The Disablists - 93 til Infinity routine video

[mighty atom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YH2B4Sfir8&hd=1

 

Our new routine vid for anyone who's interested (very few I'd imagine..)

The idea behind this was more of an old school style team routine and to actually (shock horror!!) use a Hip Hop tune

Hope you like [awaits massive slating]

[Yoshi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YH2B4Sfir8&hd=1

 

Our new routine vid for anyone who's interested (very few I'd imagine..)

The idea behind this was more of an old school style team routine and to actually (shock horror!!) use a Hip Hop tune

Hope you like [awaits massive slating]

 

Freshest thing since C2C

[djdiggla]

very nice!

 

EDIT: the video is very well done too.

[Wax On]

Nice, I'd like to have heard it expand on the bit at 1:38-1:41 - that rhythm really suits what you're doing IMO

[texas pete]

One of my all time favourite tunes!

Started well but got a bit boring in the middle, but rescued it very nicely in fine form at the end! 2.40 was really nice!

[dissonance]

me rikey!

[Yoshi]

Just something I wrote on my B4B TV page (http://www.facebook.com/B4Btv) in response to Rob Swift's comments on this video:

 

I don't mean disrespect to the great Rob Swift, but I think DJs should be making every effort to embrace the new digital technology. Now, 1200s have been discontinued, so have the 2000s, and the reality is that there just isn't a viable market for turntables any more. 20 years down the line, I'm sure it'll all be digital, although I can't imagine what kind of substitute we'll have for turntables. But as long as people are listening to music, there'll be people playing music in clubs. DJs are crowd rockers first—that's their primary purpose. I'd rather hear someone make me dance the hell out of me with Traktor, like Rafik, than hear some DJ who does so-so because he's limited by the equipment. I think it's better to adopt this mindset early on so that DJs can immerse themselves early in the digital culture which will inevitably become the norm. But, of course, I think it should be more restricted for "battle" DJing, because that IS about technique, not about crowd rocking per se. Same with skratching. But those will become marginal, even niche, things in the DJ world, while the role and the function of the DJ will undergo great transformations as technology advances at a magnificent pace. This is why I think "battles" have to adapt to this change—competitions should focus on how creative someone can be, given the restrictions of their equipment. Battles in the 90s explored how creative a DJ can be with vinyl and mixers, now they should be exploring how creative a DJ can be with all these new equipment coming out.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Yoshi

[Yoshi]

Rob's comments here: http://twitter.com/#!/djrobswift

Edited October 11, 2011 by Yoshi

[doppelkorn]

I think DJs should embrace newer technologies while at the same time staying true to the roots of music.

 

That's why I rock such joints as King's "Love and Pride" on original test pressing and kissed by Paul King but I apply a very harsh filter to it using a Kaossilator. It blows peoples minds and everybody can get down to it but more importantly, it creates peace, love and harmony amongst the hip hop community.

 

I think Rob Swift needs to know that.

[Yoshi]

I think DJs should embrace newer technologies while at the same time staying true to the roots of music.

 

That's why I rock such joints as King's "Love and Pride" on original test pressing and kissed by Paul King but I apply a very harsh filter to it using a Kaossilator. It blows peoples minds and everybody can get down to it but more importantly, it creates peace, love and harmony amongst the hip hop community.

 

I think Rob Swift needs to know that.

 

I hate his comment that "shortcuts [digital tech] dilutes creativity"—first of all, digital technology aren't shortcuts. It's not like you're doing what you were able to do before without that technology in a "shorter"/easier manner. Digital stuff actually allows you to do a lot of NEW things. Second, it doesn't dilute, but ENHANCES, creativity (If used properly, of course) because there are just so many things you could do!

[doppelkorn]

I used to use a lot more digital than I do now and in very uncreative ways. I'd play King's Love and Pride on repeat using Winamp. Now if I do that I'll add a kind of fuzzy sound to it using either a muffle on the speakers or I'll pull some of the jacks out a little bit to get that crackle.

 

OK I've go that out of my system now. I think a bigger question is "who cares what Rob Swift thinks?". If you want to use old stuff or new stuff then fine but it should sound good. The Disablists routine sounds good. The Traktor stream from Rafik earlier on did not sound good to me. Roc Raida doing Sucker MCs sounds good.

[Steve]

I hate his comment that "shortcuts [digital tech] dilutes creativity"

It can though, but it doesn't mean that it has to and as you say, it can open doors for the creative DJ to do more than s/he could do with regular vinyl.

 

There are loads of mix DJs getting into the scene that have no real skills and wouldn't have got into it if they had to learn with vinyl. The only reason they are getting into it is because you can pirate music, pirate the software you use to mix the music, and you can mix it WAY more easily than you ever could before. You also get a lot of n00b DJs finding it hard to mix hip-hop and the answer they often get is "just extend the intro/outro of the tracks so it's easier to mix them". As they're made easier to mix, they never have to figure out other ways to mix them - more creative ways - and as such you hear a lot of hip-hop mixes now where it's just straight blends from track to track - auto-synced, no scratching, no variation in mixing technique, trick mixing or anything like that. Boring.

 

The really creative DJ will take a piece of equipment and experiment, push the limits of what you can do with it and so on - even the Ruck is fucking about with MIDI controllers now after all his anti-digital rants, and he's doing some creative stuff that he just couldn't do with vinyl alone - but people like that are few and far between.

 

What Rob Swift should be pushing for is for people to have the right attitude, not for people to use a certain piece of equipment, or for them to exclude themselves from using certain pieces of equipment. But that said, people with certain attitudes are drawn to certain pieces of equipment too.

[Jon]

Well put Steve

[Jon]

Dope stuff Oli

[Vekked]

Rob's comments here: http://twitter.com/#!/djrobswift

 

I'm really confused here. I just read the tweets on Rob's twitter and he says explicity "@ disablist haven't seen the video so I can't judge. Thus, please don't feel stupid.". That quote on your facebook tweeted at laurent is taken from his blog that's talking about button pushing in the DMC Team competition this year, where the disablists didn't compete (I think?). Did he actually comment on their video anywhere or are you making this up Yoshi?

[Vekked]

Just something I wrote on my B4B TV page (http://www.facebook.com/B4Btv) in response to Rob Swift's comments on this video:

 

I don't mean disrespect to the great Rob Swift, but I think DJs should be making every effort to embrace the new digital technology. Now, 1200s have been discontinued, so have the 2000s, and the reality is that there just isn't a viable market for turntables any more. 20 years down the line, I'm sure it'll all be digital, although I can't imagine what kind of substitute we'll have for turntables. But as long as people are listening to music, there'll be people playing music in clubs. DJs are crowd rockers first—that's their primary purpose. I'd rather hear someone make me dance the hell out of me with Traktor, like Rafik, than hear some DJ who does so-so because he's limited by the equipment. I think it's better to adopt this mindset early on so that DJs can immerse themselves early in the digital culture which will inevitably become the norm. But, of course, I think it should be more restricted for "battle" DJing, because that IS about technique, not about crowd rocking per se. Same with skratching. But those will become marginal, even niche, things in the DJ world, while the role and the function of the DJ will undergo great transformations as technology advances at a magnificent pace. This is why I think "battles" have to adapt to this change—competitions should focus on how creative someone can be, given the restrictions of their equipment. Battles in the 90s explored how creative a DJ can be with vinyl and mixers, now they should be exploring how creative a DJ can be with all these new equipment coming out.

 

 

Do you seriously not get his point Yoshi? All he's saying is don't use digital stuff and be a wack busta like A LOT of DJs these days. If you want to watch a DMC battle and see a bunch of people jamming on MPCs with no turntables then gtfo, sorry breh.

[Vekked]

That being said I like this vid. I don't know if you care to have any constructive criticism but you're getting it anyways:

 

0:30-1:17 is the weakest part of the vid. The cutting parts of the vid are much nicer than when you're rocking doubles. I think the vid/routine would definitely benefit from either skipping the looping/doubles stuff and sticking to cutting, or practicing your doubles work more. The bottom line is you're both going off beat consistently. Not way off beat or anything, but in that section you guys go off beat like 5-10 times, and nearly every time you switch at the faster part. This isn't meant as a diss, just being straight up. Routine with that part clean > routine without that part > routine with that part sloppy.

 

1:17-1:49 is (93 til) infinitely more cool than the part before. It sounds roughly the same, in that you're re-creating how the original beat goes in both parts, but it just sounds better because it's cleaner, you guys are flipping it more, and on top of that it's a bit more technical. It just makes the other part sound like filler in a way because they're accomplishing about the same sound but now you're doing it better in every way.

 

2:09-2:25 is the sickest part of the vid IMO. Just breakin that shit down. Hawk's killin the drums there.

 

The rest is cool too, the house part is a nice build/way to end it. It could be cool to incorporate some of the stuff you guys do from 1:17 to 1:20 in that part. The only thing I'm not sure I'm not sure about the is the sound of Mario going down the warp pipe or w/e that is that comes in at 2:26, it seems maybe a tad out of place but idk.

 

Nice vid tho, postin it up on my site so you'll get 2 more views.

[Yoshi]

Rob's comments here: http://twitter.com/#!/djrobswift

I'm really confused here. I just read the tweets on Rob's twitter and he says explicity "@ disablist haven't seen the video so I can't judge. Thus, please don't feel stupid.". That quote on your facebook tweeted at laurent is taken from his blog that's talking about button pushing in the DMC Team competition this year, where the disablists didn't compete (I think?). Did he actually comment on their video anywhere or are you making this up Yoshi?

 

Vek, man, it's because his comments weren't directed at the video specifically that I take his comments to be general comments on DJing as a whole. Great, in that case, why the fuck am I posting it on this thread? — yeah, I getcha. But Rob did kinda connect the blog post with this video:

 

@deejaysilent @dutchman @disablists @Elroacholoco: I'm gonna do what I can to combat all the button pressing!

 

and his tweet to DJ Silent was in response to Silent's tweet on Rafik's live stream yesterday, which I was watching, and Rafik was barely touching the pitch controller and doing more stuff on the X1 and the Maschine. I had my own thoughts about that and the implications of that to the DJ culture. So I made a general comment in light of everything that happened that day (Disablists, Rafik, and Rob's blog post). So fine, yeah, it's not directly relevant and my comment may be misplaced...

 

But I do take his equation of controllers and other digital technology with "shortcuts", as I wrote in post #10. Maybe Rob meant differently, but having read him talking about how we're relying on facebook or can't remember people's phone numbers, it seemed like he was advocating going "back"--so less controllers, just turntables and mixers. So his argument is that we're relying too much on machines, but my response is that we shouldn't go back to when we didn't rely so much on machines, but we should rely better, rely even more and digitise ourselves faster. Qbert started using his own battle breaks on DMC, I'm just saying that we should do something analogous to that now with respect to digital.

[doppelkorn]

A mixer and turntable are a machine after all...

[ELGEE]

who really gives a shit what rob swift said anyways, he isnt really relevant anymore is he.

 

do what you wanna do and do it on what you wanna do it on.

[ELGEE]

i wasnt really that impressed by the vid, nothing that ground breaking.

 

so much more they could have done.

[Vekked]

Vek, man, it's because his comments weren't directed at the video specifically that I take his comments to be general comments on DJing as a whole. Great, in that case, why the fuck am I posting it on this thread? — yeah, I getcha. But Rob did kinda connect the blog post with this video:

 

@deejaysilent @dutchman @disablists @Elroacholoco: I'm gonna do what I can to combat all the button pressing!

 

and his tweet to DJ Silent was in response to Silent's tweet on Rafik's live stream yesterday, which I was watching, and Rafik was barely touching the pitch controller and doing more stuff on the X1 and the Maschine. I had my own thoughts about that and the implications of that to the DJ culture. So I made a general comment in light of everything that happened that day (Disablists, Rafik, and Rob's blog post). So fine, yeah, it's not directly relevant and my comment may be misplaced...

 

But I do take his equation of controllers and other digital technology with "shortcuts", as I wrote in post #10. Maybe Rob meant differently, but having read him talking about how we're relying on facebook or can't remember people's phone numbers, it seemed like he was advocating going "back"--so less controllers, just turntables and mixers. So his argument is that we're relying too much on machines, but my response is that we shouldn't go back to when we didn't rely so much on machines, but we should rely better, rely even more and digitise ourselves faster. Qbert started using his own battle breaks on DMC, I'm just saying that we should do something analogous to that now with respect to digital.

 

Ok I get what you're saying, it's jsut really weird that you said "in response to Rob Swift's comments on this video:" and "This is what Rob said, after Disablists uploaded a new video of theirs" and posted a quote from a blog that didn't mention their vid...

 

I understand your point though. It's a basic argument of slow media vs. fast media. I think the idea that's most important to get from what Rob and other people advocating taking a step back from all the technology is:

 

There is a lot to gain with the use of new technology, efficiency being one of the most obvious gains, but it is equally (maybe more so) important that we are conscious of the things we LOSE with new technology, not ONLY the benefits.

 

And there ARE things that we lose. These things aren't necessarily lost by every individual user of the technology, but the majority of the culture. Rafik may use new technology and lose nothing, and only enhance every aspect of his work, but it's not like that for many up and coming DJs. I find it pretty self-evident when seeing/talking to upcoming DJs that there are things they are missing out on that are difficult to go back and learn. Things like learning to beatmatch with vinyl would probably help some DJs out immensely, but they'll never do it because it seems pointless, although I think most DJs who can do it realize that it's pretty beneficial to not have to rely on their DVS at all times. Another thing is digging. Vajra says he finds it no different to dig online or in a record store, and again, he could be a person who loses next to nothing from this gain in technology, but I think that it makes the average person less diverse, and not really understand the benefits of digging and finding records that <1% of other DJs have.

 

So yea, I would just say be careful about the fights you pick to fight. I think that Rob is in the minority, and you are in the majority on this issue as far as new DJs go. It could be the case that the issues Rob is trying to highlight are far more of an epidemic to new DJs than twiddling and pinching their 2 click flares .

[Jimmy]

well i liked it, nice one. and the production on the vid looks sick!

 

you about for SSS Atom?

[jopa.]

hack djs are hack djs no matter how "well" they sound; anyone can sound sufficient these days... and it doesnt take much to impress an inebriated crowd.

 

often i find the mind behind the gear more important than the results.

 

but yeah, ive had my rounds with the tech vs purity thing. not doing it anymore.

[jopa.]

"What Rob Swift should be pushing for is for people to have the right attitude, not for people to use a certain piece of equipment, or for them to exclude themselves from using certain pieces of equipment. But that said, people with certain attitudes are drawn to certain pieces of equipment too."

 

this made my facebook wall where i generally only post quotes and videos. fucking right on bro...

 

disablists... well made and very slick. nothing much i would criticize other than the behind the back type tricks: you might have noticed the rhythm fell off through that whole part. i would never sacrifice audio for gimmicks, but i guess for a video i understand... kind of.