Vekked Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Pretty decent DVD, worth picking up if you're into battles and stuff. I'd give it a solid 7/10, not too much stuff I'd consider classic but still some solid routines. The one good thing about this year in comparison to the previous few is most of the DJs have some sort of identity in their routine and they don't all just sound like Le Jad productions. There's still a lot of electronic music but I feel like a lot of guys varied things more now that Serato's out and they can use whatever they want. Nothing groundbreaking but a step in the right direction at least. Eliminations Highlights: -Vajra's routine is quite a bit different from his finals routine. He does his Black Sheep drum scratch routine and it sounds like he's using a reverb effect on it... probably the best I've heard him do it, probably the best single part of a routine in both the eliminations and finals IMO (I like it a bit better than his finals drumming routine, although I can see a lot of people not feeling the same). -Mandrayq does a clean version of one of his finals juggle (messes it up a bit in the finals). Probably the most technically innovative part of the entire battle. He does a breakdown juggle with the upfaders while fading out parts of it... not like anything I've really heard before, so big respect to him for that. -Most of the other guys just did half of their finals routine, so not worth talking about here. Eliminations/Finals not so highlight: -The judging was a bit wank. The got the important parts right, like most of the best guys were ranked near the top, but Slimcuts making it through was kind of a joke... he was like regional competition quality at best. Five shouldn't have made it through probably (he wasn't awful tho), A-Kut and Jooce got kinda screwed, they should've taken their place probably. -I thought the final order was a bit off. Vajra and Izoh were about right, but JFB and Skillz were def ranked too high, whereas Graded, Cross, and Mandrayq should've been way higher. There's no way Mikey should've been seeded 12th, I had him a solid 7th, could've been as high as 5th.. def not 12th. -It really seemed biased towards scratching or something, nearly all of the guys who were lower were the guys who could actually juggle, and the guys who placed too high were guys doing those heavily produced/not very technical juggles. Slimcuts had like 3/10 skills but his routine was well produced so he didn't have to do much and it sounded OK. I feel like world finals judges shouldn't be fooled by that stuff... Finals Highlights -Mandrayq again does some cool upfader stuff, he did like an upfader/lineswitch/cue point juggling routine that was kinda cool. It was like technical button pushing/juggle combo. Probably one of the best uses of cue points in a juggle. -Erick Jay had some funky juggles despite his weird song choice... kinda have to just listen to the rhythm and not what he's using, lol. I feel like he could become pretty good if he hasn't peaked, he has good patterns and routines but he's just not doing anything overly technical or innovative yet. -Izoh with the super clean/tech juggling as usual. Pretty hype/entertaining set. It was really mainstream sounding but I liked it, I think it was pretty close between him and Vajra. Vajra def had him on the cuts, but I think Izoh had Vajra on the juggling tip. The fact that Vajra basically nailed his set except for one minor slip-up makes it hard to beat tho, but there can def be an argument for Izoh taking it. His 1 record juggle/drum scratch routine was cool too. -Vajra's effects/Metallica drumming bit, and his cuts at the end were cool. Most people have seen his routine so I don't really have to get into it. -Co-ma, JFB, and Cross all had solid bits, def worth a check, but I don't think any of them were quite up with Izoh/Vajra. -I think the Top 3 was on point. Vajra and Izoh were pretty clearly the top 2, Co-ma was solid too but didn't have anything that reeeally stood out. Cross was a bit choppy overall with transitions and such, and JFB's set I think was a bit over-rated as a battle set... it sounds good, and looks impressive, but his juggles are really production driven and don't have very interesting patterns, and his cuts are like a million twiddles... he's good at them, but I just don't think his technique is on par with his production skill. Mandrayq was a bit too sloppy to place although I was digging his style and thought he was quite original. -Overall at least half of the routines have some replay value. -There's a Tigerstyle showcase if you're a fan like me. A fair bit is from his old showcase stuff tho. Didn't watch it again before writing this, so forget if he has any new material in that showcase. Finals not so highlights: -Like I said, the seeding was a bit wack. -Despite routines that were pretty solid overall and worth a few watches, I think Vajra was the only one who brought some potentially "classic" parts with his drumming. Other than that and maybe Mandrayq's juggles there wasn't much I will probably come back and watch a few years from now. -Lol Slimcuts. On top of him of not deserving to be there anyways, he does a 1-handed juggle at the end which basically highlights why he shouldn't be there, lol... he's doing the exact same patterns as he does the rest of his routine, except with 1 hand... but not in a cool "oh shit he's doing the same stuff except with 1 hand!", more like a "wow, his stuff is so basic that he can literally do all of it with 1 hand". If you can do all of the patterns in your routine with 1 hand you're doing it wrong. Cliffnotes: -7/10 DVD, worth grabbing if you're into battles/DMC vids, not a classic tho.-There's a bit less value in getting it with Vajra's set and parts of other sets online and such but aside from that it definitely has the most replay value of a world finals vid since like 2006 finals maybe (basically since Netik won and everything went crazy glitch electro, lol).-Vajra, Izoh, Mandrayq had some sick stuff, JFB, Co-Ma, Cross, Graded, had decent routines with some moments. Erick Jay, Mikey are worth a watch.-Judging was good for top 3, kinda off for the seeding of the top 12 but got it right when it counted.-Overall skill for scratching was pretty high, overall skill for juggling was pretty low, but there were at least a handful of guys who could juggle, and most of the rest weren't WACK they were just average.-Slimcuts should die, but not as much as Nelson should die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest broke Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 TL;DR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest broke Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Seriously though, can you buy these digitally? I don't need a DVD I'm going to watch once, twice maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 Seriously though, can you buy these digitally? I don't need a DVD I'm going to watch once, twice maybe That's probably a really good idea especially now that so much of the highlights are getting leaked. Like I saw bad versions Izoh/Co-ma, good versions of Vajra, JFB, and Cross... like probably close to 25% of the content is online in some form, and close to half of the content that's worth watching. P.s. added cliffnotes for the TL;DR people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest broke Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 CLIFFNOTES AT THE TIZZOP, NUMBSKULL But yeah, if they were smart they'd have the whole thing available to download/watch online and also individual sets to download, all in HD. The average viewer would probably pay to watch it, then download the sets they liked best. P.S. THANKS FOR THE REVIEW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkman56 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 1.I Love your 'Not so highlights' in every review2.Is it just my copy or is the sound and picture not exactly in sync ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuno Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) If I ran the DMC, you'd be judging every year along with only two or three other people. Nowadays, even some random guy who won the singaporean DMC back in 2003 ends up in the judging panel for the world finals - plus, I've come to the conclusion that even world champs don't necessarily make good judges, that's why I think they should all be made to go through a written test on turntablism history or something like that. Your review is spot on, and although I don't agree with your opinion on one or two things, you've satisfyingly justified each point you made, something I doubt that most judges would be able to do.As for the DVD itself, I also thought it was a pretty good battle for modern turntablism standards. Good to know I wasn't the only one finding it a complete robbery that Mikey was seeded 12th, as he was definitely one of my favourites and I'd have put him in the top 5. Also, I fully subscribe to what you said about good scratchers being valued over good jugglers and some dj's relying far too much on production to make up for their flaws. Edited May 21, 2012 by Profail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 1.I Love your 'Not so highlights' in every review2.Is it just my copy or is the sound and picture not exactly in sync ? haha thanks, gotta throw in the bad with the good to keep it balanced. Luckily wasn't too much bad in this one compared to the Supremacy DVD. I'm not positive about the sync issue, I was watching on a laptop with a pretty wack DVD player to begin with so I was definitely have some issues at points but I wouldn't be able to say whether they were the DVD or the player. Profail - yea I agree absolutely with the world champs don't necessarily make good judges. I think most world champs are qualified (likely not all team champs, and maybe a couple other exceptions), but still might be terrible judges because they don't care/don't pay attention or what not. There are tons of national champs who def have no business judging a world final. I agree that they should just have a small panel of VERY qualified judges, like Allies/X-Ecutioners/ISP members and stuff, obviously a mix to avoid bias. A turntablism history test would def do the trick but probably not realistic, haha. Yea Mikey sure got screwed being seeded last. He did kinda drop the ball in the final, but his elimination was very well balanced and clean. I'd guess the thing that might have killed him was pretty brutal stage presence, but I feel like that should be sort of a footnote compared to whether he can scratch/juggle/etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I thought JFB should have placed top 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 I thought JFB should have placed top 3. I thought his set was a perfect example of one that hides weaknesses and highlights strengths through production. It's not bad by any means but nothing in it is overly impressive but he makes it hard to tell. Like it's not until his cut solo thing near the end of this part that you can see his scratching is fairly average, but he does a good job of not making it obvious. There's guys like Mikey and Skillz who could rape JFB on the cut but their sets aren't nearly as good at producing and putting it all together so it doesn't seem like that's the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djlotus Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Far be it for me to criticize anyone in a DMC event, but why do people juggle with that 1/32 kick drum roll? It may be my inexperience, but I think it sounds like garbage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Far be it for me to criticize anyone in a DMC event, but why do people juggle with that 1/32 kick drum roll? It may be my inexperience, but I think it sounds like garbage. It's not your inexperience. Most of the time it's because they can't do fast enough patterns so they just throw a roll in the track and loop it... some guys actually flip drum rolls, but thee days most just do normal looping with a fast sound to make up for lack of skillzzzz. It's an I-Emerge thing that I think should've ended with I-Emerge, lol. Judges have to be on the ball for DJ battles these days with all of the custom production and stuff. Gone are the days that you could just listen to a routine and tell how good a guy was just by the sound... there's a lot of production trickery going on... The absolute worst is when guys take a sample like "cut like a guillotine" and chop it up so it's like: "cut cut cut like like like a a guil guil o o tine tine" because they can't do that Ricci Rucker/Deska fast sentence scratching type stuff, so they just chop the sample like that and do 2 click orbits over it, lol. DJ Fly does this in his 2008 routine, but he's not the only one to do it, just a pretty good example because he ended up winning DMC with that stuff in his set... not that he didn't deserve to win (haven't taken a hard look at the 2008 World final yet), but it's still pretty cheesy to even do that shit. See here at 3:44: [media=] [/media] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I think Police Academy is a much better DVD to buy than this. The special edition has a pretty cool "making of" mini-documentary on it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 POST A TL;DR REVIEW BITCH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djlotus Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I miss watching guys throw records around during routines. I guess that along with digging died with the digital age. Seems pretty weak sauce to see a guy go through 3 minutes of record time because the samples have been arranged. Not that I won't do it, but seriously, I'm bad and these guys are supposed to be good. I think I will break out all my 60's and 70's vinyl now. I have been inspired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Yea I hear you. I mean in theory people should just be able to do cooler stuff now that transitions are faster and easier and you don't need to switch records or worry about skipping or stickers moving... but not many are. I dunno, I'm trying my best, we'll see how my set turns out this year, lol. "Patterns Over Production" is my new motto for battling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Word, while my stuff isn't technically on par I'd like to think my routines share that ethic too and that my patterns rather than my records do the work for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I didn't realise people precut vocals up like that, that's major weak sauce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 I didn't realise people precut vocals up like that, that's major weak sauce. Yea man, fktdatshit. I agree you got the "Patterns >" ethic, we gotta run these muh fukkin fruity loops muh fukkin sound forge muh fukkin ableton live ass DJs outta town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 International team patternsoverweaksauce 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djlotus Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest broke Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 MAJOR_WEAK_SAUCE 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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