|
Roll Call / Review: TIME Festival 2009 (Sat, Jul 25) (pg. 8)
|
View this Thread in Original format
| patpicos |
Overall, im pretty disapointed from last night. As much as Mills is a legend, I could not fully get into it. I ended up going back and forth between Mills and Farina. Farina was pretty good, but the sound was during his set. Don't know what happened cuz the sound was great during Evan G. Also, the solarium was kinda dead.
The all ages thing is a nightmare with the tunnels/paths in the main room. Also, not being allowed to leave a room with a drink is also annoying.
Best moment of the night was the last 25 mins of Jamie Kidd's set ! |
|
|
| Jayx1 |
Now THAT was a party!
Amazing night... First off, Jeff you played really well!
Second Mad respects to the fact that it was an all ages party. We need more opportunities to get the next generation involved in our music. Also the energy from them was amazing and most were way more chill and happy then most older partygoers around here!
The main room was crazy! With the energy from the all agers and the beach balls along with the lighting and the music, i actually felt like i was in a warehouse somewhere in england in 1993!
Jeff Mills..... well first of all the setting was amazing. Nothing but solid red lights the whole time. VERY DETROIT WAREHOUSE STYLE. Second, the man is a legend. He kept going deep then crazy hard techno and then deep again. I felt like i was at the warehouse in Detroit back in the day... it was insane! Too bad about that right turntable that kept skipping the records. I have to hand it to Jeff, other than shaking his head slightly he just kept on going and made the best of it. Someone needs to tell the docks to get new styluses!!
Mad shout outs to the dude who said he was from mexico and then couldnt understand spanish! You sir were the comedic highlight of the night! Also the douche who broke into my car only to realize the interior light was broken and couldnt see anything. You went for the glove box and found nothing.. Meanwhile you missed out on an IPOD and a GPS!. LOSER!! hahahah
All in all it was good raving!! |
|
|
| MusicMatters |
Jeff Mills....
last 45 minutes destroyed... track he played at around 3.45 was wohoooo... |
|
|
| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by MusicMatters
Jeff Mills....
last 45 minutes destroyed... track he played at around 3.45 was wohoooo... |
The one where it was like classical music then suddenly dropped into some crazy ass techno track!
Watching him work over that 909 was ing amazing!! He did his best stuff live last night.. |
|
|
| MusicMatters |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
The one where it was like classical music then suddenly dropped into some crazy ass techno track! |
Yep, silence and then madness... |
|
|
| PivotTechno |
| quote: | Originally posted by CODE
wow that was a rave yo |
No it wasn't.
The wife and I left Sound Academy feeling more than a little underwhelmed. The expectations in the Platform room were high for Mills (our main reason for going), you could tell people were geared up for some serious dancing. Unfortunately, he fell well short of the mark. At the start of his set the room was near capacity - by 3 a.m., when things really should have been kicking into high gear, half the crowd had cleared out.
Mills' set had little in the way of flow to it; he'd go off on a spacey atonal tangent for a while, dropping the bass for extended breakdowns that never seemed to lead anywhere special, then would suddenly segue into a more banging slant without bringing in anything even remotely melodic to bridge the gap between the two. The 909 solo he launched into during his set would have been much better appreciated had he spent a little time building up to it - instead, we just got dumped into 10+ minutes of frantic, mechanical tribal drumming that seemed completely arbitrary and just ended up leading back to more of the same. By 3:15 or so, we'd given up hope that he was going to find an actual groove and ended up heading home. Glad to hear he was killing it during the last 45 minutes, but in all due respect he should have been doing this for the full 3 hours he was allotted
I realise that Sound Academy's sound levels are heavily restricted (teh ironing...) by the ongoing issues with the Island residents, but I found the claim that "extra sound" was being brought in especially for Mills' set to be a bit of a joke - I would have hated to have heard it without whatever they used to augment the existing system. The majority of what came out of the speakers was dominated by mids and highs, with the bass lacking that PUNCH that makes Techno sound the way it should - maybe I'm a bit spoiled, having experienced Mills playing through a ceiling-high wall of speakers during his heyday, but why bring in a DJ of that renown and not give him a proper system on which to lay the smackdown?
We spent a bit of time here and there in the main room, and while I'm totally digging the energy the younger set brought to that space (fun watching 20+ beach balls flying in every which direction), I didn't find much to latch onto musically - not a criticism, just different tastes is all. Again, I felt the sound needed a lot more punch to it, but the stage setup and lighting were most impressive. Loved the view of the main room crowd from the big glass windows upstairs.
We'd hit the upstairs whenever we'd get tired of waiting (and waiting) for Mills to pull something interesting. That room might have turned into something special, but was sadly underattended during most of Farina's set. Despite this, and in comparison to Mill's stoicism, Farina looked like he was having a lot of fun and had his obvious T.O. fanbase front and centre for the bumping House he was laying down. Again, if the room had been full and the sound fuller (which I'm guessing, due to the floor-to-ceiling glass walls everywhere, will never happen), this probably would have been the place to be. My guess is that he'll step it up and put on an even better show at Footwork tonight.
We didn't bother with the fourth room, so I can't really comment on what went on there.
I still had fun hanging with some friends I don't get to see all too often, and I loved chilling out by the water out on the patio, but I left feeling disappointed and more than a little sad for what's become of the electronic music scene in Toronto, especially considering that it took major corporate dollars and presence in order to put this event together. People can tell me I'm living in the past as much as they want, but saying this was a rave is like saying an 128kbps MP3 is a well-pressed vinyl 12" - it just ain't so. |
|
|
| DigiNut |
I found no problem with the sound in the Platform room. But, I prefer a more balanced sound to the standard hyper-amped excessive bass covering up heavily distorted mids and highs. A little more punch might not have hurt, but too much is worse than too little in my experience.
Too bad about the skipping turntable. This isn't the first time it's happened at that venue either. To his credit, Mills did a decent job of working around it, but it still sucks because he's mainly known for his technical skill, and equipment glitches like that obviously prevented him from fully showing it off.
Apart from that, I thought the crowd was pretty into it, and surprisingly not that sketchy; also, I didn't notice any significant clearing out (actually it tended to get more packed as the night went on, at least in the areas I was frequenting). Again, maybe this is subjective, I like to have space to dance and not be wedged in shoulder-to-shoulder.
Was it a "rave?" I don't know. Who cares. It was a fun party. |
|
|
| Jayx1 |
AFAIC you put the sound blame squarely on the island residents and city hall.
Thats how politics around here ruins things. Thats why i was right up front all night to get the full impact. As for the bass... again bass travels the furthest... so again thank the islanders!
Just wait till those condos get built between guv and the docks! :whip: :whip: :whip:
I figure those 2 venues have about a year or 2 left before condo craze shuts em down |
|
|
| Jayx1 |
Ive noticed a trend.. the parties i enjoy the most usually get the worst tranceaddict reviews and vice versa.
hmmmmmmmmmmmm |
|
|
| rulzz |
really sucks about turntable issue, as mills picks was picking things up then bam it skips and he starts to build up again from scratch
sure was a buzz kill for a lot of people
lots of classic techno records, a bit of acid house and a hella lot of good 909 action kinda wish he would add 303 to it and forget about turntable issues for the rest of the night :D
wondered into farina room couple of times, always pleasure to watch and felt like a big living room party , unfortunately sound up there sucked
main room smelled like beer |
|
|
| Swamper |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
Was it a "rave?" I don't know. Who cares. It was a fun party. |
|
|
|
| psyrel |
My 1st time seeing Mills and I thought he was awesome. Really liked how he started off a little mellow and gave things time to build. He kept switching between all the equipment, it really made for a varied dj set. Too bad about that wonky right deck, you could tell he wasn't happy with it, kept shaking his head at every "technical difficulty". His live stuff with the 909 was just insane, the crowd was loving it and kept hollering during every tension-inducing pause before he'd slam the beats back at us. I was mostly at the front/right area and people around me were dancing up a storm. One track dropped ~3:25 just blew me away, it was the most ass-shaking version of techno I've ever heard. Ha, I think I would have warmed up to this techno business a lot quicker if I had heard stuff like this!
His closing was probably the highlight for me, you could tell he was really enjoying himself and I'm glad the promoters let him close out the night.
It was a treat to see him live finally, I've got a lot of admiration for technical wizardry and it was impressive to see him showing off his skills in such an assured manner. I also loved how dark and intimate that room felt, I heard many comments about never seeing him this up close before.
Kudos Embrace and Platform and all involved. |
|
|
|
|
