Kevin Saunderson & Abril Aril Brikha – live @ 20 Yrs Cafe D’Anvers 31-OCT-2009

DETROIT: 2010 marks the 25th Anniversary of the seminal Detroit Techno imprint, MetroPlex Records, founded by Techno pioneer, Juan Atkins, member of of the legendary precursor group Cybotron. MetroPlex affiliates and other Detroit Techno dons such as Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig celebrate with Atkins at a Techno-star-studded party Thursday, 01.14.10 in Detroit. Welcome to the future. | Anniversary Party | Juan Atkins | MetroPlex Discography

By MIKE RUBIN

Published: December 4, 2009

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IT was at a party in 1970 that Ralf Hütter first glimpsed the potential power of the Man Machine. Kraftwerk, the avant-garde musical group he had founded that year with Florian Schneider in Düsseldorf, Germany, was playing a concert at the opening of an art gallery, a typical gig at the time. Trying to channel the energy of the Detroit bands it admired, like the Stooges and MC5, the duo had augmented its usual arsenal of Mr. Schneider’s flute and Mr. Hütter’s electric organ with a tape recorder and a little drum machine, and they were whipping the crowd into a frenzy with loops of feedback and a flurry of synthetic beats.

As the show climaxed, Mr. Hütter recalled: “I pressed some keys down on my keyboard, putting some weight down on the keys, and we left the stage. The audience at the party was so wild, they kept dancing to the machine.”

Thus began a careerlong obsession with the fusion of man and technology. It would take four more years (and three largely instrumental records of electro-acoustic improvisation) before Kraftwerk heralded the coming of electronic pop on its landmark 1974 album “Autobahn,” and another four years before the members proclaimed themselves automatons on “The Robots,” the band’s de facto theme song from 1978’s “The Man-Machine” album. But even in 1970 the hum of what Mr. Hütter calls electrodynamics was buzzing in his veins.

“This rhythm, industrial rhythm, that’s what inspires me,” Mr. Hütter, 63, said. “It’s in the nature of the machines. Machines are funky.”

Few bands have done more to promote that once incongruous concept than Kraftwerk. Though its image shifted over the years from conservatory longhairs to Weimar-era dandies to stylized mannequin machines, it consistently provided a blueprint for the circuitry of modern pop music. David Bowie, an early adapter, channeled the band’s chilly vibes for his late ’70s “Berlin Trilogy,” and in the early 1980s synth pop groups like Human League and Depeche Mode followed suit.

Kraftwerk also became the unlikely godfather of American hip-hop and black electronic dance music, inspiring pioneers in the South Bronx and Detroit. Today Kraftwerk’s resonance can be heard in works as varied as Radiohead and the Auto-Tuned hip-hop of Kanye West and T-Pain.

“Kraftwerk were a huge influence on the early hip-hop scene, and they basically invented electro, which has had a huge influence on contemporary R&B and pop,” the techno artist Moby said. “Kraftwerk are to contemporary electronic music what the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are to contemporary rock music.”

Yet 35 years after “Autobahn” Kraftwerk remains relatively anonymous, thanks largely to a carefully crafted cloak of secrecy, one that an hourlong phone conversation last month with Mr. Hütter from Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang Studio outside Düsseldorf failed to penetrate significantly. On topics ranging from the band’s creative hibernation of the last quarter-century (only two albums of new material since 1981’s “Computer World”) to Mr. Schneider’s departure from the group late last year, Mr. Hütter was pleasant but revealed little. “It’s important for me that the music speak for itself,” he said.

This month the music should do just that with the release of “The Catalogue” (Astralwerks/EMI), a boxed set of newly remastered versions of the band’s last eight albums, beginning with “Autobahn” and including all of the records with the so-called classic Kraftwerk lineup: Mr. Hütter, Mr. Schneider and the electronic percussionists Wolfgang Flur and Karl Bartos. (Five of the remastered albums are also available individually.) Like Mr. Hütter’s infrequent interviews, “The Catalogue” doesn’t divulge much that fans don’t already know. There are no liner notes, no unreleased tracks, no digital mini-documentaries, just some additional photos and revised album graphics.

The music, however, is much more generous. The remasters render Kraftwerk’s glistening, icy textures even more shimmering and crystalline, the repetition more entrancing. “Autobahn,” for example, welds a bouncy Beach Boys harmony to the hypnotic 4/4 motorik beat pioneered by the German band Neu! (whose Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother were part of an early Kraftwerk lineup) to create a 22-minute synthesizer symphony evoking a pleasant highway drive. (A three-minute edit of the song reached No. 25 on Billboard’s singles chart in 1975, the group’s only hit in the United States.)

“For the first time, I think the music sounds the way we always heard it and produced it in our Kling Klang Studio,” Mr. Hütter said.

After “Autobahn,” albums like “Radio-Activity” (1976) and “Trans-Europe Express” (1977) further refined the group’s experimental pop sensibility. Borrowing from the German tradition of sprechgesang, or spoken singing, Mr. Hütter’s flat, affectless voice — sometimes treated with a vocoder to further dehumanize it — is an odd match for the band’s lilting music-box melodies. “What I try to do on the synthesizers,” Mr. Hütter said, “is sing with my fingers.”

But for some critics the group’s synthetic songs just didn’t compute. “Fun plus dinky doesn’t make funky no matter who’s dancing to what program,” Robert Christgau wrote of “Computer World” in The Village Voice. “Funk has blood in it.”

Such distinctions didn’t seem to matter to club crowds: New York’s downtown scene embraced the group. François Kevorkian, a D.J. at underground clubs in the late ’70s and early ’80s, would use Kraftwerk to blend tracks by Fela Kuti and Babatunde Olatunji into his sets. “What was really remarkable was that their music was getting played just as much at Paradise Garage as it was getting played at the Mudd Club, and there were very, very few records that had that ability to cross over between all the different scenes,” said Mr. Kevorkian, who would later work with the band on its “Electric Cafe” album. “Kraftwerk was, like, universal.”

Kraftwerk had long been a staple of the D.J. sets of Afrika Bambaataa in the South Bronx, and in 1982 he and the producer Arthur Baker decided to combine the melody from “Trans-Europe Express” (which Mr. Baker had noticed kids playing on boom boxes in a Long Island City, Queens, park) and the rhythm pattern of “Numbers” (which Mr. Baker had seen wow customers at a Brooklyn record store). The result was the pioneering 12-inch single “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force.

“I’m trying to remember a record that created that much mayhem on the dance floor when it first came out, and I can’t,” Mr. Kevorkian said of the reaction to “Planet Rock.” Most early hip-hop songs were slow, “from 90 beats per minute to 110,” Mr. Bambaataa said. “We went to 130 beats per minute, and from that came Latin freestyle, Miami bass and all that.”

“All that” encompassed an entirely new genre, electro, which paved an alternate route for hip-hop. It’s hard to imagine the productions of Timbaland or the Neptunes without the innovations of “Planet Rock,” and its repercussions can still be heard the world over, from Bay Area hyphy to Brazilian baile funk.

The roots of techno wind their way back to Düsseldorf too. In Detroit the radio D.J. Charles Johnson — better known as the Electrifying Mojo — built a fervent following on the urban contemporary station WGPR-FM in the late ’70s and early ’80s by ignoring the rigid formatting of other local stations. He had fished a copy of “Autobahn” out of the discard bin at a previous station and soon acquired a copy of “Trans-Europe Express.” “It was the most hypnotic, funkiest, electronic fusion energy I’d ever heard,” Mr. Johnson said. Kraftwerk became a staple of Mojo’s show “The Midnight Funk Association.” When “Computer World” came out, Mr. Johnson played almost every song on the album each night, making a lasting impression on a generation of musicians.

“Before I heard ‘The Robots’ I wasn’t really using sequencers and I was playing everything by hand, so it sounded really organic, really flowing, really loose,” the Detroit D.J. and producer Juan Atkins said. “That really made me research getting into sequencing, to give everything that real tight robotic feel.”

Over the next several years Mr. Atkins, along with his high school friends Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, would become the pioneers of techno, which Mr. May once famously described as being “like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company.”

Techno would eventually explode internationally in 1988, with raves in London and trance in Goa, India. Back in Detroit, “Computer World” would assume the status of a sacred text. Kraftwerk was “considered like gods,” said Carl Craig, a Detroit techno producer. “Black people could relate to it because it was like James Brown. It was just this kind of relentless groove.” Mad Mike Banks, founder of the Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance, said he considered the song “Numbers,” from “Computer World,” the “secret code of electronic funk.”

“That track hit home in Detroit so hard,” Mr. Banks said. “They had just created the perfect urban music because it was controlled chaos, and that’s exactly what we live in.”

For Kraftwerk it’s a civic connection that has come full circle. In the last decade Mr. Hütter has developed relationships with some Detroit artists he inspired, including Mr. Banks. It seems to be a kind of “brotherhood, like Düsseldorf and Detroit,” Mr. Hütter said, saying he’s fascinated “that this music from two industrial centers of the world, with different cultures and different history, suddenly there’s an inspiration and a flow going back and forth. It’s fantastic.

“All this positive energy, this feedback coming back to me, is charging our battery, and now we’re full of energy. It keeps my Ralf robot going.”

Indeed, compared with Kraftwerk’s near invisibility throughout most of the ’80s and ’90s, the last few years have seen a relative flurry of Kraftwerk activity. Laptops have allowed the group to take its Kling Klang Studio on the road, so it has been touring regularly, adding 3-D graphics to the live show this year. Now that “The Catalogue” is completed, Mr. Hütter has promised a new Kraftwerk album soon, which would mark the band’s first recording without Mr. Schneider. If Mr. Hütter has any reservations about working without his musical partner of four decades, he kept them to himself; perhaps robots are incapable of showing emotion?

“There’s so much to do,” Mr. Hütter said. “I feel like we are just starting.”

With the slay just around the corner it is time to have one last whip around the auld block and see what really happened in 2009 on the electronic scene.

Ireland was hit hard overall but clubland managed to keep its head above water. In fact it deconstructed slightly and developed some really fantastic local nights in the capital and surrounding cities. One such night is War on Friday nights at Spy. Glitter and electronic pop were the criteria while dressing up to escape from it all seemed all the rage here and abroad. Horse MEAT Disco was also a great hit with the kids at this venue and at Electric Picnic keeping the party vibe alive with the masses…

Horse MeaT Disco - take off in Ireland

Escaping was easy when Bodytonic and Nightflight gave birth to their first festival abroad in Petrcane Croatia. A 3 day event with a heavy emphasis on Irish acts such as Jape, RSAG, Barry Redsetta playing along side the Europeans Marcel Dettman, Alexander Robotnik and of course Ben Klock,  who appeared to come home with the revellers to give one of the most memorable sets of 2009 at Twisted Pepper.

Yes festival held in East Point Business Park also proved to be quite a success as the larger scale festivals such as Electric Picnic changed hands to massive promoters Festival Republic. Irish promoters are seeing the need and benefits of ‘having your own’ party and keeping it local.

One promoter who made an enormous effort in 2009 is Ronan Flynn of Subject Events, managing to bring over the Bellville 3 on separate occasions to the Pod Venue. Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and of course the ever chatty Derrick May who all performed interesting sets as the Detroit sound always shifts and changes beyond the regular 4 / 4 European effect. Innovators, gods, creators… whatever your title on this trio is, hope you at least caught one of the events. Watch the movie HIGH TECH SOUL if you are new to the world of techno… one born every day thankfully.

Dubstep seeped into every release in some shape or form with artists like Skream, Loefah, Caspa, Rusko and of course Benga all breaking top tracks and leaking them into sets across the genres. Remixing the new ladies on the block such as La Roux and Bat for Lashes, giving more dept again to some great music and opening it up to other audiences. More please!

With the FM dial only giving us a few electronic shows nationwide it was the appearance of POWER FM back on FM that made May / June of 2009 quite enjoyable to drive your car and listen to the radio. A range of shows across techno, house, soul and funk were all welcomed for 10 weekends in a row. 2010 hopes to see another 10 weekend session from

www.powerfm.org and its 45 alternative DJ’s

Music releases from the Irish was high in 2009 with Orla Feeney in the trance world. Brian Taffe assisted in remixing David De Valera on Club 66 records with the Say That EP. Glen Brady flew all over Europe djing and released several new tracks. Arveen joined him for the Resistance Tour where djing sent a strong message to the masses – stop smoking and free yourself from corporations pushing addictive substances on your soul! Arveen and Misk also had a busy year on their own tour around Ireland.

Corks Mark O Sullivan released the album ‘Fragments from a Long Country’ to great reviews on the international circuit. Dara O Neill and Mano Le Tough kept things moving in Berlin while at Sonar the FVF label tore the house down at an offshoot event in a warehouse on the outskirts of Barcelona.

Hip Hop had the heavies over to the capital with the rather large Biz Markie playing in the rather small Whelan’s and Q Tip stormed the Button Factory while people queued around the corner to get in!

Shit Robot aka Marcus Lambkin gave us Simple Things (Work It Out) released on the ever reliable DFA label. An album is on the cards from the Robot in 2010 as is one from DJ Kormac and his Big Band…..

The Trinity Rooms in Limerick had a wild night with one big techy mouse DeadMau5 in June. While Greg and Shane celebrated 21 years of FISH GO DEEP back in February in the Pavilion in Cork… nothing going to stop those lads. Northern Irelands Jet Project aka Timmy Stewart and John McIver released ‘Heads in the Clouds’ album on Darkroom Dubs Label. . .

Looking for something to do instead of the office Xmas party then hit The Good Bits for Neil Landstrumm, Sunil Sharpe and also Lief Ryan hitting the decks….  December 18^th… see you there…

My promoter of the 2009 would have to be Choice Cuts for always taking risks and never giving in to the latest trends. Keeping it real and packing out venues with quality local dj’s and international acts while giving bands such as Hypnotic Brass Ensemble a new home on Irish shores. www.choicecuts.ie

Looking for something to do instead of the  ghastly office Xmas party then hit The Good Bits in Dublin as N.O.S and Surge present Neil Landstrumm, Sunil Sharpe and also Lief Ryan(Growth Recordings) hitting the decks December 18^th or NYE at Electric Avenue in Waterford Sunil plays again.

I have one wish on my list this year – as we look towards 2010 we live in hope that licensing laws may change to allow club hours to extend further into the night. As predicted public order offences have not decreased as a result of early closing times…Staggered closures will give promoters a chance to allow international acts longer sets, give punters value for money and create more jobs within the entertainment industry all round and add to tourism overall. At present with club times in sync with bars no one is winning. Being completely European now – There is room for change….!

Catch Claire on Decks and the City www.powerfm.org Friday nights 11 – 1 am

stylusmagazine.com says “The sound of classic Detroit Techno is eerily detached and mechanical (influenced by the city’s industrial roots, as well as by synthesizer-based music like Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, the B-52s, Prince, and New Order), but it is also smooth and soulful, making the music uplifting and dark all at once.” Which is very much true. Detroit techno began in the 1980s by people like Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson.

The three individuals most closely associated with the birth of Detroit techno as a genre are Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, also known as the “Belleville Three”. These three high school friends from the Detroit suburb would soon find their basement tracks in dancefloor demand, thanks in part to seminal Detroit radio personality The Electrifying Mojo. Ironically, Derrick May once described Detroit techno music as being a “complete mistake…like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator, with only a sequencer to keep them company.”

Last Monday I got a change to go see Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig(another detroit techno legendary) DJ at TV Lounge in Detroit and they surely showed their detroit techno roots.

wikipedia is a great resource for more on detroit techno, listing artists and such

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_techno

you might also want to check out the Detroit Techno Militia website

http://www.detroittechnomilitia.com/main/

Kevin Saunderson & Aril Brikha – Live @ 20 Years Cafe D’Anvers

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Kevin Saunderson & Aril Brikha – Live @ 20 Years Cafe D’Anvers

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Kevin Saunderson – Special Siglo 21 Radio3

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Kevin Saunderson – Special Siglo 21 Radio3

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Desde Detroit, se extendió al este y al oeste de Estados Unidos como un virus, utilizando microchips, circuitos y cables. Es mutante, y dividido entre cada una de sus propias características – ghetto duro, profundo, y dubero, minimalista, melódico y ambiental, cargado de percusiones, y sonidos ácidos – todos diferentes, pero todos con la marca indeleble del Detroit techno siempre estampado en sus genes.

Lo que comenzó como un proyecto después de la escuela para Derrick May, Juan Atkins y Kevin Saunderson a mediados de la década de 1980, se convirtió en uno de los géneros más apasionantes de la música moderna que conoce el hombre. Un cuarto de siglo más tarde, el techno es tan emocionante como lo fue siempre.

La tecnología, la electrónica, y los sueños de muchos han contribuido a su evolución, pero ¿cómo hemos llegado hasta aquí? Un intento de construir una línea de tiempo para cualquier género musical sería una tarea colosal, por eso hablaremos estrictamente de techno y no profundizaremos en la cantidad de variaciones que tiene este genero.

Por eso, les ofrecemos 20 pistas de antepasados techno que se sienten parte integral del desarrollo del género. Esta lista podría correr y correr, y hay probablemente miles de temas dignos de ser incluidos, pero esperamos que los aficionados al techno esten acuerdo en la importancia de estos artistas y de sus registros.

Éstos son 20 temas que cada aficionado debe saber acerca de techno (por todos los medios, siéntase libre de añadir sus propias sugerencias a esta lista en la sección de comentarios abajo).

01. Terrace – War Zone (Motor City Mix) [Djax-Up-Beats] (1990)

02. Joey Beltram – Energy Flash [R&S] (1990)

03. Public Energy – Three O’ Three [Probe Records] (1991)

04. FUSE – F.U. [Probe Records] (1991)

05. CJ Bolland – Mantra [R&S Records] (1992)

06. DBX – Frogger [Probe Records] (1992)

07. Basic Channel – Axis [Basic Channel] (1993)

08. The Martian – Star Dancer [Red Planet] (1993)

09. Cari Lekebusch – Live And Direct C [H-Productions] (1994)

10. Robert Hood – Museum [Axis] (1994)

11. Neil Landstrumm – Custard Traxx [Peacefrog] (1995)

12. Carl Craig – Science Fiction [Blanco Y Negro] (1995)

13. Cristian Vogel – Bite And Scratch [Tresor] (1996)

14. Jeff Mills – The Dancer [Purpose Maker] (1996)

15. Regis – HE.3 [Downwards] (1997)

16. Steve Stoll – Captive [Proper NYC] (1997)

17. Steve Rachmad – Skyance [Music Man Records] (1998)

18. Damon Wild – 2112 [Synewave] (1998)

19. Surgeon – LaReal Part 1 – [Counterbalance] (1999)

20. Richie Hawtin – Minus Orange 1 [M_nus] (1999)

Vía: Beatportal

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Reviewed for The Dwarf

Since techno first emerged out of the underground of Detroit there has been a plethora of scenes and sub-genres that have had their moment in the spotlight. Drum n bass, garage, grime, breakbeat and trance have all had a few years of high popularity before the mainstream places them in mobile ads and the hardcore fans retreat back into the underground.

Kevin Saunderson is widely considered the don of techno and has therefore influenced all of the above styles in some form. In Detroit in the early 80s Saunderson along with Derrick May and Juan Atkins merged disco, funk and pop with the technology of the time to create the techno blueprint.

Fast forward 25 years and Saunderson is now looking back at his career with a new double cd History Elevate that collects 11 of his remixes on one disc and a bevy of remixes  of his own tracks by artists such as John Tejada, Carl Craig and Simian Mobile Disco on the other.

Disc 1 unfortunately shows how this form of music has dated. Taken out of context of the club it loses its power and hypnotic elements and you are left with fairly thin and soulless music. Many of the tracks are stripped of their identifying factors (as usually happens with dance mixes) and in the case of Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Go West’ the song is rendered unrecognisable. While the bass rolls and the cymbal splashes are liberally applied it doesn’t hide the fact that this sounds like an average 80s house mix.

Cerrone’s ‘Supernature’ is one of the few exceptions and being a disco track gives it a headstart along with the way in which Saunderson prominently retains the vocal line of the chorus.

Wee Papa Girl Rappers takes us back to that acid house collision of hip hop and house that briefly flourished in the 80s. The squelches and simplicity of the breaks are refreshing and it is bound to get the crowd on the floor even if dropped into the middle of an indie dj set.

The darkest of the remixes is The Preset’s ‘This Boy’s In Love’ which retreats nicely into minimal techno territory and does well to sparingly use Julian Hamilton’s annoying vocals.

Disc 2 gives other name producers a chance to get their hands on Saunderson’s solo work and some of his biggest tracks with Inner City. Again the results are mixes with the highlights being Carl Craig’s pounding take on Til We Meet Again with its Knight Rider-ish  bass synth and wailing gospel vocals. Ben Sims adds a shimmering trance sheen to ‘Rock To The Beat’ while ‘World Of Deep’ is turned into a strangely enjoyable blips and sonic acid tweakin’ experience.

All in all a mixed bag showing how much some of this stuff has aged. Among the duds are a few gems that may be best picked up as individual tracks from an online store. At the very least it is worth a listen for a history lesson in how modern electronic music has evolved over recent decades.

Mit dem Projekt “Inner City” gelangen Kevin “Master Reese” Saunderson in den 80er Jahren einige Hits die auch außerhalb der Techno/House-Szene wahrgenommen wurden, am bekanntesten ist sicher “Big Fun”. Dieses Stück war die Nachfolge-Single, die aber nicht mehr an den vorigen Erfolg anschließen konnte. Mir persönlich gefällt “Good Life” etwas besser, ein schönes Beispiel für massenkompatibele aber dabei nicht völlig niveaulose House-Musik mit hohem Gute-Laune-Faktor.

This documentary on the creation of Techno music changed my musical opinion dramatically. Before, i thought Techno was something for people that had no musical taste, took too many pills and didn’t seem to notice that the beats hadn’t changed for six to seven hours. Afterwards, i was forced into a deeper appreciation for the music it’s history and the feeling that it invokes upon a dance floor. What shocked me was the close association with black music it has particularly as an alternative to Hip Hop. It was created by young kids in Detroit in the mid-80’s during the aftermath of the white flight from the city. These men Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson created timeless classics such as ‘Strings of Life’ and ‘Big Fun’, the effect of these productions are still being felt today from Detroit to Techno’s new home in Berlin. This film is an absolute masterpiece and gets the TFC seal of approval.

Na Madonna op Werchter wordt het terug tijd voor iets stevigers, wat het aantal beats per minute betreft dan. We hebben dan wel Pukkelpop nog in het verschiet volgende maand, maar vorig jaar werd er onder collega’s voor het eerst geopperd om eens naar Tomorrowland te gaan. Uiteindelijk ging het niet door, o.a. omdat onze weersvoorspellers dat weekend vooral veel regen beloofden. Zaterdag was het inderdaad nogal wisselvallig, maar zondag scheen de zon vrijwel de hele dag. Dit jaar besloten we om zaterdag eens van de sfeer te gaan proeven. Ook nu weer wisselende bewolking met kans op buien in het vooruitzicht. Gelukkig zijn er in Boom genoeg tenten om in te schuilen in geval van nood. Naar het schijnt zag the place to be (De Schorre) er gisteren nog vrij drassig uit door de aanhoudende regen, zoals op de foto te zien is.

Voor de absolute leken: Tomorrowland is een tweedaags outdoor muziekfestival met enkel dancemuziek, een beetje zoals het dancegedeelte op Pukkelpop, maar een stuk breder geprogrammeerd wat muziek betreft. Absolute top of the bill is op zondag Moby, maar die zien wij dus niet. Zaterdag muziek op liefst 11 locaties, zondag is er zelfs nog één extra. Zo heb je op zaterdag de mainstage, Café d’Anvers, Q Dance, Versuz invites Dirty Dutch, Kozzmozz, Defected in the House, I Love the 90’s, Star Warz, B2B, Ketaloco en Flügel Island. Q-Dance en I Love the 90’s zijn wat mij betreft absoluut te mijden, voor de rest maakt het me vrij weinig uit.

Nochtans een heleboel grote namen op zaterdag: o.a. Felix da Housecat,  Dominik Eulberg, Kevin Saunderson, Kenny Larkin, Stacey Pullen, Derrick May, Goldie en onze eigen Soul Migrantz. We gaan ons in ieder geval proberen te amuseren, altijd én overal … zo zijn we wel!

UPDATE

Rond half 2 vertrekken we (= Kim, Patrick en ik) richting Boom en onderweg in de buurt van Antwerpen al meteen een eerste flinke bui gekregen. We parkeren op parking 1 en nemen van daaruit de pendelbus richting festivalwei. Uiteindelijk relatief snel aan onze bandjes en eet -en dranktickets geraakt. Persoonlijk vond ik de controle aan de ingang eerder matig, maar dat zal zijn omdat geen van ons een rugzak of andere persoonlijke spullen bij had. Eens binnen (rond 15u) zag je eigenlijk overal tenten opduiken in diverse hoeken, het leek een beetje op De Efteling, maar dan voor volwassenen.

We besluiten (nadat we het overzichtsplannetje hebben bestudeerd) om richting Café d’Anvers te trekken. We lopen rustig door en zien rond ons de schoonheid van De Schorre, een knap natuurgebied met rondom verschillende watergebieden. Je zag de eenden en andere watervogels aan de kant zitten, gezellig bij elkaar. Sommige vogels gingen verder met de orde van de dag, terwijl een aantal andere  beesten de dansende meute gadesloeg. Het gaf een wel heel surrealistisch beeld moet ik zeggen. Prinz gaf er ondertussen een stevige lap op aan de Cd’A stage, die omwille van de 20ste verjaardag van de Antwerpse danstempel is omgevormd tot een reuzencake met bijhorende kaarsjes. Ter plekke komen we eerder toevallig Robby, Pol en Lieselotte tegen, die ons de hele dag gezelschap houden. Waarna we aan de Kozzmozz stage een stukje Juan Atkins meepikken, alvorens we de eerste noten van Soul Migrantz in de Defected tent volgen. Wel jammer dat de video wall zo laag stond, de helft was gewoon niet zichtbaar van waar wij stonden. Ofwel had men de box waarin de dj’s stonden wat kleiner moeten maken, dat was eventueel ook een goeie optie geweest.

Aan de mainstage gingen we vervolgens even boven op de berg in het gras zitten, zodat we Dada Life en Awakening of the Mask konden volgen. Compleet met spuwende fonteintjes kwam het masker inderdaad tot leven, maar de muziek op zich klonk mij wat té gladjes, té commercieel. Volgende halte is de B2B waar we bij John OO Flemming terechtkwamen. Klonk nog wel leuk in het begin, maar werd hoe langer hoe eentoniger. Toen het aan de toog ook nog ‘No beer today, the brewer’s on congé’ klonk, verplaatsten wij ons snel naar andere oorden. Zonder bier zou het nl. al té eentonig worden.

Dat kon dan weer niet worden gezegd van Dominik Eulberg, die plaatjes draaide aan Cd’A. Het geluid ging meermaals tot aan de pijngrens en soms zelfs erover. Niet voor gevoelige oren, maar hij kreeg de massa wél aan het dansen. Van dansen krijgt een mens dorst, dus togen we richting food stand voor ‘barbecue’, die daarna vakkundig werd doorgespoeld met een mojito. Tijd om een beetje te blijven plakken en dat doen we bij Stacey Pullen en Kenny Larkin @ Kozzmozz. In de Defected tent nog een stuk David Morales gezien, maar het leukste wat ik daar hoorde was ‘Billie Jean’ van Michael Jackson en ‘Big Fun’ van Inner City. Need I say more? Voor de rest inderdaad een beetje ‘boring’.

Om het terug gezellig te maken en tevens om onze oren wat rust te gunnen zakken we af naar Cd’A voor Pig & Dan. Hier hadden we eerlijk gezegd iets meer van verwacht, ‘t was allemaal meer van hetzelfde. Een bééétje variatie kan geen kwaad, heren! We strompelden dan voor het eerst vandaag de Versuz tent binnen voor Chuckie. Met zo’n idioot dj pseudoniem ben je volgens mij enkel goed genoeg voor een B-Horror Movie of als nieuwste chimpansee-aanwinst uit de Antwerpse Zoo. Wel, Chuckie was in ieder geval een commerciële aap die zijn klassiekers kende. Daft Punk, Nirvana, The Prodigy en de intro van Queen mixen met de tekst van Oasis. Van dat soort stuff dus! Persoonlijk genoot ik nog het meest van een kerel die de hele tijd een move wilde maken bij een fanatiek dansende Lieselotte. Blijkbaar was het ‘contagious’ want toen ze zich verplaatste werd ze meteen gevolgd door nog een drietal andere bronstige beren. Fun fun fun zonder meer!

Onze tocht richting mainstage voor top of the bill Martin Solveig was veruit onze slechtste inval van de dag. Volgens mij ook al op Sensation White in Hasselt (absoluut niet aan mij besteed), ik heb er maar één woord voor: retecommercieel! We nemen afscheid van Robby, Pol en Lieselotte en steken nog snel een frietje voor we onze Tomorrowlanddag afsluiten op de plek waar we ‘m ook waren begonnen: @ Café d’Anvers. Joris Voorn zorgde daar voor een voortreffelijke eindnoot.

Na een probleemloze autorit naar huis staan we om 2u45 terug in Zonhoven op de stoep. Tomorrowland is een geweldig leuk festival met als grootste troef dat er voor elk wat wils is. Je krijgt er m.a.w. nauwelijks tijd om je te vervelen. Het publiek is vrij divers, maar toch overwegend jong grut. Doch dat vormde helemaal geen hinderpaal. Is Tomorrowland voor herhaling vatbaar? Wat mij betreft zeker wel!

by b2v

Stephan Hinz

Mirror

Kevin Saunderson

Mirror

Inner City – Praise (Mayday Mix)

The night I found out Ron Murphy had died I made a tribute mix to him.

Unmixed techno vinyl, every groove a testament to his skill and innovation.

You probably have no idea who Ron Murphy is, but as a bit of a techno nerd, I know only too well.

He’s the guy who realised, with Jeff Mills, that one hundred and thirty three and a third beats per minute synchs perfectly with one revolution on a turntable spinning at thirty three and a third revolutions per minute, thus allowing a ‘locked groove’ whereby the needle will stick in the groove and play four bars ad infinitum.
Discovered by techno pioneers, the ‘Belleville Three‘, he was encouraged to use his old school lathe. He went on to cut records which played from the centre out; or had two seperate tracks on two seperate grooves; even a combination of all of the above.

The jolly old curmudgeon of a man listened intently to the music and endeavoured to master and press the records to optimise the bass and round out the sound.

Any vinyl buff will greatly appreciate his grooves (seriously) and techno dj’s revel in the weight of sound and the physical sturdiness of the ‘plates’.
Anyone will agree his character and story is fairly adorable. (Listen to this interview).
And you don’t need to be a techno nerd to appreciate the NSCmix I did. Enjoy.