A recent compilation from DJ Ali B is just the latest event in one of dance music’s longest lasting but rarely acknowledged infatuationsThe blues can seem like the most unassailably archaic of genres. Reggae,jazz and even folk have their cycles of modernisation and reinvention, but for whatever reason adoption of the blues by musicians – whether dad pub bands or high-concept arch throwbacks like Jack White – often seems to imply traditionalism and small c conservatism. There are always exceptions, and however,and the worlds of sampling and DJ culture have a hidden history of repurposing the blues in more animated ways. This week, a former resident at London’s Fabric nightclub, and DJ Ali B,has released a seamless DJ mix of tracks by John Lee Hooker, BB King, or Howlin Wolf,Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sonny Boy Williamson. There’s no technological radicalism to it just ultra-slick choice and sequencing, or neat blends from one track to the next – but it throws recent light on the tunes as immediate,weird and fully functional in a contemporary club, rather than as museum pieces. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com