Holy Ghost
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Vagabond, Miami
Better than: 100% of the godless ultra-commercial dance crap polluting the Beach.
It's past midnight and I'm at the Vagabond sipping my whiskey straight and waiting for Holy Ghost! to start their DJ set in the main room. It's my first time seeing these NYC newcomers and I have mixed expectations because of my ambivalence towards their label, DFA Records. I dig their disco-mongering label mates The Juan Maclean and Hercules &
Any knucklehead with DSL and a laptop can now make an electronic track. With a half hour of clicking and fiddling, you can sample enough cheesy beats and mashups to clog arteries from here to Berlin. Simple dropdown mouse maneuvers can transform electro tracks into progressive house tracks (from dry and synthetic to wet and gushy), rhythm tracks can be tempo-tweaked with an upward toggle to change a Timbaland beat into a Chromeo one. Add some T-Pain-esque pitch-correction vocals to your betwee
It's often the complaint of many that South Beach has become stale, particularly its DJs, who seem completely content with spinning the usual Top 40/hip-hop mess that really is no different than you just turning on your car's stereo. But if there is one DJ that is try to walk the fine line of giving the masses what they want but at the same time showing great technique as well as superb track selection, it's DJ Ross One. He skillfully laces his mixes with Top 40 mainstays, but he doesn't forget
