Hello.
This message goes out to a _lot_ of people, so I'm sorry if you see
it more than once.
This is a short report of this year's Quart festival in
Kristiansand, Norway.
It started on..
Wednesday 5.7.:
Markens:
Kenny Larkin was DJ'ing. Great set, typical Detroit sounds and
style all the way through. Lasted until 03.00.
Thursday 6.7.:
Vaskeriet:
Coldcut was DJ'ing before Sandals. Apparantly it was just Jonathan
and another bloke which I didn't know the name of. The music they
played was a mad mixture of own cuts, Ninja cuts, strange cuts and
even Bros cuts! Madhatters ruled. Music to go wild to.
I only caught ten minutes of Sandals before I went to..
Markens:
..where Laurent Garnier was DJ'ing. What a fine set he managed to
pull. After the set I talked a bit with him, and he said that he had
played _very_ commercial, since he couldn't help notice that the
crowd was a bit..what should I say..unscholared? I didn't actually
think it was that commercial, but then again he is more famous than
me.
Anyway, an absolute stormer, and later on we tried to get in to an
afterparty where he would play, but apparantly nothing much happened,
and we didn't get in anyway. (Just a bunch of VIP's and drunk hotel
guests and no one dancing. What a waste.)
Actually got some sleep that night.
Friday 8.7.:
Vaskeriet:
Luke Vibert DJ'ed and pulled a quite jungly and strange set, even
for him, with Depth Charge coming on after him (as a DJ). He played
some unbelievable funky stuff, and during the last quarter Tricky
came on and MC'ed and got the crowd into gear for Rocker's Hi-Fi,
which played good and according to their record. However..
Markens:
..Juan Atkins was DJ'ing, and no one in their right mind wants to
miss him, right? Well, turned out that his mixing was pretty bad (a
lot of double kicks and out of time hats). The songs were good,
but I was just a tad disappointed about the mixing. Just a tad.
I actually heard that they had some trouble finding him on the
airport in Italy, where he was supposed to get the airplane to
Norway. No wonder: he was in Paris! Too much spliff, I suppose...
Saturday 9.7.:
Teltet i Tresse:
DJ Tommy Tee spun the decks for Norwegian rapact Warlocks. Good
enough. Mad Professor came on and did his/their thing, which is
perhaps a bit too much _real_ dub for me. I prefer my dub a bit
washed out. (Stonewashed?)
Then House of Pain came on, which was..I guess good enough, but HoP
is for me something I put on to hear the ruffness and feel the
lyrical flow, which was lacking a bit during the concert. I mean, the
same words, but live is _never_ the same as studio, right?
After that people literally threw themselves over each other to
catch Tricky. Now this gig was very good. After the concert I
felt..kinda weird. I did! Very strange mood over all the songs, and
I have to say he was actually better live than on record. (Just to
contratict myself re. HoP.)
Caledonien Hall:
Gazz played before Blachman Thomas meets Al Agami & Renee, but I
didn't catch this at all.
Markens:
Neither did I get Michael Dog who was DJ'ing. You see, I was at..
Dyreparken:
..with two different scenes:
The Junglecafe:
..starring Little Simon, LTJ Bukem and A Guy Called Gerald who
were all DJ'ing. But I wasn't there either! I was at..
Piratscenen:
A tourist attraction with a pirateship. The artists were actually
performing on the ship, with us standing round a big swimmingpool!
Great place to take a bath, right? No. Too much chlorine in the water
made that impossible. And if anyone had tried, they would have shut
down the hole area. You can imagine he tight security.
Anyway. Earth Nation came on first, and Ralf and the other one
(can't remember his name, sorry) performed much new material. Very
good. A girl from Eye Q was there too (Pauli), and danced even harder
than most of us others! (Ever seen a promotion person dance? I have -
now.) Beautiful trance all the way, even some ambient excursions
inbetween. Can't wait for that album!
Then came The Aloof, who also did a great set. During 'Religion',
Tricky came on and I felt a bit indignant on Aloof's behalf as the
crowd started to shriek 'Tricky! Tricky!'. Oh, well.
Apparantly, a friend of mine knew a girl who had been hanging out
with them all week, since they arrived on monday and spent the week
there. Lucky. And regarding Tricky, he was all over the place. He got
himself a new tattoo and people went: (whispering) "Isn't that
Tricky?" and pointing at him. Strange. I don't wanna be a star.
Fluke then came on and did a storming set. Absolutely brilliant.
the way these men twist their knobs is incredible. I don't think they
any DAT's going, judging from the activity behind the mixer, and if
they did, I don't care. The music was salvation enough. BTW, I liked
this live appearance much more than Fluke's Peel sessions, which were
a bit more mediocre. (Then again, those are recordings from 91-92.)
After some dead air, so to speak, came Global Communication, or
more correctly half of them, as only Tom was present. Mark was in the
Netherlands, I think?, also performing as GC. How quaint.
I say GC, but I probably mean Link or Reload, as the music this
evening was quite housy and uptempo. On the vocals were Kirsty
(Capshaw?) from Opus III, and sometimes Tom would shout into the mike
phrases like "Isn't she beautiful?", "so lovely!" and "She _is_
beautiful". (Which she was, of course.) About her voice I have to say
that she is so unique. Also, they had two performers, a man and
woman, doing things I really didn't understand. But then again I
wasn't supposed two, as they explained to me afterwards.
Most of the songs I had never heard before. They may be on some
rare Infonet-12", and if not I hope they get released. Much to
splendor over here, I tell you! And Kirsty's voice fitted perfectly
into the hole picture (or do I mean sound?) Also present was a
saxophone-player and another girl on vocals. During the last two
songs, the sun started to come up, and the players started to throw
out little GC boxes with candy in them. I will never forget how I
felt facing the sun and listening to the music. I don't think I have
ever felt something so powerful and emotive. Just pure and happy
bliss.
When it was all definitively over, we took a bus back to the
campus, packed our tent and left the city by train.
---
If any of you went because of the first mail I sent out, please mail
me and tell me how you felt about the hole happening.
Later,
Christian
pcf@dnfi.no
MOOing at chiba.picosof.com, port 7777