Today's New York Times brings dance music front and center with an interesting "pop review," a post-concert report by Kelefa Sanneh, who (in the Massive's humble opinion) is one of the Gray Lady's better music critics.

This isn't the first time that a major dance music event has been covered by a major paper, but it's odd enough nonetheless--and refreshing--to read set reviews of DJs and their play lists in a well-reported story in the Times, let alone in a daily broadsheet of the Times' stature. (Despite all the critical dung always being flung at the Times and however much people might be loath to admit it, it's still the greatest paper ever.)

And of course it's great to see a picture of Jane's Addiction frontman and all-around creative firebrand Perry Farrell (pictured above), who--as anyone in the know knows-- naturally goes by the name DJ Peretz when manning the ones and twos.

That Farrell is at Ultra Music this year as a DJ demonstrates part of the problem with dance music's profile or lack thereof in the United States. Dance music in America, as Sanneh notes, is simultaneously everywhere and relatively hidden on the mainstream radar because of its many sub-genres: House, drum-and-bass, electro, IDM--take your pick, they're all trapped in niches.

And it's because the crossover appeal dance music has for many different kinds of music artists, who either work within the form (DJs, electronic musicians) and mix in influences from many other music styles or work outside the form (R&B singers, rock bands) but borrow from it.

In either case, any definition of "dance music" is only further diluted. Maybe dance music is like obscenity: one knows it when one sees it, or, in this case, when one hears it.

Farrell wasn't the only artist who may have surprised audiences at this year's Ultra Music. New York indie label DFA Records had two artists putting in appearances Sunday, rockers The Rapture and label head James Murphy's group LCD Soundsystem.

Sanneh explains how the Ultra Music Festival itself is a merger of two dance/electronic music events, one being the annual Winter Music Festival, which has been held in Miami for the several years. The combination of the two music fests has resulted in there being many music stages and a disparate roster of artists and events sharing the spotlight.

Sanneh writes...

Most of the stages attracted concertgoers who wanted sound, not spectacle: the park was mainly filled with anonymous-looking guys at turntables, entertaining crowds of dancers that gathered and dissipated, responding to minute changes in the playlists. (One not-so-anonymous D.J. was there, too: DJ Peretz, better known as Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction.) But some stages offered freak shows: the drummer Tommy Lee, formerly of Motley Crue, made a dismal attempt at crossing over to the dance world, drumming along with a D.J. And Galaxy Girl, a self-styled diva right out of some science-fiction novel, drew fans less for her crude, cheerful trance tracks than for the fire dancers she brought with her.

Also putting in an appearance, which Sanneh said "ruined the flow," was the king of bling bling himeself, P. Diddy (a.k.a., Puff Daddy, Puffy, Sean Combs or, our personal fave, His Royal Bling Blingedness), who was there to promote his new dance single.

Apparently, one of the highlights, Sanneh points out, was the Paul Oakenfold DJ set that included his remixed version of the 2000 U2 hit "Beautiful Day." Wish we were there for that one.

If there's really a trend here, could we expect to see, in addition to the regular cast of DJ Fatboy Slims and Paul van Dyks of the club world, a techno-R&B-punk DJ set collabo by, for instance, Ken Ishii, American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, Metal Urbain (trading French vocals and guitars for Technics SL1200s) and a trio of Chinese Circus jugglers on unicycles? Wish we can be there for that one too.

--Shibuya Kid + The Kid from Kyoto

|

RELATED LINKS