minor techno/underground party yesterday (biod�lica for those intersted. cashu played there 3 years ago someone has said), and...

SOMEONE JUST DROPPED HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUNESS. holy shit, everyone went nuts

that's it. oh, and I figured out again how boring psy can be after 2~3 hours long.

Last nite out was going to a Guy Mantzur / Eelke Kleijn boat cruise around Manhattan this past summer. I've been kind of out of touch with progressive for the past few years, so I thought this might rekindle the love a bit (90's - early 00's prog is a favorite of mine). That didn't really happen, I feel that the music was 'pleasant', but but a lot of what they played was just pretty... perfunctory. Consistent, well-produced, but no real surprises, not really too much that stayed in my head or make me frantically scramble for my phone to try and Shazam. The real star of the show was the NYC skyline at night.

Prior to that, I went to Cassian and CLASSIXX in Brooklyn in the spring. Cassian played mainly soulful deep house, lots of diva vocals, while CLASSIXX brought the nu disco and funk. A lot of fun, was going crazy when they played "I'll Get You". Not too overly crowded at the club and it was cool going to see an act a bit different from the usual (for me).

This weekend, 3D (Howells, Seaman, and Emerson) are playing in Brooklyn. Gonna go since I grew up with these guys and it'll be cool to see them all play together.

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9-9-99 Never Forget

Quarantine Music Festival 2020

All My Mixes!

Seen a lot of DJs these past 6-7 months as I have been to a lot of shows.

Dixon and DJ tennis back to back in chinatown in LA was by far the most pleasant surprise all year for me. Dixon actually played a lot of cool tracks and seemed to not have a stick up his ass. Probably bc DJ Tennis was beyond high the entire time and was practically dancing with Dixon all night long. The real highlight was Dixon finishing the entire thing off with Oni Ayhun - OAR003-B. Folks, if you have never heard this song on a big sound system you are missing out on one of the supreme pleasures in life. Amazing.

I also went to a bicep live show. Gotta admit, I am not sure I like these live shows. To me it doesn't have a proper flow. Feels like a concert almost. That being said, I love their tracks so just listening to them on a proper sound system and live was nice. Bicep Just is wonderful brain candy. Just sticks in your head for like 2 weeks afterwards. I also saw them again at a festival and later on at an afterparty in a DJ set. Enjoyed both but to me these guys are much better producers than live DJs but perhaps I just haven't seen them do a proper long DJ set to gauge accordingly.

At that same festival, I checked out Motor City, Bonobo, Tale of Us. Bonobo is a horrible DJ imo. Absolutely no flow at all. Tale of us was boring to me but people went gaga for it. They really take advantage of those big sound systems and people on drugs. Take away both and nothing to see here imo. Motor City was fun but I am just not that into his type of sound. But people went crazy for him.

I saw Seth Troxler at Rhonda and I don't get it at all. To me this guy is the Tiesto of the underground. Absolute rubbish. Has no idea how to DJ. I left early. I never leave early.

Finally, the other show that I found really great was Solomun in Downton LA. My friends wanted to go but I was more ambivalent because I have heard his mixes and I didn't think much of them to be honest. But we went anyway and I was very surprised how much I enjoyed his set. Solomun is a great DJ imo. He really understands the power of the large sound system. I was familiar with some of the tracks he played but was blown away how much better they sounded coming out of that giant system. He really killed it imo. He also has a really great stage presence He doesn't move around much but almost gives this friendly vibe that he is just one more party goer and not the star DJ. I am definitely going to have to check this guy out in Ibiza.

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X-MIX 1 The MFS Trip

This guy needs to come back

Funny, I saw Bicep DJing just last night. Would agree that they're not outstanding DJs based on last night's evidence. Some brilliant driving sections in their set, but punctuated by a lot of very forgettable techno. But they were playing in a massive main room in a converted Victorian cotton mill, ten feet above the crowd on a big stage. It was your classic "disconnected big room set", in many ways. A lot of big stompy records without much overall structure.

I've been out loads since I last posted in this thread, but I couldn't be bothered being the only one to update it. I've seen some pretty high calibre names in 2018- Lee Burridge (twice), DJ Tennis, Joris Voorn, Patrice Baumel, Andrew Weatherall (three times!), John Digweed, Nick Warren, Guy J, Henry Saiz. I'll be finishing the year off with Laurent Garnier all night long in a 500 capacity club, which should be an amazing rare treat. Then I'm planning on having a long break from the whole thing.

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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/

Last edited by SYSTEM-J on Dec-01-2018 at 16:28

I saw Ed The Sock's "War On Stupid" tour this past Thursday. This is a big deal for Canadians.

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I've been out loads since I last posted in this thread, but I couldn't be bothered being the only one to update it. I've seen some pretty high calibre names in 2018- Lee Burridge (twice)

Curious as to how this went, which I'm guessing was at least decent, seeing as you went back for seconds.

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He traded sands for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand. Afari, Tales

Great on both occasions. The first was one of his All Day I Dream daytime parties in Barcelona during Sonar festival. A really well programmed afternoon/evening of music. The crowd looked a bit "international rich kid" but they were really into the music. One of the most excited and engaged crowds I was a part of all year, especially given that the music was relatively laid back. I think ADID has become such a cult worldwide thing now that the crowds tend to be very into the music and the concept.

The second time was in London a couple of weeks ago, this time at Steelyard at 2am. I was hoping he'd play a more late-night side of his sound, and he didn't disappoint. Still very warm and melodic, but with much more balls underneath it. He played the unreleased Dee Montero mix of EBTG - Missing which he's been hammering, and it absolutely took the roof off. In the last hour he went B2B with one of the residents, who played some deeply pleasing chunky dark prog to complement his sound.

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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/

Saw 3D (Howells, Seaman, Emerson) at a new venue that opened in Brooklyn called Polygon.

Had a great time but with some caveats, like you had this beautiful, brand new club with an enormous dancefloor, couches lined up on both sides of the dancefloor, and a Funktion One soundsystem... but the DJs played in the little outside terrace area behind the dancefloor, which was enclosed with tarp, had a few heatlamps (November in NY is not fun), and speakers on the level of a PA system at the local church.

One thing that was cool about the back terrace is there was literally no distance between you and the DJs, and it didn't really get packed at all. In fact, I was surprised about the number of people there, at its peak there may have only been 40 or so.

Their set was along the lines I expected, and they took turns spinning about 3 or 4 songs, then switching to the next guy... the order was:
1) Howells - usually played deep techy house
2) Seaman - played slightly more prog-tech
3) Emerson - bigger room tech house

The DJs made sure their songs flowed into one another, and the switch up of styles worked to prevent stuff from getting too repetitive.

Some example tracks that I dug:
Matador - The Resort (Darren Emerson Remix)
Danny Howells - Earthlings X (Jimpster Remix)
Enzo Siragusa & Martin Buttrich - Lifted Spirits
Whitesquare - Ligai
DAVI - Without My Ways

The DJs were there from 2 to 6AM, though around 5AM we started getting a bit tired and wanted to head back... but then, all of a sudden, as we were getting ready to leave, the club started to get filled up with all these sketchy looking people (much more so than the crowd you'd expect for these guys, which to begin with were mainly middle aged prog heads from back in the day, and a few annoying tourists that kept asking why we weren't nonstop dancing [because I'm old and tired!]). These people looked more like meth heads, no women whatsoever. We were wondering wtf was going on, and then the bouncer was trying to prevent one from getting in, and the guy got into a shoving match with the bouncer. Not at all the vibe from the beginning of the night... another bouncer showed us to a side exit when we asked to leave, and there were a ton of people waiting on line to get in... there was nothing on the Polygon website about any other event, so I was wondering wtf... like I've never seen people wait on line at 5AM to get into an event that ends at 6AM.

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9-9-99 Never Forget

Quarantine Music Festival 2020

All My Mixes!

Last edited by Mr Game+Watch on Dec-02-2018 at 21:14

I was at AWS re:Invent party (called re:Play) last Thursday.

Lineup was Mija and Skrillex.

I didn't knew Mija, but i was expecting some heave EDM Electro House wait-for-the-drop mix. Well, surprisingly she played some decent DnB, although her mixing skill are average at most.

For Skrillex, i've stayed till the 3rd track, where I decided to left to see a Laser Canon Dome show. Much more entertaining

Went out for NYE. I prefer the underground parties but fianc� was coming and she can't handle the dirty bathrooms so we went to minimal effort NYE at the belasco theater.

First, there is nothing minimal about these fuckers. Its like a hipster douchebag convention for guys who wanna be underground while getting drinks in the VIP section. We got there and these assholes had oversold. We got stuck outside in line for over an hour even though we had bought tickets already. They let us in right before midnight so we got to see that at least. What a dump of a party. Oversold and no room to move and filled with hipster losers.

So, in the main room when we got in Sasha was playing until 2am and then Skream was gonna go on afterwards. Sasha was smooth but beyond boring. I thought it was sleeping music for the majority of the set. He eventually did finally play some decent stuff starting at 130. By this point I wanted to leave but I was already mashed and thought fuck it, at least lets see what he finishes with. It go better in the last 30 minutes. I went and had a smoke and came back for the last 10. The song he played was one of those almost IDM type tech house track where its melodic but in a non traditional way. Sorry I suck trying to describe in writing songs. But think of a four tet remix just a little wilder. Good song and seemed like a decent enough closer actually but I knew he had one song to go. And then he started mixing in the next track. From the second I heard it my mind went, wait a minute I know this. Those first bars really sent me running towards the middle of floor closer to the stage. I wasn't sober so at first I thought my mind was playing tricks on me but as the transition went on I realized nope, I do know this track. The mother fucker dropped Schiller Ruhe Humate Remix. and yes I basically lost my mind on the dance floor.

whats crazy, is that it was obvious 99% of the room had no idea what he was playing but they did love it. not going to lie, I got real goosebumps. It changed the entire night. It went from a real shitty party to a good one. I danced to it and when it was over I didn't even care how bad a DJ skream was. Its amazing how one single track can change the entire night. Just one.

Oh also, holy shit is that fn track amazing balls still. People around me could tell I knew the track and I was getting asked about the track ID from multiple people. Folks that is a fn monster of a track live coming from a giant system. That breakdown almost comes out of nowhere and when those melodies pour in on top, well just forget it. MDMA bliss if there ever was such a thing.

So all in all, glad I went.

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X-MIX 1 The MFS Trip

This guy needs to come back

it looks like these motherfuckers are always doing this: a half decent set for hours and suddenly playing godly tunes at the end just to trick us thinking that it was the best set ever.

Hahaha I know exactly what you guys mean. One amazing track can make you forget a couple hours of boredom.

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June 2018 mix