seen what the scene was, seen where its heading with all the politics, bullshit and arse-licking, and don't like what its become. I'll go get my slippers, pipe and stick Classic FM on...

I think it depends on the style of music we're after really. I've always found Beatport tends to have more downtempo stuff (Prog/House/Minimal Techno, etc) than anywhere else - but doesn't seem to have much on the pacier side (Driving Trance, Hard Techno) - whereas Trackitdown.net has loads of 'banging' stuff, but not so much of the slower styles. DJ Download is excellent though - their prices are generally cheaper than elsewhere, you get tokens for freebies if you buy X amount of tunes, they have a good selection of various genres, and their site is simple, user friendly and quick to navigate around - whereas Beatport and Audiojelly seem a bit slow and 'bloated'.

Ah a long waffling post. Its been a while since I did one of those. *crawls back under rock*

Yeah you're absolutely spot on with that last bit. I think years ago, 95% of the tunes were good - it was just a case of finding tunes that suited our style/taste. These days, there are labels galore - and a lot of them don't even have an identity (a sound you can associate with that label). I think some of the labels start up simply so that the label owner can release their own work on that label - and the reason they do that is because their work isn't good enough and has been rejected by numerous other labels first. They're determined they're gonna release that track though - so the only option is to start up their own label - then we end up having to search through loads of crap tunes on Trackitdown/Beatport before we find one decent one. The other major change I feel has changed for the worse is producers seemingly producing for success/money rather than because they've thought of a cracking melody and a unique bassline one day and feel that they'd love to put it together in a production. It seems that now, as soon a producer has success with a particular sound, other producers want to copy it. A few years ago, producers were copying the Deadmau5 sound. At the moment, loads of producers want to copy the Swedish House Mafia sound. Why? Because: 1. Its the "in-sound" at the moment and there's a chance it could have some commercial success - and thats where the money is. 2. it'll get them recognized - and then with recognition becomes higher placings in the DJ Mag poll - which then results in DJ bookings - and thats also where the money is. Everything about the scene at the moment seems to be fame or money orientated. Even those breaking through at our level take it far too seriously now. Its no longer a hobby for them - instead, they all want to "make it" and become career DJs. A few of them think they can ask for £150 to play just because they've played in the 3rd room at the Ministry of Sound or played for Nu:Passion once. A few of them that have only been DJ'ing for 5 minutes don't want to "work their way up" the hard way like everyone had to 10 years ago - these days, they're prepared to pay a producer £200 to create a tune for them and then release it as their own work so that they can get some recognition. Its all desperation because they know that if they break through, they can earn £300 just as a warm-up DJ at an established night for 90 minutes work - whereas if they had a 'normal' job, they'd have to work for a whole week to earn the same amount of money. Too many producers and DJ's are no longer doing it as a hobby - they're doing it to make a career out of it - and thats why I feel the fun has gone out of it.

Most of us have been on here for years and been into dance music for even longer - so what are your thoughts on dance music and clubbing these days. Do you like it as much as when you first got into it? Do you like it even more? or do you still have a bit of interest, but find that you don't enjoy it as much as you used to? What triggered this thread was me listening to Jules's show on Friday. Once upon a time, I used to listen to the show religiously - and hated missing a show because I loved the vast majority of what Jules was playing. I listened on Friday - and switched off after 30 minutes because I hated every tune he played, and found the tunes to be really slow, boring and far too similar to other tunes that are out there at the moment. Years ago, I used to be really open minded and enjoyed a bit of everything - House, Trance, Techno whether it be 128bpm or 142bpm - and didn't really have a "style" when DJ'ing - but over the last 18 months or so, i've found I dislike more DJs than I like, and when people post their "tune of the moment" in threads, I listen to them and think "thats really boring". I used to be really passionate about clubbing and DJ'ing - I couldn't wait to go out, and I'd be on the decks every day. These days, i'm not bothered about going out because, with the exception of about 4 DJs, most DJs bore me now. As for the decks - well, I quit DJ'ing due to hearing problems - but even before then, I was losing interest and only played a specific style (full-on 140+bpm driving Trance or Hard Techno). Do you still enjoy it as much as you used to? If not, what's changed for you?

This is the biggest problem with the government - they set benefits based on what they feel we can afford to live on, and tell people that "jobs are out there", and all sorts of other things like that - yet they have no experience of being made redundant and facing a year on the dole, they have no experience of having to live on £67.70 per week statutory sick pay (like I am at the moment, and am likely to be for the next 12 months all because of an injury that I picked up at work!), they have no experience of struggling to buy food at over-inflated prices that seem to increase on a monthly basis and no experience of having to save for years just to put a deposit down on even a cheap, basic house - all of the main politicians have businesses, properties and milions of pounds in the bank - so what experience do they have of 'real life'? None whatsoever!

Thats the problem really. I wouldn't really care less about him spending £30,000 usually - but to do it at a time when he's cutting peoples benefits and cutting back on services, etc stinks. I'm pretty sure it's something that could have waited for a year or two longer. It must be some refurbishment to come to £30,000 anyway - I could have my bathroom rebuilt (along with a quarter of my house) for £30,000.

On a positive note - it was announced over the weekend that David Cameron has claimed £30,000 (the maximum available to MPs now for house decorating/refurbishment) to have his bathroom refurbished - so its nice that the nation still has a bit of money to pay for important things like that. It would be a terrible shame for Mr Cameron to have to sit in a run-down bathroom to take a bath while he's thinking of all those jobless people that are struggling to adjust to the lower amount of Housing Benefit they're receiving this year because he cut it.

That show looks horrific :eek:

As Tom said, I think we should scale back our Euro involvement. Possibly even pull out together. We're getting more and more rights taken from us all the time, we have to let X amount of European immigrants into the country each year helping themselves to our benefits (or if they do actually work, they take our jobs instead), it costs us a fortune to be in, and i'm struggling to see what benefits we get out of it. The government keep saying "We need to be in it because we generate a lot of money from exporting to Europe" - but what exactly are we exporting? We don't make anything here any more because we now buy cheap shit from abroad ourselves. Somehow, I don't think exporting to little Farflungistan with a population of 100,000 is going to be the miracle cure to the UKs financial situation. (Over-exagerated I know, but you see my point. I'd like to see the pro's and cons from independant experts - not government advisers that tell us what they want to tell us because its of benefit to them).

Finally, someone has produced a "proper" Trance tune - makes a change from the usual girly floaty crap thats the Trance scene has been over-saturated with recently. Can't beat a good, powerful, synthy riff! Anyone remember when Jules would close his Radio 1 show with a powerful tune like this during the 30 minute mix? Those were the days.

That's why the poll is a joke. Its a poll full of people that have been voted for based on their productions rather than DJ'ing - therefore, it makes a mockery of the DJ Mag Top 100 "DJs" title.

"excpet much of the stuff we won't own anymore as usually the licensing periods are 6 years.." In that case, if nobody no longer owns the license any more, I should think you could contact the original artists and enquire about the tunes you're after. Chances are, they'll give you a copy free. The worst case scenario is that you refresh the artists mind about that particular tune, and they approach new digital labels about re-selling it digitally. In that case, you'd have to wait longer - but you'd still get it digitally eventually. I actually contacted Berry Van Gardingen (aka "Twice As Nice") recently with regards to getting hold of "Overture" in digital format. He was more than prepared to give me a free copy - except he said that the tune was that old, it was stored on a DAT tape which he no longer owns (old technology which he has since disposed of). He did state that the only person with a copy was the label owner - but that they were unlikely to give it to me because they have plans to re-release the tune (alone with new remixes) in the near future.

A couple of friends that are Marco V fans have seen him twice in the past 4 months, and now hate what he's playing because he's changed his sound this year - and is now playing more cheesy, commercial-orientated stuff. I think these samples of his latest Swedish House Mafia-esque productions say it all really: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jn1umIAM40 Just after Tiesto won it. Prior to Tiesto winning, the DJs that won it didn't really take any notice of it - and just carried on as they were before. Then when Tiesto won it, he milked it like no other DJ had before. He hiked his fee up, started 'solo' concerts, only played a handful of clubs - and made a huge amount of money from it. Other DJs (Paul van Dyk and Armin) then started doing similar things to what Tiesto did - and they also made a lot of money from it. Now lots of DJs have seen how much money is involved, so now they're all desperate to be in that position too - so they're doing whatever it takes to get there. Hence the amount of DJs that are now producing cheesey tunes or copying "sound of the moment" tunes. It might be good for their careers - but its killing the dance music scene (particularly Trance). I tried twice - and on both occasions, I never recieved the email I was supposed to recieve to confirm my votes, so I gave up.

I said something similar on FB...get someone who's never played out properly up the list and then 'retire' from DJing when they place in the chart! lol This happened a few years ago on the Trance Addict board. They all voted for a guy called Mikey Mike as a joke (he's also a member of the Matt Hardwick board) - and he got enough votes to finish 110th in the DJ Mag poll. DJ Mag published a small article on the results page of their magazine: SECURITY Security was even tighter this year, with all over-enthusiastic cheaters weeded out. However, evidence of a campaign working is the election of Mikey Mike to No. 110. The idea to get lots of people to vote for this unknown trance jock started on a trance website, and spread to loads of other forums. Participants in this enterprise thought they were going to "f*** up the poll", but all this result shows is that if enough people vote for one particular DJ then they can expect a healthy placing. (Credit: DJ Magazine No.02/Vol4 Page 041)

I managed to get a couple of M:Bargo tunes from Itunes - that was the only place I could find them though. Personally, i'd love to get my hands on stuff from the IDJ label digitally - particularly GD - Choral Reef.

The era when Jules was at his best in my opinion. I also noticed that he's quite animated behind the decks there - which isn't really seen so much these days. That would perhaps suggest he was more into the music that he was playing back then? I must say though, Jules has aged really well - considering that video is from 12 years ago, Jules looks the same now - he just has slightly longer hair there, is a tad slimmer, and is wearing his old trademark thick-rimmed sunglasses that had been converted into specs.

This seems to have happened a lot with DJs that have switched to Ableton. PvD in particular went downhill rapidly when he switched. Eddie Halliwell has been poor since he switched too (I've no idea why he felt the need to switch anyway when he was so good with decks and an EFX unit. He rarely scratches now and he seems to have taken a step back). Adam Sheridan was also hyped up something chronic once - and then he switched to Ableton and has almost vanished off the radar. I think they're trying too hard to incorporate too much - and as a result, they look spend too much time looking at a screen rather than the crowd, there's too much going on musically, and they generally just lose the dancefloor.

According to Bryan Kearneys rant on Facebook, Paul van Dyk, allegedly, wouldn't get off the decks (laptop even!) and over-ran his set time and cut into John O'Callaghans set time by half an hour. John O'Callaghan only had 30 minutes left at this point. PvD finally got off the decks, JOC put his CD in, and then PvD came back and started playing...... wait for it..... Binary Finary - 1998 on a keyboard connected to his laptop. By which time, JOC was very pissed off, and apparently smashed out some really hard tunes for 25 minutes to vent his anger

# = 4 Strings - Into The Night (Mac Zimms Remix) A = Art Of Trance - Madagascar (Richard Durand Remix) B = Brainbug - Nightmare (Sinister Strings Mix) C = Clergy - The Oboe Song (Green Martian Remix) D = Dark Monks - Insane (Steve Murano Remix) E = Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar (Three n One Remix) F = Fred Baker - Total Blackout G = Green Martian - Industry H = Hi-Gate - Pitchin' I = Mauro Picotto - Iguana J = Joy Kitikonti - Joy Energizer K = Kamui - Electro Slut L = Lost Witness - Happiness Happening (Lange Remix) M = Mark Leanings - Dropshot (JOC Playma Edit) N = Nigel Gee - Hottin' O = O'Callaghan & Kearney - Exactly P = Paul Webster - Corruption Q = Quo Vadis - Sonic Boom R = Randy Katana - The Hype S = System F - Out Of The Blue T = Timmy & Tommy - Full Tiltin' (JOC Remix) U = Underworld - Born Slippy V = VPL - T-Break (Steve Murano Remix) W = William Orbit - Barbers Adagio For Strings (Ferry Corsten Remix) X = Cygnus X - The Orange Theme (Martin Roth & Frank Ellrich Remix) Y = Y-Traxx - Mystery Land Z = Kernkraft 400 - Zombie Nation

He's probably still playing that same set now too. White Stripes, 1998 and Born Slippy. Yawwwwwwwn! You're right about him being as miserable as sin behind the decks too. If DJ Mag started a "Top 100 Miserable DJs Poll", then Adam Sheridan and Paul van Dyk would finish 1st and 2nd every year. At least with some DJs you can tell that they're straight faced because they're concentrating hard (such as Greg Downey or Seb Fontaine) - but with PvD, he looks like he can't be arsed. As for Armin - I thought he was good until he won the DJ Mag poll for the 2nd time. He was great in 2006 when he was number 3, and he was still decent in 2007 when he was number 1 for the first time - and then the status thing seemed to kick in, the number 1 DJ curse kicked in, and now he's milking it just the same as PvD and Tiesto did too. Armin has such a grip on the Trance scene now. He has no end of labels that are all part of Armada, and he appears to have a big influence on the DJs that get signed to the Dave Lewis Agency. Its also no coincidence that the DJs that become part of the Dave Lewis roster also then end up becoming Armin's puppets at his ASOT events and tours.

Tiesto is shit now - he plays pop music at some gigs now. I never liked him even when he was at his peak and playing Trance. I always found his style very dull and boring, and his mixing was very 'loose'. :eek: PvD is massively over-rated. He's been playing Born Slippy, Binary Finary - 1998 and Camisra - Let Me Show You at the majority of his gigs since 1976. He's very cocky - and disrespectful to other DJs too. The way he treated JOC at Cream in Ibiza last week is nothing short of shocking. I've seen him do a similar thing to another DJ at Global Gathering a few years ago too. Armin used to be good years ago. These days, he's a "Jack of all trades, master of none". You never know what you're going to get when you seem him play. It'll either be full-on melodic Trance set, or a Tech-Trance set, or a fairly slow plod-along set. Ferry is the best of the bunch - he tends to do his own thing and plays what he likes rather than supporting "flavour of the month producers" like Armin does. He had a dip around 2004-2008 when he changed to that horrid Electro-Trance 'LEF' sound, which was very dull. Then he got back into 'proper' Trance again - but over the last year or so, he seems to have followed in the footsteps of other DJs by going down the commercial pop-dance route. On his day, Ferry is superb and is far better than the Tiesto, PvD and Armin - its just a shame that he seems to have phases where he changes his sound and goes really dull. He single-handedly changed the Trance scene in 1999 though - and his productions from 1998-2002 are genius and unbeatable by anyone (Adagio For Strings, Out of The Blue, Madagascar, Don't Be Afraid, Gouryella - Gouryella, etc). Amazing tunes/remixes. By far the best Trance producer ever - so he'll always be a legend in my eyes for that reason.

Yeah thats Matt Hardwick, John Askew (vowed to only play for 4 promotors from now on), and Fabio Stein that have all gone this year - and i'm sure they won't be the last either