The one and only dance club I've been to was called "Decadence". This was way back in the late 1980's. Gees, what a scene: all surfaces painted black, dancers shakin' it in metal cages, and a PA system that I think mighta given me permanent liver damage. Everyone there seemed to be having a good time. Me, I wanted out within the first five minutes. For some reason, the place gave me a strong "I don't belong here" feeling.

Many years later I scan all of these articles about DJ's, clubbing and the various splinter-genres of electronic dance music (house, jungle, trance, etc.)...and I wonder if it's all like "Decadence". I also wonder about the phenomenon of the DJ as celebrity. Just what did it mean? Isn't he just queuing up records? What's the big deal?

Well, I still haven't been to a club (in the "modern" era)...but a while back I had an opportunity to see a good buddy's nephew in action. The occasion was his 40th birthday. Said nephew, who plays turntables in his band back down in Maryland, shows up at my friend's very rural Vermont house with his whole DJ setup. Fancy turntable, DJ CD player, mixer...all that stuff. That evening it was fun to see Sean matching beats and making stuff flow. The drinks were flowing too. As everybody got more & more lubricated we began to grope our way through the piles of records and CDs to look for the next tune ("Rapper's Delight" to the live "Psycho Killer" was particularly funny and resulted in much butt-shaking). Even in my more-than-slightly altered state I could see how this would transfer to a club setting (I still might not like it, but that's my problem.)

What's all this have to do with Great Wall? Actually, aside from the DJ thing, not a whole lot...except that I wanted to show that I'm not completely ignorant of the dance scene.

So is Great Wall any good? I have no idea. I might say that I love this thing and dance music/remix fiends may tell me I'm full of it (or, the other way around.) There are only three tunes here that I'm familiar with: David Gahan's "Dirty Sticky Floors", Madonna's "Hollywood" and Bjork's "Pagan Poetry". I'd have to give the nod to the Bjork track (since I love the original so much.) The rest of the program is definitely full of inner-organ-wiggling dance music (including one track, "Hypnotised", in which Oakenfold remixes Oakenfold.) I do like the nice mixture of the atmospheric sound and slammin' beats...knots of tension are allow to build and scatter (is that important at the club?)

Great Wall isn't gonna make me head out to the clubs anytime soon, but I think it can proudly take its place on my shelf next to the Photek, Squarepusher and Propellerheads CDs.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)