I had a chance to go checkout Dubfire last night, courtesy of The Womb. All I can say is that his DJ sets are sounding eerily close to Ricardo Villalobose. I don't know if it's because minimal techno in Europe is starting to take life on its own, but I had no idea Dubfire was going to play techno at all. I always associated Deepdish with the stuff they played in the late 90's.......progressive house and trance. To me, Deepdish and Max Graham were indistinguishable. But a few grammy's later and all of a sudden we are seeing Dubfire move closer and closer to the rawer sounds of underground techno and distancing himself from the signature sound he was known for.
There HAS been backlash at Dubfire in the past for "selling out" and jumping on the minimal techno bandwagon. But as Mateo Murphy couldn't have said it any better: Fame is a double edged sword; there are people who are going to like his recent material just because he’s famous, and there are people who are going to hate it for the very same reason.
I try not to get too political in my music ramblings. To me, I don't care what musical background you came from, what matters is if you are making and playing great music NOW. It's not like Richie Hawtin was listening to techno in Detroit when he was 8 years old. At some point, sounds and styles progress. The Dubfire backlash I have seen now very much resembles the backlash Mauro Picotto faced in the early 2000's when he stopped playing trance and began playing Chris Liebing and Adam Beyer records........at the end of the day, you can't please everyone.
What I do know for certain is this: based on last night's experience......Dubfire ain't no joke. I have gone to many shows in my life, and last night he played some of the rawest and stripped down minimal techno I have heard in recent years. In a nutshell, I had an amazing night.
Below is a clip of him playing at the Detroit Movement party. That track you hear is Richie Hawtin's "Spastik".
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