I know, I Know, I won't stop with the Pretty Lights hype... & Yea, I WON'T stop with the Pretty Lights hype! Haha. This team is SOOOO Legit I really can't put it into words. Derek is the fucking MAN, and Corey wrecks things. For real, when it comes to Derek & his production I can't think of a single other individual that even comes remotely close to dropping anything nearly as Banging & Refined as what Derek does. TRULY. Who else is making beats this dope?? NOBODY. The guy is true musical mastery, and he's the fucking man. After every show he's out chilling with the crowd partying with everybody, no ego to be found. Also, he's added a new piece of equipment to his arsenal, the APC40. He used to have 2 Laptops at one side of the stage, stacked, with the MPD32 & The Monome holding down the rest. Now, he has both laptops on either side, with the MPD & the APC next to those laptops, with the Monome still remaining front & center. It's like the new DJ Set of our generation. FUCK having 2 Turntables & a Mixer, I'm sorry but those day's are gone. I still love watching a DJ rock out a set using some old analogue gear, but with today's technology & machinery, it's time for a change, & PL is one of the master's of the new that I'm talking about. I'm going to stop ranting about the dude, but for real, ALL of you need to listen to his shit, and especially GO SEE HIM LIVE! Seeing him perform is when his music truly sets in to your soul, I PROMISE that you will feel differently about the team after you see them. EASILY the best live music performances I have ever seen. I just returned from his 5 day Colorado tour, saw the opening night in Fort Collins, and one of the nights in Boulder, and I filmed both with my little cam. Here are both show's from Start 2 Finish, detailing the best parts of each track. Watch the vid's & see what it's like to experience a PL show firsthand, and GO SEE THEM LIVE!!!! Peace...
13 comments:
Eh. Respect to dude for the success he's having, but that's some hippy-dippy noodle jam "beats-lite" shit right there. Glow sticks? No thanks.
okay this shit was hot 3 years ago. He hasn't changed his live style up at all. its getting real old. i want the real crunchiness, that first downtempo album taking up your precious time. And he over exaggerates his drops so much. I was mobbin out the first time i saw them, then the next three were the exact same. And the crowd seems to be getting younger and younger each time. It's hip to hate on PL right now but thats just how i feel.
Meh. Not my taste but I like the way they market their music. They're a bit too 'pop-light' for me.
I love this blog. I dig your posts. I like some of Pretty Lights music and I certainly respect his philosophy. To me, hip-hop, electronica, and the like have always been intricately tied to technology and innovation. But:
"FUCK having 2 Turntables & a Mixer, I'm sorry but those day's are gone. I still love watching a DJ rock out a set using some old analogue gear, but with today's technology & machinery, it's time for a change."
For some reason, this really rubs me the wrong way. Why you gotta be like that? You're just gonna go and spit all over the feet of people who can still make it work with the classic approach?
To me, the reason you like Pretty Lights is because his music is dope, his IDEAS are dope. A bunch of cutting-edge gear wouldn't mean shit if his music didn't speak to you in the first place.
I agree, it certainly is time for a change. It's ALWAYS time for a change. It's amazing to see people like Pretty Lights do something unique and forward-thinking, and do it well. But don't come on here, on your own blog, you're own bread & butter, and start spurting mean bullshit like this implying that's there's no room in the world left for people with a dinosaur setup.
You're excited to share some dope music, and that's why we're all here, and that's why we all love this place. Please don't lose sight of that. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say here. Peace.
i agree with everything said for once, but with much less respect for said producers. i'm actually quite surprised yall have been riding him so hard on this site.
"beats-lite" couldn't be a better suited title for this stuff. we shouldn't really be surprised with a name like PRETTY LIGHTS.
I hate the word "haters" but there is some mad haters on this blog.
Haters? Why is it hate? I don't hate Pretty Lights, I have nothing against their music. Just not my taste. Understand the word hate before you throw it around.
Don't start crying. I wasn't referring to you specifically. you only account for 1 of 5 haters that have replied with hatred.
Thanks for the comments y'all.
I definitely agree that PL's shows are getting younger & younger, first & only other time I saw the team was in San Fran, at a +21 show. So, going to these all ages show's was pretty wild, had me thinking I was back in High-School at a house party, which is entertaining but also a bit stifling to someone who's 26.
As far as a concert goes though, who cares who show's up, whether they bring glow-sticks or not, or what age they are? We are all there for the LOVE of the music, and of course young kids are going to bring glow-shit. PL shows are pretty on par with a rave environment, tons of kids are fucked up & they bring along various odds & ends that go along with that mindset. That doesn't have anything to do with the MUSIC though, which is what I'm writing about. If you could buy physical copies of PL's music, I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't come with Glow-Stick's attached or include Black Light paint, you know what I'm saying?
As Will Winston said, he wants to hear more of that Downtempo crunchy, like his first album, and so do I, "A Summer's Thirst" from that album is still one of my Top 3 tracks from him. But, you have to realize that his show's are what is making him $$$ right now, so of course he's going to push the party/dance side of his production to help maintain his current success... Did y'all see that live video of him from the Moog factory??
http://www.pastemagazine.com/moog/episodes/7/pretty-lights/videos/cant-stop-me-now.html#moog-player
Because THAT is the kind of shit I'm looking for. & Personally, I think that Derek enjoy's making that side of music more also, if you watch his vid's on YouTube they all fall more into the abstract/eclectic game than the banger's he drops on his albums. He's diverse, but realizes the market that he's filling right now & will probably continue with his current ethic because it's generating so much $$$. My future sense tells me that after the PL live show hype has faded a bit, we'll begin to hear more stuff that sounds like the above video...
And @ Horovass & "Dinosaur Set-Up's":
HEEELLLLLLL NOOOOO Mang! Are you kidding me? I'll never diss on how the way was paved, all respect is due to elder's. How do you think Derek is pulling all his samples? Dude say's that he loves rollin around a record shop with a portable turntable more than anything. I'm just talking about what is more of a memorable LIVE experience. I used to get blown away by watching my homie's mix it up in the basements way back when, but it just doesn't grab me anymore. After I first saw Daedelus rockin out on the Monome, I was like "Whoa, look at where we are now..." & now that is the kind of live music experience I crave. IN NO WAY am I saying/implying that there isn't "any room left for people with Jurassic set-ups" & I definitely wasn't trying to be mean/rude at all with my statement, and I hope that I wasn't. Let's look at a perfect example: Damu The Fudgemunk. I LOVE that guy's sound, he's pure golden-era boom-bap cllllaaaack type shit. He's pure dinosaur, still rollin with ZIP Disk's, he ain't upgrading shit. & It doesn't affect his game at all, he can still continue to make music how he wants & have it sound how he wants. BUT, if it were down to a LIVE beat battle between Damu & Pretty Lights?!?! What would entertain you more??...
& Of course it's the music that grabs me, when I first heard any of Pretty Lights' stuff I didn't know anything about his production techniques or any of his equipment etc. I was grabbed by his sample usage/placement along with his excellent ability to combine all genre's of music into something that was relatively new & nameless at the time. & He's been producing forever, was definitely using some T-Rex setups back in the day I'm sure, but is also a progressive artist that keeps up with the new Tech. With new invention comes new ability to do different things. If you really look deep into how he likes to make his music, with the Monome and the MLR application, it is pretty fucking legit & not many other artists are doing what he does when he produces in that manner. Refer to his live vid's on YouTube & the Moog Factory link above to see what I'm talking about...
@ Horovass, a great discussion my friend & I feel/agree with everything you are saying. I am a progressive listener, so the new is what grabs me, and what I focus on. But I never lose sight of where we came from or how we got where we are. Another point, I recently saw THE MOTHERFUCKING GASLAMP KILLER on tour & that dude is INSANE! All he has are the wheels of steel, along with some deep drums/bass pads that he flips when he needs, & it was some of the livest shit I've seen in a while! I'll recommend that you all go see that dude if you can, he's a turntablist that can entertain. Also, a french group "Birdy Nam Nam" they are just 5 DJ's that all kill it as a team. But like I was saying, I just fell in love with the Monome revolution & am following a lot more of those artists now.
So, I hope you don't take my statement on the main page in the wrong way. I'm just trying to hype this guy's music & his production techniques more so than I am his show's. But I just got back from the tour & wanted to drop some vid's for extra hype. It's definitely true that he hasn't switched his live game up very much, I saw him way back in Oct. and then just recently, and there wasn't much difference in the show's. Besides bringin on that new piece of gear, the APC40, there wasn't much difference in his set-up. And I'm still trying to figure out what he's exactly using it for. Maybe trigerring some of the visual's? Which I heard was something that he was getting into... Anyway, who know's.
Alright, rant complete. Appreciate the comments most definitely, & would like to hear more.
I went to this show optomistic and left fealing like "Wow... That f#ck!n sucked". The post actually helped because I was like "WTF is this guy doin apart from being dressed like a "Suburban, Hip-Hop, Hippie crossoever", wiggling around behind the booth, and checking his hat brim?".
The explanation of what equipment this guy uses explains more but to call that shit the "dj set of our generation" makes me lose faith in music all together.
It's bad enough to see bunch of puppets jump around and yell off key to wack beats at this year's Super Bowl versus a band that has enough coordination and talent to write, compose, and play instruments. Now, a dj set, which takes much less of all that but, still took plenty of coordination will omit cutting, scratching, mixing, and every skill that takes talent? He seemed to be the Black Eyed Peas of the Electronic/Dance/DJ scene. Beats and songs may be decent but on stage is a sheer puppet show. It makes me think that perhaps older generations were right and that as each passes they get dumber and dumber. This makes me think that one day my children will go to shows to see someone hit "play" on their Itunes, watch, blinking lights and see a Wacky Wavable Inflatable Doll behind a DJ booth.
In addition to this the FASHION was JUST AS BAD. Back in the day there used to be different types of ravers; candy, baby, junglists and so on. Junglists had a B-boy, US meets UK Urban, well put together, furturistic look. "Candy" ravers just put a bunch of random crap together that didn't match, had no style, were completely tacky, and were never taken seriously as they made other "fashion foward", true ravers look bad when the media shined their lights. I would have hoped to seen cool new fashion trends at this show, and there were few and far between. They were over powered by tacky kids wearing Lil Wayne Banadanas, Ski Goggles, sunglasses at night, etc.. I'm down with the 80s Hip-Hop flashback look though these kids couldn't put an outfit together to save their lives!!!! It again reminded me of the Candy Ravers of yesterday who basically just threw a bunch of random shit together and then stepped out with a look that makes the whole scene look bad.
The Dancing.... well this sucked ass too. I think that this came from the Hippies influence, who are now crossing over to electronic music, most likely because they're realizing that their scene hasn't been relevant since 1969. This sub-culture for decades have reinforced the stereo type that WHITE PEOPLE CAN'T DANCE. I was always turned off by that and turned on by the rave scene for that reason in addition to the fact that they had fashion sence compared to the fashion retarded hippies. True ravers COULD DANCE! They stepped to the beat, popped, locked, and had actually rhythm. At the Pretty Lights show I found people flailing like there was absolutely no time to the rhythm or beat just, like hippies. Fist pumping when there was no beat only build up and then missing the actual bass drop. These kids wouldn't be able to move in time to music if it meant their lives depended on it. Not even the Darren's Dance moves could teach these kids.
To wrap it up, people on drugs can be entertained by a faucet dripping water, one drop at a time. Therefore, it doesn't suprise me that a show with blinking lights and some tool behind a dj booth, that nobody understands what he's doing aside from hitting play on his tracks, would be marketable to this audience.
FINALLY, I have a question for the writer. Do you suck this guy's dick in real life too or, just on-line?
@ Will Winston - I concure. Especially on the "exaggerates his drops so much" part. Respect
@ Horovass - I didn't like your dick sucking in the beginning but like what you said about the those who can make the classic meets new school techology work shit. Respect
@ Coke Dealer - You're obviously a faker wit a name like that. And/or DUMB AS SHIT. I live in Miami and someone who's really in business would never post such incrimination on the world wide web. You should learn to love yourself for who you really are. And btw if you "hate" the word "hater" well.. you're a hater and hypocrite who displays his weakness like a logo on a tee shirt. NO RESPECT
@ Nawledge - You wrote too much. I did too so, you get a neutral.
SINCE WHEN IS "CRUNCHY" A FUCKING TERM USED BY MUSICIANS. IT'S NOT. IT'S USED BY DUMB ASS HIPPIES WITH LITTLE TO KNOW MUSICAL EDUCATION.
Peace, love, and hair greese
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