Kontrol with Audion and Daniel Bell
First, a Big Announcement: Derek Plaslaiko, the DJ Jeremy and I heard in New York and totally dug, will be spinning at the next Kontrol in February. His groove is deep and progressive, with elements of trance sprinkled around, and it should be an excellent, excellent hour or so on the floor. Come and check it out if you want to hear some really excellent techno stylings from New York.
This past Saturday was the second Kontrol at the End-Up, this time featuring the big names Audion (Matthew Dear) and Daniel Bell, with guest DJ Suz. The event was once again packed, though this time I was less enamored of the crowd and the music, and have begun to wonder if the move to a big club doesn’t threaten the underground vibe that made Kontrol seem special in the first place.
Jeremy was away for the weekend, working on a special project with a friend in Oakland, so our Saturday group was J, Kitty, and myself. Knowing that the night would likely be packed, and that we could get in for free if we got there before 11, we decided on an early departure. We arrived around 10.15 with a line already forming, though I suspect that this was because they had just opened the doors. Passing through security lead to one of the “firsts” I would experience over the course of the evening - being patted down and asked to open the tin of Altoids gum I had in my pocket. Not as demeaning as a frisk at 1015 back in the day, when you could have the lovely experience of a thug running his thumbs around the inside of your underwear waistband, but unsettling nonetheless. I had nothing on me, and could have gotten something in anyway if I’d been determined, but the increasingly intense security, perhaps a result of new management, did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Inside we had some drinks and listened to an opening tag-team set from Sammy D and Allyand Biyallo. It was a bit of an odd match-up, since Sammy’s tracks tends to be darker and more broken (and sometimes harder to dance to), while Allyand favored more of the big, expansive progressive feel, stuff that seemed to kick the crowd up more and raise the mood of the dancefloor. There were a couple times when I thought the tag-over was a bit rough because of these different styles, and I had a definite sensation of changing mental and kinetic gears. As an audience member I’ve never been too keen on the whole tag-team thing, since it can be very difficult to keep a steady flow happening unless the two DJs are completely in synch with their styles and genres. In this case I would have preferred a good hour of Allyand on his own to get my head in the right space for the rest of the night. I also think that the guys haven’t quite got the hang of the End Up sound system yet; there were moments when the mids and highs were coming out at completely tweaked-out, ear-frying levels, and I had to leave the dancefloor because the sound was making me feel kind of ill.
By 11 the club was showing signs of being completely packed, but the crowd seemed different from last time, more like general clubbers who would come out to the End Up on a Saturday night regardless of the event, and less like the dedicated technoheads I usually see at Kontrol parties. True, it was a rough weekend to motivate the troops, following on the heels of New Year’s, and I was close to staying home with a good video game myself. This was about the time that I had my second first of the evening, which involved having to stand in line for the bathroom because most of the people in the line were girls. In fact, when I skirted around the line for the “girls” bathroom to go into the empty “boy’s” room, I got cussed out by a girl behind me for using the stall to take a pee. “You’re a boy, use the trough,” she hollered at me. Well, tough, I’m pee shy, bitch. Why don’t you squat down over it if you have to go that bad, we’re all friends here.
It was in fact an odd thing that there seemed to be a preponderance of the female gender in the crowd. Coming out of the bathroom I saw one girl up against the wall with another girl rubbing her breasts up against her (evidence that some people were able to get goodies past the door), and then on the dancefloor there was one of those dreaded circles of squealing Marina chicks. Later I noticed what appeared to be a couple dyke couples walking around as well, and a fair smattering of Asian girls in black cocktail dresses. I wondered if this had anything to do with the guest DJ Suz. I didn’t stick around to scope out the floor during her set, though, because her version of techno veered dangerously close to tribal for me, complete with vocals.
Around 12.30 Kitty left us, and then around 1 Matthew Dear came on. I’ve never been that big a fan of Dear, whether in his guise as Audion or producing eponymous tracks. Generally, what I’ve heard of his stuff doesn’t really go anywhere, more like one loop repeated for a while, followed by another. His tracks under Audion have a darker, grittier, fuzzed-out feel, and it’s not something I really feel a groove for when dancing. Part of this may be because, once Dear took to the decks, the dancefloor seemed to go completely dark and there just wasn’t enough alterative sensory stimulation to light up my brain. The End-Up has a huge lighting rig and I was very disappointed that the only apparatus that got used was the strobe, my least favorite lighting effect. Given how successful the night was I hope that the Kontrol kids add a line to the budget for a visuals person (and I in fact know one who is very, very good if anybody would like a recommendation). Seriously, even the underground squat parties I’ve attended had better visuals. This was a problem I had with the Kontrol underground I attended at the SOMA loft space a couple months ago - I hate dancing in a dark box, especially as the night wears on and the need for sleep begins to pull at me. Visuals are just as important to the energy of the party as the music, and I hope that, in the future, the Kontrol crew will put as much effort into the visual stimulation as they do the auditory.
Last call came around 1.30 while we were trying to make space for ourselves on the dancefloor, and around 1.45 we decided to head out before entering that period of the evening known as Taxi Hell. I would have liked to have stayed for Daniel Bell, but both the flesh and the spirit were weak. Their were plenty of people shaking it around, though, and I found myself thinking about how techno is poised to become San Francisco’s Next Big Thing, though I’m concerned that it might degenerate into just another version of Club Noise for Making Out and Getting Fucked Up. In fact, this is my worry for Kontrol; now that it’s made the Big Time, I wonder if it will be able to keep that feeling of an underground, special thing for the techno cogniscotti. Though the RX Gallery was clearly an inadequate space, I still remember standing on the sidewalk, having a smoke and chatting with folks, and thinking that the seedy environs of the Loin did add some special flavor to the evening. It reminded me, as I said then, of when I was in Berlin and you had to go knocking on the right doors to find where the really slammin’ party was happening, full of happy crazy techno kids who obviously loved their music. I’m thrilled that Kontrol is enjoying the success that it is, and that there’s someplace I can go to hear good techno in San Francisco. I also don’t want to get into that scene insularity that completely brought down psytrance. I hope that by scoring a club like the End-Up more people will come to appreciate techno, but I’m also afraid that the masses will regard it as being much the same as other “techno” like house and trance, just background music for their chemical escapades. Next time I’ll stick around longer cuz I’m curious to see how things change after 2AM, whether more of the clubbers take off to be replaced by the heads, whether the groove deepens and takes us off into a special techno dreamland.
This past Saturday was the second Kontrol at the End-Up, this time featuring the big names Audion (Matthew Dear) and Daniel Bell, with guest DJ Suz. The event was once again packed, though this time I was less enamored of the crowd and the music, and have begun to wonder if the move to a big club doesn’t threaten the underground vibe that made Kontrol seem special in the first place.
Jeremy was away for the weekend, working on a special project with a friend in Oakland, so our Saturday group was J, Kitty, and myself. Knowing that the night would likely be packed, and that we could get in for free if we got there before 11, we decided on an early departure. We arrived around 10.15 with a line already forming, though I suspect that this was because they had just opened the doors. Passing through security lead to one of the “firsts” I would experience over the course of the evening - being patted down and asked to open the tin of Altoids gum I had in my pocket. Not as demeaning as a frisk at 1015 back in the day, when you could have the lovely experience of a thug running his thumbs around the inside of your underwear waistband, but unsettling nonetheless. I had nothing on me, and could have gotten something in anyway if I’d been determined, but the increasingly intense security, perhaps a result of new management, did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Inside we had some drinks and listened to an opening tag-team set from Sammy D and Allyand Biyallo. It was a bit of an odd match-up, since Sammy’s tracks tends to be darker and more broken (and sometimes harder to dance to), while Allyand favored more of the big, expansive progressive feel, stuff that seemed to kick the crowd up more and raise the mood of the dancefloor. There were a couple times when I thought the tag-over was a bit rough because of these different styles, and I had a definite sensation of changing mental and kinetic gears. As an audience member I’ve never been too keen on the whole tag-team thing, since it can be very difficult to keep a steady flow happening unless the two DJs are completely in synch with their styles and genres. In this case I would have preferred a good hour of Allyand on his own to get my head in the right space for the rest of the night. I also think that the guys haven’t quite got the hang of the End Up sound system yet; there were moments when the mids and highs were coming out at completely tweaked-out, ear-frying levels, and I had to leave the dancefloor because the sound was making me feel kind of ill.
By 11 the club was showing signs of being completely packed, but the crowd seemed different from last time, more like general clubbers who would come out to the End Up on a Saturday night regardless of the event, and less like the dedicated technoheads I usually see at Kontrol parties. True, it was a rough weekend to motivate the troops, following on the heels of New Year’s, and I was close to staying home with a good video game myself. This was about the time that I had my second first of the evening, which involved having to stand in line for the bathroom because most of the people in the line were girls. In fact, when I skirted around the line for the “girls” bathroom to go into the empty “boy’s” room, I got cussed out by a girl behind me for using the stall to take a pee. “You’re a boy, use the trough,” she hollered at me. Well, tough, I’m pee shy, bitch. Why don’t you squat down over it if you have to go that bad, we’re all friends here.
It was in fact an odd thing that there seemed to be a preponderance of the female gender in the crowd. Coming out of the bathroom I saw one girl up against the wall with another girl rubbing her breasts up against her (evidence that some people were able to get goodies past the door), and then on the dancefloor there was one of those dreaded circles of squealing Marina chicks. Later I noticed what appeared to be a couple dyke couples walking around as well, and a fair smattering of Asian girls in black cocktail dresses. I wondered if this had anything to do with the guest DJ Suz. I didn’t stick around to scope out the floor during her set, though, because her version of techno veered dangerously close to tribal for me, complete with vocals.
Around 12.30 Kitty left us, and then around 1 Matthew Dear came on. I’ve never been that big a fan of Dear, whether in his guise as Audion or producing eponymous tracks. Generally, what I’ve heard of his stuff doesn’t really go anywhere, more like one loop repeated for a while, followed by another. His tracks under Audion have a darker, grittier, fuzzed-out feel, and it’s not something I really feel a groove for when dancing. Part of this may be because, once Dear took to the decks, the dancefloor seemed to go completely dark and there just wasn’t enough alterative sensory stimulation to light up my brain. The End-Up has a huge lighting rig and I was very disappointed that the only apparatus that got used was the strobe, my least favorite lighting effect. Given how successful the night was I hope that the Kontrol kids add a line to the budget for a visuals person (and I in fact know one who is very, very good if anybody would like a recommendation). Seriously, even the underground squat parties I’ve attended had better visuals. This was a problem I had with the Kontrol underground I attended at the SOMA loft space a couple months ago - I hate dancing in a dark box, especially as the night wears on and the need for sleep begins to pull at me. Visuals are just as important to the energy of the party as the music, and I hope that, in the future, the Kontrol crew will put as much effort into the visual stimulation as they do the auditory.
Last call came around 1.30 while we were trying to make space for ourselves on the dancefloor, and around 1.45 we decided to head out before entering that period of the evening known as Taxi Hell. I would have liked to have stayed for Daniel Bell, but both the flesh and the spirit were weak. Their were plenty of people shaking it around, though, and I found myself thinking about how techno is poised to become San Francisco’s Next Big Thing, though I’m concerned that it might degenerate into just another version of Club Noise for Making Out and Getting Fucked Up. In fact, this is my worry for Kontrol; now that it’s made the Big Time, I wonder if it will be able to keep that feeling of an underground, special thing for the techno cogniscotti. Though the RX Gallery was clearly an inadequate space, I still remember standing on the sidewalk, having a smoke and chatting with folks, and thinking that the seedy environs of the Loin did add some special flavor to the evening. It reminded me, as I said then, of when I was in Berlin and you had to go knocking on the right doors to find where the really slammin’ party was happening, full of happy crazy techno kids who obviously loved their music. I’m thrilled that Kontrol is enjoying the success that it is, and that there’s someplace I can go to hear good techno in San Francisco. I also don’t want to get into that scene insularity that completely brought down psytrance. I hope that by scoring a club like the End-Up more people will come to appreciate techno, but I’m also afraid that the masses will regard it as being much the same as other “techno” like house and trance, just background music for their chemical escapades. Next time I’ll stick around longer cuz I’m curious to see how things change after 2AM, whether more of the clubbers take off to be replaced by the heads, whether the groove deepens and takes us off into a special techno dreamland.