quote:

Originally posted by evo8 who are you rating in techno at the moment? only good ones that id want to see again were Gary Beck and Luke Slater, Rodhad was okay too

Steffi is on top of her game right now, she played the best techno set I heard last year and probably this year, too.

Other than that I heard some great closing sets from this guy called Blind Observatory, he plays a very oldschool and somewhat musical style of techno, I don't think he tours that much outside of Berlin though. Then I also heard some nice sets from the Ilian Tape guys, ie. the Zenker Brothers and Stenny.

Fachwerk affliate Roberto from London also played one of my favorite sets of the year. He's kinda low key, but man this guy can DJ.

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June 2018 mix

quote:

Originally posted by Woony Steffi is on top of her game right now, she played the best techno set I heard last year and probably this year, too. Other than that I heard some great closing sets from this guy called Blind Observatory, he plays a very oldschool and somewhat musical style of techno, I don't think he tours that much outside of Berlin though. Then I also heard some nice sets from the Ilian Tape guys, ie. the Zenker Brothers and Stenny. Fachwerk affliate Roberto from London also played one of my favorite sets of the year. He's kinda low key, but man this guy can DJ.

thanks man - Steffi has been in Dublin a few times, must check out some of her sets, the others ive never even heard of so will check them out

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I As usual the doors opened at midnight. When I got in, there were already some people dancing in the main room, where a DJ was playing a boring set. However, unlike the last week, I decided to stay there because I knew that Friday nights at D-Edge are always packed, specially with a very popular DJ heading the lineup like Seth Troxler.

At the time he got there, another DJ (don't know his name but definitely it's not a Brazilian) - EDIT: it's Jackmaster - had just started his set and everyone thought that Seth's set would be @ 3:00-3:30am. However he surprised everyone and started to play a b2b with this guy.

At the very beginning it wasn't very good. Seth was playing some nice banging house but the other guy couldn't keep the energy. Fortunately after 3 or 4 tracks, finally they found a nice synergy and the mix flowed really nice for at least 3 hours. The best moment was when they mixed a lot of vocal house tracks, like Da Posse - In The Heat Of The Night (Vocal Mix) and the entire place went bonkers. Although I'm not a great fun of this stuff, it worked incredibly well. One of the most electrifying atmospheres I've seen recently. Overall it was really nice. There were some times when they played a sequence of boring tunes, but mostly, they nailed.

And so they played this b2b until 6am, when finally Seth started to play alone until 8am. He played a more hypnotic (but not dark) house/techno mix. Better than first time I saw him. Good stuff. Also, Seth is such a nice lad

I would love to see him playing more time alone, but its cool.

Last edited by rdevito on Nov-14-2015 at 21:13

steffi is dope !

could never go wrong with PAS- luke slater is one of my top two, the other being robert hood. this goes for both productions and sets (mainly cuz i like all their songs and they play them often). come to think about it i like most of steffi's everything as well. these guys don't play too often here. steffi played before rodhad in detroit this year and she was definitely superior, but robert hood at an afterparty in detroit was something else altogether.

a lot of people here in toronto like seth troxler... i just don't. i don't get him, i don't like his music, and his dj sets were pretty boring each time I've seen him.

some decent names upcoming for us, have regis, nick hoppner on the same day as cell injection (going to cell injection), anthony parasole. i think len faki is here next week. last time he was here the party got shut down lol

quote:

Originally posted by planetaryplayer steffi is dope ! could never go wrong with PAS- luke slater is one of my top two, the other being robert hood. this goes for both productions and sets (mainly cuz i like all their songs and they play them often). come to think about it i like most of steffi's everything as well. these guys don't play too often here. steffi played before rodhad in detroit this year and she was definitely superior, but robert hood at an afterparty in detroit was something else altogether. a lot of people here in toronto like seth troxler... i just don't. i don't get him, i don't like his music, and his dj sets were pretty boring each time I've seen him. some decent names upcoming for us, have regis, nick hoppner on the same day as cell injection (going to cell injection), anthony parasole. i think len faki is here next week. last time he was here the party got shut down lol

Some good recommendations but am surprised Klock is never mentioned. Guy is an absolute mastermind and knows how to bang out incredibly complex yet danceable dark, brooding, industrial techno sets. In other words, when I think of "German tecno," Ben Klock is the first name I think of. Zenker Brothers are excellent as well. Love their whole philosophy and concept of their label Ilian Tape.

Troxler...felt that way about him for the longest time. Thought he was dance music's biggest hyped up fraud. Then I saw him for a WMC party at Space Miami and played b2b with Martinez Brothers. Pretty sublime stuff. His ear for music and programming, I decided at that moment, was top notch. His biggest enemy is lack of motivation, at least IMO. Seems to be a guy that maybe doesn't take the best care of his body and mind -- lets partying and "the lifestyle" get the best of him a little too much.

quote:

Originally posted by ucforange Some good recommendations but am surprised Klock is never mentioned.

try reading the top of the page mate

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Went to the Back To Basics 24th birthday party on Saturday. It's pretty remarkable that they've been putting on nights consistently for a quarter of a century. There are middle aged women in my office who reminisce about going to Basics back in 1992 and seeing Sasha play in the loft.

I wasn't really enthusiastic about the night itself, as the line-up was unexceptional, with only Craig Richards (long time readers may remember my abortive attempt to see him back in May) really standing out. They'd also gone with a really naff "Playboy mansion" theme for the party which just looked crass. It turns out my fears were well-justified.

Firstly, the venue was the Faversham, a bar/club on the university campus. From the moment we got there it never felt like a proper club. It looked like the kind of student bar where I used to lurk miserably when I was 18, and weird as this may sound, it was just too bright. The lights weren't low enough to create a proper dark pit of thumping dance music. The sound in the main room was okay, but the second room had ear-splitting treble that was echoing off the high ceiling and essentially ruled out spending any time in there without suffering hearing damage. The only cool thing was a small chill-out room covered in mattresses, where you could lie flat on your back and bliss out. It's just a shame they didn't have any music in there - it's the kind of room where I'd love to play a chill-out set.

As for the music... Craig Richards definitely stole the show, but they put him on strangely early (11.30pm - 1.30am). By the time we'd got there and handed our coats in he was halfway through his set. He was playing cool, underground house music with a tough, percussive edge that was well-matched with the Back To Basics ethos. Then in the last half hour he really put the hammer down and started bringing out the harder tech house bombs; shades of his Tyrant days shining through. It was brilliant but also immediately obvious that the next DJ would struggle to follow.

Sure enough, most of what came after was so forgettable I'm not even going to waste time describing it, and unfortunately all the trusty underground Basics residents were in the Room Of Ear-Splitting Hearing Death. Things didn't pick up until 4.30am when Ralph Lawson came on. Lawson has a record bag filled with bigger basslines than almost any other DJ, but after half an hour he seemed more content to ease things down a gear, playing some filtered disco gear and rewinding one tune right back to the beginning when it really didn't deserve it. Altogether, it was a very underwhelming night. I wish Craig Richards and Ralph Lawson had been given the peak slots rather than book-ending the line-up.

Anyway, I'm running a marathon in April and I'm planning to follow a dedicated programme, so after this month there will be more nights out for some time. I should be seeing John Digweed and Guy J in three weeks time, but that will probably be the final hurrah until April.

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Mixes:
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24
> Surface Tension [Progressive Trance]
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]

If you enjoy any of these sets and want to hear me live, I'll be playing a 2 hour progressive trance set at Basing House in Shoreditch, London on 11th October.
I'm also a resident at our bi-monthly party Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

Spend about 20 hours in clubs last weekend. Got up at a grueling 6am on saturday to go to the Dystopian party and save myself from the sardine-can peaktime. Nice and deep early morning session from Alex Do that went till 2pm.

On sunday I heard some solid enough but somewhat bland and flat peaktime techno from Oscar Mulero and Developer but then Etapp Kyle came on and he just killed it for four hours straight. Had never seen him before but left very impressed. He nailed all the clichees of techno without being cliche or gimmicky, just very classy tracks the whole time. Very hypnotic and bass heavy and forward-pushing with enough nice pads and melodic content to keep things interesting with a few curve balls as wells. His pacing and sequencing was nearly perfect as well. Highly recommend seeing him.

DVS1 was in good form but I wasn't really up for 136 BPM on a monday morning.

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June 2018 mix

Went to a halloween warehouse party in Philly a couple of weeks ago to see Josh Wink and Seth Troxler. Seth Troxler was the headliner.

I'm a philly resident so this was probably the 10th or 15th time I've seen Josh Wink as he's a bit of a local hero of sorts. I've seen him in NY and also in Philly venues. At the risk of pissing off any fellow readers from my home town, I have to say that after years and years of mediocre dj sets from Josh Wink, the guy just stinks as a DJ. He doesnt get it, which is hard to believe considering how prolific his name was in the early 00's.

The reason is that in my opinion, Wink has a bad ear for the track selection. I get the feeling that he cannot tell what sounds good vs. what does not. There doesnt seem to be any quality control involved in what he decides to play, nor does there appear to be any direction in his sets. His sets are basically a beatmatched jukebox on shuffle.

The same can be said for his record label Ovum which churns out forgettable tunes. The label would be better off slowing down its output and trying to release something of quality. Every once in awhile they release a bomb, but its almost like it was by accident, just like the music in Josh's sets contains accidental bombs every once in awhile. You'll be bored to tears in between though as he mixes in and out of tracks whenever he wants (synced), for no apparent reason. A great track will come into the mix and be gone 2 minutes later leaving you frustrated as a dancer.

Wink always appears to be having fun in the booth, and smiling so I guess that's good?

Back to the party, Josh played monotone techno for about 2 hours, played a couple of tracks that I liked before Troxler came on.

Troxler definitely has a presence. He walked into the room wearing a pimp jacket with an entourage of fucking weirdos and I'd expect nothing less from the guy. He's taller and chubbier than he looks online. He's a big dude! Totally awkward but friendly entertaining presence kind of like Prince meets Rick James.

Wink had to slow his set down by like 5 or 6bpm to let Troxler come on at like 125bpm so. Troxler immediately destroyed it with melody and interesting music to the point that it made Wink's set entirely irrelevant for the night. The mixing was loose in the Sven Vath style where its more utility than anything. Tracks blended in the first/last 45 seconds or so. Seth's strong suit is he has great taste in music. The guy gets it. I would give Seth's set a 4.5 out of 5. He saved the night! I had a lot of respect for Seth after watching his Red Bull Academy interview where he demonstrated a lot of passion for the music. This gig cemented it.

Last edited by DanceFloorPoet on Nov-26-2015 at 15:21

^^ thats interesting on troxler, have seen a couple of positive reviews now recently, might actually check him out next time hes playing here

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I know I said recently that John Digweed would be my last night out for 2015 but I binned that idea off and went to see Andrew Weatherall in York on Saturday instead. York is a very picturesque ancient city full of medieval walls and buildings. It's a beautiful place but barely has any club scene at all, and the venue wasn't even in a club. We walked into the venue and it was an old [urlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_men%27s_club]Working Men's Club[/url], the kind of place you'd expect a game of bingo to go down rather than a rave. They'd simply put some decks and a big sound system in the function room and turned the lights out. Going back to what I said in my last review, if a space is dark enough, loud enough and full of enough people you've got a good party no matter what the space actually is.

The warm-up DJ was playing some nice melodic tech-house (one of his last tunes was that all-conquering Dauwd remix of Beacon - Fault Lines, to give you a flavour) and then Weatherall took over and ramped the gains up. I've seen Weatherall three times now and previously he was playing the slo-mo/cosmic disco/indie dance stuff. This was totally different, primal acid house and techno all the way. And he rocked it, mixing and sequencing totally differently to when he played the slow stuff. The mixing was full of top-notch techno trickery and he didn't slip a beat all night. There were a few blissful moments in just the right places, and to my absolute amazement he also dropped 2 Phat ****s - Ride right in the middle, and it went down a treat.

Nowhere in York stays open much later than 3am and the bar shut on cue. However, the music carried on for another half hour and we actually had to miss the last ten minutes to catch the train home. It was frustrating that it finished so early and yet we couldn't even catch the end, but the next train was at about 5am and hanging around for two hours in a medieval town where all the bars were shut didn't really seem worth it for the sake of 10 more minutes of music. Still, an excellent night out in an unlikely context, a good way to cap off 2015 and my last dance for some time.

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Mixes:
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24
> Surface Tension [Progressive Trance]
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]

If you enjoy any of these sets and want to hear me live, I'll be playing a 2 hour progressive trance set at Basing House in Shoreditch, London on 11th October.
I'm also a resident at our bi-monthly party Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/