It’s taken me a while to get my head around digital promo culture.
I cherished the days of waiting to see what the postman had brought me.
I even built a special post box.
At the height of physical promo culture I probably recieved well over a hundred records a week. Out of those, there were on average 5 or 6 killer records, the rest went in the “Record and Tape Exchange” pile. This helped sustain my record buying habit, and was part of the whole ritual.
Now everything is digital, and quite honestly, I struggle with it. I feel like it has really devalued music, and in turn, the way I listen to it. Primarily on my shitty lap top speakers. But, what I have noticed, is that it has made me more critical. And with the excessive rubbish output of dance music these days, that’s really not a bad thing.
One of the main sources of dj promo is through a company called Fatdrop.
The method is simple, you listen, you rate, you comment, it then allows you to download.
You rate the record out of 5 by clicking the relevant stars. Now I may be mental, but this is important to me.
I follow a Halliwells method, I.e. A 5 star film is one that has to make an impact on the film industry and the cinema world as a whole.
So, for me to give a “dance” record 5 stars, well, it quite simply has to move me, inspire me, else change my musical world. Now the problem I then have is that in my world of dance music, it is quite rare that that happens as much as it used to. In most respects I have heard it before in one form or another.
But, quite recently, a friend sent me a track. First things first, the title intrigued me “Old Shamanic Ritual.” Right, cool title, this better be fucking good.
I pressed play and from the get go I knew I was listening to something special. The beat was new, but old, the moog sounds, the acid , just the vibe.
The record made by a certain DJ Onionz. Now for those in the know, they should know of Andrew, for those that don’t, the boys has a history and a pedigree, but this isn’t so much about that, but more about why it deserves 5 stars.
For me, it’s always about timing. Some records were just supposed to happen at certain times in my life. I use them as a time line, a significant blip that drops a marker . This has done just that. It bridges the gap between house and techno, it sounds both old, yet new .It carrys an Industrial quality, but all the while it feels musical. I don’t know, I guess it just ticks all the right boxes.
Now you may not feel the same, but that’s not the point, this is all about a feeling and a moment, and that’s just why I love it.
Old Shamanic Ritual by DJ Onionz is forthcoming on Electric Soul.