What Do You Call It?
What do you think of “new disco”, or whatever people call this music now?
I have to say since moving to London I’ve really started to dislike it. I mean, sure, I hear a few records in this style I like, for example John Daly’s remix of Toby Tobias on Rekids but it seems to be used as aural wallpaper over here, it runs the risk of not standing for anything, just being conveniently slow enough to dance to without much effort.
On a bad soundsystem or god forbid, at a party in the early hours, it’s just so soporific and grooveless. The funny thing is, I’ve seen Prins Thomas and Jonnie Wilkes from Optimo DJs play ultra slow sets of disco and reggae and anything else thrown in and thought it was amazing, intense and very serious. Maybe it’s just somebody playing all newer stuff in this style never sounds like anything more than a warm-up set to me. Maybe I just see terrible new disco DJs.
What do you reckon? I can remember enjoying “I Feel Space” and I used to buy Prins Thomas and Blackbelt Anderson stuff quite a bit a few years ago. Prins Thomas’s “Goettsching” is still an all time favourite as is Reverso 68’s “Piece Together”.
The other thing is that some of the old records mixed in get very predictable. I like being out and not knowing what a lot of the music playing is, or more importantly, the entire club not knowing. I guess I like when reactions to tracks people know are physical rather than mental too. With too many new-disco DJs the tracks you don’t know, on Rong, or Eskimo, or whatever are the filler for dropping ones you could probably do without ever hearing again.
I mean, what am I missing?
jacob wrote:
think you’ve probably just been unlucky with who you’ve seen. its like all things really, get a good dj and it can be great, get a bad one and its gonna suck. did you listen to the mark e podcast? that was awesome.
Posted 31 Jul 2008 at 10:14 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
That looks much better than what I had in mind when I wrote this alright…he’s playing a big gig in Dublin this weekend I think.
Posted 31 Jul 2008 at 10:16 pm ¶
mano wrote:
i agree with jacob, when you see a mediocre nu-disco/cosmic dj play its probably going to be mediocre…when you see someone great do it, it’s great. the same can be said for house/techno djs… maybe it’s less people are playing nu-disco and so the mediocre ones get more gigs as the music becomes more fashionable? i don’t think it’s a fair reflection on the music to suggest that it’s boring or substandard because you’ve seen people play it badly…
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 1:57 am ¶
Jacob wrote:
Drink moar.
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 6:42 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
I can’t! It’s overflowing!
BTW of course I’m not saying this is all bad, just that maybe it’s harder for somebody to DJ it passably than house/techno.
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 7:24 am ¶
clom wrote:
i think that this disco re-edit thing is reaching saturation point. i think you’re spot on about the familiarity of a lot of the songs. i think there’s also a tendency for there to be a quite limited sonic pallete so as a result it can feel like you’re listening to the same thing over and over. you’re spot on about the aural wallpaper too.
but when it’s done well it’s just so right.
i think you need someone playing a good variety of tempos and styles and with one or two surprises.
maybe it’s the new mnml?
(hurr-hurr)
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 8:36 am ¶
Jacob wrote:
But srsly, this whole scene is based on good crate digging. So of course DJs who rely on re-edits and what’s available from beatport are going to suck. It’s funny - after Hawtin played Singapore last week me and a bunch of friends were sitting around playing each other disco tunes afterwards and we were all having trouble getting into any of the re-edits as opposed to the originals. It really is the case that the raw material is better most of the time. (I also reviewed the Full Pupp compilation this week, and it suffers from exactly this problem).
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 9:07 am ¶
Jon wrote:
Has anyone checkout any of the DC recording nights in London? Not been yet but they seem to have some good line-ups.
Ronan, check out Neil from Padded Cell’s mix on the Shock Podcast (002) you might like that mix, or you might not.
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 9:17 am ¶
clom wrote:
i think the older stuff has a bit more drama and fun to it. it feels a bit more natural too. the newer re-edits sometimes force the issue a bit.
that said, it’s good fun, it can be good for party music where the crowd are a little house/techno agnostic.
the reason optimo have deservedly got so much coverage is because they’re fanatics about all styles and are happy to play anything in the sub club.
the few times i’ve seen them away from Glasgow I’ve felt they maybe play a bit more to peoples expectations. which is can be a good thing but it’s less interesting if you know what’s coming.
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 9:19 am ¶
mano wrote:
as with the optimo guys, the thing that makes prins thomas stand out is that he plays a lot of different styles in his sets, ive heard him play acid house and even the original mix of simon baker’s “plastik”. i think it’s the djs that are too hung up on being “disco” djs or whatever are the ones that can be boring…
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 12:43 pm ¶
tim wrote:
hey i think i said this on ilm but one of the dudes from rub n tug’s playing this wkend at 33-37 commercial rd in london + it shld be pretty rad
Posted 01 Aug 2008 at 3:02 pm ¶
diego wrote:
the optimo guys rock it because they really love this music. i think being a dj is all about collecting and digging. if you can’t play anything older than last six months, then you’re not a real dj. i think digging for those gems that sound so mysterious and different, is what makes djing interesting.
anyway, my point is that if you’re trying to make something called nu-disco, you should really have a background in this music, and i think it has a lot of history behind it, not just a couple years. all music can be good in the right hands.
Posted 02 Aug 2008 at 3:59 am ¶
Jason wrote:
I guess if you play just nu-disco straight all set, it’ll get dull and predictable. On the other hand, look at people like Tim Sweeney, who can take new disco, mix it with early techno, house, and funk, and make it into a cohesive whole that is fun and funky. For albums, look at Prins Thomas ‘Cosmo Galactic Prism’, Optimo’s ‘Walkabout’ or Justine D’s ‘Rvngmx5′.
Overall, nu-disco is, in my opinion, best played when liberally sprinkled throughout a set of many styles, not just one.
Rant off!
Harpo
PS Andy Butler is a killer DJ as well.
Posted 02 Aug 2008 at 3:37 pm ¶
Rain wrote:
The funny thing is that on our blog our official stance is that there is no such thing. We also don’t believe there’s such a thing as a separation between disco and house, since it’s all been a natural historical progression of forms over time. A progression, I might add, that some of our staff experienced first hand, so they laugh at the younger generation at their gullibility and ignorance.
This animal called “nu-disco” is more precisely labelled “retro”…i.e. the reworking of the original roots of disco and house BACK into modern dance music.
For many, like myself, who grew up on the original, well…much of it pales in comparison. But there are a few worthy exceptions and a few worthy DJs that can do it justice. They just have to have been around long enough to have dj’ed it the first time around.
Cheers…
Rain
exModia
Posted 06 Aug 2008 at 6:39 am ¶
rhak wrote:
“They just have to have been around long enough to have dj’ed it the first time around. ”
Can’t say I agree: Tim Sweeney, Todd Terje and Aeroplane. Check their podcasts on RA or on Beats In Space, and you’ll hear some great stuff. And although he is definitely more housey than disco, Dixon is a great dj within this paradigm as well. All of them pretty young motherfuckers though.
Posted 06 Aug 2008 at 12:51 pm ¶
freezer wrote:
Dont know a huge amount about this but was at Todd Terje in RiRa a few months back and it was great.
Posted 06 Aug 2008 at 1:07 pm ¶
Tim F wrote:
Perhaps contra other posters responding to this, I often feel like I like this stuff when it’s LESS, rather than more conscious of the history of disco.
Like, the reason that Aeroplane seem to stand out so much as great producers is that it’s like they heard one amazing italo-disco record while at a club on good drugs five years ago, and all their production work to date has just been roundabout ways to try to remember and recreate it (this very same thing kind of happened to me in my first year of clubbing when a DJ played Patrice Rushen’s “Haven’t You Heard” and it stuck in my head, unknown, for about four years).
Reverso 68 are similar actually, their records never feel particularly respectful towards a certain notion of disco.
Same is almost-but-not-quite true of Prins Thomas and Todd Terje: obv. both have a massive awareness of and respect for original disco but they’re at their best when they choose to ignore that - e.g. on Thomas’s remix of Windsurf, or Terje’s edit of Paul Simon.
Posted 07 Aug 2008 at 5:18 am ¶
George Cromarty wrote:
perhaps you should start listening to Whiskeytown again?
Posted 07 Aug 2008 at 6:30 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
Perhaps I should! I wonder which got a better review on Pitchfork
Posted 07 Aug 2008 at 6:34 pm ¶
Anders wrote:
@ Tim F
So true! In general I’m actually really tired of producers and dj’s who are conscious of and pay “respect” to the music history. I’m, of course, not saying that you should be ignorant towards music history. Sometimes I just wish that there would be another approach towards it. Like Tim says, more based on a feeling and (I think) not so much based one the actual sounds that were used.
Posted 08 Aug 2008 at 8:44 am ¶
icaro wrote:
try get the new pilooski re-edits, the greg wilson ones. take a look in aeroplane stuff, discodromo, 40 thieves, lee douglas, todd terje, enzo ponzio, mutant disco, tensnake, faze actions…
Posted 08 Aug 2008 at 2:24 pm ¶
reds wrote:
Only get to hear bits of this as it seems hard enough to get digitally. Its a bit like all music..ie there’s good and bad but I agree with the idea of small doses of it in the midst of a bigger picture.
PS Is there any digital stores that really stock much good nu-disco
Posted 10 Aug 2008 at 8:20 pm ¶
chris keys wrote:
hey all, it’s really interesting what you guys are discussing and good points have been made from both sides. the fact is the media struggle to understand a particular musical style without labeling it something, this way they can talk about it, and usually on their own terms - so nu disco as a term is a load of rubbish (i have to say i’ve used it as a short cut too). but there are far too many sides to this coin, there’s beatfanatic who does a lot of bright, feel good stuff, prins thomas who does slo mo, greg wilson who is a real disco dj from the past who cuts things to get his dancers going, lindstrom who has done many things (check out his earlier things for jazid under the name slow supreme for diversity), tod terje who is a true party dj who will move across all kinds of genre’s, detroit and disco head Trusme’ oh and on and on.
i recon dj’s who play in any one style arent moving forward, there are too many good things around to hang onto a nu disco tag. i dont mean one should play different styles for the sake of it, but rather create a feeling or set of feelings with a variety of sounds, u know the old take em on a journey thing - check Kelvin Brown for the master of such things …. anyway nice to read all this & Ronan i really like your thinking perspective!!
Posted 18 Aug 2008 at 11:31 pm ¶