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Covers - System or Symptom?
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Kaz
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
90
Posts :
2268
Posted : Sep 30, 2003 09:41
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Let's remix an 80s track, it already has a 4/4 beat and is energetic, but doesn't have a solid bassdrum. Let's remix The Prodigy, add to it a few psytrance elements and voila, instant dancefloor power. Let's remix some oldschool psytrance track and make it more dancefloor. We've been getting one dancefloor hit after another which capitalize on older music - sometimes as a cheesy gimmic, sometimes for the music itself, a lot of times for the feeling that is so foreign to the modern dancefloor concepts.
Is this a good thing?
Well, the obvious answer is this: IT WORKS.
The remixes to Voodoo People are a definate dancefloor hit all around the psytrance world. But do they add something to the original? Musically, not much. Beat-wise it's even degrading a breakbeat masterpiece into a very shallow rhythm. Is it something that a DJ with nifty technique couldn't have done on his own with similar results? Or an even bigger question - would the original be any worse on the dancefloor? The answers are maybe. While I have no problem at all dancing to breakbeat (hell, I love dancing to it), I've seen some people that just can't pick up a beat without a monotone bassdrum (even though they are less than 10% of the psytrance crowd - in the last couple of Psychedelic Zion parties I've seen people dancing to breakbeats and enjoying every minute)... but would the original cut it? I think it would. I see no reason why it wouldn't - it's got more power than any psytrance remix of it.
But does the same go to 80s music remixed? The main question is - does 80s music belong on the psytrance dancefloor? I can give you a simple answer... 80s music does NOT have a psychedelic groove to it (especially not the mainstream 80s which people are so fond of), or much psychedelia-wise in any way. Is the energy of 80s tracks something that isn't in our music today?
That's a sign that perhaps somewhere along the way, psytrance which once prided itself in having no boundries has limited itself so much that it needs to take cheesy elements from outside the scene - trading off the fun and casual side of the music for the 'serious' dancefloor elements.
... Remixing The Finger? Gamma Goblins? Does anyone know what the originals do on the dancefloor at all - the remixes are MUCH less dancefloor effective (and yes, Alien Project played the original The Finger in his sets, and people went wilder than any GMS or Alien Project track he played in his set - let alone the dancefloor havoc of Hallucinogen playing Gamma Goblins live) - and yet I've heard the remixes played more often than the originals at parties (well, not so with Gamma Goblins, but it was a dancefloor hit in 96-97). Remixing Lands of Freedom? Sure it's more agressive, but isn't that exactly NOT the point of the original?
So maybe it's not all of the problems mentioned above, hell, it may not be even one of them. Maybe it's just the simple fact, that DJs don't have the guts to play the original Voodoo People. That a DJ who wants to play full-on (or progressive for that matter) is so limited to playing only that he won't even take psytrance from other genres into his set, let alone breakbeat tracks (or looping/EQing and then beatmatching a part of an 80s track). Or even worse - maybe, just maybe, the artists are starting to think more like DJs and less like musicians.
Maybe the labels are so busy pushing dancefloor friendly tracks that they forgot the original point - making some music.
Or maybe, all this remixing is a good thing. Maybe what psytrance needs is to be more like other genres. More gimmics. More music that's simple to dance to, but not so fun to listen to. Maybe, it's not a symptom of a scene that forgot it's own roots, but a system for giving people what they want.
I don't know which scares me more.
  http://www.myspace.com/Hooloovoo222 |
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drooid
Sun Control Species
Started Topics :
13
Posts :
158
Posted : Sep 30, 2003 11:27
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Quote:
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On 2003-09-30 09:41, kaz wrote:
maybe, just maybe, the artists are starting to think more like DJs and less like musicians.
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*ahem*... you couldnt be more right.
Quote:
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On 2003-09-30 09:41, kaz wrote:
I don't know which scares me more.
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i am empathising greatly friend;)
great post
the FATLINE is ending www.myspace.com/suncontrolspecies |
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Zombi
IsraTrance Senior Member
Started Topics :
375
Posts :
5032
Posted : Sep 30, 2003 11:31
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i dont see that progressivge djs border by something, another question its prety hard to find out here progressive dj. in last year i heard only once israely dj (borris) play progressive set @ lab party, and he indeed mixed disco (real disco) with techno trance and so on. to play ticon and mix it with native radio is not to play progressive.
i enjoy just switch styles, from micro sounds to deep, then to tech then to some cover for peak.
cover versions is nice, give u a exact flavour u look for, play with your memories, tuch your soul in a way psy cant do it.
for sure there is good covers and bad ones, as a dj u have to pick up the good ones:)
about artists thinking like djs - well, in techno and house its happen forever i think, its not mean less musicality but a structure that dj can play smoothy, exact like u like the dj to play.
right now its very fancy to play some covers, for sure its gonna be less used in future.. then again, coze history is a circle:) Believe your soul ! |
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KakoOlalaJwal
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
116
Posts :
2565
Posted : Sep 30, 2003 12:49
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Quote:
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On 2003-09-30 11:31, Zombi wrote:
right now its very fancy to play some covers, for sure its gonna be less used in future.. then again, coze history is a circle:)
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Exactly, and for the artists to make some !! 
I have nothing against it... excepts maybe the fashioned character.. I mean the VoodoO people has been bootleged not less than three times, hasn't it ?? This is disturbing me a bit, yes...
On the other side, it can reveal an aspect of the creator's personality... like him saying "hey pplz U know what ? Beside psytrance, I envoy this a lot too" .. As for all in Music, in my mind, as long as what is made is made for FUN, I just don't mind...
Otherwise, well... I do
cheers
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"Get your dose of BoOgie !"
http://www.bunkum-records.com
http://www.myspace.com/zekakoo |
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DiMiTry
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
70
Posts :
2299
Posted : Sep 30, 2003 14:33
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Yeah, Kakoolalajwal - I think when it's done in a funny, self-conscious way it's good, and it gets a good laugh, and everybody dances. Like the Metallica remixes, for example.
When they're taking it seriously, though... very often it just collapses under its own weight. Like Gamma Goblins, or Pink Floyd, or Led Zepp (know those tracks? some are more club trance, I think) - it's often super epic, with not a wink, nor a smile.
I would say, yet again - we can separate them by the intent. Why do you want to reinterpret the original track? Do you want to make money or to have some fun? I am all for fun, I love to see people laugh on the dancefloor to a James Brown sample (well, the first time you play it  ). Can't wait for someone to do Madonna, next. 
Like a Virgin!
Yeah!
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Basilisk
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
168
Posts :
2984
Posted : Sep 30, 2003 15:05
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Haha... I've been known to start sets with the original Voodoo People! It works very well with Goa trance (try some old Psychaos for example). I got a kick out of hearing the remix a month ago at a party, but generally agree... must music be sterilized and infused with the standard psytrance elements for psy fans to dance to it? What's with that situation? Well anyhow, as long as people remember these are gimmicks then there's no harm done
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Inu
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
14
Posts :
91
Posted : Oct 1, 2003 06:12
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I agree with Basilisk... the blending of styles and genres is nice, homogenizing everything is NOT.
Otherwise I have no problem with remixes -- they're good fun, and hey, the sooner a psy artist remixes Yello, Tangerine Dream or Portion Control the better
tiger got to hunt,
bird got to fly,
man got to sit and wonder why, why, why?
tiger got to sleep,
bird got to land,
man got to tell himself he understand. |
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