Resident Advisor - The esoteric art of the opening DJ really good article on Residents and opening dj's.. http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1095
I read it with interest and agree its totally on point.....also imo Richards is up there with the best so pleased his comments made it into the piece!
Completely agree with it, although its interesting to hear peak time DJ's commenting on the art of the warmup .... personally, i like a night to build up to the kind of music i want to hear, rather than hear it from the word go. Boshing out full on trance in the first hour of a night is a bit off putting if all you have for the next 5-6 hours is trance as well. I guess thats why i like prog so much, it can bridge the gap towards more harder styles of music alot easier than just being stuck in one direction. Having said that, i guess alot of people aspire to playing at the top of a night, rather than doing a solid job getting the dancefloor and club moving in the right direction.
couldn't agree more with that comment, and it's a shame because it's the sign of an excellent DJ, someone who excels at providing a good warm up set. it takes a lot of wits and a really sound understanding of music and the effect that it has on people!
Think the points about haveing to be a music lover are spot it helps if you have a board selection of tastes i find. Seen from doing the system and running nights some truly awful warm ups just peak time tunes with the mixer reding out from the word go. I actual enjoy warm up sets on nights i promote as it gives me a chance to play deeper or try different weirder tracks i even enjoy it at other nights if you get a little longer to build a mood and the person coming continues that mood. Alll about knowing how to program a night i surpose. The warmup is all about holding back tracks till the venue is niclely full then maybe playing a couple of lesser know killer tracks before handing overto the next dj.
On the other hand theres nothing worse than a boring warm up set. When you've paid £10 to get in, who wants to spend the first 2 hours of their night waiting for something to happen. I reckon it really helps if you've been a clubber before you were a dj because you'll know the rough time that everyone necks their first cowie of the night.
These days its not cowies though it any of the alphabet street drugs,coke ket,ghb etc So god knows what effects you are looking for in the crowd poeple a few dancing and nodding along is good enough then tab factor also makes the warmup harder as just as get one crew moving they all go for a tab as they come up. Nice to play later as that is not so much the issue but i enjoy weirder records as much as peak time stuff.
