Tim F said:
As far as I can see <i>most</i> of the exciting stuff in the last couple of years of house has been the stuff which really seeks to re-invest 4-to-the-floor house with rhythmic personality . . . . my two favourite house DJ mixes of the year are M.A.N.D.Y.'s <i>Body Language</i> mix and Damian Lazarus's <i>Rebel Futurism #2</i>,
i like to chatter ad nauseam about dance music here at dissenus -- but truth be told, i'm not all that knowledgeable
so i haven't the slightest notion about the acts you mention above, tim
(maybe i've heard it, maybe i haven't)
my perspective is very much a punter's view -- i go out a lot and always have, i hear a lot of music out, but don't necessarily know what i'm listening to -- yet i don't think this makes me unqualifed to speak, so long as i speak in general terms
and i tend to like djs who criss-cross genres -- and not for the sake of "creativity" as such -- but simply to keep the crowd involved
and when i play records (emphasis on *play*, not dj properly), i try to cover a range of styles, albeit w/ heavy emphasis on early 90s sounds -- and i do this to make a kind of argument, communicate a certain understanding of dance music
however, there's plenty of people who play broken beats and 2-step garage-ish stuff alongside deep house, post-punk dance, reggae sounds, etc -- they may not be pushing music "forward" or breaking the next revolution -- but they keep things reasonably interesting
and b/c they take this approach, they're not going to be booked to play places like tribeca grand or be on the cover of some dance magazine, and they're not going to be the acknowledged leaders of the house scene -- but at risk of sounding elitist or po-faced, they're the true house djs -- not the people who you read about in magazines or whose mix cd you can buy
when the house scene first began, it wasn't simply about proper house music from chicago -- it was all kinds of sounds -- disco, funk, soul, hip hop, electro, some dance-oriented rock, and yes "proper" house -- listen to ron hardy on the deephouse page!!!
and then at some point ambitious djs began to specialize in ever more narrow sounds -- again, i freely acknowledge the value of artistic ambition and sonic focus in the manner of grooverider, who took things in an entirely new direction -- but djs who narrowed things down to the 4x4 were for the most part money grubbers -- let's not mince words!
sorry for the lecture