Everybody’s favourite Trashtalker und Hobbyphilosoph Jay Haze meldet sich mal wieder zu Wort, und das Interview für Resident Advisor ist pures Gold wert. Neben dem Minimal Hype, oder gerade deswegen, hat er sich diesmal vor allem Richie Hawtins M_nus Label vorgeknöpft, aber auch Trance-Paule (van Dyk) und James Holden bekommen ihr Fett weg. Das schlimme an der ganzen Sache…er hat meistens sogar noch Recht.
Auszug gefällig?
I’m not into the M_nus parties. Especially in Berlin, M_nus parties are extremely overhyped. I mean they’re very boring parties. It’s very boring for me to go and listen to these guys now. Back three years ago it was nice, we would all play together, and now it’s just that I like a little bit more soul and funk. They have none. Zero soul and zero funk.
[…]
I mean M_nus is a good label. You can’t take that away from them. But they have a few things, like the new Marc Houle album was horrible. Horrible. ‘Bay of Figs’ was a joke to me. That whole album. I swear to god, in my office, it went through four hands. It came as a promo and it went through four hands. And we were all like, “Here you go.” “No, I don’t want it.” “Here you go.” “No.” Straight up, no joke. Ended up taking the record and throwing it against the wall. One of the most hyped records of 2006 – poorly produced, it was simple, electro, poppy – what the hell was M_nus thinking?
Dem kann ich nur zustimmen, aber es wird noch besser:
But I’m the first person to say I think James Holden sucks. Really. I think he’s a horrible DJ. I don’t think he knows how to work records. I think he’s a good producer but it’s not my style. That’s what I’m talking about. For me it’s okay to state your opinion because that’s how things change. You don’t have to be friends with everybody.
Klassiker!
Auch wenn Jay vielleicht nicht das Ende von James Holden sieht, dann doch zumindestens das langersehnte Ende des Minimal-Hypes. Und überhaupt, das ist ja alles sowieso alter Kaffee, der Jay ja schon anno ’78 die ersten Minimal Platten rausgehauen als die ganzen anderen Player noch zugedröhnt auf der Akustik Gitarre geschrammelt haben:
This big hype has happened, and I see that that hype… Man, I’m not even going to front. I’m not even going to sit here and try and hide it. I was one of the first guys really pushing this shit. That sound that is right now, the hyped minimal with all these reverbs and all this shit, go and listen to my first productions. Go talk to people who know. I was one of the first guys putting these big phat ass reverbs into minimal techno.
Irgendwie kommen mir die Zeilen von LCD Soundsystem’s Losing my Edge in den Sinn wenn ich das so lese. Und endlich ist es gelüftet: Robag Wruhme hat von Jay Haze das Technospielen gelernt (mal abgesehen davon dass Schablitze als Beefcake schon Elektroplatten gemacht hat als Jay Haze noch die Crackheads in Kalifornien mit Drogen versorgt hat)!
Robag Wruhme himself came up to me and was like, “Dude, you have no clue what your first records did for me. Putting these big reverbs…” I can’t hate on it because a lot of what these guys are doing is what I was doing eight years ago. It can be a bit of pain in my ass that now eight years later it’s the boom thing. Eight years ago nobody fucking paid a shit.
…das könnte natürlich auch daran gelegen haben dass deine Releases in der Regel flacher sind als Kate Moss, aber vermutlich war es einfach eine harte Zeit, wie der nächste Teil belegt, in dem Jay (mal wieder) über seine totally fucked up Jugend als Obdachloser in San Francisco erzählt, ebenfalls ein Klassiker der modernen Abendunterhaltung:
I was homeless for a long time. I was sleeping in the street, in the car. This was in San Francisco in ‘96 and ’98. Also in San Diego, in Florida. It was a very low period of my life, but I had to make the best of whatever I could. I was selling drugs, never any heroin or anything like that, but LSD and ganja. Lots of LSD. That was how I made my money. I was in San Francisco and I had a direct connection to big amounts. On the West Coast it was so much easier to find LSD. I would just send it back to the East Coast in ten packs, which is a thousand hits. I would get them for twenty-five cents a hit and sell them for seventy-five cents. I’d been doing LSD since I was fourteen years old. I did a lot. Tons of LSD. It had a little bit of an effect on me, helping me to see things a little more deep, not so depressive anymore.
Ach Jay, wir lieben dich. Du bist ein Arschloch (no hard feelings, eh) und dein Album mochte außerhalb der De:bug Redaktion wirklich niemand, aber immerhin hast du etwas, das andere DJs in Interviews oft vermissen lassen: Eine klare Meinung, und das ist doch auch was. Und die Fuckpony Sachen sind ja auch gar nicht mal so übel.