Funny how the best review (well, the *only* review , I guess) of this
past weekend's Black Lodge/White Lodge event in Toronto was written by
one of the performers. Just thought I'd add a few comments to Ken's
post.
First of all, though, I should say how happy I was to see how well the
event went. The two main forces behind it, Michael (TEST Productions)
and Carlo (IAO Productions), have been cutting their teeth on smaller
events over the last couple of years (many of which I've spun at, and
all of which have been a blast), but this was their first full-scale
"rave" (a word which doesn't really fit, but...), and it went so
smoothly I couldn't believe it. Congrats to both of them (as well as
their helpers from the Transcendance and Morpheus crews).
Onwards...
quoted 6 lines Stacey pullen and
>Stacey pullen and
>the psychic warriors ov gaia were there too, though sadly,
>scheduling precluded me from checking out what they were
>doing. I was playing upstairs, ya see. People that *did*
>see them said they were great, really good sets. It was
>like a rainforest in there when PWoG were on apparently.
It was like a rainforest in there for most of the evening. :-) The
basement room, being in the basement, had a lower ceiling and poorer
ventilation than the upstairs (where Black Dog played), and the music
down there tended to be more on the pumpin' side of things, so the crowd
was really working up a sweat. At one point, I walked in and felt a
couple of drips, so I reached up to touch a particularily low bit of
ceiling and it was *soaked*!
Anyway, while I'm not big on the sort of stuff that Pullen was spinning,
the bits of his set that I stuck around for sounded very nice for what
he does. Nice mixes, interesting bits dropped into the breaks, etc.
Really played off the crowd well. I missed most of PWOG's set as they
played at the same time as some friends of mine upstairs (see below),
but what I did manage to catch wasn't quite as inspiring as I'd been
expecting. I understand they started to really rock later in the sat,
tho.
quoted 4 lines I'm not going to review my own performance. suffice to
>I'm not going to review my own performance. suffice to
>say most of it was new material, and there was *so much
>sub* that peoples water bottles and kidneys were scooting
>everywhere. Some people in the corner even fell over.
Well, I can quite safely review your performance, and I'd say that it
was just dandy. :-) Little bits of everything - classic TBD techno, dark
dub, wacky jungle riffs, etc., etc. - all built into a nice, cohesive
whole. Some of the crowd seemed a little lost during the more
atmospheric bits, but they still *listened* and *reacted*. My only real
complaint is that the momentum was weaked a bit due to a power failure
of some sort about halfway through the set. Other than that, it was one
of the nicest live PAs I've seen/heard.
quoted 8 lines The real stars of the evening were the local talent. An awesome
>The real stars of the evening were the local talent. An awesome
>technothreesomeinthemouldofkraftwerk totally blew the minds of
>everyone when their technicoloured spider dancer burst out into
>the middle of the strobe. I've never anything so wicked! This
>is what a contemporary kraftwerk *could* be. *and* it made two
>fat bears having a fight look sad. (grin). Sadly, I was so
>off my face by that time, I can't remember their name, but it
>was LIVE in a way that you don't see in europe.
As I've already mentioned to Ken in private mail, this act was some good
friends of mine called Transformantra (along with our pal, King Svennie,
as the dancing spider-creature-freak) in their live debut. Some of you
may know of them as DHI, their decade-old industrial project, but let me
assure you that this new project is *miles* ahead of that. Even setting
aside my friendship, these guys *SMOKED*! Even at 4 AM, they got the
crowd going crazy. Watch out for 'em.
quoted 7 lines Last up, as dawn was breaking was DJ ASI and DJ TesT
>Last up, as dawn was breaking was DJ ASI and DJ TesT
>a combo using CD mixers and yer traditional technics
>& vinyl. the interplay of those two was phoenomenal.
>they played for three hours and were utterly brilliant.
>the best mixing (and mix) i've heard for ages. it went
>everywhere, and covered everything. if you book DJ's,
>book *them*
Yup, these guys (aka Michael and Carlo, the event's organizers) are
tops. Sadly, I was truly and totally beat by the time they went on, so I
only caught the early bit of their set, but they've always amazed. Not
only are they great DJs, but they're plain great guys and humble as all
hell. (For those of you in and around Ottawa, ASI/Carlo will be spinning
before PWOG there later this week... go!!).
quoted 1 line try 'whitelodge@ca' for info.
>try 'whitelodge@ca' for info.
Actually, it's whitelodge@techno.ca, although that may've been a
temporary alias for the weeks before the event. polyphonic@techno.ca or
testsite@interlog.com should work though. Or try
http://www.interlog.com/~testsite - I should be replacing the event
info with general TEST/IAO stuff by the weekend. RealAudio clips of the
event may also appear at some point.
Once again, major props to all involved. It'll be hard to top...
Greg