Is the art of DJing in trance dead?

[bnr]

I saw a reddit post which asked this question and I thought it would be interesting to hear you guys' opinions on this.

I myself have mostly been playing house and deep house recently as I just feel it's more fun to mix. You don't have to wait through a 1-2 minute breakdown/buildup and you can avoid intro-outro mixing. My preference with trance is mostly the uplifting, melodic stuff which restricts me to intro-outro mixing more often than not because of the nature of its production. After listening to last year's trance tourney winners, the psy and tech sides of trance seem to lend themselves better to more advanced mixing techniques.

Thoughts?

Here's the reddit post I'm referring to:
http://www.reddit.com/r/trance/comments/2zbmdr/is_the_art_of_djing_dead_in_trance/

[Buszaj]

Ya, saw that post earlier today. I gotta agree with the fact that it seems like the opportunity is not given as often for a lengthy set. Trance mixing for me has always been about set flow, progression, and long, tight transitions. It's definitely difficult to do that with the 1.5 - 2 hour sets that DJs are given.

That's what kind of bugged me about the trance tourney. It comes down to genre and song preference in the end when the mix times are limited like that. It's hard to have full progression in an hour or less. But you can't blame the tournament for doing that...people don't have time to listen to multiple 2/3+ hour mixes lol.

[Vernski]

This thread might turn into a retrospective look at the tourney...

Yes an hour is a pretty short space of time, although some may not have noticed at the time, there were a big selection of genres on display from Chris and myself. I went for a big intro--->prog house---->prog trance--->trance---->prog psy

Chris went for Breaks---->techno---->prog trance----prog/>psy trance from memory.

I suppose our varied taste/preference in music does influence what we get out of the mix. I know that it was noted that there should have been more variety, but I think if your wired to the style that was in show in the final, there was a lot to get out of it.

But your post does have a point, with the festival/EDM format that is so prevalent, it is virtually impossible to show some art of djing or set building.

It really lies in those dj's that get residencies and have the opportunity to build a night, rather than a power set. Personally it's a goal of mine to get a residency somewhere and hone those true trance skills.

An idol if mine John 00 Fleming referred to trance as being more a musical state of mind rather than a pigeon hole genre in order to categorise a style of music.

His 8 hour live set last year had ambient, progressive house, tech house, trance, techno, trance classics, psytrance. He even broke out suburban train with a live techno loop to keep the power from the techno track...everyone went nuts.

I think that those of us that mix trance etc, really need to make a concerted effort to keep practicing on building quality sets . Hopefully we can keep the art alive at a grass roots level...



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[Irrational_Fear]

In my opinion I think trance is one of the genres where the best mixes will always come from the DJ/DJ-Producers rather than the Producer/Producer-DJs.

Someone like John 00 as Vern mentioned above is able to throw down blinding sets that encompass a wide variety of trance styles, something that I feel the newer Producer-Djs just can't do- they are still largely constrained to their own sounds, even if not just their own productions.

This problem is highlighted further with the format of DJing these days and the trend toward festival setups where tons of DJs are put up on stage to spin tunes for an hour / maybe two at a push. They all want to use this slot (understandably) for plugging their latest productions/remixes and the sets become more of a trip through their own catalogue rather than a proper trance mix.

Also the length of typical trance tracks and the way they fit together simply doesn't lend itself to these short sets anyway.

Personally I think the problem is that the actual format of DJs playing for several hours in nightclubs is largely dead. There are still plenty of DJs out there capable of doing it, and they are able to show great skill in the way they structure those sets, but aside from the odd special night they simply don't get the opportunity. Certainly the days of the resident DJ playing for 4-5+hours seem to be a thing of the past.

Shame too, because I'd far rather experience something like that in the bowels of a quality nightclub than go and 'watch' a DJ placed high up on a stage with thousands of people stood facing them like they are some kind of rock star. That word 'watch' is key, as that seems to be the trend for a lot of these big events these days. People are watching (often even through their bloody phones) rather than just listening and enjoying. The focus is on the DJ not the music they are playing. Stick the DJ off to the side or something, let people concentrate on the experience and the music- interact with each other, dance etc.

That's what trance music is all about for me, that sense of community and enjoying that experience with others. Not standing side by side surrounded by camera phones facing a big stage watching a pyrotechnic show.

That is where I think the problem with trance mixing is these days. The art itself certainly isn't dead, but there is now just very little demand for the kind of environment that it is most suited to.

Edited for link:

Even here everyone seems to be interacting with each other far more, and no bloody camera phones! Them were the days etc etc...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1fnNY_w4tk