On the wheels of steel and the buttons of plastic

On the wheels of steel and the buttons of plastic

The running joke on the Fujirocker bus home was that the Chemical Brothers were checking their emails on stage. It seemed pretty likely that the set was programmed into their laptops and they were just tweaking here and there.

In the old days, we knew what a DJ was. They put records on record players and fiddled with faders. These days it’s not so clear.

DJ-Numark had his decks, but he was using them just for scratching as far as I could tell. He had some samplers, but the majority of his set was just playing of its own accord. Even legendary turntablists have given up on the old style of six decks and lightning fast cueing. Somewhere in the world there must be kids that mastered the old-school art of turntablism just as it became redundant. Future DMC World Championships will consist of people sending in MP3 files and receiving pass or fail notifications six weeks later.

So the next question is: does it matter? People were clearly enjoying the Chemical Brothers’ set. And Nu-Mark’s show was, as the Americans say, pretty awesome.

It went from Adele to Stevie Wonder via Japanese rap trio Schaddarappa, all backed by quick switching modern hip-hop beats and topped with the man’s first-rate scratching.

He’d come on after Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, and saw his set begin with the predictable exodus that marks any changeover from live band to DJ. About 20 minutes later the Marquee was heaving again. Presumably his tunes had wafted out from the Red Marquee and persuaded people to stop stuffing their gobs with kebabs and come in for a dance.

But was it DJing? I think Nu-Mark’s style is, but perhaps the Chemical Brothers’ style isn’t. If you’re performing in front of me, I’d like you to work a bit. For Nu-Mark, it’s about scratching, switching beats and adding effects that really work (not just banging your funble fingers on a Kaoss pad).

The guy standing next to me was a DJ Shadow fanatic who would cut off one of his hands to spend 5 minutes with the guy. He turned to me and said “this is better than Brainfreeze.” I thought so too.

Pic by 近澤幸司 more here