We were very spoilt! The soundsystem was a joy to behold, especially when it seems that for so long the only venues in London with something approaching a system of any worth were out of the reach of underground party promoters, especially those wanting to put on techno or electro.
It's worth adding that I went to T-Bar to see Sleeparchive the night before, which also has a Funktion 1 rig. It sounded awful. Many thanks to all on 313 who came down and supported us. My memories of the night are something of a blur, and I was DJing whilst JT was on so it was a shame to miss him, but Gerard and Tony made up for that in spectacular style. I don't think there's a better techno DJ than Surgeon right now. I guess I would say that, given that he just played for us, but he has a balance of the right kind of records that techno is about. He avoids the tribal generic looped nonsense that nearly ruined techno, and manages to give an overview of the roots of the genre without resorting to yawn-inducing classics like other DJs like Mills or May or making it some sort of nostalgic retrospective. There's proper NYC electro, Detroit, Chicago, Warp, UK techno, rave and whilst it's all mixed incredibly smoothly due to Ableton, he's essentially using the format of the DJ of the future in the manner that it's meant to be used. Techno is still a futuristic concept in music, and he's grasped that fully. I think the fact that he's fully soaked up the industrial/experimental heritage of UK acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil and Autechre is a vital aspect too. When someone like him does it so well, someone playing on decks just seems a little redundant, although please note that I'm not criticising that format. The important thing to note is that he just "sounds" better than anyone else. He obviously applies some studio magic to all the tracks he plays with, and it just literally sounds immense. I've not heard anyone sound so rich since, er Kraftwerk. -----Original Message----- From: Odeluga, Ken [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 12 March 2007 10:57 To: robin; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Toby Frith Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 313@hyperreal.org Subject: RE: FW: (313) $tinkworx and Convextion Not wishing to rub it in, merely to point out...that the sound for the London gig was probably the best many people may hear for this kind of music ever: we had a fairly newly-installed Funktion One rig for a start. But to top it all, the engineers who designed and installed it about 3 months ago, came down on Friday night. They spent 2 hours tweaking it at the beginning of the evening (we saw them 'sweeping the freqs with some sort software aid) and then they hung around till the end to make sure things stayed sweet. We were spoilt in fact. -----Original Message----- From: robin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 12 March 2007 10:11 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 313@hyperreal.org Subject: Re: FW: (313) $tinkworx and Convextion Yeah I thought the PA, though big enough, lacked a little balance and control in parts of the room. I should get some cheap earplugs just in case. I was just amazed that someone in Manchester had got a decent PA in for a gig! robin... Nik Stoltzman wrote: > Mixing good artists with bad PAs makes me sad. Like eating fillet steak and eating it well-done > with ketchup. > > I hear what you are saying about ear damage... I have started wearing earplugs regularly now. Only > some cheapo ones, but they still make a hell of a difference. I am seriously considering buying > some custom-moulded ones because for a couple of hundred quid it is definitely worth it. Some > clubs I have been to actually have little earplug-dispenser machines... how thoughtful :) > >> Strange, I thought the one thing that spoiled the gig a small amount generally but Convextion's >> set particularly was the PA. For all the latest news and comment visit telegraph.co.uk, the UK's most visited quality newspaper website. This e-mail is from Telegraph Media Group Limited - 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT registered in England under No 451593. This message, its contents and any attachments to it are private and confidential. Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination of the whole or part of this message (without our prior written consent) is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately. Neither we nor the sender accepts any responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan attachments (if any). The content of this email does not necessarily reflect our views or those of our officers and we take no responsibility for the views of the author. Emails sent and received may be read by people other than the intended recipient and may be monitored to ensure efficient operation of our email systems. Incoming and outgoing telephone calls to our offices may be monitored or recorded for training and quality control purposes and for confirming orders and information.