You left out Skream and DJ Geist on Wednesday night.  Skream is one of the originators of the dubstep sound, and he is making his first US Festival appearance at the highdive.  Geist is one of the resident DJs of Dubstep Massacre, and not one to be brushed off as just another DJ.
Maybe you should try checking out some events, instead of just spitting your indie bull.

Man, I rip on you, and can’t even get my own facts straight; my mistake.  Anyways, Skream and Geist on on Thursday at Highdive.

every other year its been in the krannert lobby.  i think it starts today at noon.

Does anyone else feel frustrated right now?
On a positive note, this should be a great weekend.  Best of luck to all those involved.

minimalistic garage duos are the new thing.  hey did you hear the civil war ended? 

@john :
 
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Don’t forget RJD2 brought us the theme song from Mad Men!
Way to support local music, by the way. You really know how to get people out and excited.

Biased article. You are simply giving DJ’s and electronic an artists a bad rep here. The electronic scene is just picking up again and there are top-tier acts coming through for the first time in ages! This is a fantastic alternative to all the great indie stuff being played. Why don’t you try writing objectively next time.

The author shows his complete ignorance in this article. 
HE DOESN’T EVEN MENTION THE HEADLINER.
Afternote: After searching the site, I see that the author mentions in another article he’s only been in town for a few months. You’d think in those few months he could have taken a minute to…you know…actually read and learn who is actually playing the festival.
Course, I doubt it would matter as evidenced by this quote:

Call me old fashioned, but any musical act that is primarily composed of keyboards and drum machines strikes me as a little phony.

I kinda feel the same way about journalism. Call me old fashioned, but any article that is primarily composed of opinion and ignorance strikes me as a little phony.
Like this one. :(

http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/09/11/the-pygmalion-music-festival-worth-the-trip

 
The festival’s highlights include Headlights, Japandroids, and Owen on Wednesday; Lucero, Maserati, Starfucker, My Brightest Diamond, Company of Thieves, and Skream on Thursday; Low, Waaves, Autolux, Antlers, Blk Jks, and the 1900s on Friday; and Ra Ra Riot, Princeton, Iron & Wine, the Books, Yacht, Rjd2, the Life and Times, Marmoset, and the Hood Internet on Saturday.

 
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/events/skream-and-benga-1815005/
 

Top that off with the success of the recent Trouble & Bass event at Bella Rose and the Get Low monthly at the Vagabond, and it’s safe to say dubstep has arrived. That’s why when Skream hits the decks at White Room, we expect nothing short of a sell-out crowd.

 
I’m sure the HighDive will be sold out as well. I guess “electronic dickery” has its appeal….
 

I agree with Belly regarding SP’s formerly higher place in the media, but this piece has the objectiveness of a turd flung from a monkey’s cage. Please move it to the opinion page where it belongs.

Geeez, it’s not even hard to find those details… LIKE THE HEADLINER!
Skream is huge.  You, sir, FAIL!
Good day to you

you should come out to the JigGsaw. They fired everyone in the band and hired Belly on the hand drum to do some super acoustic dubstup. lol jk

I don’t know why I’m wasting my time commenting, but this is the kind of pretentious indie dickery I’ve always hated.
Just because you don’t “get” electronic music doesn’t mean you have to disrespect it.  We’re not talking about some random club DJ who just spins a variety of tracks at random to keep the music going at the bar.  The folks playing that night are legitimate musicians / artists, and you’re making (and then perpetuating, by writing this article) an ignorant assumption about DJs… it’s lame.
If you’re going to be a pretentious, snarky indie hater, at least hate on stuff you have some understanding of so that you look like an educated jerk instead of an ignorant one.

Don’t call it a “guide” and procede to share opinions.  A guide should show what’s available, not your ignorance or lack of taste.  The DJs here are talented and know music.  This isn’t simply playing a few songs.  It’s an art, and it needs to be respected, as do those of us who aren’t even mentioned in the article! (maybe that would be the “overlooked” section.)

is this the same guy that was dissing anyone who had used drum machines on the other local website a year ago? in effect dissing kraftwerk, the rolling stones, talking heads, van halen, quincy jones, postal service, blondie etc etc etc etc etc etc.
To quote my man Calvin Brodus:
“you dis dj’s you dis ya’self, mutha______!!!“
someone please post a link to the  capt. piccard palm to the forhead pic. thats where I am right now. right there.
I think I may have to come back to town for the next CU music awards, storm the stage when the headlights are accepting there “legendary status up in here” award ( wassup brett, the cd is being mailed shortly) and bitch about this dude harshing my pygmalia mellow.
 

oh and hey, if yall havnt peeped mertz or belly yet you should. they got some good diverse selections. top notch. its good to feed your brain and go outside of your comfort zone. thats how you grow. Dope, dope dj’s
check these guys out!

“Canopy Club has packed the bill with synthetic electronic dickery. Keep your eyes out for YACHT, though. You have to respect any band that promotes its artistic philosophy over its musical ability while listing Yoko Ono as a primary influence.“
WHAT?! you, sir, are an ass. Why the hell do you listen to music anyway?

I only have one word to sum up this entire article: BOGUS.  To brush off the accomplishments of the Physical Challenge Crew and 217Mafia in such a way is utterly disrespectful and shows that this columnist has only his own interests in mind when spewing this onto his word document.  I mean to claim that High Dive is off the beaten path for people to go see a Dubstep show and then completely contradict himself and promote indie artists at Mike & Molly’s and Cowboy Monkey when they are in the same general area is, to put it simply, moronic.  I was quite offended reading this article and hope that the writer goes out and attends the Skream and RJD2 shows to see how wrong he actually is (or is that asking too much?)

i was just wondering, as a fan of both electronic music and indie rock, does the author of this so called “guide” realize how much indie rock borrows from electronic music these days?
every other band i heard at pitchfork this year had some sort of synthetic beat to it.  there is no denying that electronic dickery has penetrated indie rock.  haha…
see what i did there?

this article = bagdouchery

Yikes. That definitely could’ve used more research and objectivity.

All the local artists dissed (You & Yourn, DJ Mertz, Hathaways, etc.) have added to the wonderful, rich fabric of the C-U community—whether you’re into them or not.

Congrats and good vibes to all artists participating in Pygmalion!

Seriously, I thought Smile Politely was a place to promote the scene in C-U. This articles slaps everyone involved with Pygmalion in the face. No matter what the writer’s opinion on specific bands is, he should still be promoting every aspect of the festival whether he likes it or not. I can say that I’m super excited to see lots of great bands during the festival, electronic “dickery” and all. 

While his article may have been full of synthetic suck-dickery I have to admit I just learned a ton of stuff about SKREAM and RJD2 and now I plan on going to both of those shows. So in a way, his article worked like reverse head shrinkery. Thanks Mark Sieckman!  Kudos to you.

As a seriously over the hill guy, I take great offense at djbelly’s comment, and the general tenor of this whole elongated discussion. The relative merits of indie rock, hip hop djing, electronic dickery and what have you are insignificant and this whole thread is a tempest in a piss pot.  In point of fact, all these so-called musical forms are garbage.  It is indisputible that absolutey nothing performed or recorded since about 1972 is other than complete drivel. This is especially true of C-U, but in the case of REO speedwagon, the date gets pushed back to about 1966. I have an idiot-savant friend who knows every detail about every pop song recorded from about 1955 to 1965, and he makes a clear, cogent and convincing argument that everything went to shit in the mid sixties, especially with the Beatles, who absolutely most definitely ruined rock and roll.  I’m more progressive than that, although the White Album is really intolerable. The idea that chanting clowns scratching up records, or angsty white boys strumming their garbled chords is music is beyond comprehension.  I swear to god, the next time I hear the word “indie” I’m reaching for my revolver.  Twee?  Oh for christssake.  What the hell is the matter with you people?  Popular music don’t mean shit, and never has. Culture as some sort of rebellion is idiocy.  They are coming for you.  Now get the hell off my lawn.

geez, he didn’t even mention our show… we weren’t even good enough to make “The Bad”... haha
“or for the shows to just plain ignore” is my favorite quote from the article, btw.

Terrible job on the weekend forecast here, but that goes completely without saying.
Two world famous, well established DJs come to the CU and you ignore one, and fit the other one in the label under “sythetic electronic dickery”? Not to mention playing off the local DJ’s that have packed houses for the past 7 months to give birth to a fresh scene in the CU, and you call it bad because they play often?
Let me correct you here:
For the DJs and MCs playing highdive tomorrow night: To play them off as area locals and defer people from going to highdive is rediculous. As I mentioned above, after 7 months of packed houses they developed a scene big enough to bring one of the biggest names in the genre through (Skream)... They are obviously doing something right.
For the DJs playing canopy on saturday: Once again, as mentioned above area DJs opening for a world class act (RJD2), but the only pro of the show is Yoko Ono inspired artistic philosophy, and said philosophy is valued over musical talent? Get serious. (No disrespect to Yacht)
Stop playing down the scene these guys built, stop playing down on them for being locals, and for God’s sake please stop writing.
You can count on me being at High Dive tomorrow night, and Canopy on saturday.
Build the massive.
 
 

@stuart
 
best post ever? i think so.

Easily one of the most worthless columns I’ve read about any festival.  It would be much more useful to give the reader a sense of what kind of music to expect without all of the criticism.  Hell, at least GO TO THE DAMN SHOW before making so many snide remarks.  Seriously, I will never read an article by this ignorant joker again.

@sieckman:
suck my deck.

Sieckman was a horrible columnist who wrote uninformative and whiny articles for Buzz.  Good thing Mr. Fein recruited him for his obscenely objective Smile Politely.

This is a really closed minded article, and why would you ever put “The bad” surely you should be trying to promote.
The real problem is that you are judging music that you have absolutely no idea about.

Anyone reading this if you want to see the best party in town this year
it will be at the highdive on Thursday night.
I guarantee walking into the highdive you will be hit not only by some serious sub straight in your chest, but by an energy and atmosphere that you will not find anywhere else at any gig at Pygmalion let alone this year in cu.
If you are a lover not a hater and even if electronic music isnt your “scene” the energy of the crowd at this show will be insane, and you will not be able to but appreciate all the hard work people have put in to make this show happen.
if there were chandeliers people would be swinging from them.
See you there

Journalism FAIL

Mark, Im Happy for u, and ill let u finish but… Chicago Reader had one of the best articles on Pygmalion fest 2009 ever!!

I believe this is the ‘trial by fire’ that almost everyone writing publicly in this community goes through, although this one seems more than a bit deserved.
The trick is to put your Flame Suit on before hitting the “publish” button. Then you can read the comments without getting your feelings hurt and learn to be a better writer.
I suggest you make peace by going to the shows you dissed with such reckless abandon and form a more responsible opinion.
Just don’t tell anyone there your name.

For all those ripping on the author.  PS - Smile Politely doesn’t pay the bills.  People write articles are doing it for free or next to it.  Sometimes you’ll get stuff that is a little un-polished.  It may be even a little biased.  If you think you can do better, submit you own articles instead of trying to write article length insults….

Embarrassing and counterproductive.
(I’m glad Kanye found his way on here.)

+1 Mc Colley!

The author put too much of himself into his writing and served his audience poorly as a result.
What makes this thread of comments so sad, is that most of you are unable to see what a great selection of shows Pygmalion offers (in such a small town) and that all of you are gonna see a few good ones without sitting in traffic for 45 minutes.
You folks are talking like the dance party kids go around town crashing shows and punching in drum heads.
“THERE WE DID IT JAMES ST JAMES!!... TAKE THAT SANDERSON!!!“...“YEAH, IM ROLLING MY EYES OUT THIS IS GREAT.“
Get a grip, and enjoy the weekend.
 
<h3>[url=“http://www.smilepolitely.com/music/pygmalion_day_by_day_the_good_the_bad_and_the_party/“]
[/url]</h3>

So i read the comments first and then the article, expecting to read some retard acting like the center of the universe of Pygmalia and all knowing music expert - turns out it was just an average run-down preview done honestly and casually. More comments than any article i seen on this site. Hey Mr. Fein, better keep the outta town acts comin’ cause we got a lot of insecure musicians around town who think there shit can’t stink.

@ stuart..
really?  dissing almost four entire decades of music?  i can understand not enjoying the majority of popular music in the past few decades, but there is no way you could ever convince me that there has been nothing of worth to come out of the past forty years.  true music lovers can embrace new things or at least give new things a chance.  you have, in one foul comment, put down countless artists. 
so what if it isn’t your thing?  that is the point of those that have been offended by the author of this article…not everyone enjoys everything.  but, to put it down as something not even worth checking out?  to label it out and out as “bad”?  it just isn’t in good taste when writing something that is supposed to be a “guide” and not an opinion piece.
i have been in the electronic music scene for half of my life.  i am fully aware it is not for everyone.  but, as music lover, not a music “elitist”, i can never get enough of numerous genres of it.  it is all connected. the genres play off of each other.  without one where would the others be? 
feel free to keep to what you prefer first and foremost, but you are truly missing out. 
i am proud of my friends.  they are amazing and have accomplished something worth a little more recognition then what they have received here. 
big ups 217mafia.  big ups harsh pro.  big ups maximum strength.  and big ups to all the other local bands playing what they love!  big ups pymalion!

“Free” and “difference in taste” doesn’t excuse:
 

• Mischaracterizing a show as a couple local DJs when in fact an internationally-known dubstep producer is coming to town—-in between his shows in Miami and Chicago.
• Misleading his audience into thinking the Highdive is out of the way when it is, in fact, two blocks from other shows he has recommended
• Insulting people with his general disrespect and disdain for electronic music.

 
In addition, some editors and other writers at SP seem to not even acknowledge that this “preview” wasn’t marked as opinion. Anywhere. I write for free and I include my opinions. It doesn’t mean I leave the facts at the door. It also doesn’t mean I dis something I know absolutely nothing about. It’s called research and it should be done *prior* to writing and publishing an article. Even when it’s “opinion.“
 
And, finally, the SP “About” page claims this site will provide “informed” opinion. My gripe isn’t that everyone should love the music I love. My gripe is that this “preview” doesn’t even come close to being informed opinion. Nor is it informing anyone.
 
Cameron McGill is playing Pygmalion. Mordechai in the Mirror is playing Pygmalion. But you’d never know that from this “preview.“ Perhaps the author’s time would have been better spent actually “previewing” the acts rather than spending so much time running down shows he couldn’t even bother to get his facts correct about. Frankly, if he had just ignored the Skream show, you wouldn’t have all the people coming out of the woodwork commenting on this article.
 
In addition, this response could give you just a tiny clue as to how popular the dubstep nights have become. Or you could continue to act like just because *you* don’t like something, it’s okay to excuse poor writing and factual errors and, in the process, alienate a whole audience of people.
 
Sounds like a great way to build SP’s readership.

rob
 
so, you feel your sarcastic slight at my intelligence is proving…? 
 
well, i know what it proved to me.  it was probably not what you were going for either.
 
 

mordechai in the mirror.  last time i saw them they were electronic.  and good.
you might want to try writing electronic music before you knock it.  it’s not all cut and paste.  warping a sound or sample and taking it somewhere new is liberating, and you can take what you learn about space and timing back into more organic forms of music.  you can go with softsynth programs, or you can use old school beatboxes, analog synths.  some people trigger everything live because they like the unformatted feel, other people like a space to operate in and jam out on.  it is what it is, and it can be art, if you stop asking it to be judged.
there should be more encouragement for people to express themselves.  i know indie dudes with beards and ukelele’s and glockenspiels from brooklyn bores the shit out of me, but that’s me.  i know they probably wrote a jam that means something to them.
anyways, warm fuzzies for music critic dickery.

It doesn’t matter what type of music you are into, because everyone has different tastes.  The problem with this article, is it just brushes off half of the acts as BS, and doesn’t even include some of the coolest acts of the festival.

@Rob how is what serena said in any way ironic? if you’re gonna be a prick and try and make someone look like an idiot, plz make sense when you do it.

@people yelling @rob
stuart’s post was a joke
you fools

@Rob.  What makes you think my clear, cogent and convincing argument was ironic? 
@Serena. In addition to my previous indisputable points, I now add the proven fact that listening to too much electronica causes tin ear.
@hiding behind a name.  Ya look like an idjit. And ya did it yerself.

@stuart, @ least we agree on your first point
Rob, what you’re looking for is:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sarcasm
dunno when pointing out someone else’s mistake started making poeple look like ‘idjits’ but maybe i’m too over the hill for this whole internet thing

first of all, if it was sarcasm, sometimes that doesn’t come across the interwebs all that well.  and, i have run into plenty of people with that particular mindset that it wasn’t too hard to believe.
 
second of all, i did not name call or insult anyone.  that i get the same respect would be nice.
 
and third, i feel i must clarify when i refer to numerous genres, i don’t mean to refer only to electronic music.  i have a very broad taste in music, thus preventing any “tin ear” from occuring.
lastly, i just noticed this:
http://www.smilepolitely.com/music/get_to_know_your_djs/
 
thank you editors.
 

a good rule of thumb to detect internet sarcasm:  are you offended? maybe it’s sarcasm.
 
also knowledge of the word “twee” was a pretty good indicator stuart was being sarcastic

You know how when you have to explain a joke it’s not funny anymore?  Because it takes too long and is tedious, and it erases the sudden mental leaps and change of direction that when recognized cause the funny.  Well, I guess it must all be unpacked, so here goes:
I thought my over-earnest comment would be obvious as ridiculous hyperbole (sarcasm sounds too harsh), which sought to highlight the over-earnestness of many of the previous comments.  
I was struck by how many angry comments appeared on what seemed to me a pretty unimportant issue, at least relative to the many important issues SmilePolitely writers have raised, and which have not garnered much attention from the commentariat. Frankly, it annoyed me.  I thought it was petty.  On reflection, I can see how members of certain communities, whose identities are tied up in those communities, were offended by the original article.  Still, I think it’s petty.  But, I’ve felt the same sort of things in other instances, so I’ll try to have a more generous outlook in the future, although I have no confidence at all that I’ll succeed at that.  Old habits are hard to break.
@hiding.  sorry for calling you an idjit.  I didn’t really mean it, and the change in language/tone was intended to cast doubt on the charge.  
@serena.  The tin ear thing was also a joke, although maybe a little too malicious.  The point was that you missed the joke on the first go around.  Tin ear often refers to writers, actors, etc. who cannot quite get the cadence of the speech they are attempting to reproduce, and it comes out sounding stilted, or tinny. I was just trying to say that you whiffed on that pitch—not the worst thing in the world.
@rob. No, really, why would you think it was ironic? (I don’t really need an answer to this).
@stuart.  You think it was a joke, but it was much more ambivalent and ambiguous than that, wasn’t it?  You really don’t like hip hop, djs, indie rock, or electronica, do you?  That idiot savant person is a real person living on the Mississippi Gulf coast, and everything he said, he really said, didn’t he?  And you really don’t much like the White Album, do you?  But I don’t believe you about nothing worth listening to being recorded since 1972.  Explain yourself, jerk.

stuart…
no harm done. promise.  my reaction to the tin ear statement was also meant lightly.  i can appreciate a little sarcasm, or whatever you want to call it. it is hard to offend me.
 
really, the only reason this article struck a chord at all is because the people that are participating in and putting this event together are passionate about it.  they are my friends and i just want then to get the recognition they deserve.

Yo check it. Don’t be hatin’. Our instrument is musicians, or goal is cash. Yo Yo. Keep it real - keep it bumpin’. Get yall on the dance flo.
No we dont play like that. We make deep bass frequencies. Its a hard world yall. Trust me, Lee Perry would get it.

mam oh man….last night’s turnout equals amazing.  it was such a fantastic eventregardless of this article!

Way, WAY back up at #17. “cheesy indie rock”?  Aww, come on djBelly. You don’t need to knock one genre of music to defend your own. It’s all good.
 
I know next to nothing about electronic music, and cannot wait to check it out tomorrow night at Canopy.

I’m feeling frazzled from a long weekend of music, so I will keep it *somewhat* brief. Many people have made excellent and nuanced points already on how the original article is misleading and misinformed. The follow up comments ( from Harsh, Gamera, Serena, and others ) make specific arguments that don’t allow for the original author, editor, and his supporters to easily retreat to the generic appeals of freedom in journalism as some kind of justification for this type of article. Bozak and others have also advanced arguments which I know they ( or I ) could happily pursue about the merits of music that is performed by the better dj’s who are at the top of their creative game. The mere fact that a performer uses turntables, laptops, midi controllers, beat machines, or whatever other instruments does not of and by itself determine whether or not they are interesting performers of note. With any instrument, it is possible to go an “easy route” but then there are always people who push the envelope with what they do with the tools at their disposal.
I realize that an “olive branch” has now been offered and this conversation has somewhat simmered down… so let me sort of offer my review of the night in retrospect and leave it at that.
The Skream show in particular was absolutely jaw-dropping. People were dancing and pumping fists in a complete frenzy, responding to the otherworldly textures, beats, and riffs getting blasted at them with playful mastery. Skream brought a very expressive and aggressive style to the start of his set and concluded it with pure bliss - a medley of original songs, many of them written by himself, that referenced a whole history of uk electronic rave music. Mertz and Belly played some of the best dubstep sets I’ve heard them play. For a dj at an event like this, kepping your beats matched and everything under control in such a chaotic party atmosphere is just the start of it: you have to make on the fly-decisions on what to emphasize, how to arrange things, how to deal with the keys of differents songs layered over each other, how to work faders and mixer controls in a way that is responsive to the crowd and the activity of the MC’s. Harsh, Agent Mos, and i2K as the MC’s not only provided some humor and additional rhythmic structure via their beatboxing…. at an event this crazy they actually function as a kind of externalization of a collective consciousness, giving voice to what a lot of us feel but cannot say as we are getting bombarded with music that connects on both a primal level as well as a kind of imagination of the future.Then there are people like Rory bringing his engineering mind to the whole event: he knows how to make everything work at its peak, just sort of bursting. Add to this all the dancing lovers of dubstep pumping fists, hanging out, having a good time….and then all the promotional soldiers working behind the scenes to help bring it all together…. it was a night of local legend.
I had a great time playing at this event and it was an absolute honor to play along with Skream and such a dedicated group. It is very encouraging to see people responding to this music, getting sweaty together and incorporating it into what they feel and how they socialize - the true beginnings of a scene.
Ok I guess that was somewhat lengthy. I tend to do that.
The funny thing is, when things are this good, when events go off in such an utterly special and spectacular way…... it makes any naysayers or people who might be uninformed just sort of funny. I acknowledge any ignorant comments, I can discuss them, but another part of me is impervious and buzzing on a different level. The logical part of me can engage discourse about what any haters may have overlooked or why they are wrong, but another part of me is just smiling, without malice, thinking “OF COURSE you don’t know, because you JUST WEREN’T THERE, which is just unfortunate for you”

BIgups to all the people loving dubstep in this town (and in Charleston! And other, further corners of the midwest!), from all the dancers to all the friendly people going out to check out music, to all the dj’s and promoters and crews…. from physical challenge peeps to maximum strength sound… it’s got all the ingredients for something potentially quite diverse and big! And thanks for pumping fists and getting crazy when I decided to play some drum and bass at the end - it’s my main love besides dubstep and in my mind they are quite interchangeable, so it’s encouraging to hear that you don’t mind some of that too!
- Geist

The Village - Bently’s - fifteen people - double drums and spiralling psychedelic songs -real instruments. Better.

“Now, even if you’re spinning with turntables, you can run your signal through a processor that identifies BPM and key.“
If it was that easy, more people would be doing it.
I remember maybe about 6-7 years ago I saw some dj’s show up to parties with some of the cheaper numark or gemini mixers that had some kind of gimmick “BPM detector” feature. An LED light would periodically pulse at the “peak” of when the beat of a track was hitting, and hence what I suppose you were meant to beatmatch off of. The problem was that such a mixer was just indicating peaks that stand out from the overall RMS energy of the musical signal. But, peaks in a music program don’t just come from beats - they can come from accents, sharp vocals, and drum fills (as opposed to the “main beats”, for example the “2” and “4” that you are often supposed to treat as the rhythmic base). The DJ was better off paying attention to all aspects of the song and its structure to figure out what makes sense rhythmically. If a DJ cued up two songs, put in earplugs as an experiment, and tried to get the songs beatmatched based on the blinking of lights, the actual mix would rhytmically sound like shoes tumbling in a dryer.
One of my previous mixers, the Pioneer DJM 600, did have a BPM function that was on by default in the effects section, when I wasn’t using any effects. This was a slight advance, as it would constanlty resample part of the song and do an ‘analysis’ of the portion to determine the supposed BPM. This was meant to be better because it was a “lookahead” kind of BPM. Most of the time this feature did a lot of blinking (i.e. doing its analysis), then showing a certain numericl value, then blinking again and showing yet a different BPM. That always amused me: I knew that drum and bass, which tends to have a lot of sped-up breakbeats and drum fills layered over each other, was basically confusing the device. The way to learn to mix drum and bass is to practice mixing drum and bass, paying attention to implied rhythms as well as overt rhythms (just like in jazz), and understanding your records (in other words, how different producers like to arrange their drums - some like to put tricks in there more than others).
Now in these more modern times, functions like “warp markering” in ableton live let you open up the waveform of a music file, and a grid will be layered over the file to suggest the progression of bars in the track. Someone who preps these files in advance will listen to the track, observe the suggested grid placement, and then correct it as necessary (stretch, pull). Ideally, this lets you “beatmatch” tracks in advance. This actually takes a fair amount of work, because even with the best algorhythms a computer will often not make sense of a song in the way a human does. To date, in almost 10 years of being a DJ I still don’t use this feature, because for drum and bass the warp markering gets confused very quickly, putting a mess of stretched or condensed warp markers in the wrong places as it tries to make sense of Paradox taking the Amen brothers break, chopping it up and rearranging it, and then layering it over the “think” break in a stuttered and very experimental fashion. Basically, it doesn’t work for the kind of electronic music that I or others play. Or, it does not work in a way that is not unreliable and cumbersome. Software designers have been pushing the supposed “it does the dj’ing for you” aspects of their music for years and most dj’s at major clubs and festivals still turn to trusting their ears, their own sense of rhythm, and bringing things in by use of analog pitch control.
Add to this the fact that a lot of songs are mixed at times without drums conveying the bpm information. Many tracks will have beatless intros, or a dj will play an accapella, where a dj will have to pick up on the tempo information from an instrument, texture, or vocal. This kind of stuff is mixed by knowing the song and all of its elements: just being able to dj based on the placement of a snare or a kick in a song is a novice technique that lets you mix many tracks, but not all tracks. The mixes that are considered exemplary or memorable in various circles of electronic music are exactly the ones that are fluid even without the constant presence of conventional rhythmic cues. For drum and bass, Andy C is considered the top dj in part because he regularly “double drops” songs in clubs, which means he can mix a beatless interlude of a previous song with a rhythmically sparse intro of another song with such confidence that, when the beats for both tracks do come back in the mix, they are in perfect unison. If he didn’t pull it off perfectly, the sparseness of the musical mix right before the drop would make the errror so obvious and jarring that it would be embarassing. That’s one of the things people pay attention to when they see andy C mix - they may recognize two songs he is bringing into the mix, then they realize the kind of mix he is trying to pull off (and how dangerous it is if he fails), and then there is a heightened excitement of “whether he is going to be able to pull it off”.
Now, there are DJ’s who are organized with their electronic music files and do have things somehow matched or synched in a way that does not require their on-the-fly judgment or assessment. For a lot of the reasons I’ve stated above, this still is quite rare for drum and bass. What about those cases?
Well from what I can tell it happens more in the genres where the music has a four-to-the-floor kind of rhythm and is thus easier on a computer, which can impose mathematical patterns but cannot make aesthetic judgments. I can tell you that this is extremely uncommon for touring dj’s who run labels and are integral to their music scenes. For those few who do use it, they do it not to make their jobs easier but so they can focus on even more things in the midst of a mix. Richie Hawtin will play techno sets that use some tracks that are beatmatched in advance, but in his case he uses the time that is freed up from attending to rhythm-syncing so that he can add even more musical tracksa, tricks, and effects into the mix.
Where do you find auto-bpm dj’s? Well, there are always people trying to get attention before attention is deserved, or dj’s just trying to make a buck off of a gig. There are also young dj hobbyists who get frustrated with learning how to beatmatch, or the type of electronic music they play is just so simple that they let the computer appproximate for them and then they call it a night. However, these dj’s are severely limiting their musical choices on what they play, because it is limited to what their computers can easily approximate. Eventually they will move on into more advanced kinds of music and mixing techniques, or else they will remain as either novices with a limited pallete, or medicocre hack-jobs who won’t have staying power and respect in electronic music communities.
There is more I can say, but this should begin to make it clear to you that you are wrong in your suggestion that beat matching is not hard, or that it can be replaced by a processor that identifies BPM.

I’m leaving to go teach a class, but later I will inform you why you are also wrong about “processors” that “identify key” for DJ’s.
If it’s any consolation, your misconceptions are pretty standard for people who are unfamiliar with what is going on with the better aspects of various dj scenes. If my only exposure to bands was watching washed-up bands play drab chords and unoriginal covers in a las vegas dive casino, I probably would come up with analogously ignorant generalizations about what “bands” do.
 
 

DAMN! Is that wanna-be-DJ-for-a-living challenging the non-DJ who doesn’t even like the music that much. That’s tough yo. ROB, you betta step down! And geist, I didn’t read one word you wrote, but it WAS entertaining just seeing how long it was.

Sorry about the strange edit when I copied an pasted what I wrote. Here is a readable version:
 
Yesterday I wrote a few basic arguments to dispel the misconception that rhythmically syncing two or more songs, which is one of the main skills of a DJ, is now obsolete because of “beatmatching” or “beatsyncing” software.
 
I will now write some arguments to dispel the notion that mixing two or more songs in such a way that they are in key - another crucial function of a dj - is also obsolete given supposed “keymatching” software.
 
What exactly does being aware of “key” mean? Essentially it means understanding whether or not the harmonies of two songs complement each other. Because at least some parts of the songs will overlap in a DJ set, the harmonies should ideally not clash. What are some wats that DJ’s may mix such that the mix is “key” conscious? Here are a few methods:
 
1. Trial and error: when I am planning a demo mix, I will work my way through a cluster of tracks. When I hit upon a track that I decide I must include in the mix, I will then leave that track on one turntable and just try out different songs mixed with just that one song until I find something that is harmonious. Then, amongst the options that work, I make meticulous lists, consider other factors ( the style of the candidate track, the direction in which it takes the mix, whether it calls for a speedy or more drawn out mix and how that sets me up for the following track, etc), and make decisions. The sky is the limit regarding just how much planning one puts into this. I know of perfectionist DJ’s who spend weeks or even months working on projects like this. In the past I have definitely spent elaborate amounts of time trying to find the perfect blend myself.
 
2. Cuts - sometimes some parts of tracks sound good with another track, but other parts don’t. This then means that you have to know, during a set, when to cut in and when to cut it out with the crossfader or upfaders. Good cuts also require supplementary techniques that make the cut less obvious, so that it does not seem like the heart of a mix has suddenly dropped out entirely.
 
3. EQ - sometimes a mix of two tracks is spontaneous and attempted for the first time (this is definitely the case with my regular radio mixes), and a DJ may realize, while in the midst of a mix, that the tracks don’t complement each other well harmonically. This is a challenge and can also cause a bit of panic. It is also an instance where a better DJ can still make it work with some finesse. Much of good DJing is sleight of hand - calling emphasis to one part of a mix so that another part of the mix is not noticed. So, with aggressive and on-the-fly eq on both tracks, it is possible to deemphasize the parts of two songs that clash in key, and redirect attention to other parts of the mix.
 
4. Arrangement - sometimes to tracks may be in key with each other, but only sound good if arranged with each other in a certain way. This may be, for example, because the vocals of two tracks overlap each other under one arrangement, but form a kind of call and response in a differenty arrangement. So, not only knowing when two tracks are in key but also knowing when to start layering one song over another is important for mixing in key well.
 
There are more methods and techniques, but this is a start. The sky really is the limit here: for one mix I did for the dubstep massacre promotion cd’s, I really wanted to mix two tracks together but they key clashes later in the blend were driving me nuts, so I decided to just use a ring modulator on one of the tracks to make the key fluctuate and just weird out for a listener. Various combinations of these and other techniques are what is required to make a mix work.
 
Software, to day, can at best to an analysis of an entire track and make an educated guess, which is often wrong, about the key of a song. I’ve seen some very organized DJ’s who organize their tracks by key: in earlier times it was some sort of colored sticker system with their record sleeves, and in current times when a DJ often bring their music collection as files on a laptop, the files can be organized as virtual folders according to key. I actually think this is a great thing, and a sign of DJ who prepares well. All too often DJ’s are sloppy, rely on gimmicks, or are just there for the party, so I don’t hold it against a DJ if he or she organizes things according to key. In my critical assessment of what a DJ does, from years of going out to see various DJ’s play, I do not fault the DJ for any “preprepared” aspect of their performance as long as whatever they were able to do in advance enables them to actually do something different and creative with their free time during a set. When a DJ just strikes the “Jesus” pose in front of a crowd while two simplistic tracks run in beat and key-sync, I don’t respect the set. When a DJ has aspects of the music files prepped so that they can then attend to the third track they want to add to the mix, or the synth line that they want to play over a mix, it means they are still putting on a performance. In the case of music files that are organized according to key, the DJ will still have to make sure that the arrangement of the tracks works, which still requires cust, eq, and correct arrangement of layers.
 
I should note taht, besides key organizing tools, there is software that will attempt to modify the key of one entire digital track and sync it to another on the fly. This is different than organizing tracks in advance according to complementary harmony. However, this method is imperfect and does not help you at all with, for example, the disastrous case of having two vocals literally layered one over another (which then just becomes a mess of words). Also, the extent to which a song is digitally stretched in order to sound in key while still being at the same tempo can make a song sound reedy and brittle. I suppose this can in itself be an interesting effect to work with, in the same way that autotune on vocals can be an interesting (and weird) sound, but in the long run it is a bit of a gimmick.
 
Matching beats by adjusting the speed of a song will also affect the key of a song, so a DJ has a further issue to deal with, which is that the key of a song needs to be zeroed in on at the same time that the rhythms are brought to complement one another. Even this gets tricky, as some DJ’s will mix songs that complement the tempo of another song by being at half or double the speed of the other song.
 
An interesting question is also just how much key matters? Part of the revolution of the electronic music that emerged from pirate radio and raves in the UK, and warehouse parties in Detroit and Chicago, is the infectuous and tribal aspect of the music. Traditional radio consisted of three minute songs with verse, chorus, verse. A lot of electronic songs (actually, for genres like techno, drum and bass, and dubstep) are mostly devoid of vocals or easy hooks. The emphasis can often be on the texture of the kinds of otherworldly sounds that are produced (by synthesizers, processors, and other computer instruments), in combination with the infectuous rhythm. For other DJ’s, playing music with catchy vocal hooks and a progression in key is what their set is all about.
 
None of what I have mentioned matters if the DJ you see play out does not care too much for their craft, or plays lowest-common denominatore drivel party music. With simpler tracks, being able to pull off a mix with matched beats and in-key mixes is also easier to do. For any genre of music, there are people who incessantly work on and improve what they do, and then there are people who elicit enthused reactions on the cheap. Unfortunately the United States has, on balance, far less of an electronic scene than, for example, most of Europe, and so the quality of the music performances suffers. There are basically not as many DJ’s who strive to put on meaningful performances, and the people who go and see a DJ often expect that DJ to just be a familairity-delivery service, with beats. In Urbana Illinois it is still a common phenomenon for a drunk student at a party to tap a DJ on the shoulder, interrupt them, and ask them if they will play (insert cheesy pop song here). This is because to them, the DJ is a jukebox that just plays some sequence of songs, preferably of songs thye have heard over and over. In other parts of the worlkd, and on certain special nights, a DJ’s performance is considered a continuous set that draws on the techniques I have mentioend (and manyt more), and interrupting a DJ would get you kicked out of the venue.
 
Musicians have always had an ambiguous relationship with technology, because they want to assert that what they do is very human and in-the-moment, while at the same time very much relying on tools and devices that allow them to attend to some aspects of the performance instead of others. If I sing somber folk songs, I don’t have to worry if the dynamics of my whispery verse can be heard, because a microphone will transduce my voicer into a mixer that will then send the signal off for further amplification. When Robert Moog first started selling his synthesizerrs, there were session musicians who thought the new technology would threaten their jobs. DJ’s and bands alike have yet to find a “swiss army” device that will do their music for them , and “identifying key via software” is no exception.
 
FYI the following video is a video of myself doing a 10 minute dj mix for a competition when I was doing an internet drum and bass show with aftershock radio, about a year ago. I didn’t win, but the video got a good response. The audio quality isn’t great, but you can see what I do with the mixer and at least one turntable clearly. A lot of the techniques I discussed are in use especially in the mix of the last two tracks, where two very vocals-intensive tracks were layered over one another. This was definitely a planned mix. I had practiced it and knew that those records would sound good together if played a certain way.
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0GlwN9LPcQ