Emerson DJ Review from RA

[BrotherLovesDub]

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[BeautifulBurnout]

I have to confess that the last time I saw him, about 3 yrs ago if I remember rightly, we left before the end of his set. Boring and predictable. Shame, but it's true.

[phaseblue]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

I have to confess that the last time I saw him, about 3 yrs ago if I remember rightly, we left before the end of his set. Boring and predictable. Shame, but it's true.

I saw him once at Nocturnal Wonderland back around the time of the aforementioned article! During his set, I noticed that he was getting fat, smoked like a chimney, chugalugged wine from bottle every 3 minutes, pointed his finger rudely at staff (several times) to get dancers off the stage if he was afraid they would cause his records to skip, and had this "Look at me! I`m a famous DJ" grin on his face the whole time! Quite unbecoming for a former Underworld member!!!

On a positive note; his set was decent and half the the crowd went crazy when he played Cowgirl!

[joethelion]

hey - remember that album of his that was "coming out this fall with a single due by the end of the summer"

...back like...

SIX YEARS AGO??????

[holden]

Darren Emerson was the young hot-shot DJ in like 1992-94. I'd give him credit for helping R&K develop their electronic dance sound (although they were well on their way on their own), and for being a road-tester of tracks in his DJ sets and and extra set of hands at the mixing desk.

I admit to not knowing too much about him solo, but what i've heard hasn't been too impressive.

I also recall two DJ sets he did while with UW - the second disc in the Beaucoup Fish interview set, where his mixing is terrible,
and a 1996 essential selection (includes Air Towel, Pearls Girl, telematic among others) that is also pretty bland and a little less than perfect in the transitions department.
Further, a while back, a circa 1996 interview appeared on these boards
http://www.darktrain.org/dirty/forum...rson+interview
where Daz came off as sounding like he was responsible for UW's success and was the major creative control. Maybe his ego was just inflated by NUXX taking off (and certainly he's more gracious in the BF interviews, etc), but still...

Maybe i'm just picking out the low moments, and there are probably plenty of highs (i used to quite like his remix of Fatboy Slim's "bird of prey" amnd Sven Vath's "Harlequin").

[phaseblue]

I was in a bookstore back in 2000 and I saw Darren Emerson on the cover of (I believe it was) DJ Magazine, so of course being a big Underworld fan, I picked it up! It was an interview with Emerson, and to my utter and complete surprise, it was basically a total hit piece on Underworld! Now, I don`t remember Darren saying too much negative stuff about them, but the magazine interviewers sure had a field day, and Darren seemed to play right into it. The most memorable quote was something like "Back in the 80`s [in the Freur] they had long, pink hair and now they are trying to be a dance act!"

Needless to say, I was so angry that I just threw the magazine down and walked out of the store! I mean did these jack asses actually believe the crap they were saying, or did they just not know any better?

That article, and the whole DJ "scene" in general, really started to piss me off at that time! Keep in mind that this was the period when everybody and their mother`s brother had a story about how they supposedly "spun" records at this or that club at this time or that time in the supposed past. I`m not trying to attack DJs (there are some very talented ones who are part of this community), but it was really hard during that period with all these young people worshipping DJs like gods and forgetting that someone had to actually write the music that was on the f#$king records! The interviewers/writers for that magazine, or the most of the young dumb asses who bought it, probably couldn`t tell real art if it hit them in the face!

As for Emerson, I was done with him then!!!

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Originally Posted by phaseblue

I was in a bookstore back in 2000 and I saw Darren Emerson on the cover of (I believe it was) DJ Magazine, so of course being a big Underworld fan, I picked it up! It was an interview with Emerson, and to my utter and complete surprise, it was basically a total hit piece on Underworld! Now, I don`t remember Darren saying too much negative stuff about them, but the magazine interviewers sure had a field day, and Darren seemed to play right into it. The most memorable quote was something like "Back in the 80`s [in the Freur] they had long, pink hair and now they are trying to be a dance act!"

Needless to say, I was so angry that I just threw the magazine down and walked out of the store! I mean did these jack asses actually believe the crap they were saying, or did they just not know any better?

That article, and the whole DJ "scene" in general, really started to piss me off at that time! Keep in mind that this was the period when everybody and their mother`s brother had a story about how they supposedly "spun" records at this or that club at this time or that time in the supposed past. I`m not trying to attack DJs (there are some very talented ones who are part of this community), but it was really hard during that period with all these young people worshipping DJs like gods and forgetting that someone had to actually write the music that was on the f#$king records! The interviewers/writers for that magazine, or the most of the young dumb asses who bought it, probably couldn`t tell real art if it hit them in the face!

As for Emerson, I was done with him then!!!

There's a pretty direct line from the New Wave of the 80's and the electronic house music of the 90's...Freur was fuckin' boss! UW mk1 not so much but seriously, I think the New Wave elements DID translate over to UW mk2, and that's part of why I love 'em.....

[phaseblue]

Originally Posted by 34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j

There's a pretty direct line from the New Wave of the 80's and the electronic house music of the 90's...Freur was fuckin' boss! UW mk1 not so much but seriously, I think the New Wave elements DID translate over to UW mk2, and that's part of why I love 'em.....

I completely agree!

[BeautifulBurnout]

I agree too. In fact, going further back than that, I hear more of Keith Emerson in UW than I do of Darren

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Well I don't know about you but I'd take "dave is floating and old man Einstein crazy in his attic" over "ties a rope to a tree...AND HANGS THE UNIVERSE!!" any day.