Slothrop
Tight but Polite
There's been a lot of technology coming out recently that makes the concept of 'live' electronic music seem less like a contradiction in terms. In particular, software like Ableton Live and (in a less high profile way) EnergyXT allow you to really blur the lines between a DJ set, a mash up, and a live performance - you can trigger preset loops, tweak equipment, play in new phrases, layer, reorder and remix your tunes on the fly.
Since one of the things that's traditionally made dubplate cultures so exciting is the very rapid feedback loop of dubplate -> club -> audience reaction -> studio -> dubplate, is it possible that laptop performances / DJ sets could accelerate that even further? You don't have to wait for a week or a month for a succesful meme to spread through the scene, it can happen in the course of a single set. Meanwhile, the absence of records means that people don't need to have the means to press up dubplates of a new tune or a new version, but can just render it.
Until recently, this hasn't been much of an issue, since the sort of software that made this possible was well into hardcore geek territory, but the new stuff isn't much more effort than using a conventional sequencer.
Is this actually quite an exciting prospect? Or is it just a pipe dream: the whole thing's actually going to remain a novelty with no real impact...
Since one of the things that's traditionally made dubplate cultures so exciting is the very rapid feedback loop of dubplate -> club -> audience reaction -> studio -> dubplate, is it possible that laptop performances / DJ sets could accelerate that even further? You don't have to wait for a week or a month for a succesful meme to spread through the scene, it can happen in the course of a single set. Meanwhile, the absence of records means that people don't need to have the means to press up dubplates of a new tune or a new version, but can just render it.
Until recently, this hasn't been much of an issue, since the sort of software that made this possible was well into hardcore geek territory, but the new stuff isn't much more effort than using a conventional sequencer.
Is this actually quite an exciting prospect? Or is it just a pipe dream: the whole thing's actually going to remain a novelty with no real impact...