KNOW INTERVENTION
KNOW INTERVENTION is a project I’ve been considering for a long time. In
an age where (thanks to advanced, affordable technology and the web)
anyone can play a cleanly mixed set of the latest music with just a few
hours of practice, it’s easy for people who spent years honing their
technical abilities on turntables (and their arsenal at record shops) to
feel somewhat discouraged, or resentful, or apt to discredit fully digital
mediums as the playground of the under-skilled.
It’s no surprise that the incredibly fast saturation and evolution of
digital mediums has inspired so much intense debate, and having gone from
a vinyl purist to a (primarily) laptop dj in just a few short years I’ve
been an adamant proponent of both sides at one time or another:
2005
**Screw you, vinyl is PURE! Playing vinyl proves you’re willing to
WORK for it man! REAL dj’s play RECORDS, PERIOD.**
2008
**Get your head out of the PAST! Embrace the changes as an opportunity to
push things further, tear things to shreds, do more and do it faster than
you ever thought you’d be able to- all without skipping a beat!**
Both sides have merit. Ultimately, though, I’ve started to feel that it
just plain doesn’t matter.
**THE MEDIUM IS NOT THE MESSAGE**
It’s been said many a time here before. It’s the TRACKS that matter. It’s
selection, programming, imagination, knowledge- that’s what makes a great
set. And doing your best to read the crowd you've hopefully generated by
reading the crowd you're trying to read. Of course, a skilled technician
of any medium is going to stand out, level some shit. But that’s no
guarantee their set is going to be worth catching. The right tracks, at
the right time- that's the true heart of a set.
As a response to the debate, my mission with KNOW INTERVENTION is to
completely let go of everything it relates to. I will not match a beat. I
will not adjust eq’s. I will simply find what I feel is great music and
present it in what I feel is a meaningful order. I will line the tracks up
right next to each other, but there will be no overlap. I will create
mixes that, from a technical standpoint, a well trained monkey could pull
off. I WILL let the tracks speak for themselves, and I will try to take
the listener on a musical adventure despite the total lack of technical
aptitude.
Part 1: A studio recording.
Home-school.
Part 2: A 2 hour Know
Intervention live-set at a kickass birthday party in a great lounge full
of cool people. A more social endeavor.
So, yeah:
KNOW INTERVENTION