DJ’s Mixing Energy, Rather Than Style or Tempo

June 10th 2006, Cream release the second installment of their ‘Live’ CD series, a 3 CD set mixed by Nick Warren, James Lavelle, and possibly the biggest DJ of the mid to late 90’s Paul Oakenfold.

Oakenfold’s mix contained his usual brand of Fluoro Trance, but it also contained a handful of Drum & Bass tracks, placed right in the middle of the mix, and it worked brilliantly. The flow of the mix was not disrupted by suddenly jumping 20 or 30 beats per minute quicker, loosing the 4/4 kick drum and replacing it with a breakbeat, all because the energy of the tracks flowed - the different styles didn’t matter. Paul Oakenfold continued to release DJ mixes in the late 1990’s that contained Drum & Bass scattered throughout the mixes, Global Underground 004: Oslo in 1997 and Global Underground 007: New York in 1998.

Sasha was quoted once;

“It’s about layering sounds, building energy in the music”

Now, what if us DJ’s just concentrated on the energy of the track - throw away the pigeon holing of certain tracks in to genres and sub genres, playing music based on feeling, vibe and intensity of the individual record. Outside of Deep House I really love Drum & Bass. Granted, a lot of it is too heavy, too energetic to coincide with Deep House, but some of the more laid back tracks, and the funkier, liquid style of Drum & Bass would sit perfectly with in terms of energy with Deep House. Dubstep is another genre that would work.

So, why am I not playing all these different genres instead of concentrating on house and deep house?

I play at a bar and early on in the night people want to relax and have the music provided as a soundtrack in the background, the dubby more stripped back house I play is ideal - but possibly, so are the styles of Drum & Bass I mentioned before. Unfortunately I know that many people would not see my point of view, I’d get asked to turn it off, or why I’m playing Drum & Bass. A whole genre of music is being ignored just because it’s 30 beats quicker than the norm.

Paul Oakenfold is possibly one of the only big name DJ’s to fit a completely different style of music into the one that he’s known for, I’m not sure if anyone else will do it again - which is a shame.