The Democratisation Of The DJ Crate

By London_DaveK Last edited 202 months ago
The Democratisation Of The DJ Crate
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The art of DJing is partly the records in your crate and partly how you play them. Well, yes, there's also that whole technical skill thing, too, but that's always been secondary in any field. If you don't feel it, all the skill in the world won't move people.

Saturday 2 June will see London-based social music website Last.fm team up with the Ninja Tune label to make you the bedroom selector for the upstairs room at The Big Chill House. By visiting the Last.fm page for this event and registering your interest in attending, any tunes you listen to between now and Saturday have a chance of appearing in the mix. DJ Sparky will spin tracks drawn solely from this user-generated playlist, perhaps providing a way for getting your favourite song played other than drunkenly shouting, "Oi, play somfin I can dance to, mayt!!!" at the nice DJ person.

For those not familiar with Last.fm, once you register at their website you can download and install software that tracks the music you play. This tracking enables you to discover music based on what you already like as well as meet people with common interests. Your user profile displays a summary of your listening habits, events you are planning to attend and a radio station with tracks by your most-played artists. These mod cons come at a price, however, as it means you can no longer lay false claims to an eclectic taste: people will find out that you really listen solely to nu-rave.

If all this participatory Web 2.0 egalitarianism sounds like a load of hippie love-in rubbish to you, the main floor will still feature the usual high level of quality you've come to expect from Ninja Tune's monthly You Don't Know series. We're particularly looking forward to seeing Beardyman beatbox us silly, as well as perhaps an opportunity to touch his beard.

With the stellar line-up downstairs, the unique interactive experience upstairs and a free admission if you arrive before 9 p.m. (only £5 thereafter), even if you don't geek it like we geek it, you've still found a worthy reason for stumbling home Sunday morning.

Ninja Tune's You Don't Know with Last.fm happens this Saturday 2 June 2007 from 9 p.m. - 4 a.m. at The Big Chill House. For more information go to the Last.fm website for the event here.

Image taken from chuckbiscuito's Flickr photostream.

Last Updated 29 May 2007