Is It Better For Dance Music That It's More Underground, Or Is That Snobby & Elitist?

I realise that, as far as Petridish is concerned, that would include most forms of music.

I suspect he might be half-right (or, at least, don't know for certain that he's wrong) when he talks about the uncoolness of britpop et al being a roundabout plus for dance music back in the mid-nineties - audiences for rock concerts are currently more style-conscious and drug-friendly than they've ever been, making that scene more appealing for people who would have more likely automatically chosen dance music in the mid-nineties. It's true to say that drugs and dance music are no longer the natural fit they once were; on the other hand I'm suspicious of his suggestion that once his generation stopped taking drugs they suddenly realised the music was crap. More likely scenario: they're settling down, having kids, and suddenly concerned that their expanding cellulite flabs won't look too flattering on the dancefloor. Which I could easily imagine taking the enjoyment out of going to clubs.

what does that mean?

It's so infuriating that that crap is in a national newspaper, why is there such a gigantic market for dead in the head aging writers who want to demolish anything approaching a dream or a spark that's around with their own broadsheet brand of "sobering honesty". His fucking bullshit "I've been there" attitude is just such typical fuel for vague head-nodding among idiots everywhere.

I dunno, he's not even worth it, but it IS annoying. Also at this stage it's the third fucking article, in about 3 years, JUST LEAVE THE FUCKING "DYING" GENRE ALONE.

I think this is good in a lot of ways - most of the big dance music I like at the moment works as ecstasy music but not in the constrained, constricted sense it did when Ibiza/ecstasy hype was at its most overbearing in the late nineties. Dance music has partially rediscovered the magpie tendencies which characterised it at the end of the eighties and start of the nineties - ironically the current electro-house sound strikes me as being more "balearic" than dance has been in ages.

Titchy I agree that grime has a dance lineage but it's undeniable that the audience is entirely different to the one the article focuses on - which is the rave/house/techno/trance sounds of big white clubs throughout the nineties.

xpost I would have loved to have seen Reprazent at that point.

"Hot Stuff", "Ballet Dance", "Share The Fall", "Trust Me", etc. = groundscraping, which is obviously much better than most d&b LPs.

i dont get how petridis has got it that wrong about grime. it IS still often at UKG tempos (though not enough of the time anymore it seems) and its played by the DJS that were into UKG, the scene its in, is still part of UKG, really.

IMO the real "canon" would be the Drum & Bass Selection series of Surburban Base comps (Vols 1-4), The Joint compilation, the various Ray Keith-compiled Renegade Selector comps around, the Routes From The Jungle comp that Kodwo put together, and all the tapes I did of Rush FM, Touchdown FM, etc. between about 1991-5, if you want a truer reflection of the scene at the time. Oh yes, and also the Torque/No U-Turn comp which isn't to everyone's taste but I kind of dug it.

And there were elderly dullards at the time complaining that it had all gone to seed since the halycon days of Shoom back in '87 when it were all fields round here...

i'm no longer interested in the position (as opposed to 'health' or 'status') of a vague 'dance music' movement conceptually as something to root for or lament the change (as opposed to loss) of - it's backward. everyone knows in reality the genres and mutations within what was always remarkably easy to define as 'dance music' will always have fans. it's a non-story (imo Petridis flaw here is not so much his dismissive pessimism but that it's worth writing about at all). underground overground whatever - new channels make things less black and white, less external/internal (just as it's been suggested John Peel 'lost' gatekeeper status) with no mezzanine common ground. why not work to plur (sorry) the divides, deny they still exist - eclecticism is worth championing because there isn't a person in the world worth time who only likes one particular type of artistic ethos. that might not make for such a provocative article tho i suppose.

this worked the other way round for some dance acts (uh, Faithless) - if you're able to actually imagine a period in the mid 90s where tracks like 'Insomnia' and 'Salva Mea' actually did seem 'astonishing' (and i bet they especially were blasted out at Trade or wherever too)

xpost

The thing with Petridish/Grauniad is that these things always get commissioned the same way - editor: "oi, no more dance music awards at the brits, 2500 words by tomorrow morning please" - because it's always easier to proclaim the "death" of a scene in order to placate a readership for the most part still wishing it was 1971; things were SO much easier when there were only four bands to keep track of, hmmm?

Dave Mothersole [deep house, tech house etc] and Rev Milo [house, punk funk, synth-pop, electro etc] are on obscure times of night on Kiss 100, whilst the daytime Kiss 100 is filled with utter pap

Radio 1: The Breezeblock is only 2 hours a week and way after midnight.

IXtra does not [adequately] cover techno, electro, tech-house, microhouse, experimental electronic/ IDM etc prefering to promote other forms of music instead.

6 Music plays far too much boring mid based trad rock songs bands and does not adequately cover electronic, beats, blips and dance music etc. They have a weekly token show called 6 Mix - but should expand their coverage to take in similar music played by the likes of Dave Mothersole [kiss 100], Rev Milo [Kiss 100] and Nick Luscombe [Xfm]

1xtra is promoted as a 'black/urban music station' though, which doesnt include the above genres.

ha x-post

twat

In '94 Petridish was probably still listening to his Moose and Cud records.

It's like the inverse of indie guilt.

Today i received an email from Kultureflash
http://www.kultureflash.com/current/a weekly london based listings email newsletter

there are 3 indicative events centred around electronic/ dance music, that i have highlighted below.

There seems to be growing eclectic trend at the moment of live artist performance, combined with spinning a diverse range of music from multiple DJs across the spectrum taken in experimental electronic music, breaks, electro, house, techno, tech-house etc

DJ / PERFORMANCE SHITKATAPULT: T.RAUMSCHMIERE, APPARAT...
93 Feet East
Wednesday 3 November [8pm]

150 Brick Lane, E1 T:020.7247.3293 Tube: Aldgate East/Liverpool St.
£8

Autumn can kick ya -- it rains, Guardian-job-section subscriptions are in line for the post-uni of you, and career/life/sexual health re-assessment for the rest of you as you realise that indeed this year will end too! And to really put the boot in, little buggers run round London blowing fireworks up outside your windows. But don't forget, you are special, special people have special needs, and what you need to kick back is tech-shpunk label Shitkatapult and their special music. Anniversary celebrations are due and to mark the occasion these kooky, house rocking, techno bods have released a DVD/LP thingy, and have invited you all to its launch at East End staple 93 Feet East. Founding fathers T.Raumschmiere and Apparat are presiding with Das Bierbeben, gwEm, Motor, Phon.o and Alex Paterson (The Orb), live and on das decks -- the place is gonna be packed. This DVD/LP Strike 50: V.A. / Special Musick for Special People is not a chocolate-box affair, though it is a treat. Think long term: it's more of a full spice rack, you need one. Random pickings include Elastic Heads, Richard Devine, Sami Koivikko and Hakan Libdo + docu-style extras -- give your autumn a slap, have beats all the way to Xmas.

Giveaway: we have one copy of the DVD to give away. It'll go to one randomly picked Flasher who can tell us where T.Raumschmiere got his name from.

CLUB / DJ SI BEGG VS. TIPPER, YELLOTONE...
The Telegraph
Saturday 6 November [9pm - 6am]

228 Brixton Hill, SW2 T:020.8678.0666 Tube: Brixton
£10 (advance)

ALT*CTRL deliver in spades this evening with creative noise-master Si Begg and breakbeat pioneer Tipper when they team up and tee-off a live set that promises to run into the larger of the small hours. Support comes from among others The Dexorcist and Point B. For those of you inclined for a little "intellectronica", courtesy of the Wheels Instead of Hooves, make sure you savour the soothing live twitch of Yellotone's elec-trip-hop (whose recent release Tar File Junction on Ai Records is getting heavy rotation at KF HQ) and some suave (possibly microscopic) visuals from Kurst . Expect seriously funky electronic beats and deeply crisp sounds.

CLUB / DJ MATTHEW HERBERT, THE SOFT PINK TRUTH (LIVE)...
Fabric
Saturday 6 November [10pm - 7am]

77A Charterhouse St., EC1 T:020.7344.4444 Tube: Farringdon
general £15 | concessions £12 | students £12

Its all about light and shade at Fabric this weekend. In Room 1, ringleader Matthew Herbert introduces glam-glitch from Brooks before a live spectacle from The Soft Pink Truth. Moonlighting from his day job in Matmos, Drew Daniels is currently reinventing punk anthems as glitchy, bouncy house tracks. Which means wiring the rotting corpses of Crass and Minor Threat to the mains and sending them twitching and lurching toward the floor for zombie robot karaoke fun. Sounds too much like The Wire Christmas party? Relax, Daniels spells innovation F.U.N.K. Next door, unreconstructed males Dave Clarke and Ben Sims grunt, scratch their testicles and tear Room 2 a new arsehole with bleeding-edge techno. Leaving Swayzak to apply a palliative balm of woozy, bleepy grooves direct from their superlative Loops From The Bergerie. Aaaah...

Does Petridish have any idea of what is going on in the Autumn of 2004?

http://www.kultureflash.com/current/

Flavorpill London
http://london.flavourpill.net/mailer/issue54/index.html

But as my name is not Marcello Coren I doubt I shall ever get to be a broadsheet columnist.

At Uncut four writers (self included) pitched to do Annie! Piers Martin is going to do the review ("well you've written 3000 words about it on your blog already, haven't you?" "fair enough").

Incidentally, Dave Pearce has apparently "parted ways" with the BBC according to FT.

titchy has a point

i never said 679 were a shit label, i said they didnt have a clue cos annie isnt doing as well as i thought it would. dont get your panties all in a bunch.

A few months ago I saw the "unsurprisingly forgotten" Ratpack play to a crowd of about 2000, at least a third of which, I'd guess, were under 20. Petredis really doesn't bother to check his facts, does he?