Tweet
As posted by Danny himself
Is this the new diggers cd or something??
Is this the new diggers cd or something??
-
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
oh this is what he must be talking bout
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
bad page.
keeps crashin!!!
any chance u can post the info?
Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
He means he hopes the new remix of Repercussion manages to make the selection for the Bedrock 10th anniversary album.As posted by Danny himself
Is this the new diggers cd or something??Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
That site is so hard to read. !!As posted by Danny himself
Is this the new diggers cd or something??The 'club spirit' is in the soul. It Never DiesOriginally posted by TheVrkComment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
^^ what do u mean?? That is Danny Howells website and it is his forum. he upgraded his site cause he was getting to much porn spam..
Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
There are DJs, and then there is John Digweed. Fifteen years ago, he first came to the attention of the world with his release with Sasha of the critically acclaimed Renaissance: The Mix Collection, widely regarded as the first fully mixed DJ compilation CD. Since then, he’s been at the top of his game, having been ranked the #1 DJ in the world by DJ Magazine’s hugely influential annual poll in 2001, and having held his ranking among the top ten every year since. His record label, appropriately called Bedrock Records, has been a cornerstone of progressive house music since its inception ten years ago and is considered to be one of the most important underground labels in electronic music history.
But on the eve of his arrival here in Western Canada, where so much of the promotions around his upcoming shows focus on his numerical ranking in DJ Magazine, how does John feel about having been reduced to a number? “It’s frustrating,” John begins, “because DJing isn’t a race. It’s not about coming first, it’s about playing good music on a weekly basis. How someone can say ‘so and so is better than Laurent Garnier or Grooverider or Tiësto’ is beyond me. Every DJ does their own thing in their own way.”
Of course to John, there’s two sides to the coin – and being tagged #1 in 2001 was certainly a very serious compliment. “It’s a great accolade, and I was chuffed to bits,” he confesses. “I’ve remained in that top five, top ten, but it’s one of those things that’s nice because it makes you realise that people appreciate what you’ve done, the productions that you’ve done, the overall package of who you are as a DJ. But when you look at the Top 100 chart and you don’t see Josh Wink or Laurent Garnier in the upper rankings, you kind of have to scratch your head a little bit. These are amazing DJs that pack clubs around the world.”
As John sees it, there’s also a little bit of politics involved. “There’s a lot of people that really push it come voting time, really promote it, and they’re out there canvassing like it’s a presidential election or something. And that’s fine, but that’s not me. Myself, I make people aware that the poll is open, but I’d never ask someone to vote for me. It’s not up to me to decide I’m the best or whatever – I just let people know and they can make their own choices. I think that’s the most important thing.”
And does it really matter, in terms of bookings and in terms of turnout to gigs? “I don’t think it makes a lot of difference to the guys filling clubs,” John observes. “It’s one of those things where if you travel around you know who’s filling clubs and who’s not.”
“I guess I’m kind of on the fence,” John says after a moment’s reflection. “It’s great in one sense, and in another I scratch my head with it. I don’t think it should be seen as a prize or reward, though. If you play well and you enjoy it, well that should be the reward, not popularity. Winning #1 didn’t change me any, I went out the following week and carried on exactly as I did the week before. I was glad to know people thought I was worthy of their vote, that they saw that I’d genuinely worked hard.”
Our next topic of conversation is Transitions Volume Four, his most recently released compilation. For Digweed, each of the Transitions series of mixes has been a reflection of his musical state of mind at the time of their release. “That’s a lot of the inspiration for me, capturing that moment musically,” he explains, “and so I’ll start of with about thirty or forty tracks that I’m really into. From there, I start messing around, trying different things, like putting a jigsaw together. I’ll find ideas that work for the beginning, then something for the ending, then a few bits that work in the middle, and spend a few weeks just going over it again and again until I’m happy with it.”
As might be expected from one of the most capable DJs in the industry, Digweed’s compilations are far from just one track fading into another every five to seven minutes. On Transitions Volume Four, a total of twenty-two individual tracks are sculpted into a single CD with ten track markers, with large portions of the total mix comprised of two or three individual tracks or track components playing at once.
“There's so many compilations coming out nowadays that I wanted to do something different,” Digweed explains. “I wanted to put something out that when people listened to it, they’d go ‘what the hell is going on here?’, and I think with Transitions 4 I’ve accomplished that. Nowadays, if you just put out a straight mix CD, there’s a bit of a ‘I could have done this at home!’ from listeners. I think you have to give them something more.”
With all the Transitions series, the final mix is the product of countless hours of mixing and editing, much of which is done in hotel rooms or in transit between his many international gigs. “That’s the beauty of working with a laptop and Ableton Live software,” Digweed admits. “It allows me to work on albums while I’m on the road, or while I’m on a plane. With my earlier mixes, having to work with vinyl, I was obviously limited to the time I was able to spend in front of a pair of turntables. Now I’ve got a lot more freedom.”
As a performing DJ, John Digweed is known for having stayed with tried-and-tested vinyl and CDs when playing live – in stark contrast to his long-time collaborative partner Sasha, who was an early champion of custom DJ controllers and laptop-based DJ sets. But after years of waiting for the technology to be sufficiently mature, Digweed says he’s now ready to make the plunge into a laptop-based setup. “I’m probably going to be switching to Native Instruments’ Traktor Scratch,” he confides. “I’ve got the guys from NI coming down next week to run me through it and make sure I’ve got it right.” Asked about his decision to go with Traktor over the many competing software packages, Digweed reveals he’s done his homework. “I looked around, and I asked around, got the feel from everyone I could, and there were a lot of people using Traktor - Carl Cox, Nic Fanciulli, Deep Dish, even Richie Hawtin – that told me how much they enjoy using it. These are colleagues I’ve known for many years, and they were all recommending it.”
This coming October, Bedrock Records will celebrate its tenth anniversary. “We’ve got a big party lined up,” Digweed says. “There’s a new venue in London in the 02 called Matter, which is owned by Keith Reilly of Fabric. They have a lot of space, under that big dome, so I’ve been down there and had a look and it’s pretty impressive.”
Also in the pipe to help celebrate Bedrock’s tenth anniversary is a triple CD compilation, Bedrock 10: Past, Present & Future. “I wanted this to be more than just a rehash of the label’s history,” Digweed explains of the release. “So rather than just re-releasing the original versions, I’ve gone through and lined up new remixes of my favourite Bedrock releases over the years. Steve Lawler is doing a rework of ‘Rise In’, Jamie Stevens has done a really nice remix of ‘Warung Beach’, there’s a Charlie May remix of one of Pole Folder’s, and Tom Middleton’s also done a mix of ‘Forge’.” Two of the CDs will be mixed by Digweed, with the third CD an unmixed collection of highlights from the two-CD mix.
Transitions Volume Four is available in stores now.
Catch John Digweed in Western Canada:
Calgary on Wednesday, September 10th at the Whiskey
Edmonton on Thursday, September 11th at the EEC
Vancouver on Friday, September 12th at Focus
Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
so whats the new remix of repercussion got to do with anything??
Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
^^ the point being i posted this thread cause i did not know there was a new bedrock cd coming out.
Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
well i'm interested in this new remix
any more info??
Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
Its basically a new remix Howells and Dick Trevor have done, it may end up on the Bedrock 10 package but isnt confirmed as there are are many many unreleased tracks / new remixes tha have been comissioned with the album in mind.
Update: Have found out it will be released on Bedrock in the near future.Comment
-
Re: New bedrock comp???
cool
u heard it?
Comment
Comment