What are DJs doing wrong

[Rabbit]

I'm assuming it didn't work for you. I wonder how I would respond? I know DJs who have done something similar with Pugliese (and other orchestras), where you get a couple of pieces that blend well and then one curve ball. Oh well, DJ the other day was playing a set with Edith Piaf and a couple of other non-tango songs. Not sure if it was supposed to be a vals tanda or a tango tanda, but it was definitely not a conventional tanda. I really like Piaf but . . . no, not here

The Pugliese thing was annoying because its easy to invite the "wrong" partner or miss the whole tanda because you didn't want to dance the first song and it turned out it was not representative of the others

Interestingly, the same problem doesnt happen in alternative tandas: if you're dancing an alternative tanda then the expectation is that you are prepared to dance any music that doesn't suck as a standalone piece. A good DJ should still be able to keep a common thread though.

 

[pianistamediano]

Completely incoherent Pugliese tandas. Now I'm not very strict about the tanda compositions but... why start the tanda with a 40s recording with Chanel when the rest of it is dramatic late 50s instrumentals? This sort of thing happened twice in two weeks already.

If you stayed for longer, you would have heard even worse. The most coherent tandas were probably the Biagi vals and the Troilo '40s instrumentals — those were actually good. Another '50s Pugliese instrumental tanda was played just before the last one, that was alright actually, and of course he had to end with El Huracan (Los Solistas de Juan D'Arienzo) and Paciencia (Not sure if Los Solistas or D'Arienzo himself, but definitely Echague). The '50s Di Sarli instrumental tanda was okay, but the order he played it in was a bit of a mess.

Everything else was varying degrees of incoherence, obscure versions of well-known songs or just obscure songs in general, and every follower I talked to agreed that the music was outright weird. Also, floorcraft was worse than usual; last week's was even worse, but eh, at least the organiser asked everyone to calm down and behave. Didn't do much, because Londoners will London-tango, but that's all I can reasonably expect most organisers to do, if they don't want to police floorcraft.

Honestly, that's probably the worst DJ I've heard at that particular milonga since I start going regularly there.

 

[itwillhappen]

It doesn't quite fit the thread, but judging by the feedback I've received, I must have done a lot of things right recently.
The organizer's DJ guidelines were roughly:
1/3 after 1935
1/3 after 1955
1/3 after 1985
Accordingly, my report of the distribution looks a bit unusual:

Dec Cnt
---- ---
194x 21
195x 24
196x 10
197x 1
200x 1
201x 13
202x 8

Cnt Orchestra
--- ----------------------------
8 Carlos Di Sarli
8 Francisco Canaro
4 Alfredo De Angelis
4 Donato Racciatti
4 Edgardo Donato
4 El Cachivache
4 Fulvio Salamanca
4 José García
4 Juan D'Arienzo
4 Orquesta Tipica Misteriosa
4 Osvaldo Manzi
4 Osvaldo Pugliese
4 Rodolfo Biagi
4 Sexteto Milonguero
4 Solo Tango Orquesta
3 Alex Krebs
3 Sexteto Cristal
2 Ángel D'Agostino
1 Francini-Pontier

 

[ArbeeNYC]

or miss the whole tanda because you didn't want to dance the first song and it turned out it was not representative of the others

Oh, yes, that can happen. I feel your pain.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Also, floorcraft was worse than usual; last week's was even worse, but eh, at least the organiser asked everyone to calm down and behave. Didn't do much, because Londoners will London-tango, but that's all I can reasonably expect most organisers to do, if they don't want to police floorcraft.

Well, you know, there are still penalties: yellow card and red card.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

The organizer's DJ guidelines were roughly:
1/3 after 1935
1/3 after 1955
1/3 after 1985

Yeesh. First, there are DJ guidelines? Second, that's a blend that would make me very unhappy.

 

[opendoor]

Completely incoherent Pugliese tandas.. why start the tanda with a 40s recording with Chanel when the rest of it is dramatic late 50s instrumentals?

Was there a central theme or did the milonga have a motto? Sometimes the coherence comes from the title, the lyricist or the theme.

 

[Rabbit]

Was there a central theme or did the milonga have a motto? Sometimes the coherence comes from the title, the lyricist or the theme.

in a word, no

 

[itwillhappen]

Yeesh. First, there are DJ guidelines? Second, that's a blend that would make me very unhappy.

I just looked at the distribution of my DJ set yesterday at a fairly traditional milonga, and it looks something like this:
50% Golden Age: 1935 - 1949
25% Silken Age: 1950 - 1979
25% Modern Age: 1980 - today
And the feedback was excellent, you notice when it comes unsolicited from people you barely know.
So I think playing a milonga purely with EdO music is here going out of fashion. That seems to me to be the domain of DJs who stopped refreshing their music collection at least a decade ago. It sounds too boring to most dancers ears today.

 

[opendoor]

50% Golden Age: 1935 - 1949

...playing a milonga purely with EdO music is here going out of fashion..

I always let the EdO end with the year of my birth. This way I am connected to the great instrumentals of diSarli and Pugliese.

 

[Rabbit]

I just looked at the distribution of my DJ set yesterday at a fairly traditional milonga, and it looks something like this:
50% Golden Age: 1935 - 1949
25% Silken Age: 1950 - 1979
25% Modern Age: 1980 - today
And the feedback was excellent, you notice when it comes unsolicited from people you barely know.
So I think playing a milonga purely with EdO music is here going out of fashion. That seems to me to be the domain of DJs who stopped refreshing their music collection at least a decade ago. It sounds too boring to most dancers ears today.

The trend is definitely towards playing more digital era recordings these days (I was doing that five years ago already)

As far as the vintage stuff goes I classify orchestras as golden age if they were founded in the golden age period 1935-45 ish (late d'Arienzo is still d'Arienzo), I classify the ones founded after that as silver age, and that folder isn't large enough that I'd play more than one or two tandas typically.

 

[David_In_CA]

I always let the EdO end with the year of my birth.

Don't be so down on yourself!

 

[Bailango]

What is edO

 

[opendoor]

What is edO

Golden age

 

[ArbeeNYC]

I just looked at the distribution of my DJ set yesterday at a fairly traditional milonga, and it looks something like this:
50% Golden Age: 1935 - 1949
25% Silken Age: 1950 - 1979
25% Modern Age: 1980 - today
And the feedback was excellent, you notice when it comes unsolicited from people you barely know.
So I think playing a milonga purely with EdO music is here going out of fashion. That seems to me to be the domain of DJs who stopped refreshing their music collection at least a decade ago. It sounds too boring to most dancers ears today.

Not here. I would not like the mix you describe. Maybe one tanda of modern tango by a good modern orchestra. And you have some beautiful material from 1950 to about 1955, maybe 1960, but a lot of it isn't meant for social dancing. It's too big, too symphonic, too complex. I'm very happy with Golden Age music and there may still be more to be discovered.