• Music

  • John Digweed 'Live In' Series - Fabric, London

Really not sure what to make of that mix. Plus a lot of his post lockdown mixes TBH. Seems like he has this hard techno “wonky” sound that comes across in a lot of his mixes. Maybe thats what pull in the crowds, but to me its soulless, lacking melody, lacking any edge, lacking a heads down groove and lacking any ethereal break from the madness.

Even scroll back to Quattro, tracks like DJ Sadie “Hypnoticka” . Driving, relentless , tops off coalface house (Qtd. E.Smallman Esq.) . Manis. Beatless versions of tracks thrown into the mix to add diversity. I don’t hear this coming through in the Apple mixes which is sad as he’s obvs got in in his locker. I also thought he’d change type to a degree post the Bunkers and try a few other things. A new “Choice” type CD maybe. Maybe Bunkers “Live” at smaller venues. I bought tickets for the Bedrock event in April so hope to god it ain’t this garbage.

What do I know. He’s obviously a very shrewd business man and knows what crowd he has to appeal to nowadays with his “sound” to keep the coin coming in, but would be nice if he spiced things up a bit going forward.

    IndustryStandard its soulless, lacking melody, lacking any edge, lacking a heads down groove and lacking any ethereal break from the madness.

    this sums up my thoughts. it’s like he’s trying to play odd records for the sake of it and maybe that works live, but it makes for an awful home listening experience. which would be the entire point of mix cds.

      Totally agree. Interested to hear if this “sound” works on the floor. Its like a harder Dixon/Ame “wonky” sound….not in a good way.

      Let’s be honest. His core market now is South America. Thought they were more into driving, proggier stuff.

        IndustryStandard His core market now is South America. Thought they were more into driving, proggier stuff.

        Not before the 6 hour mark

            The package arrived in Germany on the 5th and has not moved since. Can’t blame the German DHL on Brexit lol.

            Wally
            Boooooooo

            Nobody likes a smarty pants being different Wal!

              Paying ₹200 for the extended mix mixed version on iTunes, and then listening to the first three tracks unmixed thinking it was mixed, has put me off completely for this live in. Pity because I have a ton of videos on WhatsApp from my friend who was there that night, and it sounded and looked properly banging.

              Wally i listened to 3 and 4 driving up to lovely Leeds and I quite liked it too. lots of energy and oomph in the last hour.

                I actually checked this out from Disc 3 onwards.

                The only other one of Diggers’ live CDs I’d listened to prior to this was Tokyo and that was a complete slog and a chore to get through. Absolutely wretched.

                This was at least vaguely listenable background wallpaper, which on Diggers’ recent output seems about as good as it gets.

                There is also a track in there, Hyena ‘The Greed’, which is beyond hideous - it literally sounds like someone who’s got the squits.

                  hugopal I don’t mean in a Chris Liberator styli. Its more hard in the sound than the overall track. Metallic synth stand , moody 101 bass sounds, not a lot of melody, no variation using strings/pads. These types of mixes are just a hard listen, not very accessible or rewarding IMO. Very infuriating knowing what Diggers can produce . Goes back to the previous point he may be putting out these types of mixes because he thinks it’s the sound de jour and SHOULD be putting them out . All a bit strange in my book.

                      IndustryStandard Very infuriating knowing what Diggers can produce

                      Isn’t he almost 60? A lot of the criticism seems rooted in unrealistic expectations. He’s a cracking live DJ, or was, but for mixed releases the last thing I thought was any good was the first Bedrock (like 20 something years ago). Guess I’m not sure what you all were looking for other than rote prog meets drab tech house given that’s been his label for years now.

                      • -si- replied to this.