Pick and Pan: the Electro DJ


Pan: Dave Seaman.

I went out the other night with Nathalie and the usual gang to see Dave Seaman. And for once Nathalie came out, which was great. I also invited Chris Klaus, more on Chris in a second.
I was really excited to get to see Dave. I have been a fan of Dave ever since the 96 Renaissance compilation. It was so new, so fresh. The mix was perfect. I asked him how he had done it, he said "with 2 decks". I said "but how did you get it so seamless back in those days without software?" he said he did in several parts, 3 parts to be precise and then put it together. That album really stood out for me. I re-listened to it recently and, unlike other classics from that era, it has not aged well.

I followed Seaman through his trance transition in the early 2000 still on the Renaissance compilation series. It was by then already becoming less and less melodious. I got to be honest, I really didn't like him all that much by then. But when I saw he was going to be in town, I had to be there.

I got to say, it sucked. Bad. First the club was half empty. Only 65 passes were sold, the night was rainy, it was thursday night and few people showed up, maybe 200 total? Only people who knew who he was came and apparently that isn't many. The crowd that night was definitely trendy, early 30's, DJ's, the few industry people that live in ATL, almost by definition of knowing who Seaman is. But sometimes even a small dedicated and knowledgeable crowd is not enough to ignite the night.

If this is the kind of crowd a UK legend can pull in the premium ATL club, we have to either a/ declare the electronic scene of ATL DEAD or at least on life support or b/ come to the realization that Seaman's star has dimmed a lot and is not enough to draw a crowd out. So much for the superstar DJ cachet!!! Either way it is not good news for the ATL EDM scene.

The ugly: artistic bankruptcy
But really my main beef with Seaman was the music selection. For someone that was not afraid of melody, was looking for signal in synth in the mid-90's he must have gone tone deaf. Nathalie and I left at 1AM after 90 minutes of Seaman. It was dismal. NOT A SINGLE MELODY IN 90 MINUTES, NOT ONE. Only drums, and not a very good selection for my tastes at that either. He was going for the quirky stuff. Also bowing to the Trance god, he got lazy on the mixes and was mixing the simple segments and Nathalie correctly commented that "this has got NO energy", the little energy that was built he squandered on countless mixes. It was so disappointing.

Look, I am the kind of guy that can sit through 8 hours of straight up techno and get into the groove of things. In fact, like many of you do, I used to develop software while listening to this music. I like the abstract drum patterns, it helps me concentrate. But here, I never connected, NOT A SINGLE TIME. I felt sorry for the kids that were there. They don't know better and are fed stuff they cannot possibly relate to. I was looking at the crowd, no one was moving, they were looking up at the DJ but they were not moving, absolutely a static crowd. All there was, was two little groups of jumping up and down people. One group looked like they were drunk, the other one was so excited they looked they were on a combination of X and crystal Meth and to them it probably sounded very exciting. So I asked myself if this DJ was just playing to the hardcore drug using community. If that is what London gets off on, we got to conclude they are a coked up lunatic fringe as one other UK DJ once confided to me ("It is all about charlie right now in London"). But I ask, where is the soul? No wonder Hip-hop steals the scene here.

The highlight of the night was definitely dinner with Chris Klaus. Chris is someone I really enjoy talking to. Chris founded ISS, the security company here in town that was sold for 1B. So as far as entrepreneurs go, Chris is the man here in ATL. He is also very young, 34. We share the Atlanta International School (AIS) connection where our kids go. Both Chris and his wife Crissy are very much into education, Crissy sits with me on the board of AIS. But truly, there is a certain comfort in hanging out with an accomplished entrepreneur like hanging out with old friends. You don't feel threatened that they are hanging out with you because they want something. It is easier, there is a certain de-facto trust. So that was enjoyable.

Pick: Alexander Robotnick, old is new

In the aftermath of that dismal night, I was exchanging emails with one of the young ones here in ATL. Kid is very knowledgeable when it comes to EDM and has a sure footed taste and education. He mentioned many people shared my negative impression of Seaman and that it was truly depressing to see the state of the ATL EDM scene. Being a naturally positive guy he also was quick to walk away from the generalization and sent me this link.

It is rare when I find a compilation I completely relate to, and Warren was right on. Robotnick is an italian producer, the man is 53. Still parties. He now DJ's and is great. Listen to the selection if you would, you will find Driven by Estroe at minute 10 (great electro track, will need to mix it) next to Yazoo, New Order and Bronski Beat from the 80's. My kind of music, my brother.

In reading the 100 or so comments it was funny for me to find the old crowd absolutely loving what he does. The younger crowd being divided. There are those that "get it" and ranked him at the top of the podcast list and a few that seem to absolutely hate it and ranked him last, he seemed to have polarized the crowd. In any case, for me this is an eclectic selection, mixed with mastery. The man uses Ableton and uses it live.

I mentioned to my friend that we should book this guy and bring him to ATL. He laughed the idea off saying, "look if we lose our shirt with Seaman, imagine what it will be with this guy. We might as well save the money we would lose in flying him from Italy and go ourselves to see him in Europe". I mentioned he was playing "Le Rex Club" in Paris in May, and we laughed and left it at that.

Comments

Tom said…
Seaman was ok. Sasha used to be good too and Digweed. Where has the music gone?

I did see Paul van Dyk here in person about 8 or so months ago and he rocked the place. He doesn't carry the vinyl around like he used to. It's just 2 Mac's, software, and all digital tracks. Still, it was good and refreshing and he even remixed the music live as he was playing it. The crowd was intense. When I left, it was the best EDM that I have heard in a very very long time.
Anonymous said…
85cc免費影城85cc免費影片免費 a 片台灣論壇免費影片線上免費a片觀看85cc免費影片線上觀賞a片免費看免費A片A片-sex52085cc免費影片免費卡通影片線上觀看小魔女免費影城免費看 aa的滿18歲影片免費a片卡通sex888影片分享區520sex貼片區aaaa彩虹頻道免費影片sex520免費影片後宮0204movie免費影片免費色咪咪影片網成人a影片論壇免費影片下載aaaaaa片俱樂部sex520免費影片sex888免費看影片馬子免費影片免費線上a片gogo2sexaaa片免費看短片免費 a 片aaa片免費看短片免費線上avdvd成人圖片區18成人avoooaaa的滿18歲卡通影片免費線上歐美A片觀看sexdiy影城plus論壇dudu sex免費影片85cc成人影城臺灣情色網線上免費a長片免費卡通影片線上觀看彩虹頻道免費影片洪爺影城浪漫月光論壇bbs x693 com sex888 sex383線上娛樂場85cc免費影片sex888 freebbs hksogo 成人論壇sex999日本美女寫真集日本 avdvd 介紹免費觀賞微風成人av論壇aaaa 片俱樂部免費影片下載a亞洲免費影片線上直播卡通美女a片免費試看免費成人視訊視訊情色遊戲援交av080影片sexdiy影城sex520免費影片sex888movie影城情色小說 杜蕾斯成人一本道 a片 東京熱情色影片本土辣妹34c影片直播吉澤明步sex888免費看影片論壇a 免費影片觀賞aa的滿18歲影片av080免費試看sex888 freebbs hk免費aa片試看免費影片觀賞av博物館aaa免費看影片亞洲禁果影城免費a片aaaaa片俱樂部影片5278論壇金瓶影片交流區383movie成人影城aio性愛dvd辣妹影片直播免費a片線上觀看,sex520貼片ut13077視訊聊天avdvd無碼情色電影日本 avdvd 介紹免費觀賞台南援交友留言hi5 tv免費影片1314視訊成人論壇成人免費視訊 完美女人hilive tv 免費電影34c蒼井空影片下載avdvdsex383線上娛樂場aio交友愛情館sex383線上娛樂場JP成人網免費視訊聊天室微風成人

Popular posts from this blog

$6.66B for BEA: Larry goes Shopping

Thug vs Thug: Porsche 1, Hedge Funds: 0

Quickies #3, protecting IP in OSS