Awesome post that perfectly captures something thats been heavily on my mind of late regarding Vancouvers scene, and Im sure every DJ I know will relate to this... the length of the DJ set. This is a great read for all, especially the kids out there just coming into this scene. Over the last month Ive seen one party after another stack up the amount of DJs they have on one lineup; in many cases (not all), the promoter does this to get additional promo for their event by capitalizing on the network of the DJs they book. Theyll never admit to it, but its true. Meanwhile, the event usually runs anywhere from 4 to 8 hours, in which they have to cram a bunch of really short sets (1hr or less) or go b2b, which in turn forces a DJ to pick a handful of tracks from hundreds/thousands of hours of music, often forgoing so many gems they worked so hard to find. This is very stifling of the creativity and talent emerging in this city, and Im calling on all Vancouver promoters and DJs to start thinking about this more when curating lineups for their events. Some of my fave sets of 2014 in Vancouver came in the form of the extended set... The TIME series from the Rhombus crew that saw an amazing 5hrs with Francis Harris, 4hrs with Baikal, an Amirali set that was originally scheduled to be 2hrs but went for 4, and most recently a couple of 4hr sets from a Vancouver legend DJ Kevin Shiu (hi Kevin!) at GORG-O-MISH AFTER HOURS. Im sure Ive missed a few others but those came to mind first... I yearn to see Vancouvers underground become a top-5 to top-10 scene in North America; I want to promote this scene and our finest artists/venues/promoters to the rest of the world, and until we can boast about regular 4+ hour sets from some of our best locals, not to mention from bigger-ticket traveling artists, well always have a hard time earning credibility. And without the opportunity to play longer sets, well continue to see the trend of our best artists who hit a creative plateau or move on to another city where theres more opportunity. Very broad thoughts here, many bases I havent covered... read the article, voice your thoughts!!! Much respect to my homie Oswald Jackson on a great piece of writing.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:56:02 +0000
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