Stewart played a brilliant set. My review is about the same as the last time I saw him: He goes out of his way to try and rock a crowd, and the crispness of his beats almost makes up for the overmodulated hard techno muck from the rest of the festival.
Planet E Party was beautiful. I was just about first through the door, and immediately Rob Theakston had me in bliss with his ambient/downtempo/chill techno set. Ibex in the lounge was very nice too. Todd Sines played a great set, with a female vocalist. I especially liked the tracks where he managed to get funk out of really twisted digital edits. At first it sounds a bit like his computer is going crazy but then the beat comes back in and it all makes sense ... Mike Clark was nothing short of brilliant -- EXTREME funky techno. Radioboy/Herbert was totally mad, destroying products from corporate Icons like McDonalds, Gap, and Starbuck. I think he was using the Roland VP sampler, live to sample in his acts of mayhem. His hyperactive, lurching stage presence was riveting to watch. And Richie Hawtin has nothing on him for volume. I had foam plugs in and it was still loud. I thought something was falling from the ceiling and hitting my forhead, but it was the sound from the PA hitting my skin. Carl Craig was, well, Carl Craig, moving back and forth from funky/stiff dance floor stuff to soulful jazzy tech-house, to Detroit classics. The sound went out a fair bit during his set, but he had people in the palm of his hand. Shake was Shake, which is to say a just about perfect musicians' DJ. He was all over the place genre-wise but always with an ear for heartbreakingly beautiful melody. There's a sense in which I could watch Shake play for 3 days and be just as happy as I ever was with the festival, because he never gets samey, and just when you thought a track was the coolest ever, he sneaks in a new one that's both suprising and perfectly appropriate. Needless to say it was old home week among the punters as well. Loads of the 313 faithful were there. And it was perfect-party full -- full but not so full to make moving around difficult. The M_NUS party around the corner was a useful contrast, with hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to get in. That was more of a ravey crowd. I'd love to see one of Richie's events in Detroit but I just can't face being pummeled repeatedly for hours on end. Much love to the Planet E crew for pulling this one off. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
