For those of you tragically not in attendance that night, legendary UK DJ Greg Wilson made his highly anticipated WMC debut (in fact his Miami debut altogether) at Electric Pickle on Wednesday, March 24, schooling us all on the authentic disc jockey artform. Beyond simply reinstating the definition of what a true vinyl-spinning beat-juggling DJ does, he epitomized a return to form that seems to have marked the breakthrough trend across the board at WMC this year. There's no denying that disco-house is majorly back, and not just as a
style of EDM, but as an old school DJ discipline -- the art of the DJ
re-edit, a trick of the trade which used to be par for the course with
post-disco DJ pioneers like Larry Levan.
"Many DJs began to place mixing ahead of programming in terms of priority, selecting what they played not because it was the best record, but because it mixed out of the previous record seamlessly," said Wilson in our WMC Q&A, lamenting the sub-par M.O. of so many contemporary DJs. "This was putting the cart before the horse as far as I'm concerned. I'm all for mixing, but programming is the most important skill a DJ possesses and, in comparison to the DJs of the past, I think that this was an area that suffered."
There were a handful of DJ/producers at WMC this year, e.g. Soul Clap, Jamie Jones and Lee Foss (Hot Natured), and Wolf + Lamb, who have recently returned to the DJ-as-programmer form, re-editing and stamping their signature on select tracks, thus imbuing their live sets with a one-off vitality that gives all those other dime-a-dozen play-by-numbers "DJs" on the scene a run for their money. This re-discovered practice, rooted in the disco and early house that Greg Wilson was spinning back in the day when he was these kids' age, was by all accounts the big breakthrough at WMC 2010.
And having helped pioneer these traditional DJ methods, which he has carrying on faithfully for three decades, made Wilson's presence at WMC this year all the more timely and significant, like a fatherly figure overlooking the promising fledgling efforts of a new generation of artists. Whether you missed Wilson's performance that night, or did make it and have since been clamoring for a recording so you can relive that unforgettably ecstatic groovalicious night, we have a one-hour slice of his live set for your listening pleasure.
Click here to download Greg Wilson's live WMC set at the Electric Pickle.
