Dubstep

[2010]

fair enough.

but every single live set i've ever seen from dance music producer/dj/group etc has always felt like a pointless, bloated exercise in doing something different for the sake of it..

you say a line-up of just DJs would be too similar... but that's like going to a series of beethoven concertos and moaning that every single one used a conductor.

dance music, in a rave, definitely works best when mixed well by a creative dj.

that's what i think anyway.

It's not a pointless exercise for us. We are doing it because it gets us out of a recording perspective and gives us the chance to come up with new ideas so the tracks transcend well into a live performance. It's fun experimenting with the music and coming up with live reworks of our tracks. Some of our new stuff isn't dj friendly for most nights around what we do, so it's vital for us to be able to perform live.

Personally i do think a line-up of dj's would of been too similar to any number of nights in London right now. Im not moaning I just don't see the point in putting on another. I think walking into room 1 with King Midas on stage was refreshing, I thought it sounded great too.

Dance music in a rave does work better when mixed by a creative dj, but is this even dance music? King Midas i don't think is, and the reaction to 9's set looked pretty healthy to me.

 

[john eden]

I agree with 2010 - there was enough good stuff going on elsewhere if people weren't up for it.

It depends what you want out of a night - I certainly don't want to go to a rave and get a "gig" but I thought the live sets were a great way to kick things off.

If anyone saw any of the bug's DJ sets down at BASH it wasn't all that different in terms of set up - live vocalists and effects and records. He just had more scope to mutate his tunes with the desk up there.

Having seen Metalheadz/goldie do a "live set" at the Tribal Gathering circa '97 I can assure you things can be much much worse.

 

[mistersloane]

^^^^^ this
i've never seen a good live set in a club either

That's cos you weren't at Union on Saturday night, we smashed it! and that was at 3.00 after full on DJs up to that point.

It's really important to get out there and do live sets, it changes the way you work loads, and you can also try out things in a way you cant if you're just DJing.

 

[staypuft]

^^^^^ this
i've never seen a good live set in a club either

if EPROM ever comes into your town I'd suggest checking him out... ruff stuff.

 

[grizzleb]

I've heard plenty good live sets in clubs. Some people are suited to them, and can move through different aspects of their sound/build up a set. I prefer them to DJ sets quite often, if it's been worked well. Needs to have loads of little filler/transition tracks and stuff though, no straight start/next track shit. Might as well be off a CD. But a bit of jamming and stuff...all good. And as 2010 its important for artists to progress.

 

[alec.tron]

if EPROM ever comes into your town I'd suggest checking him out... ruff stuff.

not dubstep... but, as for live sets that were amazing in their own right & worked really well in a club context:
Jamie Lidell in his pre-band superCollider-beatboxing-live-sequencing days... unfortunately you would need a time machine as those days seem to have passed.
don't watch the sound here tho....

and one of the most amazing club live sets... herbert (matthew) as Radioboy around 99/00 at a Shitkatapult night in Berlin... blew me likkle mind.
There's recordings of him doing some of the Mechanics Of Destruction tracks live for a show Bjork curated on Arte (French/German TV station), which was a few years later, slightly more experimental & less club based, but shows the live sampling & sequencing context, if you can find it...

c.

 

[audiofelch]

not dubstep... but, as for live sets that were amazing in their own right & worked really well in a club context:
Jamie Lidell in his pre-band superCollider-beatboxing-live-sequencing days... unfortunately you would need a time machine as those days seem to have passed.
don't watch the sound here tho....

and one of the most amazing club live sets... herbert (matthew) as Radioboy around 99/00 at a Shitkatapult night in Berlin... blew me likkle mind.
There's recordings of him doing some of the Mechanics Of Destruction tracks live for a show Bjork curated on Arte (French/German TV station), which was a few years later, slightly more experimental & less club based, but shows the live sampling & sequencing context, if you can find it...

c.

both herbert and jamie lidell really did great, exciting things for electronic music performance earlier in the decade.. there was a lot of promise there. i guess there's a danger of it getting a bit gear-demo/novelty beatboxer (Tim Exile.. Beardyman etc.. all remarkably talented, but perhaps more spectacle than dancefloor, very much at odds with the more utilitarian dynamic of the current scene).

 

[routes]

personally i like to hear any kind of live stuff out, be it laptop jams, dj/mcs, bands, gameboys if the venue/lineup/sound is right then why not have both?

 

[Blackdown]

i'm curious to people's thinking here. what live sets from producers have people seen and why did they work?

 

[Sectionfive]

i'm curious to people's thinking here. what live sets from producers have people seen and why did they work?

Nathan Fake takes the biscuit this year, it was just great from start to finish.

 

[4linehaiku]

Live sets I've seen recently that were good recently were Pole and Portable/Bodycode, both of which flowed like a DJ set would, but used al their own material, and extended / edited various bits, used parts of tunes with parts of other ones etc. Laptops, probably Ableton I assume.
Rubbish ones: Robert Hood. Had all the synths and hardware and stuff, looked cool. But he would play a tune. Then stop. Then a new tune started. No flow, no vibe. I understand that he was playing synths and fiddling with drum machines etc, but I really don't give a shit in a club context. As soon as it starts operating like a 'gig' it's gone horribly wrong imo. Comes down to expectations though I suppose.

 

[tom lea]

Live sets I've seen recently that were good recently were Pole and Portable/Bodycode, both of which flowed like a DJ set would, but used al their own material, and extended / edited various bits, used parts of tunes with parts of other ones etc. Laptops, probably Ableton I assume.

pantha du prince and shed - same thing, souned great.

 

[Tentative Andy]

Rustie and Lazersword both did live sets at the last Numbers thing. They were a lot of fun, played a whole range of stuff, but both sets did have stretches where it ended up being more like you were standing and watching rather than dancing much.
I guess it's tricky because on the one hand you want to maintain the flow and danceability that you get from a dj set, but on the other hand you want to incoporate enough of the new potential from the live elements to make it different and worthwhile. If it sounds just like a dj then you may as well just mix, y'know? In general I prob am a little bit suspicious of live sets, but if it's an artist I already like then I tend to 'let them off', because I know I'll hear lots of good tunes, albeit not always in what for me is the ideal context.

 

[joe.dfx]

I've seen Pole, too, and it was really great. Much more upbeat then a majority of his stuff, which kept people moving.

Best live show I've ever seen though was Roni Size/Reprazent in 2000. Size/Krust/Die/Suv all playing midi controllers, live drummer, someone playing an upright bass, and dynamite and their female vocalist (cant think of her name atm). they all had huge amounts of energy, the place was packed and everyone was going nuts. size had a smile across his face the entire time. it was honestly the best show i've ever been too in my entire life. pretty amazing to be quite honest.




side note: KODE9 interviewed by Pitchfork: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/7718-kode9/

"There is an uninformed myth circulating just now that makes dubstep way too important in the musical universe-- don't believe the hype."

Most of the interview is about his book.

 

[continuum]

Nathan Fake takes the biscuit this year, it was just great from start to finish.

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[FairiesWearBoots]

Best live show I've ever seen though was Roni Size/Reprazent in 2000. Size/Krust/Die/Suv all playing midi controllers, live drummer, someone playing an upright bass, and dynamite and their female vocalist (cant think of her name atm). they all had huge amounts of energy, the place was packed and everyone was going nuts. size had a smile across his face the entire time. it was honestly the best show i've ever been too in my entire life. pretty amazing to be quite honest.

.

Would loved to have seen this - I loved Reprazent & Breakbeat Era stuff,

Onalee? iirc?

 

[wise]

I take back my previous statement that all live sets were rubbish.
I saw Reprazent around that time as well, they were amazing.
Also Kode 9 & Spaceape and Shackleton at that Wire night in Plastic People a while back was on of the best things i've ever heard, didn't make me dance though.

I think the problem generally boils down to what 2010 touched on earlier when producers feel that a DJ set is just the same as what everyone else is doing and not enough to contain their lofty artistic ambition. Often this results in a live set that fails to move the dancefloor and a crowd of people just staring at a stage.

The reason Reprazent were so good is that they had the energy of a DJ set combined with powerful stage presence in Onalee & Dynamite.
Kode 9 & Spaceape also had the coherence of a good dj set, and an incredible intensity (amplified by the intimacy of the space and the fact that Spaceape was mcing in the crowd not on a stage or behind decks)
At both gigs you felt part of what was happening not just a spectator.

The fact that Kode's set sounded like most of the music i've ever loved whipped into a big psychedelic whirlwind helped too

 

[michael]

^ Wise words. (ho ho)

I do think a producer being as DJ-like as possible can do the business too (sounds like people's enthusing over Pole, etc. falls into that category). Buuuut this (loaded, I know) question hopefully helps to make sense of why live sets in a dance situation are often disappointing:

Which would you prefer to dance to, someone selecting from the best music they've written or someone selecting from the best music they've heard?

If you looooove a producer's work you might be able to answer the former, but surely hardly ever?



I also note the responses from other producers (well, from 2010) are about the producers, not about the audience - "give us room to develop and we'll make better music". That does make lots of sense to me, have seen how live sets help open up avenues in my own music, but it doesn't address whether or not the live scenario is at all enjoyable for the audience.

 

[benjybars]

I also note the responses from other producers (well, from 2010) are about the producers, not about the audience - "give us room to develop and we'll make better music". That does make lots of sense to me, have seen how live sets help open up avenues in my own music, but it doesn't address whether or not the live scenario is at all enjoyable for the audience.

exactly.

live sets, to me, just seem like an excuse for the peformer to have fun at the audience's expense (not that i think the audience should always have an easy time of it.. being challenged etc is usually good.. but. you know.. allow prancing about behind a laptop while the audience just stands there.. )

 

[2010]

I take back my previous statement that all live sets were rubbish.
I saw Reprazent around that time as well, they were amazing.
Also Kode 9 & Spaceape and Shackleton at that Wire night in Plastic People a while back was on of the best things i've ever heard, didn't make me dance though.

I think the problem generally boils down to what 2010 touched on earlier when producers feel that a DJ set is just the same as what everyone else is doing and not enough to contain their lofty artistic ambition. Often this results in a live set that fails to move the dancefloor and a crowd of people just staring at a stage.

The reason Reprazent were so good is that they had the energy of a DJ set combined with powerful stage presence in Onalee & Dynamite.
Kode 9 & Spaceape also had the coherence of a good dj set, and an incredible intensity (amplified by the intimacy of the space and the fact that Spaceape was mcing in the crowd not on a stage or behind decks)
At both gigs you felt part of what was happening not just a spectator.

The fact that Kode's set sounded like most of the music i've ever loved whipped into a big psychedelic whirlwind helped too

Our music alot of the time isn't designed to move the dancefloor. I've seen lots of performances were the audience stand looking at a stage but the vibe has been right. Off the top of my head the xx recently.

Also at Micheal, do you really think we'd prepare something for ourselves to indulge in? we want the audience to get what we are doing... But I'd also want them to have an inclination of what we sound like before hand... I didn't walk into room 1 on Saturday expecting to bug out to King Midas.

@ benji, we're completely on a different page...I disagree with what you said about artists motivations to perform live.