The veteran music journalist and Art of Noise co-founder Paul Morley has been doing a series of interview pieces for the Guardian called "Showing Off..." (previous subjects include
Kraftwerk and
Francois K).
The
latest one is about "nightclubbing". The title is a bit of a misnomer because he's actually more interested in the rise of DJ culture than clubbing.
Even though I have zero interest in almost all the people he's interviewing (Pete Tong, Tony Blackburn, Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5), it's always interesting - partly because it's so uncommon - to see how the mainstream media talks about electronic dance music.
With
his own electronic music background, Morley sidesteps the rockist "decks vs guitars" trap, and he's able to ask some pretty astute questions. The accompanying article to the Tony Blackburn interview is a terrific piece of writing.
Maybe the best video is
a good-natured three-way conversation between Morley, Chicago house stalwart
Marshall Jefferson, and a guy from a group called Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs who looks and sounds about 15. Lots of good stuff about technology in the early 80s vs now.
