Mapping his Course to musical infamy

When it comes to music compilations there’s no bigger pressure on a DJ than on those chosen to mix the Ministry of Sound Annual.

Not only has the compilation become something of an early Christmas present for dance fans, it’s also become a yearly fixture for John Course. This marks the fifth consecutive year the DJ has mixed one-half of the immensely popular compilation. For the 2009 Annual he has been joined by Goodwill.

It has become, in a roundabout way, a yearly ritual. I plan my year around it now, Course told Sydney Star Observer.

How does Course pre-emptively know which songs are going to soundtrack the summer?
If you look at the tracklisting this year, the opening song -” in this case David Guetta’s Delirious -” has been around in clubs for the latter part of the year, but this mix has never been on a compilation before, Course said.
There’s a bit of that -” trying to get things that haven’t been on other CDs before, which makes them fresh.

So why does the Annual has such a great selection of tracks? It’s simple: money talks.
Because it’s such a high-selling CD, you can get a lot of good tracks on it, because everyone wants to have their songs on it, Course said.
It’s great to be part of a mix CD that always has quality music on it. People might turn around and say, -˜it’s too commercial’ or whatever, but I think it’s on the right side of commercial.

Commercial is an accusation Course has become somewhat used to wearing from sniffier dance fans during his career. A kinder, more apt description would be crowd-pleasing.

If you’ve seen him at a dance festival in recent years you’ll know how dependable his sets are, particularly when bigger name DJs higher up the bill fail to set the crowd alight.

It’s interesting, then, that Course’s disc on this year’s Annual has a harder dance edge than disc two, mixed by Goodwill, who seems to have gone down a poppier route. Heck, he goes so far as to drop the Shapeshifters Lola’s Theme into the mix -” that track would make even a straight boy channel his inner drag queen.

Course laughed at the suggestion he’s been out-gayed by Goodwill.
That’s an interesting observation, because normally most people would say it’s the other way round, he said. It comes down to your tastes really.

Course’s disc includes remixed hits from The Ting Tings, Fedde Le Grand, and local girl Zoe Badwi’s recent ARIA club chart number one, Release Me. Goodwill has a heavier focus on Aussie dance royalty, with tracks from Pnau, Sneaky Sound System and The Presets.

The great thing about dance is it can move so fast. It does make it tricky when you’re trying to put together a CD, but there are some massive things on there -” the Eric Morillo record [Where Are You Now] is huge, he said.

Course is a Victorian native, having grown up in Frankston. As he regularly tours the country, he’s in a unique position to weigh in on the old Melbourne vs. Sydney nightlife debate. Melburnians pride themselves on their laneway culture and plethora of small, late-night bars and clubs -” they’re the antithesis of Sydney’s impersonal, mega-clubs, right? Course disagrees.

I think it’s changed a little bit. It used to be that Melbourne was about clubbing and Sydney was about the big parties, and I think there are a lot more little clubs in Sydney now. Melbourne’s always had big clubs.

Speaking of change, Course can see the pervasive electro sound of mainstream dance starting to dissipate after a period of total dominance. This change in sound is reflected in his mix.
I think [dance] is going back to big club sounds. If you look at Delirious, that’s not an electro record, that’s like a house record that could’ve come out 15 years ago, although it’s got contemporary production.

I don’t think electro is as strong now as it was a year ago. The indie rock scene, with a dance edge, is very strong. But I think that’s slowly moving away from club culture and becoming the new band culture. The Presets, Cut Copy, MGMT …

All bands that bridge the gap between rock and dance.

Yeah. People’s ears are more open now. People will go to a rock concert at the start of the night and then finish at a club and be quite happy, whereas there was a time when you were either a clubber or a rockhead.

info: Ministry Of Sound Annual 2009 is out November 1.