This week is a companion piece to last week's, really: looking at overplayed dancefloor tracks in goth/industrial clubs. Being a DJ myself, of course, I well appreciate that it isn't always the DJ's fault, and it is endless requests for particular tracks that cause it. Still, some of these tracks I have heard everywhere I go for a few years now, so it's time to name and shame them.
Really, please request other songs. Yes, it's a great song, but when it comes to Combichrist the average punter is hardly short of catchy dancefloor stuff to request. In just three albums I can think of at least fifteen tracks that will fill a dancefloor. So come on, think a little before requesting this track again, please?
Watch on A so-so cover of an old techno track, and frankly I'm sick and tired of hearing it. And no, I don't play it in my DJ sets (there are far better Grendel tracks to play, in my opinion). I'm still not sure why it is so popular: anyone care to fill me in?
A thumping track that uses a clever Dalek sample, it deservedly became a popular track and pushed Rotersand to a far greater profile than before (including unexpectedly headlining Infest in 2006). The problem with this track, though, is that it is so popular even now that it seems to have reduced the scope for playing stuff from the (really rather good) new album 1023, and so I get the impression that a lot of people have not even heard the single (Lost) from that album. A perfect example of the problems with a track that gets this big…
A live set staple and also a dancefloor staple, again this is one that people simply won't stop requesting. Perhaps if it wasn't so bloody long it wouldn't be so annoying…
This track isn't far off ten years old now, and is still a dancefloor staple. It's stomping beat, simple lyrics and catchiness do it no harm at all, but really: is this still the only Rammstein track people know? Surely it can't be after all these years. They have done three albums since…
This band have done a number of albums since, too, but most of them aren't any good – so PP appear to be desinted to be remembered for this track only. Again, it's a good – if not slightly cheesy – dancefloor track whose familiarity has only been made even more irritating by at least one band incessantly playing their cover of it.
A shallow bit of fluff, this track, but then going on it's subject perhaps that was the point. This has turned, though, into a dancefloor monster that simply won't fuck off. Which is utterly mystifying, really, with the high quality of the many other tracks that Covenant have done over the years.
Thankfully not a cover of the godawful cheesefest that is the ABBA track, but instead a slightly dull (and desperately overlong) electro track. Constant playing of older XPQ-21 tracks probably isn't helped by each release seemingly having older songs in different versions as well as a smattering of new tracks. How about more Rocking Silver Knight instead, please?
Finally, onto two tracks that refuse to die after years and years. It used to be Dragula, now attention has switched to this. Yes, it's great, it's quite possibly Rob Zombie's best song, but it's ubiquity has probably been aided by both of the albums since Hellbilly Deluxe being utterly pants. After all, Mr Zombie nowadays is concentrating far more on his film career now…
Like Mr Zombie's stuff, this track crossed over into metal clubs years ago and is still impossible to escape – 13 years after release. We have had nights at Corp on a Saturday where we have heard it in all three rooms within an hour. It strikes me as the seriously lazy option for DJs, particularly when, like other bands mentioned above, there are more than enough NIN tracks that will fill a dancefloor without having to result to the lowest common denominator…