Do you ever find yourself wondering what happened to Joshua Arellano, aka “Techno Guy,” after he got banned from playing house music on his boom box on campus?
Now he frequents the Blackbird Buvette every other Wednesday to express himself with the universal language: body Language.
Body Language, a group of DJs in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is celebrating the interplay of body and music at their three-year anniversary bash at the Blackbird tomorrow.
The group is headed by DJs Timm Reynolds, Justin O’Brien and Sean Billingsley, but they bring a multitude of DJs to the Blackbird every other Wednesday night, also trekking to Santa Fe monthly to Rouge Cat.
“House music is more about sampling live elements, and it sounds more like real music [that] real bands could be playing,”
Reynolds said. “And the body is the extension of the idea that body language is another word for dancing if you take it that way. The play on words was almost perfect, and I think if we had called the night something different, the night would have been different.”
Body Language can be classified as funky house music, which is a sub-genre of electronic music. O’Brien said people who think they don’t like electronic music often enjoy music like Body Language because it still has discernible instrumentals. He said people in older generations have a hard time identifying with electronic music because it has a mechanical sound.
“It feels like, with house music, a lot the samplings are based in soul and jazz and R&B from the ’60s and the ’70s,” O’Brien said. “So those touchstones make the music accessible for the much wider audience.”
O’Brien said all the latest mixing equipment can make good music, but it cannot be made solely from fancy mixing machines.
“Technology is only a tool,” he said.
Much of Body Language’s success comes from having a stable venue at which to play, Reynolds said. The management at Blackbird has allowed Body Language to take their Wednesday night shindig in a direction that works for the group and the bar, he said.
“They have never tried to steer the night in a direction that we weren’t taking off to,” Reynolds said. “They aren’t necessarily fans of what we are doing, but they respect it, and the time and effort we are putting in, as opposed to nightclubs where the owner will tell you what they want for the night.”
There is something about house music, and electronic music in general, that enables people to dance uninhibited, O’Brien said.
“I think that [style of dancing] is part of the electronic music concert, and that is what it’s about,” O’Brien said. “I think it lends itself to the culture, and when you have a good night and everything is clicking, everyone is more into it.”
Arellano said in all his years dancing outside the SUB to house music, he never once felt even a tinge of embarrassment.
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“I find more embarrassment in trying to dance to mainstream music,” he said. “I can’t get down to Blink-182 or Nickelback, and I don’t even approach how you would dance to hip-hop because I don’t really get down with that.”
Arellano said it is easier because the upbeat rhythm and atmosphere are not so separated compared to other mainstream music.
“It’s the experience inside yourself, it’s not necessarily what the lyrics are saying and what the environment is,” Arellano said. “You get a rare experience when men and women dance together. It is more of free-form experience in the music.”
Arellano said Reynolds was DJ-ing at the very first party he ever went to and considers Reynolds the godfather of his party and dance experience in Albuquerque.
“I know that when I found myself on the dance floor, he was the guy that was there,” Arellano said. “And Justin O’Brien, I saw him a lot at the outdoor parties. These two guys have done a lot for New Mexico in terms of production and quality.”
