As we know from multiple interviews across ITM’s ten-year run, self-made ‘house gangster’ DJ Sneak is not afraid to vent. When we spoke to the Chicago veteran ahead of his Stereosonic visit last year, though, he was in high spirits after an energising European summer. “I’ve been inspired by the movement in Ibiza,” he said, quoting a return to “my style of house music” as the sound of the moment.

Roll ahead to September 2011, and Sneak’s outlook is a lot bleaker. Asked about the evolution of electronic music in an interview with Italian site Soundwall, he held nothing back.

“Personally I think music has hit a sad stage,” he mused. “Nothing new is good, nothing is innovative, it’s always fabricated and over-cooked like a bad salmon steak left on the grill for way too long…dry.

“Electronic music has evolved but not really in the best way. I remember when there were real music producers that used studios and every piece of work they did was created by putting in time so it was the best they could do. Now any idiot that gets themselves a computer thinks they can call themseves a DJ-producer.”

Keep it rolling, Sneak. “Most so-called producers are just slapping shit together, or better yet, paying people to slap it together, and then expecting some credit for stuff they do not even put any input into creating,” he fumed. “I feel that it’s not really about the music or the content, it’s all about creating some pop shit track that gets played and supported even though it sounds like crap. I miss the old days simply because people cared about the quality – quality of music, quality of events, quality of club culture – all of this has been overshadowed by the mass bullshit that the industry is today.”

Ibiza doesn’t seem to be holding the same inspiration for Sneak, either. Later in the interview he adds that his Space compadre Carl Cox is a rare exception to the “pre-recorded, fabricated pop shows that most DJs in Ibiza and around Europe represent.” Sounds like his old buddy from the filter house days David Guetta might not be so in favour anymore…