On 6/25/06, Wojtek [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
It's written by a listmember, too, Dan Bean. Speaking of Beatdown,
from what I got from this article, beatdown is more a style of playing
than a genre in itself. The pitched down, deep (however one chooses to
define the word seems to fit) tracks that straddle the line between
chunky tunes to chill to and funky (Mike Clark even played Abe Duque's
What happened? at a way-pitched down tempo when I saw him a few
months back, making it into a whoole new listening/dancing experience),
groovy tunes to dance to, for lack of a better, or more accurate,
description.
there's definitely a loose style of music that those guys all tend to
make as well, though overall the beatdown thing is a manner of playing
records more than anything else. whats great about the music is how
different it can all be while still fitting into the general way those
guys play records. all of the beatdown crew and the 3 chairs crew plus
omar-s and reggie dokes and mike grant and a bunch of other lesser
known detroit house people are the people i buy most of my new house
music from. plus they are all excellent deejays. its pretty
ridiculous.
one thing about it that im pretty sure is definitely an influence to
them all is the weeds. a friend of mine calls the music i like stoner
house and it really is true, it sounds good regularly but under the
influence it really shines. especially late at night when everyone is
really just on that borderline between awakeandintoxicated and asleep,
drop some slow theo jams and youll start to understand why those
records sound the way that they do!
I'm surprised that no listmembers have given their account of the
Beatdown night last month during the fest weekend. Delano Smith, Mike
Clark, and Norm Talley were in full force and spun some good @ss house
that Sunday night at the Porter Street Station.
yeah, i missed out on their thing this year. caught them in 04 at
agave when their sunday night gig was there, it was really awesome.
those guys are always on point. norm has been to pittsburgh twice in
the last couple years, and he's killed it here every time. which is no
small feat since almost no one cares about house music here.
The venue at and the crowd at that show really gave me an impression of
what the experience might have been like during the late 80's at the
Music institute, where the place was dark, the music was jacking, local
people (not just the folks from the suburbs) danced like they didn't
care and good times were had by all (or so the story goes, anyway).
yeah that night i caught at agave was all older black folks, people
were there getting down. it was very awesome.
On the festival grounds, Robert Hood at the end of the first day on the
main stage was the highlight of that day for me (along with Mike Clark
earlier that day). He played a lot of hard, minimal, funky tracks, a
few of his own, something from Minimal Nation (I think
it was minus from MN, my favorite track of his. i was quite ecstatic
to hear him drop that!
Sunday was a chill day for me (and the festival lin-up wasn't all that
exciting), and on the last night Derrick May, Mike Huckaby and Louie
Vega were the highlights. Derrick kept the pace of Beyer for about a
half hour, and then played his signature tribal and melodic stuff.
Some newer, unfamiliar to me tracks, a really cool funk/disco song
after his signature acapella track, and some newer, almost
electro/industrial tracks towards the end. The last track he played
was rather interesting, a pacey beat, with a reverbed, dubbed out
guitar riff, a rather melancholic sounding piece.
Mike Huckaby played some nice house at the end of monday on the
riverfront stage stage, a bit of modymann, and a new track at the end
that D. May played before the end of his set also. Looks a like a new
white label (anyone have info on what it was?). Louie Vega played a
nice garage-y set earlier on the same stage, which kept the crowd happy
and dancing, in spite of the early afternoon heat.
yeah i agree with all of that, louie vega especially. his productions
recently have been too bland for my tastes so i expected alot of that
really clean latin sounding vibe from him, but he just killed it
instead. he played all over the place, and it was pretty awesome.
huckaby is the man, he was the perfect way to end the festival for
sure, chilling out relaxing by the river looking at windsor while huck
played some deep jams. lovely!
It was also nice to meet of few of you guys in person (Fred and Dan
Bean at the Beatdown show) and Tom Cox driving down Woodward on his way
to white castle :o)
haha, im really glad you posted this because i couldnt remember who it
was that i ran into there (i wonder why?!?!?!)! that was quite an
amusing meetup, around like 3:30 AM rolling down woodward blasting
some 3 chairs...
i never posted my review of the festival, and im still to exhausted
from it and getting married last week to really get into
