Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Home sweet home


Just a short notice as regards my DJ-ing in Riga (pictured on the left).






Tonight, 30.10.2007 -> together with DJ Kone at Pulkvedis. Expect playing out my new records and all-time hits.

Fri, 2.11.2007 -> I'm warming up for Kollektiv Turmstrasse at Space:Garage. KT comes from Hamburg, which is very special city for me, and they have scored with such hits as Grillen Im Park, Tristesse and others. You, after all, should now them if you have been following what was going on in the minimal camp this year. And they play live!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Anthems and chansons


Last Saturday at Brussels' Fuse was totally mind-blowing, the best party I've seen there so far. Actually few things were on agenda: first, lessizmore (a label, promoters and booking agency, promoting quality new techno) celebrated its birthday in the small room with an eclectic yet impressive line-up, starring Nôze with a live performance and DJ sets from Dave Aju and Mathias Kaden, whereas the big floor hosted We Are Punks — Datapunk label night featuring Xenia Beliayeva and Frank Kusserow on turntables and the Master of robots Anthony Rother with a live show.

After warm-up sets by the resident-DJs, Kusserow and Dave Aju took over the parade. Kusserow seemed to be fine, but I preferred seeing the Aju's set in the small room, which was definitely a good choice. His selection ranged from phat and funky microhouse to nu-disco to some obscure stuff. Very interesting, rather eclectic, but with his particular flavour — slightly sick, bassy and groovy. Be sure to check his own productions — his recent release on Circus Company, for instance. Actually one of my favourite tunes lately is his remix of Max Brannslokker's Teika.

The next one was Nôze — two fancy dressed Frenchmen armed with laptops, microphones and an analogue synth. Actual singing in that special French artsy way on clicky beats (though I suspect it was sync lipped, but who cares), funny lyrics, having an easy attitude (drinking champagne during the show and making funny comments/interludes between songs) and the elegant suites and hats made them look so different from the most of the minimal community artists. The special moments included hits like Love Affair (I brush my teeth and I'm ready for a love affair), Kitchen and Remember. Oh, that was damn funky!

But no time for relaxing, A.Rother had already switched on his artillery of synths, drum machines and vocoders, so I rushed downstairs. The floor was fully crowded, but after a while I succeeded to find my own space for dancing and observing. The first beats were OK — typical electro groove backed by synth chords, but it was all familiar. However, gradually the course of things got hotter, and Rother animated the atmosphere by singing, quite using a vocoder (of course). It was somewhere at the middle of the show, when happened this: apparently a well known anthem started, and as the first chords appeared the full room of people started wordless chanting along (as if it was some sports match at a stadium), then beat dropped and everybody went crazy. Rother leaned towards a mic, singing something like "If you asked me what do you think, I would say there is no future". In the middle of the song in two front corners of the dancefloor two guys appeared handing out long, thin glow sticks — green from one side, blue from another side. In a second, a half of the crowd was waving green sticks, while the rest half had blue "antennas". Still singing, some people raised heart shapes made out of the sticks. That was absolutely fantastic, such a unifying and uplifting feeling. That particular moment brought back the idea of rave movement, and suddenly the entire PLUR thing made sense. Rother looked touched as well, he thanked the crowd sincerely many times.

After such emotional performance, I wasn't really sure about myself to be able to enjoy more minimal stuff again, but anyway I went to check Mathias Kaden out. My first reservations faded away as soon as I got to the small room. It was also packed with people, moving to Kaden's kicking beats. He was surprisingly good — with utmost precision and dedication blending tunes that focus on different drum patterns, somewhat reminding his own recent releases (particularly Myal EP). On the good soundsystem these kind of beats were irresistible, and sure the guys has a talent, both as a DJ and a producer. I moved along as long I had energy for doing that, and even missed Xenia's set.

Oh, what a night, hadn't had such a good time on a floor for quite long time. Regarding Fuse, there are remarkable artists almost every Saturday, as one can see at their agenda: 20.10. James Holden & Fairmont (Border Community); 27.10. Monika Krause & Paco Osuna; 3.11. Lessizmore present Tolga Fidan & Wighnomy Brothers; 10.11. Toys For Boys label night; 17.11. The Black Dog.