Even though I’m still working on reducing my sleep deficit, here’s a track to keep you all awake: What seems to start as an aseptic, frigid techno track featuring bizarre owl samples soon turns out to be the funkiest and most cheerful disco tune you’ve heard in quite some time – with the main theme of the track changing completely twice at two totally unexpected breaks at about 2:00 and 03:50. Get on yer dancing shoes, let’s make a mess, kid – exclusively on Disco Demons.
Here’s what I did last weekend: On Friday, I caught only half an hour of Armand van Helden’s set (after missing the Japanese Popstars thanks to the Austrian Federal Railways) – a bit mainstream-ish as expected (in a Bonkers-way, of course), but a great selection of music to get the party started. He was followed by Digitalism spinning a set that I would’ve loved two years ago but found quite predictable and partially boring now.
When David Guetta came on stage, I was quite glad that he was playing only the cheapest commercial smash hits for a brain-dead crowd, so I could go on hating on him with a clear conscience – but when he started dropping tracks that I’ve been smashing in my own sets for weeks, including Congorock’s Babylon, my world came out of joint and I decided to get drunk immediately. (On that account, I have little memory of both Boys Noize and especially Adam Freeland’s sets, but I do remember Boys Noize starting a hefty techno set with Kontakt Me, which I always thought was quite boring but loved at that time – thanks to Mr. Stolichnaya). In between, I caught glimpses of Roni Size and DJ Fresh making the drum & bass stage’s blood boil.
Right after Carl Cox playing a nice three-hour sunset-set, Buraka Som Sistema, definitely being my personal highlight, killed the crowd on Saturday. Sampling every single piece of music history ranging from Rage Against The Machine to Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You, these Portuguese madmen were radiating so much energy on stage that one could almost feel the crackling electricity in the air – I tried to film their performance using my mobile phone but soon ended up dancing and jumping like a lunatic, waving my hands in the air and therefore taping mainly the people behind me instead of the band.
Directly after this hour of perfect bliss I went to see Carl Craig, but changed my mind quickly: His set was like one and a half hour of sex without an orgasm – quite fun in between, but sort of unsatisfying on the whole. I went to see Benga who was dropping sick beats on a needy crowd and then decided to switch to the drum & bass stage where Spor, Noisia, Original Sin and Audio were ripping it up until I finally (after a short intermezzo at the techno stage to see Stephan Bodzin playing on little known frequencies) decided to go to bed when the sun came up.
Here’s the reason why there might be no blog posts on Friday and Saturday this week – and judging from the above line-up I might also need the whole Sunday to recover from the side effects of massive partying. However, to make sure everyone’s in the right mood for the festival, here’s a banging little something-something for you all to dance to while getting your stuff packed (if you can’t make it there, think of this track as some kind of substitute drug). Drop me a line if you’re there and want to meet for a beer!
As it’s been raining in Austria for almost two weeks now, this is the perfect track to make the rain go away: In the latest installment of Bacardi’s B-Live series, Drop The Lime give Thunderheist’s lovely little summer tune Drive-In a proper fidget rave trouncing, leaving no doubt that the sun will be shining again soon. In the meantime, I’ll just crank up the volume to drown out the sound of the rain pittering against my window.
“Alex Metric’s long awaited re-edit of Beastie Boys ‘sabotage’ is now being given away for free!!” Thank you Marine Parade Records, thank you Twitter.
Attention: When after almost half a minute of deafening distorted white noise apocalypse the legendary guitar riff breaks loose, you might want to jump on your desk immediately and do crazy things such as kicking your monitor out of the window or setting your paperwork on fire. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
