I will start by stating that I've read in a few places that this was the
fifth installment, but I Distinctly remember the theme for I Love techno
2000 being "5 years 5 rooms" and I even have a shirt from last year that
says that, so I'm going to refer to I Love Techno 2001 as the sixth
version.
My first impressions of this year's event were severe
disappointment,
and utter frustration - as the two MAIN reasons I came back to I love
techno
were opposite spectrum this year. One of the best things about last
year's
party (besides the amazing line-up) was the collection of people who
came to
see the talent, and the way that they appeared to be enjoying the music
much
more than coming just because its a huge party and they wanted to get
messed
up. This year's endeavor was a complete flip-flop, with extremely
messed up
people everywhere and lots of (American reminiscent) Candy-raver types
with
their glowsticks, plastic beads, and shiny clothes. Perhaps I just had
a
different view last year, or I managed to miss all the action, but I
didn't
pull that sort of reaction, and the people seemed to be there for
support,
rather than for drugs or anything else (albeit they still got down!).
The
second dissapointment was immediatley apparent and was the thing that
kept
reappearing all night - the organization and planning for all the people
was
poor. Last year, my wife and I left the Flanders Expo feeling like
there
were only 1500 people in there, when there were really 30,000+. The
lines
to get in last year were non-existant, the bathrooms took mere seconds
to
get into, the main room was only filled about 1/4 at any one time, - and
the
only time I felt like there were a ton of people in the place, was when
only
one superstar DJ was playing, and all of the people mobbed into one
room.
This year, they had awful planning, and I think it was partially because
the
organizers or promoters wanted to be really tight with the police or
governing authorities. Last year, the doors had somewhat lax security
and
no cattle lanes which kept the line moving at all times, and it took us
no
more than 5 minutes to get in and check our coats. For I Love Techno
2001,
it took us almost 2 hours to do the same thing, and they had
cumbersomely
placed movable barracades everywhere where there was a flock of people
(front door, coat check, bathrooms) which only made things horribly
worse.
Fortunately, I'm not going to wank on about how horrid this party was
compared to last year, and as a matter of fact, I'm going to tell you
how
itblew last year out of the water, in terms of Artist participation
(does
that make sense?) and overall feel. First, let me describe the size of
the
space. The Flanders Expo (at least the portioins they were using), has
a
gigantic Warehouse feel to it, with six enormous rooms flanked on to it
three on each side of the rectangular "chill" area which had no music in
it,
just concessions and merchandise - and a VIP entry area. The main area
was
much larger than any warehouse I have ever been in, let alone any rave
or
party I've ever attended. Each room that branched off, was easily the
largest party I'd ever attended being (in my sometimes distorted
perception)
at least larger than an american Football field for the people to dance
and
congregrate (but it felt like everyone in the building was dancing like
mad
- at all times, compared ot last year's crowd that [while severly
entertained] mainly just smiled and bopped their heads). Getting from
the
front of one room back into the "main" area, and then on to the front
(or
stage) area of another room took around 30 minutes at one point in the
evening - but was not too cumbersome that it was frustrating.
On to the talent -
I will try my best to explain what I was feeling objectively, but it's
very
hard to do so. There are so many things that go into a really good set
or
performance or even one of the rooms that they had built, and someone at
the
same party could have been in different rooms the entire time and
possibly
had a completely different experience than I had. That said, I didn't
travel to Europe to have a crappy night, and I was destined to have fun
-
but my expectations were shattered.
We arrived in time to catch Umek, but with the lines and coat check
taking 2
hours - completely missed his set (much to my dismay). We headed first
into
the "yellow" room (each of the five performance rooms were dubbed a
color,
and the sixth room was were the coat check, EMS and other functional
things
such as the exit vestibule were setup). When we entered, it seemd like
people were leaving, and Bandulu had just stopped playing a live song.
Bandulu (at least two of them - I'd heard that there were 3
originally???)
were just stopping in between songs, and we were able to catch 20 - 30
minutes of their set, which was really nice sounding - but the sound
quality
in that room wasn't the best. They played 5-6 unrecognized songs, but
they
were all harder and dryer than the stuff that I know from Bandulu - but
very
nice, and the gents were REALLY getting down. They were tweaking so
hard
and sweating like crazy all the while smiling and it seemed as if they
were
in awe of everything like most of the crowd.after Bandulu we made a long
treck to the "Orange" room to see Chris Liebing. I have NEVER seen a
happier guy while spinning records (save Derrick May a long time ago).
Chris was not only hamming it up into the cameras that were placed on
the
turntables very close to the arms, but he was doing some really nice
mixing
with what appeared to be three tables, and he was changing the tempo of
the
entire mix at one point with both tables at the same time (I was
dumbfounded). He also had some effects that I had never seen before,
that
were making crazy nosies and drum rolls (which I now find, are something
like the new Pioneer DJM3000 will have). He played a really great mix
of
electro sounding techno and went into a real New Wave portion that
included,
Jori Hulkkonen's remix of Corey Heart's "sunglasses at night" that just
made
the occasion. He played the Umek remix of "I feel Loved", and really
milked
the crowd for energy. About 1/2 or 3/4 into his set, one needle started
going, and they didn't seem to have one handy - and it skipped really
bad
about six or seven times on consecutive records on that table, and then
about 10 to 15 minutes later another started going, and they didn't
replace
that one until about an hour and a half later During Hawtin (read:
later).
Through the smiling and laughing and jumping around behind the decks,
everyone in the whole place was so enthralled and in disbelief - I had
many
people just keep coming up to me and talking about how well Chris was
playing, and how much fun they were having - I even had a guy come up
and
pound his fist and scream out of enthusiasm and tell me, "I came all the
way
from Beirut just to see this party!!!..... ... where are you from?".
When
I answered Chicago, he inquired, "you're American??". On my nod he just
stopped talking and turned away and walked off, going back to his
energetic
hooting and hollering.
After Liebing, we were off to the "Red" room to see Christian Varela do
a
live set, of which I was very interested to see what he would do. Let
me
preface his act by saying that we saw Speedy J at I Love Techno last
year,
and it was hands down the best live show I'd ever seen! (better than
some
rare Rob Hood shows, Laurent Garnier and his band, and even Richie as
Plastikman). I truely think that Speedy J is a musical genious the way
he
stroked the crowd and really held us all in his faders as he played
classics
and dancfloor stompers. With that in thought, I had no clue that
Christian
Varela would redifine live sets, with his impromptu set and the way he
and
his colleagues kept going off. The "Red" room was situated so that
immediately after you walked into the room, you were walking underneath
a
huge stage that made like a bridge and pointed away from the main area
of
the expo (unlike the rest of the rooms, whose stages were at the far end
of
the rooms pointing at the entrance). The stage was facing away from the
door, and after walking under it there was a HUGE crowd awaiting Varela
as
Dave Clarke was finishing up by Tearing up some old electro. This room
was
not only full, it was about 90 degrees F, and completely soaked due to
the
amount of people dancing. After Clarke stopped, there were several
miscues
with Varela and some other guys standing at different points on the
bridge
on the right hand side. It kind of came down to the floor in ten foot
"steps" and there was about ten feet of room between where each "step"
droped out. there were three of them, and then the main stage on top.
Varela was located on the first step down with a huge mixing consloe and
what appeared to be (from my bad angle) a bunch of midi controllers and
midi
effects controllers. On top of the stage (or bridge) was a guy with the
most elaborate drum pad setup, I've ever seen used for techno. he had
about
12 pads in front of him, an 8 or ten pad kit on his right, and another 4
or
six pad box on his left and two intense controllers, one of which was
the
alesis air effects, with that drum roll effect. on the third step down
was
another guy, with a fully mic-ed acoustic Bongo. A fourth musicain
stood
next to the guy with bongos, and had a limited drum pad and an air
effects.
The lights went out, and the guy on top (who was a hell of a drummer - I
might add) just started going to town with some really killer beats and
some
really nice tribal patches on his drum pads. He went on for about a
minute
or so, and just when people were starting to get into his groove, the
lights
flashed around, and varela and the other guys started pounding away, and
the
Kick punched in! The sound wasn't as good as the orange room, but it
didn't
need to be. The very crisp drum kits and absolutely amazing riffs were
lifting everyone off of their feet. At one point, my wife commented on
how
you culd feel the community in the room, drawn together by the beat of
the
drums. The Bongo player was also extremely gifted, his hands flying
faster
than my eyes could keep time with. The breakdown were simply amazing,
with
Varela controlling the gate on the drums and pulling some waning synths
in
and out of the set for about fourty minutes. It was one of those sets
that
you just danced so hard and think about later, while slack-jawed. It
was SO
impressive. I still can't figure out why Varela was wearing Dark
sunglasses
in the extremely dark room (must have been inspired by Jori Hulkkonen's
remix ;)
After Varela, we headed were headed to see Slam live (who only
played
for 30 minutes) but by the time we met our friends from Chicago, we had
missed the performance. We set off to the Orange room to see Richie
Hawtin,
(who I've seen some 30-40 times and about 10 in the last few months).
Let's
just say I wasn't SUPER excited to see him, but he always plays much
funkier
(if Hawtin can ever be Funky ;) overseas. He'd already been playing for
about 30 minutes when we caught him, and he was playing exactly what I
was
expecting, having seen him a month or so before - playing a very "closer
to
the edit" heavy mix with Two Tables and a Laptop running FinalScratch.
The
finalScratch was very noticable from teh rear of the room (the sound of
it
anyways - the mp3s) or so I thought. Once we got close, it was very
hard to
tell - either that, or his quality of mp3s was different after we were
closer to the stage. People really go crazy for Hwatin over there, and
as
the people were really starting to get rowdy, and jump around, Hawtin
opened
up like I've rarely seen. He started getting a bit housy, playing some
tunes with House oriented drumkits, and then went full-on playing Mojito
by
C. Smith, and Compressed (Drum Code 2) by Beyer (which is rare for
Hawtin -
IMO) - and then just started playing the coolest tracks off the laptop,
songs that had amazing basslines and really nice almost off pattern
synth
stabs and lines. At this point, there was a guy standing right in front
of
the stage with a huge poster pointed at richie. for about fifteen
minutes
Richie didn't see it. The guy turned around a little bit, and we could
see
that it was a blown up picture of the guy with Richie, in a picture that
appeared to be taken by himself with his arm outstretched. It was
incredibly hilarious, the blank look richie had, and the crazy smile the
other guy had. About five minutes later, Richie spyed the poster, and
not
only SMILED, but started laughing. I kid you not. The man with the
iron
glance was full on laughing. ( I think its the first time I have ever
seen
him laughing during a set). At the same time as this was going on, the
needle on one of the tables was getting so bad, that it was skipping
every
time Richie put it on a record. Instead of getting pissed and throwing
something or yelling at someone he just took the needl off and played on
the
laptop until someone came with a replacement. All this time he was
still
laughing, and joking with the guy he asked for a needle, and the track
selection became impeccable. Perfect. He was playing tunes I'd never
heard, and probably won't hear ever again - and they absolutely fit the
moment. He played the "happiest" set I've ever seen him play.
After catching our wind after Richie's longer set, we headed over to see
Stanny Franssen, of whom we are acquantiances, and we continued to be
blown
away. Stanny was doing all sorts of beat matching tricks, like matching
a
half or quarter beat, and cuttin in and out all crazy and making it
sound SO
good. We talked a bit to his wife, and danced like mad to his set.
After
his set we met with our friends and called it a night, as we were
severely
wiped out from flying and from playing the night before.
I hope you all have a chance to see something like this, as it is
something
I'll have a really hard time forgetting.
Cheers all,
Dennis
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