It’s mid-morning on Thursday. You’re at work, looking for something new on the internet. Well, you now have one more option: an hour-long recording of people dancing to house music, with a voiceover about 90s club culture in New York.
One of the city’s most accomplished DJ duos, Mister Saturday Night, has teamed up with British online music streaming site Boiler Room to make an internet show – of people dancing to house music.
The premise of watching people in sweaty tracksuits jack and pop to house music for an hour might seem neither appealing nor particularly interesting, but it’s a significant step in finding a way to communicate the happiness that can be found on a dancefloor and the culture behind it. It’s also just an excellent house set: highlights include Freedom Williams House of Freedom and Omar S’s The Shit Baby.
Mister Saturday Night is the record-label-running, party-throwing DJ duo of Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter. They’ve been running events in New York, and now globally, over the last few years. Their signature style is one of inclusion and friendliness, while Saturday night parties are the closest thing to a house party you’ll find in New York. At their popular outdoor events, Mister Sunday (noticing a theme here?), children and dogs are often found happily bobbing along to disco-inspired sets right alongside their parents.
Everyone is smiling, everyone is moving and the focus is on the audience and not the DJs. Something that shines through in this broadcast, and something that until now has not been the regular format for a Boiler Room event.
Boiler Room started in London in 2010 as a no-frills live stream of DJ sessions. Founder Blaise Bellville duct taped a webcam to the wall of the boiler room of a magazine’s office and broadcast a set by former Gilles Peterson protege Thristian Richards. It’s now evolved into an international music sharing community, with offices in London, Berlin and New York and partnerships with Ray Ban and Google.
While the format of their shows has changed dramatically, shifting from rough and ready web streams to broadcasts from international festivals and DJ booth-side chats, the focus has so far been mostly on the DJs and their sets. This latest partnerships seems to have finally found a way to make complimentary visuals sit alongside brilliant DJ sets.
But back to why you should watch an hour of people dancing to house music at 11am on a Thursday.
To start with, the premise isn’t actually new. It’s Soul Train – which had a 35-year run on national television – on the internet; people who can dance better than you shimmying and occasionally breaking into the robot to the musical flavour of the month.
But the real reason for tuning in is if you’re willing to have your opinion changed on what dance music club culture is actually like. You won’t see hipsters awkwardly shifting next to a DJ with his eyes glued to his decks, you’ll see people having a wholesome, happy time to house music.
