Favourite DJ?

[GorillaBearBear]

In light of all the best guitarist/bassist/whatever threads, it occurred to me that those have been done to death, but I can't recall or find a thread about the best DJs.

I'm mostly thinking from the point of view of mixing and DJ Sets and so on, but don't expect that many of you to know many of them, so feel free to say DJ Shadow so that you can look like you have eclectic tastes, I probably won't bother.

Anyway, my opinion? From the point of view of live in the mix type stuff, I would probably slap Layo and Bushwacka! pretty high up. Not many DJs could hack 8 hour long sets once a month while keeping it fresh, and based on their "all night long mix" that I have, they have both a real sense of fun (cheeky in the mix re-edit of sly and the family stone)and a real knack for spinning tunes together, as well as absolutely impeccable taste.

I'd also put James Lavelle up there, his sets are just mammoth, and go through such a massive range of styles, and he makes some really fantastic mixes (his mix of Hip Hop by Dead Prez stands out). He's a class act.

Also a massive fan of Ferry Corsten and Armin Van Buuren for a trance side of things. They are great mixers, and also both have a really fantastic sense of timing - never giving you too much or too little of what you want, always switching a tune before it gets boring.

Oh yeah, if anyone ever gets a chance to see Erol Alkan, he's a fantastic DJ. He does some fantastic re-edits in the mix, and he manages to go across a pretty broad range of styles without you really noticing. When I saw him he managed to get from Indie to Trance without me being particularly put off or wrong footed, which is pretty difficult to do.

Anyway, any thoughts?

[Splush]

On the technical side from people I've seen live it's a toss-up between DJ Craze, Mampi Swift and DJ Friction. The tune selection leaves a bit to be desired with all of them, though.

There are some local d&b DJs that I think have absolutely top notch selection, like Paul Reset, Alcane and ENO. They play neurofunk/techstep d&b but the genuinely funky stuff rather than the miserable dark, droning soulless stuff. Nobody will have heard of them outside of the scottish d&b scene though. Your probably get a similar selection with people like Fierce and Break though.

I don't know anything about dance music that isn't d&b, really.

[GorillaBearBear]

Tsk tsk. You should buy some fabriclive mixes or something. Most of them are either D&B or Nu Skool Breaks. Stanton Warriors one is particularly awesome.

[Splush]

I've got the DJ Hype Fabriclive mix, and it's pretty good, but he's another DJ I'd say is technically great but has a half-arsed tune selection. All these big-name DJs are stuck playing music from their own record labels for promotional purposes and music by their friends for political purposes, I think you'll always get the best set from a no-name local DJ with nothing to lose. Some of my favourite mix MP3s I have are just done by bedroom DJs that I downloaded from dogsonacid.com

I think the best mix CD I own is the Moving Shadow 10th anniversary mix released in 2000, but I'm pretty sure it's done on protools rather than turntables.

[GorillaBearBear]

Oh man, I disagree about DJ Hype being technically great, though. I find his beat matching is horrible. But yeah, his tune selection is poor. That's what makes James Lavelle and L&B! so good, though, apart from being really complicated.

I forgot Mr Scruff, too! I keep missing my chances to see him, but I have his Solid Steel mix and that is truly fantastic stuff.

[Splush]

Hype's definitely got the skills technically, he's a former european DMC champion, but I think he gets lazy and doesn't always do what he's capable of.

[Soapie]

DJ Format or Scratch Perverts.

Stanton Warriors played near where I live, but I was doing something else that night.

EDIT: Soulwax, The Avalanches, Evolutionary Control Committee. And Mr. Scruff, of course.

[faragher]

DJ Format has excellent technical skills - and I like the fact that he puts loads of soul and funk into his sets - there is a fabriclive CD from him as well I thinks.

Saw Scratch Perverts a while back (while = about 8 years?) and they are massively good in terms of technical stuff, but quite often they lost sight of the fact that people wanted to dance, rather than just admire their turntablist skillz.

Best DJ I have ever seen live was Freq Nasty. He is not great technically, but he gets by and he seems to have real focus on the mood of the crowd - and he will play anything if he thinks it will work.

[FoxDhoj]

My favourite IS Erol Alkan. He's never done a bad mix that I've heard, and should do a FabricLive release sometime I reckons...

Other than that, DJ Yoda's pretty fun, and can do all that turntablism business, and Annie Mac is a great commercial DJ. Kissy Sell Out's pretty fun too, and people have been raving on about him recently. But Diplo is pure genius, he likes all sorts of stuff, breakbeat, kentaro, baile funk, electrohouse, big beat and more!

The only FabricLive CD I own is Cut Copy, but I have heard Evil Nine's, and I have rips of Spank Rock's and Diplo's...can't wait to hear Justice's and Ewan Pearson's!

[Splush]

I saw Scratch Perverts a while ago and they were playing hip-hop and d&b much like DJ Craze does, but similarly to DJ Craze their d&b selection was really boring because they just played all the big predictable tunes of the time. Technically good though, no doubt.

Agreeing that Diplo is awesome.

[GorillaBearBear]

I've been told that Scratch Perverts are really good, but that Plump DJs (I think?) do what they do but better.

[Beef Magic]

I'm only really familiar with Turntableists so all I can really say here is DJ Keltech.

[archbishop_josh]

DJ Casper (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSGUDMKpwj8)

[Talunex]

Dave Lee Travis

[shroomhead]

Shy FX

T-Power!

[GorillaBearBear]

Oh man, I love Shy FX, but mostly I love his Digital Soundboy remixes. The one he did of Lily Allen's Smile was absolute class.

[BlueIncaPilot]

Chicane without a doubt. Can't wait for the new album next month, it's been too long.

[PsychoBill]

DJ trace with mutant revisited.
that revamped my thoughts toward Trance/D&B.

<3

[BekyLou]

Choices choices...Its a tough one because I like so many genres.
I'd say...Tiesto...TidyBoys...or Format. Rachel Em & her brother impressed me t'other night too.

[Cerberus]

The Avalanches are great, and I'm sure all of you know X-ecutioners, who are superb (they did a collab a while back with members of Linkin Park, the track really showed how good they are at scratching)

Through listening to Slipknot I was introduced to DJ Starscream, he's a great jungle DJ and his material is awesome.

I'm only really familiar with Turntableists so all I can really say here is DJ Keltech.

Is he the guy who did the Santa thing? I loved that.

[GorillaBearBear]

Choices choices...Its a tough one because I like so many genres.
I'd say...Tiesto...TidyBoys...or Format. Rachel Em & her brother impressed me t'other night too.

I love Tiesto's albums, but his DJ sets (such as I've heard) don't impress me as much as Ferry Corsten or Armin Van Buuren's...which is odd, because most people agree that Tiesto is an absolutely top class DJ.

Anyway, just received a Layo & Bushwacka! mix which looks to be pretty swish. They normally are.

[Amber4u]

I am confused , i cant select one ????


Amber
http://effectsofpheromones.supersized.org/

[BekyLou]

Anyway, just received a Layo & Bushwacka! mix which looks to be pretty swish. They normally are.


Get in!

[Weebl22]

I love Tiesto's albums

I have yet to find an album/track/mix of Tiesto's that I can actually stand to listen to for more than 30 seconds. It sounds all mainstream diluted wishy-washy, to me at least.

As for best technical skill, Kid Koala hands down. He invented a form of turntablism where notes are held like they would be on an instrument. Also, when playing live, he uses 4 turntables, no headphones and still kicks serious ass.


My favourite DJ's by far though, not for technical skill but more overall package
Luna-C (seen live)
Neophyte
Dj Delerium (seeing friday/saturday)
Supaman (local)
ViVi Diamond (best dance tunes/mixing ever heard live)
No Left Turn (simply amazing)


The only "famous" Dj I've seen that dissapointed me, was D.A.V.E. The Drummer. But that may have been because the rave sucked due to a constant beat in all forms of music played that night. Gave me a headache :mad:

[Magic Lion]

I have yet to find an album/track/mix of Tiesto's that I can actually stand to listen to for more than 30 seconds. It sounds all mainstream diluted wishy-washy, to me at least.

I wholeheartedly agree. The only reason I bought Elements of Life were for the tracks with Jes, BT, and Christian Burns. All his other stuff to me seems repetitive and boring.

As far as talent and ingenuity goes, I would definitely go with Armin Van Buuren, but my favorite (although he doesn't claim to be a DJ) is BT; his music never ceases to amaze me *_*