by JACK OATMON

Thoughtful, chaotic beat-making, extensive experience and wide musical taste make Reid Speed a promising candidate as a DJ, and her savvy outlook and no-bullshit attitude didn’t fail to catch the Mirror’s attention.

Often billed as a strictly drum & bass DJ, Speed recognizes the dilemma of genre labelling. “It’s a necessary evil,” she says, “especially in the world of [electronic dance music], where there are so many micro-genres.”

Outside of drum & bass, she also produces breaks and house, and would like to see more flow between the audiences of different types of electronic music. “Many people are far more partial to one genre over another and don’t care to hear stuff they think they don’t like,” she says. “I can play a pure D&B set for a hardcore group of junglists and then turn around and play a mainstream set of electro, house and breaks for a very, very different audience. Not too many of either expects or appreciates what I can do in the other setting.”

Setting plays an important role for American DJs these days, as the legality of raves varies widely by state, and the federal “rave act” enables the prosecution of club owners and promoters for their clients’ drug use.

“[That] was a stunning political blow to the freedom of our party culture, but in most places people have found ways around it to ensure that events still go off.”

While she believes that the political climate has been detrimental to the scene, she also points to the problematic “mainstreaming of formerly underground dance-punk, the growing popularity of emo and the fact that a lot of kids these days don’t find rave culture ‘cool’ enough.”

However, she believes that women’s place in the scene has improved. “I have definitely seen the presence of talented female DJs grow over the last decade, to my delight. Although it in no way advances female empowerment when women who want to show off their bits and may or may not have talent get paid more than the ones who choose to succeed on talent alone.”

With Corey K, Mayday and DJ Mana at Academy Club
on Friday, Aug. 18, 10 p.m., $10

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