New Technics vs. old

What is your take on “Echo In The Canyon”? Saw it yesterday. Liked it a lot, can’t say I loved it though. The upcoming Crosby biopic will likely fill in a few missing details, but I feel the scope of artists was too narrow. Entertaining enough though, and made me laugh a few times when misadventures of our Rock heroes and heroines were reminisced. 

@bimasta

Clubs like 54 didn’t do scratching or other manipulation (interference) with the record’s normal rotation — so Thorens and other belt-drive was fine.

Technics replaced all the belt drive turntables in every club and on every radiostation since it was widely available, no matter what kind of music djs have been playing. This technology is simply better, no doubt. Every professional DJs from the 70’s remembering belt drive as a nighmare and i am not talking about hip hop djs, i’m talking about people who just played the music for dancers. Technics DD is/was a choice of professionals for decades since it was introduced to the market. Different models for audiophiles (such as SP-10mkII and mkIII).

’Turntablism’ started with Rap/Hip-Hop in the early-mid ’80s.

No, it became popular (worldwide) in the mid 80’s, but it is all started in the mid-late 70’s and you can watch a lot of documentaries and interviews with people who were the pioneers of this movement. The playlists also available. Nice books with pictures etc. By the min 80’s is was ALREADY a huge worldwide phenomenon, watch Herbie Hancock "Rock it" LIVE from 1984 with DJ Grandmixer DXT with a pair of Technics DD turntables. It is not a starting point. The single released in 1983 and pressed not only in the USA, but also in Europe. The DJs have been doing it in Bronx earlier in the 70’s, but it was underground movement in black comminity, that was the beginning of what later was called "turntablism".

But i want to remind you about Jamaica and their reggae and rocksteady Sound Systems, it was there long time before it even appeared in the USA and turntables were Garrard since the 50’s.

Also i must admit that American 60’s Soul music was much more popular in England because of the legendary  Wigan Casino club started in 1973. And it was all about rare Soul records (black music) and dancing. Actually the strongest soul scene was in England and still is. They call it Northern Soul.

And "Disco" as a musical genre only started in the ’70s. I guess it came to an end when 54 became too involved with drugs — but I was long gone by then, my club days/nights were only ’66–67...

You had very short dj career, lol :)

There was The Loft in NYC opened in feb.1970 by David Mancuso he was an audiohile and DJ in Manhattan who played on Koetsu cartridges and Technics SP10 mkII DD turntable in Mitch Cotter base with FR tonearm, Klipsch speakers (i remember it from his interview). He has never ever mix records like other DJs at that time. Enough said. He was active and tried to recreate The Loft vibe nowadays until he died at the age of 72 in 2016. This is a picture with setup from his last performance.