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Re: [microsound] MUTEK archives on the web

At 23:15 06/09/00 -0400, Multsanta wrote:
At 02:22 PM 9/7/00 +1200, you wrote: 

>"Turntable performance" might also be called a "DJ set", yes?
>
>Go go gadget marketing! Or perhaps just a really weird distinction, if
>people honestly believe what Brinkmann does with turntables does not
>qualify as DJing.


i've never witnessed a brinkmann set, but am i wrong in thinking he is the
one that utilizes multi-armed turntables to create rhythmic/dubby
compostions?  if so wouldn't that qualify as a turntable performance? as
opposed to a dj set, where records are just mixed.  in this day in age the
turntable is just as valid of an instrument as the piano.  from kid koala
to marclay to q-bert...  it's a pretty short sighted to think 'that's just
for playing records.'  in fact, i'm rather surprised to hear such narrow
minded commentary on a list that bases it's existence on the belief that
telephone tones and slightly modified sine waves are music. ;-)

I'll try to rephrase what I was thinking, because I wasn't explicit on my judgements, and I think you've got me round the wrong way. Maybe not, but we'll see. :-)

I see DJing as a performance, that can range from lining up a couple of records to doing all kinds of customisation to your gear, including external effects and sound generating devices (eg. Richie Hawtin). I see its history as being strong in things like hip-hop and techno. Given the diverse range of madness that goes on DJ-wise "in this day and age" and that he's ostensibly a techno producer, I was suggesting it's purely marketing to call what Brinkmann does anything but DJing.

So, I'm saying that I read Alain Mongeau as being narrow-minded about DJing, selling it short of what it could include. I think you've taken it that I was being dismissive of Brinkmann as "a mere DJ", when I was trying to argue completely the reverse. I wish DJ was a word that had enough prestige to include people like Brinkmann, who might be considered too inventive to be DJing, or something. Turntablism is still popularly described as a type of DJing, yet the results are very different from someone solely beat mixing two tracks. Why isn't what Brinkmann does another subset of DJing? Not manual enough once you introduce razors? ;-)

That said, I think I did knee-jerk without giving it much thought. If I wanted to make it clear to an intended audience that someone was unequivocally performing their own music on some turntables, I wouldn't just bill it as a DJ set. So, yes, it would be for marketing reasons, but only in the sense that it'd be stupid to market something using completely different meanings to words my audience already use.

I hope this clarifies where I'm coming from. I am pretty much just thinking out loud, but I've tried to spell this out clearly. If anyone has thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them.

Michael

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