If some of you are on other lists with me, most of this will be redundant, so I apologize. This is a chronology of my last two and a half weeks in Europe. Record reviews are forthcoming.
Saturday November 11: "I Love Techno" in Ghent, Belgium. I was so excited to see Jeff Mills having backed out of the opportunity to see him @ Black Nation the last time I had a chance. I have to admit I was a bit (just a bit) underwhelmed by him though. Of course I had absurdly high standards, but I came away with a similar feeling to what I had when I saw Hawtin. After more than an hour of Hawtin or Mills I need a break. Or more precisely, I wish they'd give me a break. Unfortunately, when either Hawtin or Mills gives you a break it only lasts a minute or two, then they're right back up to speed where they were before. I prefer more variety from a DJ. This is all IMHO of course, and may reflect his performance for that event. Anyway, Mills, Monica Crusie, Miss Djax, DJ Hell all rocked there. Despite what may sound like a negative review, Mills was at the top of his game - 3 Decks and 909 and flawless as far as I could tell. Technasia live was a bit normal. Their live set didn't sound much like their tracks. That was kind of dissapointing. I didn't mess with trying to see Dave Clark - it was just too packed, and the music wasn't really doing it for me. Monica Cruise was much more my speed. Carl Cox did his thing and I didn't bother with Sven Vath. With five rooms going at once, you sort of have to resign yourself to chosing one thing and doing it. I think Dennis Mentioned some of the continental 313ers aversion to this event, which I can undestand. It was a huge somewhat commercialised affair - although nothing like a big rave in the US (much better). I was happy to see lots of DJs that don't usually make it stateside, so it suited my purposes. Thursday November 16: DJ Hype, Pascal, and residents @ Barumba: This was a Thursday night gig and we only found out about it when we arrived in the UK from Paris. Because I'm not a huge dnb head, I can't say a whole lot about this, but it was a great event and the crowd was very good. Probably the purest turn-out for any of the events I attended. I felt like I was seeing something with regulars who knew why they were there. I got to meet Shy FX who was just hanging out there, which was great since he was the first DJ to ever pull me through my initial resistance to dnb. Friday November 17: Tom Churchill and others @ the Institue for Contemporary Arts in London: This was a chill night. I love events in artsy environments, like when I saw Mark Ambrose and Stacey Pullen @ the San Francisco MOMA. Very classy. Tom's set was very diverse, with some new school jazz breaks (I think that's what he calls them) and other good downtempo stuff. This event ended @ midnight, so it was a short good beginning to the evening - as it was intended I'm sure. Later that night I tried to see Kevin Yost @ The End but he canceled and I saw some pretty good local house DJs spin in the Lounge. It's pretty bad when the door people don't know (or won't say) that the headliner has canceled though. Saturday November 18: Felix tha Housecat in the lounge @ The End in London: I have *no* idea why he was in the Lounge, but I'm very glad he was. It was such an intimate experience seeing him spin for three hours. He threw some crazy stuff in there, including Isolee. That was a trip. Londoners by and large are not ready for that yet. There were two girls from Boston chilling by the booth all night, sort of chatting with him, sort of bugging him. When he said he was out of records they made all sorts of requests and he said "I've only got techno records left". I screamed "play the techno records"! He leaned over to me and said "you may deserve the techno records, but this club doesn't". That was towards the beginning of my trip and I didn't really agree with him then, but I think I do now. Most of the people (not all) in London that are die-hard about music are into drum'n'bass or garage. They don't really even respond as well to deep house. Underground house DJs may play there, but they probably won't play the same records they play in the states. Sister Bliss and Mr. C also played this night. Sister Bliss was sort of Carl Coxish for you to take or leave. I was pooped by the time Felix finished so I headed over for a bit of Mr. C. It was very good but it was also 5:00. I had to go. Sunday November 19: Carl Craig @ The Space in Leeds: I only caught the last two hours of his set because the event went from 6PM-11PM on a Sunday. Most of the clubs in Leeds have to close early on Sunday - thus the weird hours. That's how it was explained to me anyway... Carl Craig is not known as a great DJ, but he's as close to an idol as I've got (since I'm not really into idolatry), so I was as excited about seeing him as I was Mills - maybe moreso. The Space is a nice small venue adequate to the task. Sort of reminds me of an American Legion. Keith Tucker was playing in the other room so I missed him, but there will be other times. Carl Craig is a very interesting DJ. He can mix well when he wants to (perhaps with occasional minor flaws), but he *choses* to shift the pace drastically. For instance: he played a five or six minute version of Jaguar with no bass kick. He also played a long segment of his "Carl Craig's Drums Suck Remix" of Dave Angel, which also has no kick. I've always contended that song doesn't even need a kick it's so intense. Some people on the dancefloor chose to sit down in protest when he played it, after which he mixed out of it for at least three or four minutes producing the most intense moment of the night. He's not afraid to bring it down too far, absolutely killing the floor. But when he brings it back in, the intensity is double what he had beforehand. I think this illustrates why I enjoyed his set more than Mills. You may be twiddling your thumbs for a bit, enjoying the music with only your mind, but he will floor you when he brings it back together. This is extremely risky DJing at its best. Most crowds won't dig it and he doesn't care. You have to love the man. He also played Yaz, which wins points in my book. One of the most interesting things about his set was his use of a CD player or sampler (couldn't see which). He had some crazy intense loops on whatever it was, and if any of that ever makes its way to vinyl on maybe a Designer Music Volume 3 I'll be a very happy man. The way he used it I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a Roland Groove Sampler. I guess you need to see it to understand, so if you can I highly recommend it. He seems to be DJing more these days, so maybe it's in the cards. I haven't gotten to the reviews of the Planet E party he played yet, so I apologize if there are redundancies. Thursday November 23: Some locals in Glasgow's Jam at a club called Yang (don't have their names unfortunately): Speakers were weird in the room of a three-room club. First, they were mounted in cement, so the whole place shook, although it wasn't that loud - but it was too loud for the speakers. Also, they had each turntable wired into a different speaker, so you could hear the mix travel from left to right and back again on the follwing mix - always in mono. The left speakers were in worse shape, but that didn't seem to solve the problem. Hearing the mix travel from left to right was very distracting. Also they didn't mix very often, mostly just switching tracks. But the music was top-notch. Nothing but the deepest house and older funk. They even played Candy Stanton for me. This was a very deep night and the crowd was great. From what I undestand this is typical of Scotland. I started out the night dissapointed b/c I had the night wrong for Mark Broom, but this was a great consolation prize. Next time I'm in the UK I hope to spend most of my time in Scotland. Friday November 24: The Moving Shadow 10th anniversary party @ The End. Let me preface this by saying that my experience was tainted by a four-hour wait in line, so I was exhausted, pissy and badly in need of a drink by the time I got in @ 3:15 and the bar had just closed. However I was still up for trying to blow off some steam after a crazy wait. Those of you lucky enough to have ever been to The End know it's a top-notch venue with brilliant sound but not huge. With 900 people in there, you can imagine it was a bit hard to find a place to just chill to the music and maybe dance. No matter where I stood on the dancefloor people were walking through it - which amazed me. Most of my time there has been spent in the Lounge, so this was unexpected. Half the people seemed to be perpetually searching for something or someone. I don't know why, but it was severely annoying. Added to that you had a bunch of very drunk and drugged-out people with absolutely no respect for anyone's space on the dancefloor. It was not so packed that everyone was sardined together. You could reasonably dance without bumping into someone, but people *chose* not to. Perhaps it was my distorted frame of mind, but a few people seemed to be going out of their way to piss me off. After four hours crammed into a "two-in/two-out" line about sixty-people deep (obviously no one was leaving), I was particularly sensitive to the constant bumping and I felt extermely violent (this is very unusual for me). I was just about ready to punch one guy (which is not a good idea for obvious reasons and I'm a runt) when I opted to sit down on a speaker. It took a solid thirty minutes to lose some of the edge and begin to enjoy Dom & Roland's set, then I moved up towards the decks to observe the man at work. Drum 'n Bass afficianados: Run to see him if he ever plays in the states. His mixing was agressive, flawless and his tracks were brilliant. I think he played a lot of his own material. His last track was unbelieveable. Three or four people rushed the turntables for a track ID. It was quite cool to see a humble DJ pointing to himself when people asked him what the record was. Bad Company finished up the night with some tasty harder dnb. Unfortunately I only lasted about half of their set since it was 5:00-5:30 and I was running on three hours sleep. Saturday November 25: My second worst experience was the following night at the Back to Basics club in Leeds for their 9th birthday party. DJ Sneak and Ralph Lawson were the two most notable DJs playing. I had never seen Sneak and this was my last night in the UK, so I was extrememly excited - and we purchased advanced tickets while we were in Leeds the weekend before to see Carl Craig. The event was a "white ball", meaning everyone had to wear some white. They decked the place out in UV lights and it looked phenomenal. Hands down the coolest looking venue I've seen, and the crowd matched it. The night started out great. After loads of travel and very little sleep I was absolutely ready for a good party vibe. I had no energy to dance but I was very into the music for the first three hours or so before DJ Sneak came on. When he did it was clear and he started out with some nice cajual-ish house. I went up to dance and maybe scope some of the records up on the decks. However, there were goons crowding the outside of the booth and one guy kept shoving his elbow in my throat. Not hard but intentionaly, and enough that I couldn't stand there. Normally if the decks were crowded I'd just go back to dancing, but this guy seriously pissed me off. When I told him he "obviously has know idea what this is all about" he laughed and told me he has "a new mix coming out on Classic Records". My first response was to think that Derrick Carter probably wouldn't want much to do with this chap if he knew what an ass he was, but I bit my tongue and asked him why he needed to be so attitudinal when he could share some space. Suffice it to say the rest of the conversation, and my attempts to get him to move was nothing more than a testosterone-induced pissing match, so I gave up and danced the rest of the night - but it was enough to taint the experience. Later I resigned myself to screaming "Not Everyone Loves House Music, It's a Spiritual Thing..." at them. I should probably think myself lucky I didn't leave the place battered and bruised. 24 hours later I arrived back in the states. All told, it was an amazing trip with some ups and down. Wouldn't want it any other way. Sorry to all the 313ers I missed along the way. I hope you'll forgive me. Communicating effectively while travelling is not easy and I'm perpetually disorganised. Maybe you can come over for DEMF and I'll make good with a beer or two. ;) Tristan ========================================== PHONOPSIA<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/5102 "FrogboyMCI" on AOL Instant Messenger "Most people have the cataract. They do not see what they look at. Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum Dee Dum..." - Stereolab __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
