Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

[DIDI]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

sounds pretty decent. I'll probably buy it if I don't forget about it between now and whenever it releases in the US.

FFS balance

Unless you are suffering from Alzheimer's you should probably be fine. US release is 16th . It was never supposed to be earlier. Ours was 5th September, but he got it out early. Balance is the only label that Australia gets earlier . We probably got it early because we are in Melbourne.

Have you ordered ??

Just looked for it for you . Amazon will have it on the 16th. Interestingly the cost would be fractionally cheaper including postage if you had preordered from Australia. Our dollar is a bit weaker at the moment.

[Jenks]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

Is there any way to buy a digital copy? Amazon link is for the CD...I'm surprised record labels are still trying to sell music this way. I don't think I even have one CD playing device.

[tiddles]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

I've bought the last few balances on iTunes, they just don't show up until a day or so before release IIRC

Unless you are suffering from Alzheimer's you should probably be fine. US release is 16th . It was never supposed to be earlier. Ours was 5th September, but he got it out early. Balance is the only label that Australia gets earlier . We probably got it early because we are in Melbourne.

That's such a joke. It's almost 2015, why can't they pull off a worldwide digital release at once? Labels heads must be bitter cause you all pay out the ass for imported everythings.

btw is gummy really aussie slang for blowjob?

[DIDI]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

^^^ Why have you got such a hard on for Balance. ?? They are a brilliant little label. They put out incredibly good music. They don't do it on a regular basis because they work with the artists to get the best. I have consistently found I can get their releases early. And in case you haven't noticed this little thing called the internet means we don't pay through the arse anymore for imported things.

Don't know slang for blowjob, except blowjob.

[DIDI]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

Is there any way to buy a digital copy? Amazon link is for the CD...I'm surprised record labels are still trying to sell music this way. I don't think I even have one CD playing device.

Thank god the are still selling them like this.

[Zover]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

I always prefer to have a Cd version. I like having the art work and the notes and credits to look through. Maybe it's an age thing that stems back to reading sleeve notes and lyrics while listening to an album.

[unkle]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

Yeah, I like the cd format too, there is something special with that,
open the box, read the notes, info or whatever inside, I like that kind
of ritual, when you buy a new art. yeah, Sounds stupid but, I don't fucking care.
we live in a digital era but I like the vintage mode and some old habits.

[gerald wb]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

Most of the previous comments on this were positive. Well, I did not feel it at all
I had high hopes and was pretty excited when I heard he is going for a full on peaktime set but both discs here sounded bland with no real highs and no real standouts (which is one thing I used to like on DT mixes). Just listened to it from start to finish. No, not my cup of tea.

[Homegrove]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

Worldwide digital release seems to be on the 19th. iTunes has it at 9,90 € with all tracks included full lenght.

[tribalcho]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

CD1 is like mini GU-Athens - deep,dark and sexy techno sounds! I LOVE IT! CD2 is more like GU-London - to me it always sounded a bit flat without flow..there are some good tunes but i will need some more listens to get into it.. Overall this is far, far better compilation than Futurism but still not so great as his ''Back To Basics'' ..

[tribalcho]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

Danny Tenaglia is one of the most respected and consistently looked up to DJs in the game. Hailing from Brooklyn, he has been DJing for over 30 years. From the early years of disco to the dawn of tribal and progressive house to the more recent Tech House and Techno sounds, Danny has been a steadfast force in electronic music.


DT caught up with Danny following his magnificent set at Electric Zoo right before the release of his first compilation in six years on Balance Music out of Australia entitled Balance 025. During the hour long interview, we spoke to Danny about festivals, the old and new New York electronic music scene, Acid House, Techno, and everything in between.


How would you say the New York electronic music scene has evolved since the start of the festival? There has definitely been a big movement in your hometown of Brooklyn as of recent with clubs such as Output and Verboten bringing massive line-ups and now Sankeys turning SRB’s into their new home.


- I go back to the 70's and even in the early 70's, I watched my older brothers and some of my relatives going to nightclubs long before I was old enough to go. I already had that bug in me that I wanted to be a DJ, its crazy! Output is on N. 12th street and my dad was born on N. 5th street 85 years ago! My mother was born there. Our whole history is in Williamsburg and I lived there for 25 years before I moved to Miami. When I moved back to New York a few years later I moved to Astoria, but I always keep visiting because all my relatives are there. The change is only recent and I welcome it - I would have never imagined a few years ago that Williamsburg was going to blossom into this mecca of condos and hotels and restaurants and be trendy and earthy and very musical with the club scene. I think it is totally thriving again, I think we all started to ask the question, when is going to get better?
After so many of the mega, massive venues closed and we lost the residency I was doing for 5 years, Vinyl - which was the best residency ever! I was there for 5 years and there was no liquor and people were truly there to party and hear the music from 12 midnight until noon. Once that closed and Sound Factory and Tunnel and Twilo and Crobar and Spirit we didn’t have much hope. Many years passed and the only club that remained open was Pacha. I think now we are just into this new phase where we are between Williamsburg and other parts of Brooklyn - but even the rooftop events, daytime parties, PS1, a lot of it has come to this side of the bridge. I love how people are hungry for it and welcoming it. I could never predicted 5 years ago that we would be seeing this kind of activity and welcoming of pioneering DJs - I'm talking about the likes of Adam Beyer and people like that - that never really had the right luck in New York. They were making some of the best music ever, but now they have proper places to play in - long after we lost the mega venues where you would think that would be the right place for them. I have no complaints, I think it’s awesome where we are at right now in clubland.


It is definitely awesome! I think the scene is getting better and better as time goes on. With new and talented artists continuously developing and younger ones becoming more prevalent than some of the older ones, would you say fans are becoming more demanding and expect more from veteran artists such as yourself?


- Yeah, I mean I would say that because we are living in this generation of post rave mentality where people are really, really becoming in admiration of the DJs to the point of fanatical. They are really expecting that journey from them but they want it quick and they want it fast and they want their money's worth. Everyone is looking at their watch because they want to go hear another DJ - that applies not just to festivals to nightclubs too. We are living in this age where they are raised on instant gratification and that crescendo and climax the song can bring you to and then it’s really really extremely distant on what I was raised upon. I've been in nightclubs where the song itself was the journey. It should have some heights and breakdowns but it’s really become a little bit where anybody that’s between the ages of 15 and 25, their previous clubbing experience and musical knowledge and what they might have been raised upon could have been hip hop or trance. They have those elevations and now they’re coming to nightclubs and festivals and they want someone like me to do it to them like Armin Van Buuren does but it’s hard to do that. If I did do that – ‘cause I can fake a crescendo in any record I play with effects, reverbs, delays, just to get that da da da da boom, bring it back in. To me that’s faking it, you have to do it when it feels appropriate. So yeah I feel that audiences today are expecting something from DJs that just isn’t appropriate for the music. Until they mature having lived to the point where it’s like… “we are sick of that, we are going to learn something different, we are going to learn about deep house and the roots of House and Techno and New York, Chicago, New Jersey, about certain DJs” and until then I’ll take it one day at a time.


Now with the ever-growing popularity of Deep House and Techno artists taking to the main-stage, would you say there is still a huge gap between the genres of dance music? I’ve seen some of the more mainstream artists such as Tiesto and Kaskade playing Deep House now and Disclosure and Duke Dumont now getting airplay on FM stations here in the U.S.


- Well you know I think for someone like myself who is really been there since the early stages of all of this pre-disco, I have a totally different feeling of what Deep House is. I think the fact that if Tiesto and Kaskade are not playing their usual epic type, anthem trancy, very progressivey type, vocally alternative what have you and they are playing a funkier set - then right away it is considered as deep because it’s deeper than what they are used to playing. To me it’s not necessarily gospel deep, so that’s where my roots lie in Deep House, its roots are solos and piano and true musicians that were trained in Jazz and Classical. However, I still welcome it, I like the idea that even in Techno - like in the rave generation and post rave - Techno and the ones that might say that’s not Techno because in their minds and their hearts Techno is usually really very fast and aggressive and sometimes obnoxious - tracks that just sound like they are looping or drilling you - but the techno of today is more soulful. Techno has come down in its tempo and the patterns are a lot more swinging as opposed to that steady four on the floor, 16 note, just driving and drilling you.
I think a lot of the DJs and producers that were making this music back then and are still in the game - these guys are still killing it with techno but doing it in a modern way where it is appealing to guys like myself. Back then there was no way I was playing a 140 BPM Techno record but maybe back 15 years ago I would buy a lot of these compilations and find tracks, pitch them down, do edits. Now the records that are being made today are already sounding like that so I don't have to do that type of work for them to sound appealing to the crowd I was playing for. I was mentioning a little while ago Cari Lekebusch, Timo Maas, Adam Beyer, Chris Liebing that would just be pioneers to me and they are still in the game - they are still making records but now they make them not as fast and a little bit funkier and a little bit more swinging. I think it’s amazing - so there is a market for everybody.


It has been 6 years since you released your last compilation, how long was this in the making and how did you go about the selection process for tracks and artists?


- Over the years I was a resident DJ for many years but especially since 95 or 96 when this all started for me back again in New York at Roxy and Twilo. It was in Twilo I did my first Global Underground CD and 2 years later I was at The Tunnel and that’s when I did my 2nd Global Underground CD as well as doing my solo EP “Tourism” and then I went on to Vinyl. When I was at Vinyl I did a “Back to Basics” compilation, “Back to Mind” compilation. It’s really only “Futurism” back in 2008 that was post my residency mentality and that particular CD was when I started to feel like I was going to express myself though a different kind of journey. What I'm trying to say is that the residency thing was me doing these long sets and I was trying to show people how I can take them on a journey from Deep House and tribal-ish introductions all the way through to progressive and maybe even touching on trance here and there. That brought me home with something more of the closure to the CD.
When I did “Futurism” this was now me feeling more minimal, tech-ish, but similar in the journey sense where I needed to pick up the energy. I found myself moving away from my roots in house with vocals and a certain sense of deepness, even though the tempo could of started at 120, it was Deep Tech, it wasn't Deep House. Now with Balance - several years later - I think what it was doing was a similar thing - embracing where I am in the future, not getting stuck in my past and being reflective of Berghain and Panorama Bar and Output Club here in New York. As long as I’ve had my many other travels whether it be Stereo Montreal, Winter Music Conference, or Ibiza - I think that if a club hires me and they want me to play for 6-8 hours, they know that I'm going to have to give that journey and I'm not going to stay on Techno for that many hours. I know that they want for me to go into that classic sound of mind of the past and take it home with a Deep House classic kind of New York, New Jersey, Chicago vibe.
When you are doing a 2 hour CD, it’s impossible to bring the essence of that marathon set. I didn't want to confuse the people by doing a techy Techno CD and then dropping some vocals - that would make no sense in the middle of the CD so I just eliminated that - I didn’t want people to think that I don't love that anymore and that I don't play that anymore. I just felt like I'm still doing this, I ain't going to stop, I'm never going to stop and maybe the next CD I do I will be more reflective of just Panorama Bar where its only old school and a lot of personal edits and remixes that I don’t give away.


Naturally you best known here in the States. How did you feel about releasing on an Australian label such as Balance?


- Over the years I've had many offers to do projects - whether it be compilation CDs or remixes for certain artists but I’ve always been very selective. My feeling is like…how will this make me look or what will people think? Am I going in this direction or that direction? It could be a cheesy label where I didn't want the association with because of all the other artists and how they keep flooding the market and I would just back off. When Balance approached me to do this through my management of Safehouse Management in England, I did my research, saw all the other artists that were on their roster and I just felt like that it would be something that I would like to associate myself with. It’s more about quality than quantity with Balance and that’s something I can definitely identify with. We discussed it and they didn't have expectations of me sounding like this or sounding like that so I just went with it and said “alright, I think it’s time!” I appreciated the offer and the guys over at Balance are great, Tom Pandzic is great, and Australia is great. I've toured Australia 5 times already. It is so far away from New York but once you get there you haven’t traveled at all. The people are just incredible. They are up for it, intelligent and they have really made an impact on me whenever I've been there.


It’s interesting that you describe Balance Music as a quality, not quantity record label. Do you worry about the lack of quality control within the scene today?


- I liked who Balance was working with and I looked on their roster who had everyone from Timo Maas to Nic Fanciulli. I just felt like I related to these people, I know a lot of them and I have great admiration for a lot of them. I just can't say the same for a lot of the other labels that had made me offers. It’s similar to saying they wanted to put me on the main stage with David Guetta, Avicii and Eddie Halliwell. Don't get me wrong, I know these guys and we've met along the way, even Erick Morillo…do I really fit there? What am I supposed to do? People are going to expect me to sound something like them and I it felt like I was going to be pigeon-holed into trying to sound something like I'm not, not fully expressing myself as an artist. So I felt like Balance was a better canvas so to speak.
I've turned down so many remix offers in the 90's when I was really doing tons of remixes between 88 and 2002 but especially the 1990's. I had gotten offers to remix so many famous people but the songs just weren't there. It could of been like “oh we want you to remix so and so” and I get excited and I hear it and it was nothing short of being a ballad. I was like…what am I supposed to do to this? It could have been a Mariah Carey record, and I'm like hooray! wow! Mariah has a great voice! Do I do a dance version or dub version? Whatever… then you get it and it’s a slow song or it could have been - and don't get me wrong - I have done a couple where you listen to it in its original form and at first it’s like what the hell am I going to do? Blondie is a good example, “Nothing is Real but the Girl” - Garbage when I grew up which were like rock ‘n roll songs and they were really fast but when you strip it and you hear the a cappella you can see how it could lend itself to a dance version. There were many where it was like, “No way! There’s no way I can do it.” No matter how much money they offered me - I'm not going to associate myself with this because I'm going to look like a fool and people will be like “oh he did this for the money”. That was always first and foremost for me and that ended in 2002 - the residency. So all those years I was doing remixes, my first career was always being a DJ and that was my first love - being a producer and remixer was an extension of that. So if I got an offer to do something I really had to feel it to get persuaded into doing it.


I've always felt you have to continuously increase your value instead of just trying to gain money. The more valuable you are, the more you are worth. Some people sit there and just take money to do anything and it ends up making them less valuable if you are just taking any gig.


- Exactly. That is what I meant by saying 2002 being the end of it. I had done in 2002, Depeche Mode - being who they are as a famous, alternative 80's, legendary genius rock band to the flipside of doing something soulful which eases into tomorrow. Finally a very deep, soulful, meaningful song about a woman dying and meeting her partner again in heaven and that was the kind of song that gave me goosebumps and people were singing along to it. I said yes to both of them and both were very successful remixes for me. After that I declined everything, everything was changing, the labels were closing, budgets were going from really good fees to basically nothing – practically asking you to do it for free. Record stores were closing, the digital days were arriving and I was just like “No! I'm not going to do this just to get my name on another record!” My first love will always be DJing. I've turned down Michael Jackson records. This was recently, just after he passed away. I was like “No! I can't do it! It’s like Michael Jackson is singing and all of a sudden a rapper comes in and it’s like…what do you want me to do with this


My first job was actually at the music section in Best Buy and I remember how we had to frontline everything and how music was marketed by in-store displays. You also had the customer service element as well that is missing from Itunes and Beatport. On the plus side, music is now more accessible and ubiquitous than ever. Have you ever thought of opening up your own record store in the past?


- I haven't. That is an interesting question, nobody has ever asked me that before but people have asked me “how come you don't open you don't open up your own nightclub?” but this particular question is probably more apt because I feel like I love music so deeply. It is interesting that I just mentioned Michael Jackson's name because he was just 2 years older than me. I saw when I was a young kid, how I grew up with the Jackson and the Motown sound and Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and I was so influenced by that and a lot of rock ‘n roll. Having lived in New York all my life and seeing stores like Discomania and Vinylmania - it was a cutthroat business because you were competing with other record stores and it was all about who had it first. Then there was also dealing with distributors. For me, it was all about sales, it’s not about music.
So to return to the question of people asking me why I’ve never invested in a nightclub – aside of that I have no money to invest in a nightclub – the problem is that a nightclub is a business and it’s all about sales and has nothing to do with music. I would get no joy in being a club owner, I would probably see myself being in an office worrying about who might be stealing and worrying about! I would put my love and devotion in the sound and the sound system but at the end of the day - just like I've witnessed because of my knowledge of doing this - you see clubs opening and their intention is pure at first but then eventually they have to give into the commercial-ness; the Lady Gaga types of music - because that’s what selling, they need to sell bottles and have bottle service in order to pay their rent and pay their bills and in no way would I want any part of that. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not a very good business man - my passion is music! Thank God for the people who are accountants and agents and so on. They allow people like me to do what we do.
Back in the days when I was aspiring to get past making 3-500 dollars a night as I could barely afford my rent. When I did a gig here and there, I would always know deep in my soul from having watch Jellybean and Pettibone, etc. that in order to get noticed you needed to make your own songs. Now it’s more meaningful than ever because you can just watch the history of it and the evolution of a DJ and you didn't get recognized because you knew how to mix records anymore – you got recognized for your artistic expressions in the studio and production skills.
I'm not a good business guy. I’m a music person and I think that I would be able to help bring out the productive side of aspiring producers or maybe help them in expressing themselves as entertainers. There’s no school for this and I'm not learning from anybody and I would love to teach what I've learned from so and so. I'm going to pass these lectures on to these young guys and girls - it would just all come from my heart and my experiences in doing this since the 70's. I do see this place as an educational facility one day, I'm not giving up on that. I would love to see it become a place for consistent Boiler Room type events. That is what I want this place to be open to - mature minded people, daytime, daylight, social - not being a draw the curtains, dark kind of place and worrying about who is in a stall snorting ketamine, that is my biggest fear.
It’s much bigger now. This room right here where I'm sitting was 1900 square feet and having knocked down that wall, it opens it up all the way to the back where that entrance is, so it is over 3000 square feet now. So it’s a whole different feeling now - that doesn't mean that this wall is down now and we invite over 300 people, no that would be overkill. I like it the less is better theory, because it being a place where I've rented for the last 11 years. If people have never been here before then there is a certain mystique. Perhaps people haven’t had have the opportunity to speak to me if they see me at nightclubs or they see me at the DJ booth but now they are up here in a social environment. Say Eat's Everything is in town and they are going to do a Boiler Room type thing with him. Maybe I'll be working in Ibiza that weekend and I can't be here, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.


You say Techno is more soulful, swinging, and bouncier under 130 BPM. I know some of your fans like that harder, darker sound. Do you feel it necessary to tinker between both sounds in order to appeal to the masses? I can tell that you did exactly just that on “Balance 025”.


- I think that a darker sound is its own genre but at the same time it’s still not above 130. If anything, it’s even closer to 126. I think a lot of New Yorkers like when it’s tough - like Alan Fitzpatrick and Joseph Capriati and Sasha Carassi and the kind of records that they make. It’s more of a proper Tech House as opposed to Techno or Deep Tech. I think that is something that is been around for quite a while and started peaking in the last few years. Even that’s starting to find its way on the decline because you can hear pretty much anybody start to play Tech House and they are making them in a cookie cutter kind of way where they are just going and going. The big crescendo part of it all is when the open ride came in with that sizzle and just added the elevation of it all and it was similar to what I was saying about acid house before. If I'm going to play Tech House, I don't know if I necessarily need to go by the latest 200 best Tech House records on the Beatport because I have so many great ones that have somewhat of an original methodical arrangement to it. I rather revisit those but New Yorkers like a lot of that and I think that comes from the dark clubs like Tunnel and Twilo and the atmosphere you can create with a good visual specialist. Atmosphere is so key at any party.
I was able to create a dark atmosphere with songs that weren't even very dark. You break that record down into the dark and you might find that record in the intro and you are recreating that intro until it builds up again and then a light guy plays along with you but that is missing man - that consistency.
The lights can aid you in molding a set into a dark context even if It is not at all meant to necessarily be dark, so if you are working with a good light man then he can help you with those buildups and breakdowns which the song will naturally do by itself. If you’re put in a dark atmosphere then you are more likely to play that darker more metallic sound. It is like doing a rooftop party, you’re not going to play heavy Techno up there because it is a rooftop party. Apples and oranges.




Danny Tenaglia: 30 Years Under 130

[Huggie Smiles]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

I really enjoyed it.
Good range of styles

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

I had really low expectations for this double cd - never really cared for most of Tenaglia's efforts (I'm certain I'm in the minority, but I found his Athens GU boring as shit).

But wow, this was excellent - banging, engaging and all around great double mix cd. Definitely another highlight in a year for great music discoveries for me.

[Troklo]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

I enjoyed this as well
good CD this is

[progressive420]

Re: Balance 025 - Danny Tegnalia

I like it...a lot. Its a good banging,driving set. makes me wanna dance and well after all, this is dance music. Tenaglia is supposedly a pain in the ass, but he knows how to make a great mix.