Friday night J, the boyfriend and I braved 1015 Folsom to see Ritchie Hawtin and were rewarded with one of the most fun nights out in a long time, one that reminded me of why it's worth going out to hear big-name DJs do their thing, and also made me think that 1015 is coming back as the club it used to be.
We stopped off at PeePlay's going-away party at the Gray Area Gallery's new AV space on Folsom, had a drink, and generally milled around with the other artsy types looking awkward with drinks in thier hands. CLAWS provided a passable set of downtempo kitsch, followed by Jonas Rheinhardt, a three piece consisting of Moog and sequencers, bass guitar, and basic drum kit in the space prog vein of Stereolab or Fujiyama and Miyagi. It was an okay place to hang out and have a pre-party drink, but if GAG is going to continue to charge $10 for their parties and standard SoMa bar prices for drinks, I'd like something that feels like more than a really cool college party for my money.
We arrived at 1015 around midnight. We had missed Magda's set but caugh the last half of Hearthrob. As we stood in the front bar waiting for drinks I noticed that there was already a lot of dancing going on. Like his labelmates Hearthrob is a disciple of minimal, but there was nothing low-key about the energy.
When I last saw Hawtin at Mighty I complained about the crowd, which struck me as having just come straight to the party from casual Friday drinks with their workmates. This time the crowd was much groovier, and walking through the smoking area I heard at least a half dozen languages and accents. When we finally went down on the floor there was plenty of room to dance, but also plenty of crowd energy to keep us going. It was also nice to see that the Gestapo-like attitude of the security that previously prevailed at 1015 has given way to a much more relaxed approach, such that people seemed to feel that they really could let themselves go for the party and not worry about getting tossed out.
As for Hawtin, all I can say is that it's nice to know that there are DJs who still really care about the music, their performance, and their skill. I haven't see a DJ that focused on what he was doing, or as able to work a crowd, in a long while. Hawtin isn't even so much a DJ as someone who produces new music out of the scraps of other tracks live; we later remarked that his performance seemed very ephemeral, not because it was forgettable, but because he took any recognizable song elements and recombined them so that you had the feeling of being caught up in an irresistible flow of beats rather than listening to someone putting on one track after another.
We left around three as the crowd was beginning to thin but the energy was showing no signs of dissipation. It was easily one of the best nights out we've had in several months, and I hope that some more fun nights at 1015 are ahead of us for the summer.
Showing posts with label Ritchie Hawtin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ritchie Hawtin. Show all posts
Monday, June 2, 2008
Monday, June 4, 2007
Event Review: Ritchie Hawtin at Mighty vs. Koinonea "2012"
Sometimes life presents us with perfect compare-and-contrast moments. In the case of this past weekend those moments were Ritchie Hawtin at Mighty and Koinonea's 2012. At the first: great music, lousy crowd, miserable party experience. At the second: great crowd, so-so music, okay party experience.
J and I arrived at Mighty around 11PM on Friday, just in time to catch most of Magda's set. Magda is a great example of what I think of as a classic Berlin techno DJ who sets a slow, steady burn for the duration of the night. None of her tracks were particularly dynamic or progressive, and at times I found them a bit too abstract to really engage me on the dance floor, but they had that steady thump that eventually weaves a spell over you and brings you into the space. Around midnight we became aware that it was getting mighty crowded in Mighty, and had I not known one of the bartenders from previous party experiences I suspect it would have been a maddening wait to get drinks. As it was it was only maddening to walk through the club, to try and get on the dance floor, or to dance. During the first part of Magda's set it was possible to get into the middle of the dancefloor, but by the time that Ritchie Hawtin came on at 1.15 it was impossible. Well, it was possible to get onto the dancefloor, but dancing itself was right out of the question, since every time I was able to get somewhat into the groove, I had some guy playing linebacker for his girlfriend push his way past me. This became such a problem that, after rolling my eyes as the third person within the span of about a minute knocked me aside with their elbows, a girl actually apologized to me. Finally J and I retreated to stand next to a speaker stack. Ritchie Hawtin is an awesome performer, and I found much in his set that was inspiring; for once I was able to listen to a DJ and not know what it was that he was doing. The tracks were all great, the flow was phenomenally smooth, and I came away thinking that techno is starting to incorporate all the psychedlic elements that I once associated with trance without that genre's bombast and cliche. We hung out for about an hour of Ritchie's set, and over that passage of time the crowd became absolutely ridiculous. I went into the bathroom and encountered much messiness, and when a guy burst in saying "Detroit Techno sucks" at the top of his lungs, I decided I had had enough. It seems pretty clear that Blasthaus oversold this event, or at least went for full capacity, without much consideration of what that would be like for people in the club (when I checked on tickets on Friday, all the pre-sales were gone, but they announced that they had an additional 300 at the door for $30 each). I'm sure they made crazy money off this event, but why they booked Ritchie Hawtin into a venue this small is beyond me. I hope that the next time I get to hear him I will actually be able to enjoy his amazing talent, and dance to his music, without having to deal with an ugly, aggressive crowd made even more so by the constant need to push your way past everyone else to move around in the club. And girls, here's a fashion tip for you: black cocktail dresses belong in the Marina, not at a techno party.
Saturday night Kitty and I went to Koinonea's "2012" party. Back during the height of psy-trance's reign in 1999-2000 we had been regulars at almost every weekend party, and for us this was a chance to re-connect with some folks we hadn't seen in a long time. I even had an auspicious moment on Saturday when I went to Warakabune for a quick sushi meal, something that had been a staple of our going-out days: two candy raver kids, complete with mighty gauntlets of pony beads to ward off the attacks of bad vibes, came in and sat by me at the sushi bar. It was a total blast from the past and set my mind reaching back to all that I had loved about those days. We arrived at the party around 11 and my first reaction was "Oh my god, hippies and dub-step." The Koinonea crew is an off-shoot of the Santa Cruz Koinonea commune, and the Santa Cruz hippie vibe was in full effect. There were many older folk there who I expect were part of the actual commune, and we even had a full-on grounding ceremony to start the event at midnight. So, instead of feeling alienated and aggressive toward one another as at Mighty on the previous evening, everyone here was encouraged to look at one another as new friends. The fact that the party had a very limited number of tickets also kept it from being stupidly overcrowded - for the first time in weeks I was able to really get down on the dance floor because there was plenty of room, and that experience alone was completely worth the price of a ticket. Unfortunately, the music at the beginning, mostly dub-step, caused considerable grumbling among the attendees. Around 12.30, after the ceremony, the DJ finally moved into psytrance, and at 1.30 Psynthetic, a DJ buddy of mine from way back, came on with some good uplifting psy. His set was a bit uneven, and I enjoyed the progressive tracks more than I did the full-on 150 BPM aerobic workout tracks, but it was really very enjoyable. Kitty, who rarely dances and is not that much of a party boy to start with, told me that I could write in this blog that "Kitty was not bored." That's a high achievement right there. We split around 3.00, being pretty pooped from the night before.
So there's your compare-and-contrast essay for this week. One party that had commerce and commercial success as its highest goal, another that was about creating a space where people could be nice to one another. If I could have squeezed them together, sifted out the bad elements from each and combined the good ones, I think I would have had the best party weekend ever.
J and I arrived at Mighty around 11PM on Friday, just in time to catch most of Magda's set. Magda is a great example of what I think of as a classic Berlin techno DJ who sets a slow, steady burn for the duration of the night. None of her tracks were particularly dynamic or progressive, and at times I found them a bit too abstract to really engage me on the dance floor, but they had that steady thump that eventually weaves a spell over you and brings you into the space. Around midnight we became aware that it was getting mighty crowded in Mighty, and had I not known one of the bartenders from previous party experiences I suspect it would have been a maddening wait to get drinks. As it was it was only maddening to walk through the club, to try and get on the dance floor, or to dance. During the first part of Magda's set it was possible to get into the middle of the dancefloor, but by the time that Ritchie Hawtin came on at 1.15 it was impossible. Well, it was possible to get onto the dancefloor, but dancing itself was right out of the question, since every time I was able to get somewhat into the groove, I had some guy playing linebacker for his girlfriend push his way past me. This became such a problem that, after rolling my eyes as the third person within the span of about a minute knocked me aside with their elbows, a girl actually apologized to me. Finally J and I retreated to stand next to a speaker stack. Ritchie Hawtin is an awesome performer, and I found much in his set that was inspiring; for once I was able to listen to a DJ and not know what it was that he was doing. The tracks were all great, the flow was phenomenally smooth, and I came away thinking that techno is starting to incorporate all the psychedlic elements that I once associated with trance without that genre's bombast and cliche. We hung out for about an hour of Ritchie's set, and over that passage of time the crowd became absolutely ridiculous. I went into the bathroom and encountered much messiness, and when a guy burst in saying "Detroit Techno sucks" at the top of his lungs, I decided I had had enough. It seems pretty clear that Blasthaus oversold this event, or at least went for full capacity, without much consideration of what that would be like for people in the club (when I checked on tickets on Friday, all the pre-sales were gone, but they announced that they had an additional 300 at the door for $30 each). I'm sure they made crazy money off this event, but why they booked Ritchie Hawtin into a venue this small is beyond me. I hope that the next time I get to hear him I will actually be able to enjoy his amazing talent, and dance to his music, without having to deal with an ugly, aggressive crowd made even more so by the constant need to push your way past everyone else to move around in the club. And girls, here's a fashion tip for you: black cocktail dresses belong in the Marina, not at a techno party.
Saturday night Kitty and I went to Koinonea's "2012" party. Back during the height of psy-trance's reign in 1999-2000 we had been regulars at almost every weekend party, and for us this was a chance to re-connect with some folks we hadn't seen in a long time. I even had an auspicious moment on Saturday when I went to Warakabune for a quick sushi meal, something that had been a staple of our going-out days: two candy raver kids, complete with mighty gauntlets of pony beads to ward off the attacks of bad vibes, came in and sat by me at the sushi bar. It was a total blast from the past and set my mind reaching back to all that I had loved about those days. We arrived at the party around 11 and my first reaction was "Oh my god, hippies and dub-step." The Koinonea crew is an off-shoot of the Santa Cruz Koinonea commune, and the Santa Cruz hippie vibe was in full effect. There were many older folk there who I expect were part of the actual commune, and we even had a full-on grounding ceremony to start the event at midnight. So, instead of feeling alienated and aggressive toward one another as at Mighty on the previous evening, everyone here was encouraged to look at one another as new friends. The fact that the party had a very limited number of tickets also kept it from being stupidly overcrowded - for the first time in weeks I was able to really get down on the dance floor because there was plenty of room, and that experience alone was completely worth the price of a ticket. Unfortunately, the music at the beginning, mostly dub-step, caused considerable grumbling among the attendees. Around 12.30, after the ceremony, the DJ finally moved into psytrance, and at 1.30 Psynthetic, a DJ buddy of mine from way back, came on with some good uplifting psy. His set was a bit uneven, and I enjoyed the progressive tracks more than I did the full-on 150 BPM aerobic workout tracks, but it was really very enjoyable. Kitty, who rarely dances and is not that much of a party boy to start with, told me that I could write in this blog that "Kitty was not bored." That's a high achievement right there. We split around 3.00, being pretty pooped from the night before.
So there's your compare-and-contrast essay for this week. One party that had commerce and commercial success as its highest goal, another that was about creating a space where people could be nice to one another. If I could have squeezed them together, sifted out the bad elements from each and combined the good ones, I think I would have had the best party weekend ever.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Upcoming Event: Ritchie Hawtin at Mighty, Friday June 1
The master of minimal techno, the man with the rockinest' asymmetrical haircut since, well, ever, will be laying down the tracks with Magda of BPitch Control at Mighty, this Friday, June 1. Get your tickets now, because I can guarantee that everbody who didn't go to Michael Mayer last week will be going to hear Ritchie. $25 is steep, but you'll definitely get your money's worth from a man who usually plays venues twice the size in Europe.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Upcoming Event: Ritchie Hawtin at Mighty, June 1st
This must have just been announced over the weekend because I looked at the Blasthaus site on Friday and this wasn't listed, but here it is: Ritchie Hawtin and Magda (BPitch Control) at Mighty on Friday, June 1st. Get your tickets now because they will sell out!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
DJ Philosophy II: "The Flow"
I first realized the importance of flow in a DJ set back when I was making party mix tapes with my record player and cassette deck. At first my concept of how songs should follow one another was intellectual and rather forced, in a I’ve-read-the-Rolling-Stone-History-of-Rock-and-Roll sort of way. By the time I got into industrial music, though, I had the concept that songs went together based on mood and musical elements more than who had previously been a member of what band.
Hearing psy-trance DJs was my first real introduction to mixing and the idea of a set as a journey through moods and ideas. I came to understand that flow was the name of the game, the way that a listener or dancer can be led from one vista of the mind to another without being conscious of the transitions. In this way trance sets reminded me of classical symphonies, with movements and motifs that would emerge over time.
When I listen to DJs now, or mix CDs, the flow is where I focus my attention. Anybody can play one record after another, and even beat-match an intro with an outro, but it takes real skill to create a flow. The challenge is not only in getting the sounds of two different tracks to work together, but to understand also their dynamics and mood. My greatest frustrations come when I’m working on a set and I realize that I’ve backed myself into a corner with a track, something that is impossible to follow with the music I have without creating a significant, noticeable shift in the flow of the set. If you tend to stay within a well-defined genre keeping the mood and dynamics compatible from track to track is not so difficult, but if you begin to mix and match, or actually intend to create a change in moods over the course of set, it’s a different story.
The best CDs I’ve heard recently in terms of flow have come from minimal techno DJs like Ritchie Hawtin and Alex Smoke. In terms of sounds minimal makes it easier to combine a variety of different types of tracks with one another because the layers of the tracks have enough space between them to accommodate new elements. And unlike other genres, like breakbeat, psy-trance, or even drum and bass, that have very defined structures and almost homogenized sound palettes, minimal tracks loop in a way that seems almost infinite, so that when one track comes in with another it’s difficult to tell that it is another track, instead of the introduction of another set of looped sounds. For me flow is what makes music truly psychedelic, rather than just more background sound in an already noisy, chaotic world.
Hearing psy-trance DJs was my first real introduction to mixing and the idea of a set as a journey through moods and ideas. I came to understand that flow was the name of the game, the way that a listener or dancer can be led from one vista of the mind to another without being conscious of the transitions. In this way trance sets reminded me of classical symphonies, with movements and motifs that would emerge over time.
When I listen to DJs now, or mix CDs, the flow is where I focus my attention. Anybody can play one record after another, and even beat-match an intro with an outro, but it takes real skill to create a flow. The challenge is not only in getting the sounds of two different tracks to work together, but to understand also their dynamics and mood. My greatest frustrations come when I’m working on a set and I realize that I’ve backed myself into a corner with a track, something that is impossible to follow with the music I have without creating a significant, noticeable shift in the flow of the set. If you tend to stay within a well-defined genre keeping the mood and dynamics compatible from track to track is not so difficult, but if you begin to mix and match, or actually intend to create a change in moods over the course of set, it’s a different story.
The best CDs I’ve heard recently in terms of flow have come from minimal techno DJs like Ritchie Hawtin and Alex Smoke. In terms of sounds minimal makes it easier to combine a variety of different types of tracks with one another because the layers of the tracks have enough space between them to accommodate new elements. And unlike other genres, like breakbeat, psy-trance, or even drum and bass, that have very defined structures and almost homogenized sound palettes, minimal tracks loop in a way that seems almost infinite, so that when one track comes in with another it’s difficult to tell that it is another track, instead of the introduction of another set of looped sounds. For me flow is what makes music truly psychedelic, rather than just more background sound in an already noisy, chaotic world.
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