It sure was a hot one yesterday. With the intense heat from the sun and all the hot music going on, you could say that I was overheated by the end of the night. I got down to Hart Plaza around 4:00PM and immediately headed over to the Beatport stage to check out The Martinez Brothers, and of course they were tearing it up with excellent House music and a contagious vibe. After I was done watching them I strolled along to the main stage to check out DJ Pierre who was mixing some serious Acid House. After him was Larry Heard rocking some good old Chicago classics. I was excited to see him because I have so many of his records but had never seen him in person, and he delivered exactly what I expected. I was just wandering around after him and ended up at the Torino stage where Orlando Voorn was twisting it up with effects and midi controllers. He also had two electronic drummers providing a nice live element to the set. This one really impressed me, and makes me want to get a percussionist for when I spin. After refueling and meeting up with some friends I went to the pyramid stage to peep out a hometown Hip-Hop favorite, Guilty Simpson, along with Phat Kat and the Will Sessions Band. They tore it up for sure. I’ve seen them together before and I just love how they play J.Dilla tracks live, “Take Notice” being my favorite. After that I headed downstairs for Rolando, an oldschool favorite of mine, who was ripping up some Detroit Techno and Electro. This is when the night took a drastic turn for me. I went over to the Movement Torino stage to witness Derrick May absolutely tearing it to shreds. Playing his mix of hard, jazzy, deep Detroit Techno had everybody losing their minds. I hung out here for a while and didn’t want to leave but also needed video of Derrick Carter, so I headed to the main stage to check him out. I’m glad I did because like May, Carter was also destroying it. Looking at everyone in the bottom bowl crowd surfing and bouncing all over was quite inspirational to say the least. I made my way through the massive crowd back down to the underground to see Robert Hood. I’m always impressed with the sound quality of his sets and am always flipped out by his alien sounds and deep bass. He was using some kind of sampler/drum machine that had some killer sounding hi-hats. The last act to go on was Inner City and they ended off on a positive note with uplifting Detroit House music. There classic, “Big Fun” was a hit that stood out to me in their set. Overall this day was great. It made me think about what seperated all the new DJs out there with their fancy computers from the oldschool cats. Most of the artists on Sunday were founders and creators of our music, and they provided an electric vibe that hightened my awareness. Maybe because they use vinyl, maybe because they don’t fuck up, or maybe they just got soul. Either way I’m glad they educated the crowd with the spirit of Detroit the way it should be done. Proper!
I always look forward to the first day of Movement, everythings all fresh and clean, not yet defiled by a constant stream of ravers, freaks, tech-heads, and all around partiers. The weather was great yesterday, almost too hot. When we got Downtown, to my horrific surprise, the lot on top of Cobo was closed and we had to seek alternate parking. We usually park here because of its the only lot where you can truly tailgate and enjoy some pre-festival refreshments. Anyway, parked, found the ticket-for-wristband exchange quite quick and hassle free, and no line to even wait in to enter, a definite plus. Grabbed a cold beer, and found a shady spot over at the Beatport stage to catch part of Ida Engberg’s set, bangin’ techno that had people all hyped up. It seemed to be getting hotter, so next we headed over to the Real Detroit/underground stage for some shade. Got to catch some of Nico Marks set, house and techno, with lots of people dancing, and a good overall vibe. After just kinda wandering around for awhile, met up with some friends, and went over too see Paco Osuna bang it the fuck out. Now one thing that seemed really fucked up last night was the drink situation. Two friends of mine had the same situation; wait in a long ass line for a mixed drink, only to find out that they only have Triple Sec, and they can’t sell it. Then wait in a beer ine to be told they dont have any cold beer. For real, it’s only the first day, lets get this shit locked down for the rest of the weekend. Later in the evening, made it down to the Real Detroit stage to catch Rick Wilhite and Theo Parrish’s sets. Rick Wilhite brought some jumpin’ house that had the crowd dancing the hold time and asking for more. Theo Parrish brought some really downtempo, funky, house with the BPM’s floating around at 100 it seemed. We then headed over too hear the end of Josh Winks set; really not that impressive, and his computer ended up totally glitching out at one point. Plastikman was awesome, definetly one of the better Ritchie performances I have seen in some years. The visuals were crazy, and he brought that old school Plastikman sound with 909 drums and drippy, acid lines, all accented with lots of delay and echo. Only thing that sucked was the fuckin crowd. That shit was unbearable with all the shoving. Didn’t end up after-partying, but looking forward to a full day today. Peace.
Well, it’s finally that time of year again. I’ll be heading out here shortly to Hart Plaza for 3 days of electronic music days and afterparty debauchery nights. Lot’s goin’ on, so check back periodically throughout the weekend for updates and videos.
Last night I made a trip down to 5&10(on Woodward, near Oslo) to see a friend of ours, Walter Glasshouse, spin at a party that was featuring Stacey “Hot Wax” Hale. Check out his bio here, and download one of the DJ mixes, you’ll be glad you did. Here’s a little video of his set last night.
Just recently receiving Beatport’s album of the week, Guillame and the Coutu Dumonts latest release proves to be rather impressive. His blend of Deep House and Minimal Techno creates for a chilled out dance experience where subtle hotness rules the realm. Check it out for yourself at Beatport. Speaking of Beatport, I think it would be a great idea for them to have a way to embed a player similar to Soundcloud’s on to any site. Don’t you? Then you could listen to this new album and still browse The Detroit Techno House.
So, it’s looking like the Memorial weekend is gonna be off the chain again this year. Every year, I probably look forward to this weekend more than any other. And for those of us that make it each year, we know it’s really all about the after parties. Needless to say, I’ve spent some time hyping myself up and geeking out in anticipation of 2010, and this Metroplex 25th party keeps grabbing my attention every time I see a mention of it. Talk about a sick line-up: Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Eddie Fowlkes, Ben Sims, and Rob Hood just to name a few. I mean Metroplex is such a seminal piece of history in the Detroit area, it almost feels mandatory to go give some love. More to come soon, gotta get back to geeking out…….peace.
Don’t mean to be overly “hawtiny” but there seems to be a plethora of video out on him lately and with Movement coming up I thought this should apply. Check out Richie Hawtin talking bout his Plastikman setup for Coachella.
Sunday night found me down at the Majestic for a night of hip-hop beats and other off-kilter trickery. I saw Glitch Mob at Movement last May, and they blew it the fuck up then, so I was definitely looking forward to this show. We arrived to see the last half of Deru’s set. To be honest, it was not overly impressive, just some looped out boom-bap beats, nothin fancy. Free The Robots took over next, and this dude had some pretty twisted, quirky beats. What sucked was they had his sound all low, so he really couldn’t rock it out; I was kinda disappointed, because his set seemed pretty cool. Glitch Mob went on around eleven with a huge amount of gear. Bass guitar, drum pad triggers, keyboards, and some cool looking MIDI controllers(Jazzmutant Lemurs I think). They had some great stage presence, but the sound was totally different from what I remember from the last time I saw these guys play. Last may it was glitched out, micro-sampled hip-hop insanity. This time it was slower beats, more atmospheric, almost like Glitch Mob is slowly becoming a strange indie rock band with electronic tendencies. I thought it was a cool sound, but not really what I was expecting. Check out the video, and you be the judge. On a different tip, this was my first time out since the smoking ban, kinda weird not seeing the Majestic in a cloud of smoke, but definitely nice to leave not stinking like hell and sinuses all fucked up. Peace.
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