Current mood: NOT IN THE DISCO
Category: NOT IN THE DISCO Music
I'm afraid I'm a little out of touch with modern dance music.
Yes boss, it's a terrible thing to have to admit, but I'm too old and uninterested in nightclubs and 'scenes', which means I'm no longer quite on the nail of anything much except sitting indoors and feeling superior to everything and everyone, and though this is good for me, it fails to keep my skills on the nail of trends and happenings in the world of dancey, dance, dance music....
So, because of this rampant narcicism, I first read about Calvin Harris in the nattily titled One Week to Live magazine, some good few months after he'd hit the big time....
Now, as I've mentioned before, OWTL is a free UK dance music mag that appears to pay everyone except those who actually provide the content (i.e the writers and photographers)
As a result, the writing in this rag is pretty damn shoddy, and as for the photography - well, to be perfectly frank, if you've seen one picture of a grinning bunch of simpletons HAVING FUN!!!! in a nightclub, you've seen them all...
Anyway. There was an interview in said mag with Mr Calvin Harris and as i read it, I remember thinking I'll either love this guy or I'll hate him...
So, I downloaded the LP and now that I've run through it a few times, I can confirm that I feel no strong feelings either way on this record and this is mostly the damn problem...
I mean, I get the idea here. It's pop disco dance music. It's supposed to be great for hands in the air club moments that define youths and trips and lives. It's designed to be packed full of the kind of hits that make the sound of the summer - hits for use as background music to documentaries about Ibiza 2007 etc etc...
My problem with this record is that I Created Disco is a boring fucking record...
I mean, sure, some of the hooks are OK and some of the lines a little witty, but the music is just plain dull. It lacks invention and development and the tracks just go on and on and nothing new happens, and more or less everytime I get to 2 or 3 minutes in, I skip and listen to something less boring instead...
Now I know I'm listening to it out of context by playing it at low decibells in the comfort of my yuppie flat at age 32, but I reckon you could play similar fayre like Flawless by The Ones vs George Michael, or Shakedowns At Night or Daft Punks Around the World at minus 300 decibells under the fucking water and these tracks would all still sound dynamic, exciting, fat and great as indeed they all are.
So, if I'm being honest, I think Mr Harris is a little overhyped and undergood at this point in time. Yes boss, though tracks like This is the Industry and I Created Disco go down a storm on dancefloors week in week out, they do nothing for me and I'd be amazed if i find myself playing them at all in 10 years time...
Of course Mr Harris won't give a shit what I think. Indeed, from what I've heard, he can look forward to a long and successful super-producing career (he's already working Kylie, next it'll probably be Madonna etc etc).
So good luck to him, but on the basis of this first LP, he ain't lighting up me...
 | Currently listening : KWNO By Jhno Release date: By 08 September, 1998  |
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