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dancer |
3 Feb 2003 15:31 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
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Re: DnB Arena drama
Dieselboy at Eklectic (US, San Francisco)
Report & Dieselboy's Response to the Report
Irish television shows up to shoot footage. Crazy blokes from England attempt to start a drunken mosh pit. Weird Austrian guys take my picture a whole bunch of times. Looks like Dieselboy is in the house.
In San Francisco, this constitutes as a big deal, with SF Jungle going the route of progressive techstep and shying away from the more traditional jump- up and darkstep styles that originally broke drum and bass in the US.
Dieselboy, a DJ from Pennslyvania with the Platinum and Fever crews, is one of the few American DJ’s with a recognizable name (amongst the scene, he’s not on MTV...yet)and who can pack houses on name alone.
Known to be somewhat of a playboy and general as*hole according to many in the crowd, Dieselboy graced San Francisco with his presence at Eklektic, the premiere (read  nly worthwhile) weekly event held every Thursday at Kate O’Brien’s Pub (2nd and Howard Streets).
Drinks being a bit pricey, I stumbled in just in time to catch Star Eyes, a B.A.S.S. Kru (a SF outfit) member, spin out some funky drum and bass in a style that was all her own. While I give Star Eyes props for having her own style, it is too bad that this style doesn’t include mixing records especially well.
Most of her mixes came at the very last possible second for a mix, and once she just has to stop the decks, apologize and start over. This from a DJ who said to a source that the Aphrodite show two weeks ago “was boring.” Jealousy, envy and spite are horrible things to have to carry around. Good thing she’s cute. Nuff said.
Dieselboy then attempted to segue out of the jump-up track that Star Eyes left him, but ended up stopping the decks completely and starting up with a tech- step song that reminded me of the MIDI sounds I heard when I went to the Boy George and the Karma Club Web site. Sadly, the largely uninformed American crowd loved it and the next hour of tech that Eklektic was subjected to. By now you may have noticed that I am a bit hard on Dieselboy. True, but I have good reason to be. I’ll get to that soon.
Firstly, let me say that Dieselboy is an excellent turntablist. While I think his track selection often sucks for my taste, his mixing is very tight, and he has been a consistent DJ across the country.
Now the bad news.
Once a fixture in the NYC/Philly/NJ/Connecticut rave scenes, Dieselboy used to rip up the decks with hardstep and jump-up, even as recently as 96-97. But lately, his sets have gone tech, which lost him many of his old school, hardcore fans on the scene back in the East. Now, other Philly DJ’s have followed suit.
SF is going a similar route. Newcomers to the scene are being introduced mainly to tech step and progressive drum and bass styles that they blindly accept as jungle gospel, shunning ragga and jump-up. Many others hear tech and never come back. Most of America just says “heck no!” to techno, because it is monotonous and boring. This is a good way to kill drum and bass completely in America and make sure it never surfaces.
For some, this is a goal, but I wouldn’t mind being able to hear drum and bass on a major radio station when I’m sitting in rush hour traffic.
To be fair though, after a (torturous) hour of what must still be considered “good” tech tracks, Dieselboy redeemed himself with the old school set by hitting the crowd off with some ripping hip-hop tracks that had vocals and rolling basslines instead of Moog synthesizers. Then the crowd got set off and wanted more by the time the lights came on.
Shoulda just dropped bass on us in the first place and all would have been well in jungletown.
Dieselboy will be at the massive “Planet Rock” party, in Oakland on the 19th with DJ Pish-Posh (aka DJ Wally, of Jungle Sky, NYC). DJ Dara (Breakbeat science, Sm  e, Fever, NYC), AK 1200 (Orlando, Florida), along with the SF Phunk-a-tek crew and De La Soul. Check back next week for a report.
For info on Eklectic and the B.A.S.S. Kru, check out http://www.langan.net/basskru/events.html or http://www.izmedia.com/eqd or call 415-332-5800. x 797
Dieselboy's Response to the Report
I wish to make a few comments concerning this scene report filed by actrock from san francisco. i disagree with a number of points in his review of the night i played @ eklektik.
1) the turntables @ eklektik are notorious for skipping all over the place (due to dancers too close to the decks). this is the reason why stareyes had so much trouble during her set and ended up mixing her tunes @ the last minute. the decks skipped on about 75% of my mixes as well, but strangely enough actrock didn't point that out (it sounded terrible). even more strange is the fact that actrock didn't even realize that the turntables were skipping at all when it is completely obvious to anyone actually listening to the djs that night! how could this have escaped his attention?
2) i didn't not attempt to segue out of stareyes set. i intentionally let her record play out before i started my first tune. furthermore, actrock claims my first tune was 'techstep' when it in fact was the shy fx remix of chemical pilot. i don't know how much more 'afrofunk' you can get.
3) i used to play jump up / hardstep back during its heyday, but like many other djs, i have kept up with the times and started playing the newer styles of drum and bass as they've appeared on the scene. i pride myself on playing current tunes and feel that it would be a waste to play out across the country every weekend and not fully support the current drum and bass sound. i am not trapped in a 96/97 timewarp and i personally choose *not* to play sets of old jump up tracks. it is clear that actrock has a bias towards anything without a hip-hop sample, rinsed out amen or rude bwoy bassline (read his review of ss and warren g @ justice league). my set @ eklektik that night was completely across the board in styles. to say that i played almost all tech is completely untrue (unless you consider ramm, juice, v, true playaz to be 'tech' labels). furthermore i didn't start playing older style jump-up at the end of my set either. it is funny how some of my dj friends that were there that evening said that most of my set was too jazzy! what strangely opposite observations...
4) i knew about 15 out of the ~300 people that evening. to make an unprofessional comment like 'dieselboy is an asshole according to many people in the crowd' is disturbing. did you take a poll or something? might i recommend sticking to actual reporting and not stooping to tired-ass gossiping? if you have something personal to say to me, by all means. just please don't try to hype it up by including 'many people in the crowd' with you.
5) overall the report was well-written, but due to the highly innaccurate comments about the djs, mixing and music played, suffice it to say that the drum and bass arena might wish to consider finding someone that actually has a clue as to what is going on musically in the current drum and bass scene.
damian / dieselboy |
