A Private Party with Derrick Carter

Derrick Carter brought Chicago Disco Fever to Shoreditch on Friday night and contaminated hundreds of people making Shoreditch Studios a red hot quarantine zone, with hours of non stop disco music.  A shiny disco ball hung in the centre of the ceiling and hundreds of people were getting down with the groove ‘disco stylee’. I have no doubt John Travolta would of happily taken centre stage, so in his absence I ensured his memory lived on in the name of Joy Travolta. I resisted doing the ‘Night Fever’ arm in the air thing, however, I gave the tunes the respect they deserved and danced the hours away. Soar feet are always a sign of a fantastic night!

This life of mine is no ‘mid life crisis’ as I have the same number of decades of musical genres under my dancing belt as have Carter and other great DJs such as John Digweed, Pete Tong and Carl Cox. I will never apologise to anyone for going out and dancing to some of the greatest DJs of our time. Carl Cox by the way, holds the record of keeping me non stop dancing for 3 hours and no stimulants were required. It is always about the quality of the set! Derrick Carter was not far behind that record!

I took a younger girl friend with me who has a love for Dubstep, Drum & Bass and  Techno amongst others and she requested the cabbie played Kiss FM on the journey, as her favourite DJ EZ was playing. I wanted to give her a taste of the ‘Disco Glitz’ and on doing so her words to me on the dance floor were “I didn’t realise Disco Music was so funky”!  Derrick Carter introduced her to that style of music, so that was a brilliant road test Mr Carter!

The gig was sponsored by Tiger Beer, which went down as beautifully as the  music. The gig went on until sunrise, where Derrick Carter aroused the crowds consistently with some serious disco funk.  Derrick’s mix of ‘Miss You’ – The Rolling Stones delighted me and the crowd and got everyone  ‘oooh ooh oohing’ to the mix.

Derrick Carter getting down with the disco groove

I was considering asking Derrick for an interview, but then thought twice about it. This man is a master of the art of creating dance music for the masses and I didn’t want to interrupt his creative flow. The best interview on the night in my opinion is to feel the producers music and dance.

It was a diverse crowd and I chatted to a cool cat called Tom in the alley outside, who was having a ciggie break. He told me he rarely goes out, but as soon as he heard Derrick Carter was in town, he just had to be led astray.  I also got chatting to a lady, who immediately informed me she was 45 years of age and wasn’t comfortable with her size. Unfortunately, the music industry and media have been guilty of giving people like her a complex and made her feel she needed to apologise for being at a club and having fun! I soon put her straight and said, ” music itself isn’t ageist, sexist or sizeist and we are all as young as the music we feel; so lets get back on that dance floor and respect the art of the DJ”!

No person walks around an art gallery with their eyes closed, so I insisted we get with the groove and headed back to the centre of the floor, because  that was the reason we were there!

I believe we have a lot to learn from African tribes as every member of the community, young and old, large or small, get with the rhythm and beats and dance together. If the music industry were to get with the rhythm on the street and  dance floors globally and listen to the producers and crowds, they would see the potential sales and promote all people in videos. This would definitely boost record sales. They would also encourage men and w0men of any age or shape to go to a club and get funky, without being accused of being re-cycled teenagers! Zumba classes have become a huge hit in the UK, because people of all ages and size love to get together and dance, not only as a way of keeping fit, but also socialising and having fun away from the PC!

I am without doubt everyone had a fantastic night as Derrick Carter’s expertise at exciting the crowds lives on since he has been DJing since the age of 9 years and is one of the pinacles of Chicago House Music.

Derrick Carter

Buzzin Media on Soundcloud

House music and disco creates a fuzzy feeling of happiness.  It’s kind of its point.  But to lift it, particularly to lift it to something post 2000 takes more than wizardry with the new software platforms that adorn most DJ booths.

You need soul to be injected into the fray, an understanding of how to take a lilting rolling beat and infect the dance floor with passion.   Sweatshop displayed both an understanding of this and also showed if one DJ gets it, and the other you are playing with doesn’t have quite the same instinctive understanding that the music can fall a bit flat.

6th Borough Project is formed with Graeme Clark known as ‘The Revenge’ and his partner Craig Smith.  The Sweatshop event marked their debut party of their decks and effects set that is taking them across the world.  Now to get one thing straight right away it was a very fun night.  The guys played some brilliant old funk with old school Hip Hop.  They got everyone grinning and dancing by mixing up the genres merging Latin percussion with House, Underground Resistance with Disco and the formula worked.  Mostly.

But, there was a stark contrast between Clark’s performance on the decks with his partner Smith’s.  It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what it was, I suppose it might be an unlearnt understanding of how to manipulate the music to make it something more than just familiar, but to make it new and fresh sounding.  I loved hearing Moodymann ‘Shades of Jae’ dropped by Clark, but it lacked the resonance and power of Clark’s tune selection and DJing skills.

The crowd however, seemed really into it and perhaps my opinion feelings on the night were more pronounced because I was critiquing it.  I really do believe that the partnership will go from strength to strength throughout their tour together.  They played music to make you smile and hanker for the good old House days.

To quote the Eddie Amador track ‘House Music’ that they played… ‘Not everybody understands house music, it’s a spiritual thing, a body thing, a soul thing.’  And it turns out, after attending the Sweatshop night that is absolutely true.

When do you get to have 12 of the most influential music producers of the last twenty years playing back to back for 12 minutes a piece in one space?  You don’t.  This kind of line up is something you could only concoct if making a play list at home.  But Red Bull Music Academy turned this musical fantasy into a reality at the Scala last week.  And boy, was I pleased to have witnessed it.

The Influential Music Producers

Arthur Baker, A Guy Called Gerald, Jazzie B, Martyn Ware, MJ Cole, Peter Hook, Robert Owens, Roni Size, Shy FX & Stamina MC, Shades of Rhythm, X-Press 2 and Zinc & Dynamite MC were given 12 minutes each to play their 12 inch anthems and also various tracks that had influenced their musical sounds. Jazzie B was began the session and dropped the first big song of the night, Soul II Soul ‘Back to Life.’ Miss Dynamite made a very welcome return to the stage during Zinc’s turn on the wheels of steel singing their new track ‘Wile Out’ and showed us just why she was such a successful MC early last decade.

My personal highlight without fail was Roni Size who bucked with the trend by playing his own track ‘Brown Paper Bag’ at the end of his dance hall and hip hop set. Robert Owens soothed us with his voice as he sang ‘I’ll be your friend.’  I loved his outfit of studded belt and tight black long sleeve t… it showed off his slight middle age paunch.

In fact, the passing of time seemed to be unifying theme in a night of very different music styles.  We were celebrating definitive tracks created by these people years ago, which has influenced and changed the course of music today.  Everyone was getting on a bit, the hairlines were receding, and the lines around the eyes more pronounced.

I was a wee nipper when some of the tracks were first released, others I remember and bought with gusto when they came out.  What was universal on that night was that good music IS timeless.  Fact.

This couldn’t have been made more clear than by the final set of the night given to Peter Hook of New Order who played three different interpretations of ‘Blue Monday’ leaving us all high and replete to shuffle out the doors home.

Fabulously mustached and fur wearing gay door bitch? Check.  The beautiful and the damned all wrapped up in fantastically out there clothing?  Check.  Cocktails made by handsome metro try anythings?  Check. Retro, ironic it must be cool screening of 1980’s classic film The Labyrinth?  Check.

The music perfectly suited the environment and the theme of the night.  The reviveHER DJ’s definitely worked towards fulfilling their manifesto ‘to ReviveHer! we must aspire to fulfil her lost sense of ecstasy.’

The DJ’s partly drawn from the Ponystep and Boom Box parties included Nathan Gregory Wilkins, Richard Mortimer and Daniel Mitchell.  Gay disco house was the order of the evening in the bar.

There was a definite 1980’s, 1990’s New York house sound permeating the room.

Five inch stiletto heels hindered any efforts of mine to try to dance in the basement; in fact it was those heels and an awareness of my unfashionable self which resulted in my very well behaved exit before the tube stopped running.

Next time I will wear far less ridiculous shoes so I can stay until the early hours and be revived!

venue: Concorde2, Brighton
Hosted by: Tru Thoughts/Ninja Tunes
Date: 5th December 2008

Years of digging in unlikely places have made a Mr Scruff live gig an eclectic proposition. A departure from the signature happy-go-lucky floor fillers of years gone by, tonight is a Latin flavoured evening of spice and foreign grooves. The floor is sticky and the Tru Thoughts devotees are out in force to prove they tango and bop as hard as any South American dance hall. As expected, the progression of genres was flawless all at once maraca shaking, boot-ilicous and heart warming.

In a sea of retarded dub bass lines and ego driven electronica dominating Brighton’s sea front club mentality, it’s refreshing to have such a hefty crowd enjoying older tunes.

The songs crackle, feel dilapidated but in no sense archaic. It’s a diverse selection, in awe of both the anonymous players of times gone by, and the producers and selectors persistent in pushing forgotten tunes into the present public’s consciousness.

The crowd wasn’t what was expected. I’d made assumptions about cultured world music snobs and Giles Peterson look-a-likes in full attendance, but instead there was a younger enthusiastic audience representing. jiving on the stage, smiling, ecstatic at the atmosphere they were creating, housed in that cave of a venue.

I’ve noticed we’ve developed this discourse, standing outside clubs talking “sick” tunes and “ridiculous drops”. But tonight’s outside posers are filled with a more sophisticated praise. A language of obscure genres and references to the hidden treasures of dusty record boxes. Rather than jumping up, we’re swaying and enticing our friends with exotic gestures which somehow feel apt. Our shoes are flailing, we’re tripping up in our fluffed attempts at the tango.

But it’s the tough selection tonight, the blend of the rare and unknown with the contemporary dance floor orientated tunes that they’ve influenced that works so well. The night was a celebration of this niche sound, which for these few twilight hours, we’re so happy we’ve found.

And then we walk home , arms entwined, hiding from the harsh coastal winds, humming melodies we’re sure we heard: Peruvian piano loops, brash brass breaks, a tinnitus of castanets.

“This is the last time I ever play this song”, says Roots Manuva, just after his DJ has teased the crowd with a burst of the resonating bass line of “Witness (1 Hope)”. There is something special about that bass; something that stays with you long after “Let the Spirit”, tonight’s final song of an extended encore, comes to an end, and I don’t think that it is tinnitus.

This was the first night of the Slime & Reason tour to promote Roots Manuva’s current album. But monged-out rapper Rodney Smith was not averse to playing the classics.

Dropping almost all the singles from his previous three albums (Sing-a-long “Dreamy Days”, “Too Cold” etc.) the performance felt almost like a Greatest Hits tour. Indeed, the song that got the best reception was undoubtedly “Witness”. And judging by the crowd reaction, I doubt that Smith will be allowed to drop it from his set as soon as he claims.

Roots Manuva’s languid demeanour and reluctance to remain centre-stage makes his show all the more cool and his banter all the more affable, though some punters may feel that the Banana Klan aides (Smith was flanked by male and female voice) sometimes dominated the show with their crowd-warming interludes.

Support came from excitable young rapper Jim Screech, certainly a future UK talent.

Full tour listings: www.myspace.com/rootsmanuva

Last night Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet rocked the Indigo2 Club in Greenwich, London with an awesome set as part of the Eat Your Own Ears series.

The crowd included old and young faces, men and women, all to witness Four Tet play his wondeful experimental, melodic, glitchy electronica house music.

He politely waited on the side of the stage for the dj to finish before making an understated entrance to warm applause and cheers. No rock ‘n’ roll late entrance or making the crowd wait for his presence. Bang on time Fourtet took to the centre of the stage carrying only two bottles of water & greeted his fans with a wave.

The set started with a long slow burning version of the title track from his new mini album, The Ringer. It was enough to grab everyone’s attention. But it was the rocking A Joy that the front of the audience began to bob up and down like they were at a Motorhead gig!

Four Tet grooved around obviously enjoying himself and his music as much as the audience, as he twiddled and played with electronic digital equipment and a laptop to great effect. The maestro at work, each track was introduced by a familiar melody, beat or scratchy clicks and the audience loved it.

This was my first visit to the Indigo2 Club inside the O2 Arena. A purpose-built venue with good facilities, easy access to the stage and bar, clean toilets and best of all a brilliant sound.

Four Tet was every bit as good as I had anticipated; and judging by the audience reaction, I probably wasn’t the only one left wondering how we could get Kieran Hebden to play more live gigs.