Markus Schulz came to Hyderabad recently (May 1, 2015), and I wasted no time in agreeing to check it out with my friend. Though I don't listen to trance too much, I do enjoy it for the basslines, the typical trancey synths, the high energy and sometimes even the smooth vocals. Schulz is a big name in the genre so I knew the event was worth attending. It was pretty well organized (sticking true to the timings) and though not a lot of crowd showed up, some energy was floating around. The opening act was performed by Whosane and Anastasia, and headline act by Schulz. I noticed a stark contrast between the 2 acts and that is where the point of this post comes up. A simple difference between the 2 performances, which drew a sharp line between a brilliant set and a rather poor set. Chaos vs Simplicity. I may not be a professional DJ, but as a musician, I understand how things work with music so my views are purely based on this knowledge.
The Chaos
Artists Whosane and Anastasia from Mumbai. Ok, I actually don't know where to start with these guys because I didn't know where the set started. In fact, I couldn't feel the performance like a journey through a set. There's only 1 word to describe it, Chaos! I couldn't tell what genre they belonged to either. While Anastasia seemed to be enjoying herself with hip hop tracks, Whosane seemed to be more into house and dubstep. I've already mentioned 3 distinct genres. There were more and it was meaningless. There wasn't any flow, no technicality, no rhythm or key. It seemed like the 2 were in a small club just force-smashing tracks against each other that wouldn't go well. The last 20 min of their set was just 'boring'. I never thought I'd use a word like that for a performance that was playing music over 90 Decibels and involved beer and friends.
Whosane used the ever-hated airhorn siren sample several times and my friends and I had to shut our ears for those excruciating seconds. And then came the effects. Overdone and chaotic again. Echo was their only solution to jump between genres. Echo fade out a 128BPM track and slam in a 90BPM hip hop track like they did something super creative. They did this so many times that it got boring. There were a couple of goof-ups which I actually don't mind. It tells you they are human after all. I think there was a moment when Whosane mis-timed and jumped to a wrong cue point, and the crowd noticed. There was another part where Anastasia was trying to sing along to the track and boy it went all wrong with timing and key. Sorry. Anastasia has got to stay off the mic, and Whosane has got to stay off that damned airhorn and FX button! Overall, I felt they really belonged to a club atmosphere where clubbers are just waiting for hit after hit to be slammed in rather than craving a memorable experience.
The Simplicity
Then came Schulz. They only word I can associate with his whole set was 'Simple'. He was practically hiding behind the decks when he set off the intro. Nice and smooth buildup. When the breakdown came he finally showed himself and the crowd went mad. The most noticeable improvement in the set structure compared to the previous artists was the genre selection. He knew what genre he belonged to, and his BPMs probably ranged only from the late 120s to mid 130s. And that was all that was needed. Despite my friends and I being quite technical with music, we never noticed a key clash. I'm sure he moved between keys but it was just bloody smooth. His mixing style was basic. As far as I could tell, he was bringing in the #2 track during the second half of the #1 track and just waited for the first buildup-breakdown sequence of #2 to silence out #1. From there #2 takes over completely and no one would ever know. Very simple and effective. No need of magical effects and ear-bleed inducing airhorns.Visuals were abstract, trippy and stunning. They were synced well with the audio and the screens provided lyric motion graphics for the vocal tracks, something that a lot of DJs are doing these days. One memorable scene was when the lyrics were talking about sunset, and the screens changed to a serene sunset scene to make him look like he was on a beach playing out the music. The overall effect looked beautiful.
His stage presence was simple too. Just the regular hand stuff, no over dancing, no getting on to decks, no river rafting over crowds or cake smashing. Of course you wouldn't expect a trance artist to do cheesy stunts. He was clearly enjoying his music and that was enough. I read somewhere that he pre-edits some of his tracks to blend better, but it just shows that he does his homework to put out a neat set. The speakers system let him down a bit though. They started jarring mid way through the set and the Mids were cut out for a while. Suddenly the energy dropped. Somehow the sound quality improved later. Friends say, over the years, he has slowly moved from a darker to a more commercial housey feel with his music, which is probably the taste of most listeners these days? Maybe.
Overall 90 min of good music and energy. After the poor first act, we were joking that Schulz might book a flight back home right there at the venue. Thankfully he stuck on and imprinted a great night's memories in our minds.
The Chaos
Artists Whosane and Anastasia from Mumbai. Ok, I actually don't know where to start with these guys because I didn't know where the set started. In fact, I couldn't feel the performance like a journey through a set. There's only 1 word to describe it, Chaos! I couldn't tell what genre they belonged to either. While Anastasia seemed to be enjoying herself with hip hop tracks, Whosane seemed to be more into house and dubstep. I've already mentioned 3 distinct genres. There were more and it was meaningless. There wasn't any flow, no technicality, no rhythm or key. It seemed like the 2 were in a small club just force-smashing tracks against each other that wouldn't go well. The last 20 min of their set was just 'boring'. I never thought I'd use a word like that for a performance that was playing music over 90 Decibels and involved beer and friends.
Whosane used the ever-hated airhorn siren sample several times and my friends and I had to shut our ears for those excruciating seconds. And then came the effects. Overdone and chaotic again. Echo was their only solution to jump between genres. Echo fade out a 128BPM track and slam in a 90BPM hip hop track like they did something super creative. They did this so many times that it got boring. There were a couple of goof-ups which I actually don't mind. It tells you they are human after all. I think there was a moment when Whosane mis-timed and jumped to a wrong cue point, and the crowd noticed. There was another part where Anastasia was trying to sing along to the track and boy it went all wrong with timing and key. Sorry. Anastasia has got to stay off the mic, and Whosane has got to stay off that damned airhorn and FX button! Overall, I felt they really belonged to a club atmosphere where clubbers are just waiting for hit after hit to be slammed in rather than craving a memorable experience.
The Simplicity
Then came Schulz. They only word I can associate with his whole set was 'Simple'. He was practically hiding behind the decks when he set off the intro. Nice and smooth buildup. When the breakdown came he finally showed himself and the crowd went mad. The most noticeable improvement in the set structure compared to the previous artists was the genre selection. He knew what genre he belonged to, and his BPMs probably ranged only from the late 120s to mid 130s. And that was all that was needed. Despite my friends and I being quite technical with music, we never noticed a key clash. I'm sure he moved between keys but it was just bloody smooth. His mixing style was basic. As far as I could tell, he was bringing in the #2 track during the second half of the #1 track and just waited for the first buildup-breakdown sequence of #2 to silence out #1. From there #2 takes over completely and no one would ever know. Very simple and effective. No need of magical effects and ear-bleed inducing airhorns.Visuals were abstract, trippy and stunning. They were synced well with the audio and the screens provided lyric motion graphics for the vocal tracks, something that a lot of DJs are doing these days. One memorable scene was when the lyrics were talking about sunset, and the screens changed to a serene sunset scene to make him look like he was on a beach playing out the music. The overall effect looked beautiful.
His stage presence was simple too. Just the regular hand stuff, no over dancing, no getting on to decks, no river rafting over crowds or cake smashing. Of course you wouldn't expect a trance artist to do cheesy stunts. He was clearly enjoying his music and that was enough. I read somewhere that he pre-edits some of his tracks to blend better, but it just shows that he does his homework to put out a neat set. The speakers system let him down a bit though. They started jarring mid way through the set and the Mids were cut out for a while. Suddenly the energy dropped. Somehow the sound quality improved later. Friends say, over the years, he has slowly moved from a darker to a more commercial housey feel with his music, which is probably the taste of most listeners these days? Maybe.
Overall 90 min of good music and energy. After the poor first act, we were joking that Schulz might book a flight back home right there at the venue. Thankfully he stuck on and imprinted a great night's memories in our minds.
