DJs, Artists & Line-Up / by Napo (full

DJs, Artists & Line-Up / by Napo (full_on)

An interesting fact about most big psytrance parties today is the amount of live acts. A 3 days or more Festival can easily have more than 15 live acts in the line up. The Artists/Music Producers seem to attract more public to the parties, and the organizers are happy to add them to the party's headline and flyers. This is good, music producers should have as many opportunities as possible to present their music, and they surely deserve to be respected and paid for their work and dedication.

However, in some one-day parties, this situation becomes critical when we have too much live performances and a lot of DJ sets to fill the gap between them. Sometimes I've seen 4 DJs playing, each one doing a one hour set between live acts, and all at the same party. On the top of that, sadly enough, these DJs followed the same recipe on their sets. They played the most well known tracks or unreleased tracks pitched up, and I had to listen to the same tracks two or three times at the same party, even without any interesting different mixing. The crowd was jumping, but I almost could read the DJs' minds: "Ohh God, the other guy got screams from the crowd, I have one hour, I must be fast, I must be better!"

This is not the vibe I used to feel in my very first parties. Back at that time, there were no ego trips or competition between anyone at the party. We were all part of the same movement, independent and free, but still conscientious of each other's importance. Maybe that’s because those parties were much smaller, frequently private parties, and there wasn’t a great deal of money involved.

These days, it seems that some DJs are fighting each other every time they play, trying to be better and to hold their positions on stage. This implies that these DJs are disposable and very easy to replace. It also explicit that these are not really good DJs, they're placing their fear of losing their position above the spirit of the gathering, and this comes at a very high cost. Their abilities to innovate, to be different, to create something new at each party, to guide a journey and enjoy it, are hurt or totally gone.

Two evident factors contribute to this change in the DJs attitude: the organizers' tendency to favor live acts and "friends who DJ", and the excess of bad DJs. But what is the role of a good psytrance DJ?

A good DJ knows his music, what to play and when to play, and he is always tuned to crowd's feedback to take his next step. He should have talent, creativity and skills to use the music in the proper way. Some people may disagree, but I think that skills are fundamental. Without skills, personality and experience how could a DJ choose, equalize, mix, innovate and fix his mistakes in real time? He isn’t a jukebox, but a human being who is able to change the direction of the history he's telling accordingly to the crowd's energy.

Yes, the journey is important, this is psytrance, isn't it? The crowd is made of individuals, the music and the dance connect them and a sensitive DJ can lead them through labyrinths, dungeons, gardens and all sorts of landscapes. Just like a good smell, a good DJ can bring people back to their childhood and teleport them into their future. And usually a DJ set is more flexible and uses a broader spectrum of music and styles to tell a complete story than a live act.

The party is not only the sound system, the decoration, the place, the music, the people, but all of these together. The organizers have the important role of fixing the place, providing a nice decoration, and a good sound system. But they also need to be careful when choosing the line up. If they give the right space to the artists and DJs, the decoration won't be the only thing shining in the UV lights, but also the music and the smiles on the face of each person on the crowd.

It's clear that sometimes changing the DJ releases new energies and expectations on the dance floor, but let the guy finish his story, so that he can hand the crowd to the hands of the next artist.

I've heard it more than once: "The artists make the music and the DJ takes the glory". It's not true, because the good DJs respect the artists and promote them, they act with professionalism and respect towards the ones who make the music. The Psytrance scene should not be a place for ego trips, everyone has its role, and in the end of the day the artists, DJs and organizers are not more important than anyone in the crowd.
Respect!

fantastic article. Many of the same ideals i preach myself. There are too many jukeboxing Dj's and those just playing the hootest tracks with out thought to flow,what time it is, what the crowd wants or needs.

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Great piece of wisdom. I'd like to add one thing - the advent of the softsynth on everyones computer has meant that more psy trance is being made nowadays, add a laptop which are getting cheaper and cheaper and you have a live set. This trend of more 'live' sets or Personal Appearances from the musicians is not going to go away - it's the advance of technology. This shouldn't mean the end of djing though - the rules of a good performance, whether live set or dj are still the same - it's about reading the crowd and selecting the right tune to go next, whether all the music is yours or not.

Andrew
VoiceOfCod/OrganicRecords

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100% , i cant enjoy of 1 hr dj set, some time its take more then 3 hr dj set to get the story of the dj, i use to play in goa full partys abut 12-15 hr non stop full set full story, so im 100% with you. 1 of the things brcome today in 1 evening paty 4-5 dj's when evry dj play 2 hr and evry dj jast like to bomb the crow like a competition,i cant enjoy the party.. lets come back to the past party like 5,6,7,8 years ago.. please

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fantastic article! says it all! speaks right out from my heart.
being in the trance scene since 93 .... and not all changes are good. many promoters should also have an eye on those newsomers or not as famous djs, which sometimes can rock a crowd much more then big names. nothing against the big names, but a lot needs consideration of what you wrote in this article. thank you so much for speaking out here.
keep your dreams alife

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I think I still hold the 1st place on the top DJs of trance today.
So it doesn't matter who you are or what you play, I will always be better

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yes u r
hehehehehehe
this is a joke or what?

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i hope thats a joke or someone pretending to be Dede, cause if the ego is that big, you need to schooled.....

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don'be be silly...dede is a nice guy and woudl never speak of himself in that way

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word! to say it with a hiphopish language..
i really like your piece here.. theres to many "juke boxes" around these days, im not saying that im the greatest dj ever lived tho ^^ but theres to many "djs" friends of the orginizers and so on out there..
its a good article.
sometimes less is just more, less djs/artists and more time for them to do their work = a better party i think, the line-up dosent have to be 400 big names and 500 djs, just to show that we are cool party organisers.
l

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hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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killer .

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boom great isra =]

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Hey Guys its gr8 to read stufffs here Can any one help me to get the collection of the Phy Trance and also the line up for 4 hours party i dont mind paying some amount for it

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