richie
Well, I went to see Richie Hawtin spin at Mezzanine tonight. I wasn't really planning on going out but after checking my email, I realized that Richie would be in my neighborhood, throwing down some new beats for the kids to digest. I hadn't seen him spin in over two years so I grabbed a red bull, gnawed on some ginseng root, and hit the streets. The Rx gallery was having a pre-party to sell tickets and to celebrate techno. There was no one there because of burning man. I got my ticket and one of the local DJs handed me a CD. I haven't listened to it yet so I don't know if it's good or not.
I went over to Anu for some drinks before the club. Some of my friends were there and they were really quite tossed. They kept yelling my name, CARLOS! CARLOS! and working it into songs. It was really weird but I tried not to feel self conscious. They wanted me to dance. I did. At first I thought that I would be the only one and they would just sit by the bar chanting my name and laughing. But to my surprise a ton of people joined me in my dancing and in no time, we had a serious party going. That took some real balls.
I partied it up for awhile but soon got anxious to hear Richie. I arrived kinda early but just in time to run into a few people that I had met in the scene. We chatted about the hurricane while Broker Dealer went on. When Ritchie hit the decks, it was exactly what I had been waiting for. He worked the beat left and right. Up and down. He had tons of knobs on his mixer that tweaked each individual sound. EQ-ing, sampling, efx, freq cuts, and rhythm slices. It was like putting that beat through a meat grinder. Except it sounded great. No more endless taking the beat out and bringing it in - premature kill switching. He used ping pong delay like it was his tooth brush. Ableton, Final Scratch, Decks, EFX, and a 909. His body moved like a machine, seriously. His neck moved mechanically - with no gradual flow from shoulder to shoulder, laptop to vinyl. Each movement was calculated and necessary. He was all over the place. Flawless mixing - track by track by track. For 1 hour. The show, however, would go on for 3 more hours.
Into the second hour, richie had lost his buzz. I don't know if he ever got it back. I left at 2:30. Trainwrecking, boring house loops, and a lack of beat grinding. Why does he even own these records? He used to just play whatever m-nus put out. Maybe m-nus is putting out crap now. But I think they still have a good minimal pulse. Does he have to go one for three hours if he only has an hour's worth of material? I would be fine, just listening to the good stuff. Lets have more of the good stuff and feel free to lose those lame Ibiza club tracks. Fuck it.
I went over to Anu for some drinks before the club. Some of my friends were there and they were really quite tossed. They kept yelling my name, CARLOS! CARLOS! and working it into songs. It was really weird but I tried not to feel self conscious. They wanted me to dance. I did. At first I thought that I would be the only one and they would just sit by the bar chanting my name and laughing. But to my surprise a ton of people joined me in my dancing and in no time, we had a serious party going. That took some real balls.
I partied it up for awhile but soon got anxious to hear Richie. I arrived kinda early but just in time to run into a few people that I had met in the scene. We chatted about the hurricane while Broker Dealer went on. When Ritchie hit the decks, it was exactly what I had been waiting for. He worked the beat left and right. Up and down. He had tons of knobs on his mixer that tweaked each individual sound. EQ-ing, sampling, efx, freq cuts, and rhythm slices. It was like putting that beat through a meat grinder. Except it sounded great. No more endless taking the beat out and bringing it in - premature kill switching. He used ping pong delay like it was his tooth brush. Ableton, Final Scratch, Decks, EFX, and a 909. His body moved like a machine, seriously. His neck moved mechanically - with no gradual flow from shoulder to shoulder, laptop to vinyl. Each movement was calculated and necessary. He was all over the place. Flawless mixing - track by track by track. For 1 hour. The show, however, would go on for 3 more hours.
Into the second hour, richie had lost his buzz. I don't know if he ever got it back. I left at 2:30. Trainwrecking, boring house loops, and a lack of beat grinding. Why does he even own these records? He used to just play whatever m-nus put out. Maybe m-nus is putting out crap now. But I think they still have a good minimal pulse. Does he have to go one for three hours if he only has an hour's worth of material? I would be fine, just listening to the good stuff. Lets have more of the good stuff and feel free to lose those lame Ibiza club tracks. Fuck it.