Dance News

For years, people in the electronic music industry have been complaining about how Miami's Winter Music Conference has lost much of its focus with the emphasis being on partying and the 'Conference' coming a distant second. So it was only a matter of time until an enterprising group saw the opportunity to launch a rival music conference focusing just on the business. Despite the WMC being so well established, the fact that the man dubbed 'Mr. Dance Music', Britain's Pete Tong, is behind the new 'International Music Summit', as well as the fact it is to take place in Ibiza, just before the opening weekend parties from 28th - 30th May 2008, make it a strong contender.

On the subject of Pete Tong, he's recently tested the latest in DJ technology that's been causing a stir amongst the likes of Sebastian Ingrosso, Richie Hawtin and Judge Jules. It's called the Pacemaker, a hand held piece of equipment allowing DJs to mix on the move. Follow this link to see Tongey trying the gadget out to decide if it can really revolutionise the world of DJing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/petetong/video_gadget.shtml

No one has ever claimed Billboard to be 'the Bible of dance music' and this is probably why: Billboard.com has named Dutch trance mega-star Tiesto the highlight of 2007, singling out his 'Elements Of Life' world tour. "With a lighter-hoisting rock scope and a 'concert-style' set programmed to match the visual onslaught, the tour blazed a new trail for DJ performance," enthused the US media outlet.

Billboard's other highlight of 2007 was house music's triumphant return. Spearing this revival, asserts Billboard, were the trio of Bob Sinclar, Kaskade and Roger Sanchez - not exactly a sign of confidence if it took some of the oldest names in the house game to keep things exciting. Where's the new blood? Billboard's final gushing of excitement is reserved for DJ-slash-hair model David Guetta. "Guetta's recent stop at tiny New York club Cielo was a shocking spectacle: the well-heeled crowd - out on Thanksgiving night, no less - pawed at the lanky DJ like he was Elvis reincarnated, climbing banquettes to snap his photo, gazing at him with the kind of devotion usually reserved for teen idols."

Continuing from my last column, which preceded the court case in Dubai of British drum 'n' bass DJ Grooverider, on the 19 of February, he was given a four year-term, the minimum sentence for drug possession in the conservative United Arab Emirates. Recapping, Grooverider was found to be in possession of 2.16g of cannabis as he flew into the United Arab Emirates last December for a DJing gig on November 23, 2007. The DJ (real name: Raymond Bingham) claimed that the drugs were in the pocket of a pair of jeans he had forgotten about.

It looks like the Middle East might be starved of international DJ talent for the foreseeable future as in addition to the industry shockwaves caused by Grooverider's detention, now Dutch tech- trance heavyweight Marco V, has canceled a Syrian gig after receiving death threats. The DJ Mag Top 20 listed DJ would have been the first international DJ to play the Syrian capital of Damascus, but last week he felt forced to cancel after his management, his website and he personally received various threatening messages. In a statement issued on his website, Marco V explained the reason for his decision: "Obviously we get all kinds of comments on the message boards, mostly positive, some not so good, but never anything like the death threats we received this week... at the end of the day we had to consider what's happened and take what is sensible advice. Hopefully one day the situation in Syria will allow international DJs such as myself to come and play as we do in every other part of the world."

Hot on the heels of Kanye West and The Black Eyes Peas, Janet Jackson has sampled Daft Punk's Daftendirekt for her latest single 'So Much Betta'. The song is taken from the RnB veteran's current album, 'Discipline', which debuted at #1 in the US. Unlike the Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am, who only thought to ask if he could use a sample from Daft Punk's Around The World once the video was already produced (and consequently the video was never released other than being leaked to Youtube), Jackson kindly asked for permission to use the sample this time. Perhaps the golden (or in this case metallic) touch of the robots known as Daft Punk did not have its usual effect on this occasion with one review stating, "Jackson adds nothing to this ten-year-old material, producing a song that survives on Daft Punk's merits alone. The sampling is so blatant that it's easy to pretend you're listening to the original track, which is the only good thing about this shameless rip-off". Another reviewer describes it as sounding like "the Chipmunks covering 'Milkshake'. But really, how much more Daft sampling can we take?"

Finishing up with some local news, if dubstep is your grime, keep an eye out for the Redline Dubstars who launch a new night at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel on Friday the 11th of April. You can expect to hear dubstep (obviously) with a smattering of grime, 2-step, dub and jungle. If you're wondering what dubstep is, Wikipedia has the perfect definition for this sound: "The dubstep sound is characterised by the prevalence of sub-bass, heavily syncopated rhythms, and reggae or movie samples, amongst other influences. Like another garage hybrid, grime, the genre uses dark sounds, but it differs from grime in being largely instrumental". For more illumination on the genre keep an eye out for the promo mixes by Jayar, Bennie Raw and Macro floating around town as well as listening to 'The Bassbin', hosted by Jayar and DJ Skippy on Fresh FM, Thursday nights from 10pm.

Other upcoming local events of note include world renowned scratch DJ and three-time world champion DMC, DJ Craze, at the Crown and Sceptre Hotel tomorrow night (Thursday 20th of March), US tech-house legend, Chris Fortier, at Cargo on Friday the 28th of March, W.A. drum & bass behemoths, Pendulum [LIVE], on Tuesday the 15th April at Shores Complex, and the insanely huge lineup at 'Groove is in the Park', taking place in Rymill Park on Sunday April the 20th (NAS, Pnau live, DJ Marky & Stamina MC, Beni of Riot in Belgium, Azzido Da Bass, Funkoars and Roc Raiders just to name a few).

Got dance news?

Email Terry Goldfain

gold@chariot.net.au