Pubdate: Tue, 27 May 2003 Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand) Copyright: 2003 New Zealand Herald Contact: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300 Author: Rebecca Barry Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm (Raves) OLDIES' GUIDE TO GETTING THE HOUSE IN ORDER We already know kids spend their weekends taking pills and going to all-night raves. But if you don't know your house from your hard-house or deep-house, it might pay to watch tonight's documentary on the New Zealand dance music scene. The Mix (10.35pm, TV2) is a 101 for "the oldies" - Are clubbers on drugs? What does a DJ actually do? What's there to like about those repetitive beats? But the younger viewers who've been around the scene long enough probably won't learn much. That's okay, though. It's about time someone acknowledged the huge impact dance music has had here. Former TVNZ producer Neill Torbit and Wellington dance party promoter Nic Craig, who produced and directed the doco, admit The Mix provides just a snapshot of a scene which has been around for well over a decade. But it's a pretty colourful polaroid. What started off as a musical experiment in the predominantly gay, underground clubs of New York and Chicago in the late 70s and early 80s found its way here in the 80s after catching the ear of one of New Zealand's most notable music entities, Peter Urlich. Armed with Depeche Mode and Human League records he'd picked up in London, Urlich started a small club in the city, where, on Friday and Saturday nights, Aucklanders could dance the small hours of 8-11pm away. "They went nuts for it," he says over some particularly entertaining retro footage. A decade later the scene had also established itself in Wellington, and the careers of some of New Zealand's most prolific DJs Roger Perry, Greg Churchill and Chris Cox had begun. The documentary looks at the celebrity profile of the DJ and follows three upcoming Kiwis learning the tricks of the trade at the biggest DJ school in the world, The Red Bull Music Academy, which last year was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It also briefly discusses the changing pace of the technology used to produce the music and examines the effect the commercial side of the culture has had on the the scene. "There's a general awareness and acceptance of how big this scene actually is by the general public but that's about where their knowledge stops," explains Craig. "It is a credible genre, immensely large and popular, hugely influential in mainstream music." Still, it's just a shame The Mix wasn't made five years ago when dance music was still on the brink of becoming a mainstream phenomenon. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake