controversial and revisionist take maybe but when too many rockers get involved in dance music things head for the worse as they cannot be disciplined. Hence so many of my mates who were indie heads as teenagers are now exploring the commonalities between deep techno (good) and ‘nippy goa obscurities’ (diabolical). Just say no.
Then again, Jane Fitz loves the Goa and she has exemplary taste in funk/soul/deep house for all intents and purposes. No accounting for the pasty faces, I suppose.
I really don’t see the Optimo boys in that lineage, more tg/cabs/bourbonese qualk/etc. But I don’t live in Glasgow and never went to one of their nights. Massively respect Twitch for being into all that 90s cologne acid, Khan, Jammin Unit and Walker. As well as being into proper breakbeat hardcore of the 92 chipmunks and twisted mentasms variety. Best shit ever.
The indie rock/student dance continuum I associate more with the likes of Erol Alkan. Never really been into him.
Erol Alkan was a bit novelty for a while especially his somersault handstand theatrics on the decks, but I think Trash was a good thing for London and the DFA period even if a bit derivative was a really exciting time for music
It always had a large Art School presence, especially being on a Sunday night. I went religiously from around 2004 to the very last one. I always found it a pretty diverse crowd despite a good number of students. Lots of old heads from back in the day, along with a lot of the up and coming DJ’s, producers and promoters. Some some cracking bands there too.
And the music policy was always ‘play whsatever the fuck you want’.
Literally everything has to have the shit scienced out of it, or explained, just so someone can say they’ve created some content. It’s exhausting just stop it.
I get that some people are out there doing it well, but Jesus there’s a ton of dross out there relating to stuff that doesn’t need explaining. It just ‘is’.
I don’t even know what I mean, but I know it annoys me.
Darryn Jones & Mark Grusane are my 2 favorites from the current Chicago scene, along with Rahaan and Tone B Nimble. They’ve been getting their due following the “discovery” of Sadar by european festivals, but they still keep it real in a way that is different from Moodymann’s (and Omar S, while I’m at it) performatic antics. I’ve been disappointed enough with Moodymann sets that I don’t bother anymore. I haven’t seen Theo play live, only on recorded sets, and I really like hearing to his stuff because I never get the sense he’s trying to fuck with the audience like I do with KDJ.
I saw Mark a few weeks ago and he was good but he definitely doesn’t take as many risks as Theo does or play some midbending gospel/vocal thing that Sadar does. I agree that Rahaan is probably the pick of the lot but the two best I have heard when, on the rare occasion, they just go disco and disco-adjacent are Marcellus Pittman and Derrick Carter. Heard the latter on home turf in Chicago and for the 90 minutes of the 2 hours he just played disco, new wave and belgian beat and it was superb. When he went oompty boompty or whatever you call it for the last 30 and it just sounded awful next to the excellent preceding brilliance.
I have to admit that I wrongly identified Optimo as a night for students and the type of Penny Farthing riding hipsters I wanted nothing to do with.
When I was finally dragged along, I realised that I’d totally missed out. It was fantastic, and I have to credit them with being one of the main catalysts for me becoming more eclectic in my music tastes. Im sure on that night, I remember hearing Black Betty and it somehow worked perfectly.
I’ve seen them loads now, and you just expect these curveballs. California Dreamin is a weird one though. I could see that sucking the energy out of the room.
Ok, we may not agree on this, but I do think the music scene early 2000s needed a shot in the arm, and all these people mixing up house and punk added something fresh and raw, with these different scenes in London, NY and in Europe feeding off each other.
I don’t disagree in a wider sense - stale scenes need new approaches -but DFA and the electroclash thing at that time did nothing for me at all. Metro Area on the other hand I loved. Trevor Jackson too
I liked DFA and Environ alike. I guess Tim Sweeney’s radio show bridged it all together? Always interesting to compare NY and London around that time. Often wondered why there was no equivalent of ‘meet me in the bathroom’ written about the London scene?