Somewhat groggy after 4 hours sleep, but still elevated from
seeing & hearing Matthew Herbert last night at club More in Cape
Town, South Africa:
We arrived at the club round about midnight, having heard that
Herbert was due to go on at 1am. Somewhat disappointed at
finding out this was going to be a DJ gig as opposed to an actual
kitchen utenstils 'n all live show, but keen to see what he'd play, we
shuffled around in anticipation, while the warm-up DJ throbbed out
generic standard house muzak.
Bang on one a.m. he was up in the booth - a slight figure in a
striped shirt - gloriously devoid of the "God is a DJ" ego trip we see
all too often. He was greeted by warm welcoming applause and
started with a robotic female voice looping "I've got the code" or
something like that (anybody? I have no clue what it was) over and
over, which then segued into a good half hour's worth of cheesy
disco-y House (with a capital H).
I raised eyebrows at my friends - all of us somewhat taken by
surprise by his direction, but in retrospect it all makes sense. He
was picking up from where the previous DJ left off and CT is
predominantly a dance / house audience and I think he was playfully
feeling his way. Gradually he picked up the pace and things
hardened considerably to a pounding crescendo of minimal stabs
and we realised we were putty in the hands of a master.
One hour in and he was giving us his remix of Moloko's Bring it Back
before thrashing relentlessly and unapologetically into more house.
Wads of toilet paper went into my ears as I found the sonic sweet
spot right up front near the huge speakers. He looked as though he
was clearly enjoying himself as he sent waves of rhythm barrelling
into the crowd, like an alchemist subtly mixing fresh substances into
the mutating brew.
He played a full 3 hour set till 4am, by which time the track he'd
chosen to end with skipped as he clutched his head in horror, and
then he hard cut into Bill Withers' "Use Me" as a finale. In the three
hours he had masterfully taken us up and down beautifully, varying
the pace but never letting up on the beats. His mixing is inspiringly
smooth and all I can say is he's a clever, clever man!
The way he laid out his set meant one never had to leave the floor
to sit down or relax elsewhere - by varying the tempo he allowed
the heaving crowd a breather before cranking up the night-air into
the next head-crunching breakdown. By the end of the night the
volume was such, that the hairs on my arms were trembling and I
felt the music viscerally - the way house *should* be consumed.
On the House vs IDM thread : witnessing a gig like this, house music
makes total sense. Coming on hard and huge it's perfect as a
means of facilitating an escape into the realm of atavistic hedonism.
Sadly the high note of the night was marred by returning to my car
and finding the window smashed in ... but hey, this is South Africa
after all. Back to reality.
I
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