A Night with Matt John

Well to say I was looking forward to this after the last party may have been a bit of an understatement. I say "was" looking forward to, because after a particularly techno heavy 4 days in Berlin last week I was feeling somewhat jaded all this week and more like sitting at home on the couch watching whatever shit was on TV, feeling sorry for myself, stuffing my face with food and drinking a year old bottle of red wine mainly used for cooking because I can't be fucked dragging myself to the shop.........Which is about a one minute walk from my house.
As it turned out though, London turned on some nice sun rays during the day and after throwing a frisbee around in a park for 3 hours and gorging myself on BBQ food I felt surprisingly up for it. I was also going to a friends birthday which was right around the corner so it felt kind of like fate that I should go.
Who am I kidding? After the last one and being told by people that Matt John plays a wicked long set, I was always going.
The venue this time, although still not in the place they originally stated all the parties were going to be in, was in Hoxton. I don't really know what happened this time because the promoters stayed pretty quiet leading up to this event, but be it a licensing issue or whatever it didn't really matter. There is something cool about skipping around venues and I have to say that I liked this one a lot more than the last one. Something about having proper toilets instead of port-a-loos. Though that was somewhat ruined by the massive shit some guy had taken upstairs which had attached itself to the side of the bowl, stank, and no matter how much you tried to piss it away down the bowl, just wouldn't budge. Fuck knows what that guy had been eating, but whatever it was, it was stupidly adhesive.
Anyway less about shit and more about the party, which wasn't. Shit I mean.
Yes, yet again it was very good. The venue was one of those abandoned office space type affairs which are awesome to walk around because there are lots of hallways to wander around and dark little areas you have to search through which is vaguely disorientating and adds to the experience of being transported to some strange techno world where all that matters is music and dancing.
The equation for a good party is so simple it seems criminal that hardly anyone else in London is working it out. A room, plus a good sound system, plus a wicked DJ equals fun.
There was a smoke machine at this one as I am sure there was at the last, but it had much more of a workout this time which equated to some fucking cool fogged out madness where time and space seem to stop and you're not really sure where you are, which direction you're facing, who you're standing next to and where bass drops sound like an apocalypse. Cool. People should go crazy with fog monsters more.



They had the now familiar "This must be the place" red neon sign up on the wall, and the really cool granny standing lamp as a DJ light again which added a feeling of continuity carried over from the first party.
Overall the impression is of a really well organized house party.
Again the funktion one was in attendance. This time there was a little bit of a flat spot in the sound towards the front where the DJ was, but that is being excessively picky. Generally it was a great sounding system, and when you consider they have changed venues twice now and how hard it is to tailor sound for specific places it's incredible how good it sounded. As long as you stayed towards the middle or the back it was perfect. Also maybe my ears are being overtly picky after spending a good stab of time at Watergate last week.
The music was an entirely different kettle of fish to last time which was to be expected, with Mr John playing music exactly like the aforementioned weekend in Berlin provided.
You know it, much more stripped back, with that straight beat and plenty of percussive elements.
It had less obvious flow than the month before, which is no bad thing, although he did build it really nicely to a massive centre section where beats would drop out in a haze of sharp percussion and noise and slam back with a huge amount of force. This generated genuine hands in the air moments with plenty of crowd appreciation in return. The dropout mix to a Doors sample of Break on Through to the Other Side if I remember correctly, got lapped up by the crowd and got plently of cheers.
There were a couple of super tight loopy tracks that he used as great builders right before the more slamming middle section. I think I enjoyed those moments most. Where your brain almost makes up a melody for you and you could look around and see people getting lulled into a false sense of security before the onslaught was about to happen. Fun, fun.
I think one of the best things to say about Matt John is his ability to connect with a crowd. He looks genuinely happy to be there and this rubs off on the audience. Its hard to be cynical about someone when they look like they are having so much fun.
His technical skill as a DJ is pretty staggering as well. The music more or less passed me by in a blur because watching him work two turntables, plus Traktor scratch pro and whatever midi controller he was using was so impressive. It was the jumping between Traktor playing tracks internally and then mixing standard vinyl over the top and then back into Traktor I found so impressive, whilst covering 3 channels at once sometimes. I also appreciated watching his skill as a beat matcher. I know, I know, anyone can learn it, but having been DJ'ing for over 15 years I know I don't generally slap a track in without listening to it and pretty much work the pitch over the club PA to get it in time. Its nice to see someone still giving standard DJ'ing a good nudge as well in this internally beat matched world we live in these days. I think no matter what anyone says, playing when the need to mix is taken out of the equation changes the way DJs choose music to play and therefore ends up changing the way they play. I think mostly to the detriment of a decent flow. Less thought about how they are going to get somewhere in a set and how to bridge the gaps to get there as you don't need to think about it as much anymore.
This is of course, just my opinion. But I do own Traktor and have pretty much stayed away from the internal mode since working out it completely changed the way I play.
Whatever. I was just happy to see he still had standard beat matching skills mashed in with his internal beat matching set up. Call me old fashioned.
Anyway, Matt managed to avoid any issues with flow and provided a damn solid nights entertainment. So thumbs up there. I think it was the perfect follow up DJ to Mayer's night of Cologne style fun. (which for me still shades Matt's set, but that's not an insult as Mayer was totally on and totally wicked the month before) And it is so nice that the promoters aren't totally raping just one sound for this series of parties.
As with the last time, the door staff, bouncers and bar staff were exceedingly polite, helpful and even smiled. Again, so rare for a night out in London, and a very important part of what makes these nights great.
And again. A total lack of cunts. So a good crowd then. People that looked like they were there for the music.
So. A solid thumbs up from me. As a party it totally stood up to anything I have experienced in the world, and it gets a tip of the hat from me.
That's two for two. See you at the next one.

Berlin love.

So it was my birthday last weekend, which happily fell on Easter.
Anywho, I decided that I would go to Berlin as one of my best mates, Simon Beeston-a-ding-a-ling-a-ding-dong was playing at Watergate. Which is a seriously cool club.
I was thinking it would be cool if I got some of my friends from London to come over too, as most of them hadn't been to Berlin and thought maybe they would like to see what the fuss was about.
I wasn't expecting anyone to come really, but I started a facebook group inviting a bunch of peeps.
Now either A: I am way more popular than I thought I was or B: People just wanted to go to Berlin, but heaps of people came. Which was wicked. And made me feel loved beyond belief so that was pretty sweet.
Anyway. I can only describe the weekend as damaging and a hell of a lot of fun.
Watergate was heaps of fun and Simon knocked out a cracker set. Way harder than I expected him to play, which was a nice surprise.
I drunk heaps, ate a lot of sausage, managed to even get a private walking tour from two of the best tour guides out (hats of Simon and Teresa) and danced my arse off.
All in all it was a fucking rad time.
I just wanted to say a big thanks a give a massive hug to all involved.
You know who you are.
Cheers guys!

A Night with Michael Mayer.

Lets get this out of the way first. This was an awesome party.
The idea behind the party (or parties, as there is going to be ten of them this year) is to have one dj play 8 hours. In a warehouse. With an amazing sound system..........This sounds good.
Still, I was slightly skeptical about the sound system because in my experience with London warehouse parties, they usually suck. I was also skeptical about Mayer a little bit. Don't get me wrong. I used to be a massive fan. He came out to New Zealand and Dj'd there in 2004 I think it was, and I was totally gutted I had to go to a wedding that weekend. I did briefly meet him in Auckland on the Friday but didn't see him play a single record. Gutted. By all accounts though, that party was one of the best Auckland had ever seen. Unfortunately this didn't hold up when Superpitcher came out 2 years later and played to virtually no one because of Aucklands dying techno scene.
Anyway, I was following him pretty heavily after that and went to a few of his parties over here and in Spain and at C/O pop.
He blew me away the first couple of times, but lately when I have seen him I have been a little bit disappointed. Now I think about it though, its always the short sets where this happens because when I saw him play in a junkyard in Cologne after the Kompakt party at C/o pop 2 years ago he killed it. I guess he just needs time......and he had time here. I'll get back to that though.
The other reason I had low expectations was that I guess the general feeling around the place is that Kompakt has dropped off the boil in the later 2000s. Something I sort of agree with. On the other hand, it just seems to me that in a scene based on ever changing trends Kompakt has stayed a bit more static of late than most of the other labels. But not really in a bad way. I think (this is talking about the 4/4 stuff or course) that when you hear a Kompakt record, you can tell its a Kompakt record. And this is important. So many labels have been losing their identity at the moment by covering their bases and releasing records that are hip and now. The problem being, by the time the record comes out it's neither of those things. Anywho. The party.
The venue itself, was not the one it was supposed to be in (licensing issues made sure of that....and being that I like a drink I am glad they moved it), but it was really good none the less. It was a standard London railway arch type of warehouse and it was a perfect size for the 350 people that were allowed to go. Oh yeah did I mention that? They limited it to 350 people. And 350 fucking great people to be clubbing(warehousing?) with by the looks of it as well, because the crowd was great. It was like they had a no cunts allowed sign up outside. Amazing for London. So people good. Check.
The next thing that hit me was the sound. It was great. Perfect even. That kind of loud that hits you in the guts, yet you can talk over at a pretty normal volume, then you get home and your ears are not ringing at all. So sound. Check.
Service for the bouncers and bar staff. Also very good. Not something that people usually write about but it does help a lot.
So the music. Well. It was kind of like seeing Mayer in 2005. Which I enjoyed. He started a bit slower and ended up pushing it relentlessly into the Speicher-ish territory as the night went on. You know the sound. Brilliant for a warehouse. (correct me if I am wrong but doesn't Speicher mean warehouse or storehouse in german?)
He went through a few hits too. Most memorable for me was the remix of Baxendales - We Built this City. I used to thrash this at my radio show so of course I jumped up and down like a little school kid when it came on.
But the overwhelming feeling wasn't so much for the tracks themselves but more for his ability to play for 8 hours and seem to have a plan of the way the arc of the night is going to go. The way he wound it up, then wobbled around in the middle and slowly wound us all down from about 4.30 so we could go home and sleep. I thought it was brilliant. Sure I didn't find the music as cutting edge as I have found other gigs. But you know what? I didn't give a flying fuck because I had one of the best nights dancing I have had in years. I danced all the way to the end in fact. Something I was beginning to think my 31 year old body just didn't want to do anymore.
And you know what else. He did it on 2 turntables. Not on 4 turntables on a laptop that is making you a coffee and placing 20,000 fx over the top of all of it at the same time. I think this helped with the arc thing. More concentration on the tracks and what they are doing and how they will shape the night and less snap, crackle and pop over the top.
Anyway. As I said. brilliant night. Congrates to the promoter for giving me faith in London clubbing again. And I will be at the next one with bells on for sure. Bells the size of houses. Roll on Matt John.