NTS shows are very much made of songs the DJ likes - that is all the qualification they need
The idea of DJ-as-selector/curator (rather than producer or 'personality') has had a resurgence in the electronic music scene over the last few years. The tastemaker DJs on stations such as Rinse FM and NTS are increasingly reaching wider out or further back to find old gems and weirder music to build into increasingly eclectic sets, and I think this has been driven partly by the mainstreaming and homogenisation of electronic music culture into "EDM" in the US, but also as an antithesis to the machine-made reductiveness of Spotify genre mixes.
As a regular club-goer here in Europe, it's no longer enough for a club DJ to merely play one genre all night long -- a crowd expects to be surprised and entertained.
If you're looking to widen your scope, the electronic music community has some great resources out there, and you can dive into any of these and find something utterly new and exciting without much trouble:
Agreed. Sure, as I have been around when mp3s became a thing and the TranceAddict or MercuryServer forums where the go-to place for electronic music enthusiasts, I'm of course familiar with your sources. In fact I produce and to a lesser extent DJ myself.
Of course since then my taste became much wider and genres are really irrelevant to me today. Which renders the usual recommendations engines hardly useful to me - it seems everyone's coming up with the same suggestions (or they all use EchoNest). In any case it's not a replacement for a real human curator that knows his stuff. Also labels play a pretty big role in this. Despite the evil reputation of the major ones, their smaller siblings are very valuable when it comes to curation and selection. Being featured on kranky, warp, Secretly Canadian, Editions Mego,... well, you name it, is a very strong indicator for quality. Particularly in electronic music this is hardly news.
Speaking of digging up hidden gems and rare classics: Do you know the Numero Group? An utterly fantastic re-issue label that made it their mission to find the most well hidden and unreleased material to give it a proper modern release. The background story is a fascinating read too: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/13/numero-group-cr...
Resurgence? This was the DJ's role in the electronic music scene going back to the 90s, back when everyone spun vinyl. Just saying this isn't new at all there.
Comments
The idea of DJ-as-selector/curator (rather than producer or 'personality') has had a resurgence in the electronic music scene over the last few years. The tastemaker DJs on stations such as Rinse FM and NTS are increasingly reaching wider out or further back to find old gems and weirder music to build into increasingly eclectic sets, and I think this has been driven partly by the mainstreaming and homogenisation of electronic music culture into "EDM" in the US, but also as an antithesis to the machine-made reductiveness of Spotify genre mixes.
As a regular club-goer here in Europe, it's no longer enough for a club DJ to merely play one genre all night long -- a crowd expects to be surprised and entertained.
If you're looking to widen your scope, the electronic music community has some great resources out there, and you can dive into any of these and find something utterly new and exciting without much trouble:
1. http://www.residentadvisor.net 2. http://www.xlr8r.com 3. http://rinse.fm 4. http://ntslive.co.uk 5. http://musicforprogramming.net
Agreed. Sure, as I have been around when mp3s became a thing and the TranceAddict or MercuryServer forums where the go-to place for electronic music enthusiasts, I'm of course familiar with your sources. In fact I produce and to a lesser extent DJ myself.
Of course since then my taste became much wider and genres are really irrelevant to me today. Which renders the usual recommendations engines hardly useful to me - it seems everyone's coming up with the same suggestions (or they all use EchoNest). In any case it's not a replacement for a real human curator that knows his stuff. Also labels play a pretty big role in this. Despite the evil reputation of the major ones, their smaller siblings are very valuable when it comes to curation and selection. Being featured on kranky, warp, Secretly Canadian, Editions Mego,... well, you name it, is a very strong indicator for quality. Particularly in electronic music this is hardly news.
Speaking of digging up hidden gems and rare classics: Do you know the Numero Group? An utterly fantastic re-issue label that made it their mission to find the most well hidden and unreleased material to give it a proper modern release. The background story is a fascinating read too: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/13/numero-group-cr...
If you want to learn more about them, start here: http://m.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/numero-six-hour-takeover/
Resurgence? This was the DJ's role in the electronic music scene going back to the 90s, back when everyone spun vinyl. Just saying this isn't new at all there.