Go to any club or rave and more than likely you’ll hear the DJs playing one of three types of music: House, trance or drum-and-bass. While none of those styles are bad and all are perfect for getting people on the floor – which is what dance music is designed to do, after all – they all start to sound the same after a while. And if it’s all you hear every time you go out, you start to tune it all out and lose interest.
Gilles Peterson is a different type of DJ. Instead of playing typical dance music: four-on-the-floor beats, cheesy synth melodies and electronic effects, Peterson blends hip-hop, jazz, soul and dance together on his debut mix CD, INCredible Sound of Gilles Peterson (Epic). And while it may carry a different sound, it’ll still get you wanting to move.
The mix starts with I Can See The Future by Incognito. It’s a jazzy track with a funky, 1970s-esque bassline that lays down the beat. Organs and a languid vocal float over the top, giving it all a dreamy feel. Definitely not rave music, but perfect for a nice chill house party.
Many of the other tracks mixed together have the same feel – downbeat enough to be relaxing without being dull. The songs are danceable, yet soothing. It all sounds contradictory, but Peterson can pull it off again and again. I Am The Black Gold of the Sun, has a piano bit that sounds right out of a Charlie Brown cartoon with a hip-hop beat. Garage (the new big dance style out of the UK, with its more R&B and soul feel) wonder-boy MJ Cole is thrown in with Sincere, that combines a jazz tone with a lounge feel.
One of Peterson’s strengths, and one that is overlooked with a lot of DJs, is his ability to pick albums. In lesser hands, this music could be more like cheesy lounge or Muzak. Peterson has an almost unfailing-ear. In fact, more of his strength comes in knowing what to play than mixing it together – the cuts aren’t seamlessly, but that’s OK. The fun here is in actually listening to the songs. Rather than just losing yourself in the beat like most DJ mixes.
Les Flur, sounds like Diana Ross and the Supremes mixed with Air, the French techno group. The vocals here would fit in perfectly with a 1970s soul compilation rather than the overwrought divas on most house tracks. The songs gets bombastic in the middle with a gospel-like chorus and crashing cymbals, but it puts a smile on your face.
The jazz and fusion side really kicks in near the end on tracks like Flower by Soul Dhamma. With its tapping snares and pianos, it’d fit in right at a smoky jazz club after midnight. In a typical DJ mix, the next track Messages by Critical Point wouldn’t follow, it has a more pounding rhythm and is more intense. It doesn’t flow together with the one before it. But Peterson isn’t just making music to listen to, but also to show people what else is out there, to turn them on to things the listener might now know about. He does a great job at it.
Your average raver kid probably won’t like INCredible, no pounding beats or over-the-top melodies. No DJ fancy work or slight-of-hand. Instead, Peterson goes back to the old definition of DJ, picking out great records to play to make a party. And he does it very, very well.
