When does someone cross the line from being plain interested or
knowledgeable to becoming a 'trainspotter'?
I guess maybe what defines a trainspotter is someone who takes more
pleasure from actually *knowing* obscure details about a record than from
actually *listening* to the record itself.
In dance music circles, it seems to me that the term 'trainspotter' is
often reserved for pesky punters ... ie, people who ask lots of questions
about a particular track that they might hear. Punters are s'posed to
dance, and drink, and not ask questions.
DJs, on the other hand -- many of whom also spend hours tracking down
obscure details about particular releases etc -- are complimented instead
as being 'knowledgeable' or having sophisticated taste.
So, I've rarely heard Keb Darge being dissed as a 'trainspotter'. But to
me, some of his comps are unearthing tracks that 'sound like' James Brown
or Kool and the Gang or whoever, are totally rare/obscure and hard to find
... but actually don't sound nearly as good as those big name acts!
I'm only rambling on about this because of an experience I had recently
when I got my boogie on to Gilles P at Bar Rumba in London (lucky me!!).
He played a bunch of funky shit that I'd never heard, and then at one point
in the mix dropped a 10min James Brown track ... 'Give it up or turn it
loose'. It kicked ass, and the crowd went ballistic. I don't think we
went nuts just because we recognised it ... after all, I'm sure most people
who go to hear Gilles P play go to hear new stuff that they haven't heard,
rather than the familiar jams they can hear anywhere. But it just rocked
so hard that you couldn't help but respond. I suddently felt like a
trainspotter because of the time I spend seeking out rare shit when maybe I
should just be listening to my JB records! ;-)
anyway... somebody shut me up...
kboi
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 06 2000 - 07:24:01 MET DST