the dead zone

I'm not a DJ but I like it when a DJ knows how to do "90 degree turns" - some songs /transitions work back to back without any mixing etc.

Lots of mid 80s electroboogie & proto house comes in at around this mark. Arthur Russell & whatnot.

Gabba Flamenco Crossover said:

Lots of mid 80s electroboogie & proto house comes in at around this mark. Arthur Russell & whatnot.

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if I remember correctly... Egyptian is around 110-115? Bad Kalic?

right now I'm struggling with a Rai/Bhangra/Dancehall/Reggaeton/Hiphop mix.... really trying to make all these genres meld together and flow well... the rhythm is actually no problem, the main difficulty is in reconciling the differences between the mood of the tracks... the Bhangra is so upbeat and happy while the Rai is more sombre...

minikomi said:

I always have trouble making the transition between 100 - 110 ish riddims (hammer, migrane, sunblock, attack dem, dreamweaver, candyshop...) and the 120ish riddims (coolie dance, bounce, fowl fight, kasablanca, ivan, bionic ras...)

can someone suggest some centred around the 115 mark to fill in my gap? I have a feeling it's an 'uncomfortable' tempo - one which is difficult to make good, dancable music around.. between 95 & 100 I also have very little.

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Hmm.. dancehall-wise you might be in trouble there. The tunes tend to fall into 3 distinct categories - 90-100bpm being the most common (Sledge/Bada Bada/Bellyas/Krazy kat/Grass Cyatt/Street sweeper), 82 - 90 next (Punanny/Matrix/Bug), and 100-110 last (youve covered these). The 120/130 riddims are a relatively new phenomenon, and theres precious little inbetween (think I have only one 116bpm riddim).

The best thing to go for if you want to keep it raggfied is some 60/120bpm dub or reggae tunes? Or possibly some mid 90s re-versions of Studio One riddims ala Penthouse, as a lot of dub and roots riddims float at 120-150, and can be mixed half time.

Other than that, 90's R+B, late 80's electro and electronica are the places to go. 110-120 is the benchmark speed from everything for the latter - Mantronix, Roxanne Shante and Doug E Fresh all have tunes at this speed, as does a lot of early 90's hip-hop: Digital Underground, Public Enemy, NWA, Ultramagnetics etc...

Failing that- you could always try some pitched down 128 electro - or even some grime or techno at 33+8 - but even then, youre stil left with the real problem with mixing up dancehall with other music: finding a satisfactory resolution to the vocals...

...or just buy some CDJ's and timestretch the fuckers!