PVD Wins DJ Mag Top 100

greetings all.. im new here and as a matter of fact, this is my very first post, so hello!

I have been a club promoter in NY for years, and recently I've moved to San Francisco. Based on my experience in the music scene here for the past 10 years, I can say this about America...

People who say America is about 4 years behind Europe are right. Trance is huge right now here, and progressive has come and gone in the major cities. People got viciously bored of the prog sound and personally I don't blame them.

For the house heads, there currently is no void filling in the gap that prog left when it died, as people are really just localizing and not responding well to any international house/prog DJs' sound. No one wrote a rule that people HAVE to like what the big djs are playing. So the only large scenes left are the trance scenes and (surprisingly) the drum n bass scenes. They will get good turnouts regardless but house is not doing too well here in the states.

I'm hoping another big sound hits the big house DJs and spins off a new excitement like prog did. Theres some great music coming out of Ibiza by the way:) I hope that spanish and italian sounds catch on like swedish house did.
 
jonathan, this is certainly not true for the Los Angeles area at least.

The progressive house community and sound is BOOMING there. DJ's like Sander K, Howells, Lawler, Zabiela, Roger Sanchez, and many more have been packing the gynormous club from wall to wall in the last few months.
 
jonathan said:
greetings all.. im new here and as a matter of fact, this is my very first post, so hello!

People who say America is about 4 years behind Europe are right. Trance is huge right now here, and progressive has come and gone in the major cities.

For the house heads, there currently is no void filling in the gap that prog left when it died, as people are really just localizing and not responding well to any international house/prog DJs' sound.
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Hi Jonathan,

Welcome to the forum. I'm in San Francisco too. How are you enjoying it over here? Quite different from NYC I imagine! I've only been here for about 8 months but from what I've experienced so far I agree with you 100%. There have been some awesome international non-trance DJs in the city in recent months - Hawtin, Lawler, etc etc. But more often than not the crowd that has been to see them has totally sucked and been pretty small in numbers as well.

The only nights with international DJs that have had decent crowds have been people like AvB, Ferry Corsten etc. But I mean who really sees trance as a credible genre these days I mean come on! :rolleyes:
 
I was just about to say that Sara. It might be true for the clubs promoted in NYC and SF but in L.A. I have been to and have seen promoted more house clubs/DJs/shows, whatever than trance in recent years. NYC and SF are different from LA. They are night and day.
 
Hi Axon, yeah SF is much different from NY. I think it is a lot better though.

And I know what you mean about the big crowds. I was at Hawtin at Mezzanine and the club didn't have nearly the crowd that it would had a big trance DJ been there.

The club scene in the US is also now largely supported by an international crowd, which is heavily into trance music as well, so that does explain some of the demographic trends here.

To bring this back to the DJ Poll, a large number of people who don't like trance also coincidentally don't take the poll seriously. Many don't even take it seriously enough to vote at all, hence they make the list a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, house music is very broad so chances are people have 4 or 5 favorite DJs rather than just 1 or 2.

No offense to trance heads but theres nothing dynamic about it and every trance dj essentially spins the same stuff. That means that the probability of a trance head's favorite djs being tiesto or pvd are relatively high. But as for house music, theres so many different particular sounds and subgenres that there also are a lot more dj "icons" to choose from, hence everyone overall in the house genre suffering in these kinds of polls.

I am glad to see my boy Desyn on the list though. I feel he deserves to be in the top 10 but this is his first year in the list so I can't complain.
 
jonathan said:
Hi Axon, yeah SF is much different from NY. I think it is a lot better though.
No offense to trance heads but theres nothing dynamic about it and every trance dj essentially spins the same stuff. That means that the probability of a trance head's favorite djs being tiesto or pvd are relatively high. But as for house music, theres so many different particular sounds and subgenres that there also are a lot more dj "icons" to choose from, hence everyone overall in the house genre suffering in these kinds of polls.

I am glad to see my boy Desyn on the list though. I feel he deserves to be in the top 10 but this is his first year in the list so I can't complain.
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You make some good points about trance. Its definitely the most accessible form of edm - ha ha in the same way that Wendys or MacDonalds are accessible restaurants!

Regarding the poll, in my opinion the whole of the top 5 is a joke. However I am surprised (pleasantly so) to see Richie H as high as number 12, sven vath up in the 20s, and Calderone, Masiello, and Villalobos there at all - this at least shows that quite a few people with good and mature tastes have been exercising their democratic right!

I'm baffled by the inclusion of Infected Mushroom (who they?!) and ATP in the top 10! :eek: And where are the DC10 DJs?

By the way.... just out of interest are you promoting any nights over here in SF?
 
infected mushroom are the most popular psy trance group in the world. they also have a huge trance following as their music is pretty accessible even though they are generally psychedelic ... even though they arent even really djs, but i actually like their music :)

i dont do any promotion here, but ive met a few promoters like jeffrey allen and scott carelli. i might start doing bigger club events after being here a couple of years, but for now i am just enjoying the great music that the established promoters are bringing in. i would love to get more into the Om/Naked/Salted scene here, but ive been pretty busy with my dayjob to do any sort of clubbing lately... soon enough though :)

do you go to ibiza often? ive never been but my gf and a few friends and i are planning a big trip next summer ...
 
jonathan said:
infected mushroom are the most popular psy trance group in the world.
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Ha that explains it!

that the established promoters are bringing in. i would love to get more into the Om/Naked/Salted scene here, but ive been pretty busy with my dayjob to do any sort of clubbing lately... soon enough though :)
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Yeah Salted's a great night I agree. Also the occasional Stompy + Sunset parties at the Cocomo are also a particular favourite of mine.


do you go to ibiza often? ive never been but my gf and a few friends and i are planning a big trip next summer ...
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I've only been twice. Last year for 4 days. This year for 10 days. Next year for 14 days hopefully!! 8) Actually I'd really like to go twice next year - for openings and closing. I wish I was still in the UK and could get over there for next to nothing. The transatlantic flights really do add to the cost. When are you thinking of going?
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thinking of going during the beginning of the season, but im not really sure yet... ill have to feel it out early next year :)

Migs and Marques Wyatt are at Mighty tomorrow night ... hmmmm tempting! gotta do something this halloween besides get drunk in the castro.

im kind of new to this area .. are there any good forums for the SF house scene? I feel bad talking about it on an ibiza board :)
 
Now, Jon & Axon, you two funkers are making me jealous. As soon as I find a good deal on a plane ticket, I will fly up there for a few days of real Deep House relaxation therapy. :D
 
jonathan said:
thinking of going during the beginning of the season, but im not really sure yet... ill have to feel it out early next year :)

Migs and Marques Wyatt are at Mighty tomorrow night ... hmmmm tempting! gotta do something this halloween besides get drunk in the castro.

im kind of new to this area .. are there any good forums for the SF house scene? I feel bad talking about it on an ibiza board :)
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I might have gone to Salted tomorrow had I not been off down to LA. The only 2 local forums I've checked out are the spundae one - but its pretty moribund although there are good people on it - and bayraves.com - which unfortunately is about 60% just a bunch of stupid kids, but there are a few older people and sometimes decent events are posted there.

Don't feel bad about it.... as soon as Europe goes to bed, we Americans own this board. 8)
 
LagunaBeachCA said:
Now, Jon & Axon, you two funkers are making me jealous. As soon as I find a good deal on a plane ticket, I will fly up there for a few days of real Deep House relaxation therapy. :D
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Mate if you're into your deep house, you should have come-up this weekend... as well as seeing Miguel at Salted tomorrow, you could have seen an international act tonight.... Ben Watt (Buzzin Fly etc) at Ruby Skye.

Now that would've been one deep deep house weekend! 8)
 
Mark Sun said:
James Zabiela was absoluetly on fire as well - one of the best sets I've heard him play - all in all a top night!!
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In deed he was. Good seeing you Mark.

I didnt even go into the Box all night, Masiello + Omid 16b and then Zabiela were just too good 8) 8) . One of the best nights of the year for me.

Great to see them having such a good time, I dont think Zabiela stopped grinning and jumping for the whole 2 hours he played. It really does make a big difference.
 
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