Long first gig

Hey Staz where uve been hiding bro ? ^_^

Hey there. You’re spang in the middle of my old wheelhouse, long d&B sets.

First, it’s nice to go from a slow vibe and then build it up later…but the key word in that sentence is VIBE. You can’t really play slow d&b because if it’s slow it isn’t d&b, it’s breaks. So, you have to make it FEEL slower while still clocking in at the correct bpm.

Back when I was playing 4, 5, or 6 hour sets in the d&b days, I always started out on a dubbed out, bass heavy tip. There was almost no one at the club at the start of the night so I took that into account and got deep. As people showed up, it made them want to drink and chill while they waited for their friends to join them. As it picked up, I took advantage of that mood to trigger nostalgia and good times by getting into a bit of a ragga jungle feel. As soon as there were enough people in the club to make use of the dancefloor, I would aim for the ladies first by getting my liquid on. D&B jams are notorious for a floor full of dudes, their GFs waiting near the side and complaining about how the music is too hard to dance to. Sliding from the dubbed out, to the jungle, then into the liquid and soulful and vocal was a good way to get the girls on the floor early. Get the ladies out there and the dudes will follow.

Then…time for damage. Moving from the liquid to the power tracks of the night is easily accomplished by throwing in some of the bouncy club numbers (think Drumsound & Bassline Smith), then into some rowdy jump up stuff. After that, your crowd is ready for some anthems to get their energy up again and from their you can do whatever THEY want you to do. They want technical? Give ’em technical. They want more jump up? Break their noses with those basslines. They want anthems? Let ’em sing along and pump their fists all night. Reload the biggest one and set ’em off again…done right it’s like starting your set all over again. When you see the sweat pouring in rivers and the fists not going as high, cut tempo by half and throw a few drumstep mashers at them. If they like that, slide a bit more and throw some dubstep on them (but if they’re real proper d&b heads, make sure they’re dubstep remixes of popular d&b tunes…in my experrience purist d&b heades don’t like dubstep as much as I wish they did).

Right when they think it’s over, drop the biggest anthem you have…reload it and as it comes in again double drop with something old school of a different flavor (Champion Sound is good for this (Q Project), or; Super Sharp Shooter (Zinc), True Playaz Sound (DJ Hype), Warhead (DJ Krust), Brown Paper Bag (Roni Size), Robocop (Friction), Cocoa (pretty sure it’s also Friction? If it’s not Friction it’s Clipz), Song In The Key of Knife (London Elektricity)…you get the idea.

The crowd will tell you everything you need to know; just be aware of ear fatigue…unlike many other genres of dance music, d&b for 5 hours straight starts to grind on the ear canals if the DJ doesn’t come correct and keep it fresh. Techstep for 5 hours straight will kill them in exactly the wrong way.

*tips hat*

When more than the same 20 people started showing up at jungle/d&b shows in my city it was terrible. Every single DJ wanted to be Andy C and bomb the growing crowd with every single crowd smasher they had in their box. It drove me mental. I’m not a genre purist anymore, but if someone insists that their night be just one single genre all night long (especially if that genre is d&b) then it has to be done right. If it’s done wrong the girls don’t dance and if the girls don’t dance then people start to leave…by midnight the club is the DJs, their bored GFs, and their 15 friends that all want to be DJs too. Five guys watching over your shoulder while you spin, five guys huddled around the bar chatting up the shooter girl, hat one guy (we all know who he is) absolutely brocking out all alone in the iddle fo the floor. Imagine being a newcomer to the club, hoping for a heavy night of tune and drink and dance, walking in and seeing that….ugh.