What Is Kommandomixing?
by pHinn
Kommandomixing is a do-it-yourself antidote to the anal retentive DJs, who want to be technically immaculate in their beatmatching skills and their no-life fanboys who blindly worship their heroes, wishing to become like them.
The DJs being today's counterpart to yesteryear's guitar heros in rock music, that revered art of "seamless" beatmatching and other technical turntable trickery has become the equivalent to the elaborate rock guitar solos of any of your regular heavy metal stadium acts.
You can see these irritating purist twerps at clubs -- instead of dancing and enjoying themselves -- watching and listening carefully to the DJs spinning records, taking careful note and bitterly commenting on any possible error in mixing, "galloping" beats and so on.
The idea behind kommandomixing is to put a complete stop to all this, and give more power to those otherwise "technically deprived" people (such as those girl DJs who are, in typical sexist attitutes, often needlessly derided in comparison to their supposedly "superior" male counterparts) who want play their records in public and share with their audience some musical gems people might not hear otherwise.
One does not need to spend 12 hours a day at turntables practising mixing and beatmatching. All one needs is a good record collection, energy, innovation and some personal ideas! Remember this was what punk was all about. Just do it!
pHinn's Kommandomix Gallery (adults only)
See also:
Discophrenia
How To Tell Apart A Trainspotter's Top 10 From A DJ's Top 10
Couldn't agree with you more.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing worse than DJs who seem more interested in whether they can get a seamless mix in with the next track rather than play something that will get people moving, or something that just fits the occassion.
Part of the failure of some many clubs is the endless drone of records at the same pace, every track sounding the same as the last.
A great mix is something special, but it shouldn't be at the cost of not playing some gems!
I have a respect for those DJs who can do their beatmatching properly, but I just want people to stop looking down on those who can't, because I think there are other ways to make your sets work even though you are not technically top-notch. Those ways are, for example, an interesting (and even surprising) record selection, the ability to "read" the audience and their moods, and to respond to those accordingly in how you build up your set.
ReplyDeleteI think the two skills are complementary and not mutually exclusive. I mean, either you can beatmix or you can't or something in between. Being able to select the proper records is another thing entirely.
ReplyDeleteOf course you can't beatmix stuff that you can't play at the same BPM, but there are workarounds for that too.
Well, what do I know. Haven't been clubbing in years.
Tiedemies: You're right in saying its a combination of both skills.
ReplyDeletePhinn: I agree that its sad when other DJs have to look down their noses at those who aren't as technically skilled as they are. Reading the crowd is what is most important
One more thing pHinn, I hope you don't think there are people looking down on you. At least the DJ's I used to know five to ten years ago all had nothing but respect for you. As did all the really serious amateurs in Tampere scene.
ReplyDeleteI mean, there is nobody that comes even close to your street-cred in this town! And I don't mean in a fanboy-whatever-sort of way, I mean it's the kind of respect you have for someone who is in it for real and not just for the show and the chicks.
Nah, it's OK. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe Kommandomixing text was partly inspired by my friends' Chicks on Speed's recent DJing experiments in Madrid; see:
http://www.phinnweb.org/links/artists/CoS/tourdiary/ -> "Madrid! Macho!"