Potential

While I originally didn’t think of this section as a clubbing travelogue, it makes sense for that to happen as a lot people’s attitudes and thoughts about dance music have been shaped by, or arisen from DJs, clubs, and scenes. Yet I also think that in our digital and downloading era there is a new group of listeners who have been drawn in the past five years by minimal techno, electro-house, and the Kompakt family, and whose connection to the scene is mainly the CDs and friends/bloggers talking about it online. Perhaps I am bit sensitive to this coming from the U.S. instead of Europe, and that I remember myself back at the turn of the decade, wishing I knew more people who were into techno, or at least someone who wouldn’t scoff at the words “German house.” Anyhow, in the past six or so years that have passed, my relationship to recorded house/techno and live house/techno have become increasingly disparate.
The main struggle I’ve felt is that recorded house and techno has still yet to match the potential of live techno. I’ve heard the arguments before, that house is not an albums genre, that comparing anything live to anything recorded is like comparing apples and oranges. It’s true that producers are often creating and releasing tracks on vinyl that are mainly used as DJ tools, i.e. functional music that works towards the mindset of a DJ set, and are thinking of different things when creating an album. The old joke among producers is that no one listens to techno at home, because it’s out of context of a DJ mix, and the sound and environment are completely different. So I will admit that I don’t think recorded techno will ever be able to replace or surpass the visceral feeling and spontaneity of being at a club, but I do think there is potential for more aspects of it to be included in recorded music. 80 minute CDs are not enough to hold the immense freedom a DJ has when they have the whole night ahead of them to spin.
Indulge me if you will, for I often have these ambitious dreams of DJs in the near future creating gargantuan, personalized live sets that last for six or eight hours, consisting of tracks/songs by other artists or their own original material, and tailoring them as a soundtrack to a person’s life and environment. This would be a substitute for the “album” format. Similar to opera or even symphonies, these long sets would be aural narrations of stories and experiences that are drawn out right before us. However, I also imagine these sets soundtracking a person’s life and emotions just like the sounds of nature would accompany a forest. Instead of a DJ playing off the creative energy of a crowd, he would be playing off the creative energy and surroundings of a person’s environment.
Stylus’ own Todd Hutlock is probably going to lynch me for forgetting specific examples, but there have been Detroit techno albums by Carl Craig and Juan Atkins’ Model 500 project that have been intended to be listened to while driving down certain highways. Why couldn’t the future of house and techno mixes expand out to create a soundtrack of a person’s day, or to soundtrack a journey through a certain location or neighborhood? With the advent of ipods, MP3s and other devices, 80 continuous minutes is no longer our musical boundary when we step outside to go for a walk or drive.
Most (if not all) people are creating their own choices in music and deciding which path their life takes them, even if it is something as simple as choosing a grocery store to go to. My theory is, instead of defining what your environment sounds like, why not relinquish control to an artist for a day, and let them give you their take on a specific environment, let the artist’s personal musical decisions, structure, and theories inform how you see your surroundings. I would reckon the passiveness this takes is similar to the passiveness one feels when they are absorbed into a DJ’s set at a club. I think it could definitely be a rewarding experience. And from this passive point, relationships can develop over time between the music and the person, not just emotional bonds, but visual and sensory ones too.
OK, I’ve just pinched myself to wake up from this rose-tinted dream of mine. I don’t think people are so willing at the moment to give up eight hours of their day to listen to a continuous mix of music, and I’m not sure artists/DJs have the time or desire to personally labor over personalized eight hour DJs sets when they could be making some money by doing the same thing in a club. Still, I continued to wonder about the theories, experiences, and mindsets that are driving live and recorded techno apart, and the missed potential that is possibly there for each side to grasp on to.
[Michael F. Gill]