The saying – “if it’s too loud, you are too old” – may hold true for millions of party-goers across the world. However, in our modern urban environment – where the boundaries between residential and commercial spaces get closer – “if it’s too loud, you are probably breaking the law” holds truer.

THE ULTIMATE URBAN EXPERIENCE

By the early 2000s, increased awareness about the potential harms of urban noise pollution, motivated city authorities across the world to enforce noise curfews with a greater rigger. Refusing to be deterred, festival organisers and clubs owners across Europe and America took advantage of the emergence of wireless technology to keep the party going. By the mid-2000s, party-goers were listening to music well beyond noise curfews at festivals, street parties and clubs across the world, using wireless earphones. The global phenomenon of silent parties continues to spread, supported by the rapid development of the technology which makes these events possible. South Africa is no exception – with an innovative partnership between Silent Disco SA and Denon DJ bringing the city’s party fans together in Johannesburg.

QUIETLY RAISING THE ROOF

Owner of production company Perfect Tone Music, Tony Brinsford was one of the first to bring Silent Disco events to South Africa, following his positive experience with the UK branch of the company some years ago. ETECH spoke with Brinsford about Silent Disco SA, a company that is currently among the leaders in the SA silent party trend, at the Viva Afrika offices earlier this month.
According to Brinsford, the Silent Disco concept is simple, yet revolutionary. Three deejays, each on their own set of decks housed on a single stage play simultaneous sets that are transmitted wirelessly across the venue. Party-goers can hire a custom-designed set of Silent Disco headphones that are programmed to receive the three different wireless signals. Deejays on the stage are backlit with red, green or blue, which corresponds to lighting on the headphones to indicate which deejay a listener is following. The listener can adjust the volume and select a channel of their choice, using simple toggles on the headset. The net result is hundreds of people dancing the night away to the music of their choice within a stone’s throw of residential areas – without breaking any laws or having to shout at the barman to order a drink. “We started the Silent Disco parties five years ago, at the Cape Town branch of Beerhouse, a Bavarian craft beer bar and eatery. Three years ago, we started offering Silent Disco parties at Beerhouse in Fourways, on the last Thursday of every month. Over the years, Silent Disco parties have gained an enormous following in Johannesburg, with patrons returning for every event that we hold,” Brinsford concludes.

Silent Disco party at The Beerhouse, Fourways Johannesburg

SMART PARTNERSHIPS

In an interesting turn of events, while recruiting new deejays for the Silent Disco platform, Brinsford discovered the local deejay, Morgan Pienaar. “When I heard Morgan beatboxing, I realised that it would be a very interesting addition to the repertoire of talent on offer on the Silent Disco stage,” Brinsford explains. While enjoying a new audience for his skills as a Silent Disco deejay, Pienaar was appointed as Denon DJ product representative in September 2017. “Tony and I got to talking about the Denon DJ range, and it turns out that Tony has been a vehement supporter of Denon DJ for most of his professional career,” Pienaar explains. “The synergies seemed almost too good to be true, and we started working to bring the Silent Disco platform together with the Denon DJ brand,” Morgan states.
According to Pienaar, the Denon DJ range of multimedia players are ideally suited to the Silent Disco concept. “A conventional festival deejay takes a very different approach to deliver a set – which generally involves beat mixing a predetermined set list within a specified genre,” Pienaar states. Tony’s Silent Disco deejays have a very different environment to work with and operate more like buskers. “We often take requests from the crowd and need to mix on the fly. Denon DJ’s highly flexible capabilities allow for genres that cannot be beat mixed to be played within a set, with help from the effects capabilities and smooth faders featured on Denon DJ decks,” Morgan explains. Since establishing the partnership early this year, all of Silent Disco’s gigs have been achieved using Denon DJ equipment. The results have been well received not only by the ever enthusiastic crowd but by Pienaars’ fellow deejays. Deon, one of Brinsford’s resident deejays states: “Denon DJ is one of the top deejay controller brands in the world and since Denon DJ has come on board with Silent Disco, we have loved having the opportunity to use the equipment.” Craig concurs, “I love working on the Denon DJ product range because it is user-friendly and the sound quality is phenomenal.”