erol alkan - C/D

Saw him last week and it was the Bugged Out set again, and pretty much all the same tricks etc. It's a shame but it's not his fault. Last year when I saw him playing different sets each time I really thought he was one of the best. It doesn't help matters that "big" electrohouse is kind of changing alot and not maybe yielding the pop hits so much this year.

A friend of mine working for the big satancorp promoter over here tells me that there's this feeling in the industry that dance music is now officially back, and people like Erol are the new faces to be given a real major push around the world. hence he's playing here a few times this year.

Nice to see Subway's "Thermal" on that mix though, I love that record and have never seen it get props. I still think there are so many good mix CDs around that it's not quite enough for GU and co to come out with a mix which has alot of electrohousey names on it.

And also, all the electrohouse producers are so prolific that seeing all the right names does not a good mix CD make.

Erol Alkan!

He's also doing the second Suck My Deck.

I'd been eyeing off that Danny Howells mix! And the Chris Fortier Balance one too.

hmm. hmm.

brilliant. WHY? i want them to KEEP ON insisting it's 'dead' 'still dead' etc for years more. fck em.

dance on kids.

=)

Anyway, the really big night in Melbourne is this night called One Love, which is perhaps the first Melbourne club night ever to actually reach the status of a Gatecrasher in terms of signifiying an entire sound/movement. They had a huge double paged spread in one of the weekly mags with all the various DJs (the guys mentioned above all included) doing their best rock star poses, all scuffed black clothing and fancy haircuts and the like (of course the guy from Bodyrockers looks like a permanent 80s-revival trash fashions model). These guys (and they're all guys) have become total household names and saturate the radio. Dance music is not only back and bigger than at any time since at least the late nineties; it's also only now taken the notion of the "rock star DJ" to its logical conclusion.

There are three types of commercial electro-house songs:

1) shrill diva pop track with ridiculously overblown synth-armageddon electro-house arrangement always vaguely reminiscent of Black Stroke's "Fitting Together". Inaya Day/Mr Timothy started this trend, but the apocalyptic synths seem like a new development: there's a new version of "Dirty Cash" in this vein which I actually secretly don't mind.

2) sly metrosexual rap or female spoken-word tracks over "sleazy" synth riffs. I liked Quesh's "Candy Girl" but all the local variants are dire: TV Rock are vaguely reminiscent of the rapper The Real McCoy but not as good; Vandalism are just "Shiny Disco Balls" 2005 model.

3) Jacques Lu Cont/Digitalism (only really crap) style boshing electro-house remixes of indie-ish songs, the Dirty South vs Evermore track being a hugely popular and depressing nadir

Erol Alkan has little to do with this phenomenon - except insofar as the Alkan/Justice/Digitalism/Simian aesthetic is this stuff's slightly more respectable twin - but I find it fascinating anyway.

second time he played at a purported house night, a dull selection with a mediocre soundsystem. and virtually no audience awareness, so it seems.

most recently was at trash, where both his judgement and flow were virtually spot on. i guess being in one's home turf pays off?

yeah, i wonder what he'll be like in NYC. i saw him at trash once and really loved it, but i never got too into 'bugged out.' love his 'one louder' mix tho.

I have also found the 'one love' advert that tim mentions upthread and I may upload a pic of it later. it is hilarious.

i wonder what they will do at the 10 year point.

love his bugged out mix, seeing him play on saturday.

at glastonbury he was lifting the cdj over his head (with the cd still playing in it) and punching the air with the thing. class.

rip trash

went a couple of times, lots of stuck up types, but that's glam isn't it?

MASSIVE Ocean Colour Scene fan. Fact.

hahaha

I'm not kidding.

I have also found the 'one love' advert that tim mentions upthread and I may upload a pic of it later. it is hilarious.

YSI?