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BLOCKS

Maybe this is obvious, but lets look at what
DJs have to work with.

1: The irreducible minimum is the
one single cut.  You could do a
show where you played single cuts,
coming on the mic between each one.
Might make sense for genres with
very long pieces.
   
2: But for the DJ, the creative act    
really begins with the number two:     
the segue.  It's an art of transitions.  
                                          TRANSITIONS
                
3: To do something with a
structured sequence of music
though, it helps to have three.
Two points determine a direction,
and the third establishes the
change in direction.

My thought was to mimic the
"tension-release" curve of
literature.  So the first two cuts
would establish a conflict, and the
third should give you a feeling of
resolution, of closure.

Sometimes, this just means the
first two tracks I play would be
dark and/or noisy, and the third
would be more upbeat or poppy.

In the ideal case though, the third
track should provide a real answer
to the problems posed in the first
two, a resolution of the conflict.

One of the characteristics of art:
  multiple constraints satisfied simultaneously.

       plot and character.
       meter and rhyme.
       rhyme and reason.

       sound and meaning.


4: More recently I've gone to four song
sets.

Just one extra cut, but there's so
much more scope.

It allows the opportunity to borrow
structures from simple rhyme schemes:   ((Expand on this.
abab, abcb and so on.                     Connect to musical genres,
                                          Genre definitions. Indust/Folk
And in a weird way, putting togther          Manifesto?))
four songs on a theme can actually
be easier than three.                   I guess I won't try to 
                                        explain how.  Yet.



45. The forty five minute set, typically
around 10 to 15 cuts.  This provides a
tremendous amount of scope...                       Though come to think
                                                    of it, I've never tried
                     THEMES                         to use a really long
                                                    struture, in analogy
                                                    of a sonnet's rhyme
                                                    scheme, for example.



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