I met him back in 2001. I love his early stuff! He was definitely an inspiration to many. I still have, and listen to the original Planet Rock CD from the first release!
When we met, I had DJ'd the house-room at a three soundsytem party in Tampa, and he was the main room Techno headliner. The crowd was 500~700 and he was elevated on stage and out of view, playing vinyl records. I had a back stage view and was able to watch him work the tables. And I'd love to say it was great, but he stood there like a statue, not moving much at all, playing the beginning of one ultimix-megamix type record after another. I watched him for almost an hour and he changed maybe four records in that time... I swear, it seemed like his records were "pre-mixed." For a club DJ, to me this is basically the same thing as lip synching. And as much as I respect what he has done in the past, I'm sad to say that his performance that night goes down in my mind as the most pedestrian, souless DJ performance I've ever seen where people actually came to see that specific DJ...
Sorry , but I gotta call it the way I saw it.
If I were living in Germany now, I'd be going out of my way to hear guys like Sven Vath, Timo Maas, Martin Buttrich, Booka Shade, Ian Pooley and Terry Lee Brown Jr.
:'-(
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