The battle scene has been the fiercest defender of the turntable and vinyl faith for the longest time. But the purist walls of #realdjing began to fall when DVS became a standard fixture in the DMC battles. And when the new online battle allowed just about any technology to be used, a few DJs began to experiment and to push the boundaries of what had previously been allowed in battle sets.
But it would appear that the boundaries have been pushed beyond those of accepted #realdjing, and a DJ not using vinyl or turntables has won a DMC battle. The Abbot from New Zealand put out a cracking routine, and has been announced as the winner of round four of the online battle.
Before you spit your dummies out, watch the set and then comment. For what I’m watching is not a stereotypical controllerist set, but is very much a modern turntable set but done on a Pioneer DDJ-SZ. It’s certainly be easy enough to translate to turntables should The Abbot win and appear at the world final.
As I understand it, the entries are all voted for by the public, and then the top 10 are judged by DMC champions. The public vote put this set at number four, which is still a good result. But it’s enlightening to see how the judges voted. They’re all what many would consider to be #realdjs in the spirit of the hashtag, but they’ve taken a very progressive outlook on the set, and feel that it’s about the music and technique, and not the technology or format that matters. Speaking for DJWORX, we love it — not just the set, but the progressive nature of the voting and judging.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Are you happy to see sets like this win battles? Are you still getting used to DVS? Or is your purism so extreme that you consider battle vinyl to be cheating of the highest order?