I'll don't enter the debate about what is better ... A DJ set with three Technics or an Ableton set ... But I'll try to explain my vision of the difference and where I situate Jeff Mills in it.
Why the debate don't count ? Because very simply I use both techniques.
I explain. And it's quite complex to not enter the debate, anyway :
I'm DJ since now around 10 years, I've played a couple of major events and a lot of smaller ones but not less interesting. A crowd of fifty peoples can be mad as a crowd of 3000 (talking with experience) it really depends of the ambience or the musical knowledge or open minded attitude of who form this crowd.
I'm a big user of Ableton, I use it to produce and play techno including Jeff Mills productions, most likely when I need perfection 'thanks warp markers' ...
I think about digital when I do my weekly radio show, when I offer a mix to peoples on my mailing list, when I do a guest radio show somewhere out of my own. Radio is very similar to studio. Peoples who listen to it are not on a dancefloor, they're maybe at home, at work, maybe doing sport or in a car (think podcast) and in these situations, I wish to offer them something near perfect 'technically talking' to listen and despite I don't take pleasure to mix some 'crappy' mp3's (trust me mp3 sound way lower than a vinyl)I enjoy focusing on the selection of the music and various effects, loops, edits of the tracks, possibilities offered into digital mixing to gives my listeners a good experience, a good moment out of a dancefloor.
Also, digital mixing let me play a ton of tracks from friends who are not sufficiently experimented to press their tracks on vinyls, they will do in future, I'm sure but right now some fine tuning is still needed. Ans because of digital, they can compare a track of their own in a set that includes a Jeff Mills or a Robert Hood or even a Dave Clarke one. Top notch feature/possibility of digital mixing.
Now, when it comes to play live at a party, I just don't even think to take the computer along me. I take an heavy bag of vinyls "again including lot of Jeff Mills" inside it and I take a real pleasure to play them. A lot more than clicking a mouse or touching a couple of knobs on a controller. Because a vinyl is an object you can touch, feel, love, collect, think about and at top of all, it's the best support for the music we call techno. The warm sound of vinyl let you have a bass that moves any ass around, the hi-hats are shaking heads, the synths and pads are taking you to another level.
And if you're lucky enough to own some rare transparent first pressings of labels like Basic Channel or 'again' Axis... It's something mp3 and digital world can't offer you.
Does any of you own rare or collector mp3 ? Certainly not.
And after these years playing the DJ game, I have a couple of supporters, fans, friends who all said it to me at least once... Dimitri, I'll move wherever you go if you play vinyls because I want to see you doing it. But I'll never move if you play on a computer, I'll download and will listen at home when I'll feel it because I know your selection of music will be good, but I don't care seeing you manipulating a rack of knobs and a mouse.
I think Jeff Mills or any other DJ from Detroit, Chicago, New York are part of the legend of the DJ work and the legend on a lower level is what we call the 'culture' about it. And it's our role/job to respect it and continue it by introducing new technologies but also to never forget where it comes from.
This is a melting pot of respect/education/knowledge and tolerance. This is the value behind the whole thing.
And look around, all digital mixing techniques try to emulate vinyls, prove that vinyl is definitely the best support.
Right now on the first or second page of the Ableton 'general' forum, someone ask for videos to emulate vinyl scratching... I'll say put your hand on and scratch ... With a vinyl ...
To do a conclusion because I need to end at one moment or another lol, I'm excited to hear for example Richie Hawtin 'Transitions' that is purely a digital mix but cool, at home, to analyse and wonder how he used the technology at his hands. It's the perfection.
But at a party, after few beers, some vodka shooters, having fun with friends, seeing the right and wrong sides of nightlife, I fuckin don't want to 'bug' in front of a nerd turning knobs and thinking he's god... I want a pure dj who looks through his fly case to find the unique track that will make me think 'right, I'm there and I'm a lucky bastard to experience this moment' I want the man to dance behind the turntables, I want him to scratch and I want to see him doing it, not clicking a button and hear the similar or emulated effect. I want something real in this 'ALL' fictive world. And Jeff Mills offered me some of these moments many times guys, many many times... Paris, Berlin, Gent, Brussels, London, each time I was able and around, I was there to see/hear him and I never been sad about few 'accidents' in the mix because the funk was there, the soul, the magic.
It's what he offered me since years ... The Reality.
