Well, the big news this week is the release of the results for the DJ Mag Top 100 poll. The DJ Mag poll is one of those things that I think we all accept is a bit flawed from the outset. At the end of the day, it is only DJ Mag’s poll. Not exactly a general election. But, nevertheless, year-on-year more people have participated and it’s one of those things that we all like to have an opinion on.
But after seeing David Guetta take Armin’s crown at the top, I can’t help but feel that the whole thing has lost its meaning. The poll was already starting to become a bit of a popularity contest but now any remaining sense that this list is a celebration of technical ability in DJing has seeped away.
Let’s face it - DJing and producing are very different worlds. The best DJs don’t always make the best producers and vice-versa. But marketing strategies, image and public exposure are a different kettle of fish altogether as well.
You look at Armin Van Buuren holding the crown for 4 years previously. Armin has developed himself a fantastic ‘clean-cut’, ‘man of the people’ image in trance music. Whether by fluke or by design, he’s packaged himself in a way that makes him a hugely appealing figure within dance music. Armin’s building of a likeable image is no different to Guetta. Although, why Guetta’s ‘bloke-living-out-of-a-Parisian-dumpster-whilst-printing-money-like-a-dance-music-Hugh-Hefner’ image is popular I don’t know.
The difference is, Armin has a staggering amount of technical ability as a DJ to back himself up. I’ve seen that at first hand about 7 times now. Not everyone agrees with his tune selection, not everyone likes his productions anymore, not everyone listens to A State Of Trance every week – but we all agree the man can fucking mix. Incidentally, it’s a level of technical ability and creative ear for detail that Tiësto was absolutely nowhere near when he first claimed the DJ Mag best DJ crown in 2002.
Guetta’s rise to the number 1 spot however is based on nothing more than the fact that his career as a producer consists in propping up the talentless efforts of various pop music no-marks. As someone mentioned on twitter, opening up the voting to facebook was a big mistake. Not only was the facebook app prone to crashing, but giving facebook the centre stage of democracy was like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
When it comes to voting in the poll, I’ve always urged people, not only to disregard their preferences in terms of producers, but also to only vote for people they’ve actually seen DJ in the last 12 months. You look at that list in 2011 and you do not get the sense that this is a list compiled by people who have racked up a lot of clubbing visits recently. It’s more the list of the casual dance fan with a casual eye on the charts. (See Afrojack, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex, Deadmau5....)
Some people will look at the list and say, ‘ah, well. It’s not that bad.’ If you’re a trance fan there’s Above & Beyond, Paul Van Dyk, Gareth Emery and Markus Schulz all up there. Schulz in particular deserves to be up there. But then you look at Eddie Halliwell at #64, Sasha at #63, Hernán Cattaneo at #82 and most amazingly, James Zabiela at #94. I’m sorry, any list of 100 DJs with David Guetta at the top and James Zabiela 6 places off the bottom must be considered absolutely null and void. I don’t care how strong your principles of democracy are. Get your raving shoes on, kids, and go and see some more DJs!
Interestingly, I thought what David Guetta said on receiving his award, about the current strength of dance music, was absolutely spot on and pretty inspiring. (I’ll say more about that when I review the year in December.) It’s just a shame that this year’s poll got well and truly hijacked by people who have no real interest in DJing as a creative, technical art form.
Well, amongst all that rambling, there is actually a new episode of TPHP here for you all. Hopefully, it’s a mix that shows enough quality to justify my own pretentious talk of DJing as a technical art form.
A lot of big tuneage this week, kicking off with some deeper, housier grooves. 8th Note’s U Got 2 Be There makes use of a very familiar vocal sample, made known to me by the hard dance outfit Adrenaline Dept.’s track of the same name.
There’s a huge new remix of Ernesto vs. Bastian’s classic anthem, Dark Side Of The Moon, Arty’s Remode of The Wall and the deliciously cheesey, yet ‘oh-so’ massive Maze by First State.
But this mix really shines in the 2nd hour. One of the best 2nd hours I've ever done I think, thanks to a handful of hugely euphoric tunes that went together like hand and glove. Our closing oldie this week is Andy Blueman’s remix of Robert Nickson - Circles, a track that I thought was older than it actually is. I only realised after playing it that it was on Armin’s A State Of Trance 2009. Yet, it feels so much older than that. A fantastic record, nonetheless. And one of those records that shows how closely linked pure blissful chill out and driving 138+ trance are as styles of music.
THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST 018
2. Weekend Heroes - Black Ops! (Daniel Portman Remix) [Unreleased Digital]
3. Headstrong feat. Shelley Harland - Helpless (Aurosonic Progressive Mix) [Sola Records]
4. Heatbeat - Roses Never Cry [Soundpiercing]
5. Ernesto vs. Bastian feat. Susana - Dark Side Of The Moon (Marc Simz Remix) [High Contrast Recordings]
6. Arty feat. Tania Zygar - The Wall (Arty's Remode Mix) [Enhanced Progressive]
7. Matias Faint - Casino Fire (Kent & Gian Remix) [Soundpiercing] <<<(Phil’s Tune Of The Episode)>>>
8. Aerian - Mahé (Temple One Remix) [Aerian Records]
9. David Forbes - Touchscreen [AVA Recordings]
10. Andy Moor feat. Sue McLaren - Fight The Fire (Norin & Rad Remix) [AVA Recordings]
11. First State feat. Tyler Sherrit - Maze [Magik Muzik]
12. Temple One feat. Neev Kennedy – Love The Fear [Enhanced Recordings]
13. Dan Stone - Baltic [Enhanced Recordings]
14. Dart Rayne - Sanctum [Trance All-Stars Records]
15. James Poulton - Anodyne [Monster Digital]
16. Paul Miller - Regza [Unearthed Red]
17. Illitheas presents Mavi - Azen (Trance Arts Remix) [Blue Soho Recordings]
18. Vol Deeman - Calling Me Back Home [Discover Digital]
19. Ben Nicky feat. Cassandra Fox - The One (Daniel Kandi Remix) [Monster Tunes]
20. Robert Nickson - Circles (Andy Blueman Remix) [A State Of Trance]
That’s all for now – again, see you in 2 weeks.
