David Kennedy (better known to you as dubstepper Ramadanman and one half of Hessle Audio) is about to launch his latest project, a vinyl-only club night starting in Leeds next month, aptly titled Acetate. We hooked up to ask him about his rhyme and reason, dodgy decks and digging out old Kerri Chandler.
Mixpak: It’s an age-old and sometimes unfounded complaint that using computers and/or CDJs is cheating, is your reasoning behind starting Acetate driven by this or is it driven by sound quality?
David: I use Serato when Djing, and yes, it does tell you the BPM of tunes you’re playing as do CDJs. But to be honest, I don’t think beat matching is the hardest part of Djing. Yes you could burn all your CDs at the same tempo, but then again, you could do exactly the same with dubplates. For me, starting Acetate isn’t to do with ‘real’ mixing or anything like that, it’s primarily a sound quality thing. Having said that, there is something quite satisfying about a simple, raw setup of just 2 turntables and a mixer.
Does a vinyl only night cut the wheat from the chaff for you – reinstating the DJ as a serious collector, not just as a downloader? Do you think there are a lot of DJs now who don’t own any vinyl at all, and why do you think that matters, if it does?
That’s an interesting question. I really enjoy the physicality of vinyl. Physically it has a presence in your room – I have vinyl in a mess all over my floor and I love that. As convenient and good as MP3s are, they will never have that aspect to them. I don’t think being a DJ means having loads of vinyl or whatever – I have friends who love music, but for various reasons, say financial or space wise, don’t buy vinyl, but that doesn’t mean they are any less interested in music. Each vinyl that I have, I remember where I bought it, I remember why I bought it. Maybe i’m romantiscising a bit but I love that aspect to it. It’s like a piece of vinyl travels with you, from gig to gig, or from house to flat. Playing vinyl doesn’t make you a better DJ or anything like that, the tunes you play have to come first clearly.
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