the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta
DOWNLOAD: Udachi – Goodbye Clothes! mix (MP3)
DJ Falcon
Hopefully you managed to get some good dancing done yesterday and Thursday. If not, there are plenty of ways to hit the floor this Saturday (11/8) into next week, but first read about some dancefloor destruction that went down last Saturday:
A seemingly endless wait for the train coupled with friends’ I.D. and car troubles had my Saturday night off to a shaky start. Things were not looking up as I arrived at a nearly empty yet very hot Le Poisson Rouge. Justin Miller and Jacques Renault were playing some very fine disco jams, but I was too thrown off by the stifling heat and sudden lack of dancefloor companions to enjoy it. I leaned against a pillar as the place gradually filled up, hoping the funk I was in would lift as quickly as it had descended.
When DJ Falcon got behind the decks a little after 1, it did…instantly. For the next two and a half hours Mr. Queme played one of the most uplifting, well-mixed, unexpected, dance-demanding, dj sets I’ve heard in a long time. He played/sampled a number of the great classic dance tracks for which he’s known including “So Much Love To Give”, “Together” (which you can view video of here), and his remix of the Cassius track “La Mouche”. He also played a lot of great, old stuff including tons of Daft Punk (Too Long, Around the World, and Technologic among others), Green Velvet’s “Percolator”, “Music Sounds Better With You” by Stardust, “In Love With You” by Alan Braxe and Fred Falke (video here) and “Two Months Off” by Underworld, as well as some recent (but not brand new) stuff – “Hustler” by Simian Mobile Disco, “Shake It To the Ground” by Rye Rye, Crookers’ Wow Mix of the Chemical Brothers’ “Salmon Dance”, and “& Down” by Boys Noize. There were also some really random, unexpected tracks that worked very well like the 24 Hours a Day mix of Phoenix’s “Long Distance Call”, “Uusi Fantasia” by Latialla Taas, and Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back”.
DJ Falcon dropped all of these tracks in some of the most unpredictable, creative ways. He would play a brilliant combination/sequence of tracks and after a while it would seem like he was moving into another little run of songs. But then, somehow, a track you had been totally shocked to hear him play 3 songs prior would magically be woven back into the set only to have everyone lose it, yet again! He did that quite a few times…yet every time, it was still just as shocking, incomprehensible, and awesome as the first.
It was such a feel-good, fun to get down to set that was made even better by the fact that you could tell DJ Falcon was enjoying himself. I’m pretty certain his set was supposed to be over sometime around 3 but it wasn’t until close to 3:45, after several wind-downs that wound back up, and waves goodbye that weren’t followed by him leaving, that DJ Falcon finally relinquished the decks to Alex English.
While last Saturday is going to be a hard to follow, hopefully some of these guys will be able to make you get down this weekend:
Kraak & Smaak
An early option (at least for a Saturday night) is Kraak & Smaak at Mercury Lounge. They’re a trio from Holland who play funky, soulful, electro tracks with a live band. I’m all about the live meets electronic lately and would love to see what I-DJ called a “Must see live band”, but won’t be around Saturday. Please go and let me know what I missed! Check out the video for “Keep Me Home” below and be sure to listen to some of their more recent tracks on their myspace that are much better (I just couldn’t resist posting a video that features a walking speaker AND a weiner dog):
The Beatards open at 10:30 with Kraak & Smaak scheduled to go on at 11:30. Advanced tickets available here.
If you’re in Manhattan for that a great option for afterward (or for starting your night):
Eamon Harkin and James F!@.$%^ Friedman are keeping their Primetime party going strong at Santos (upstairs) with New York’s own Rub N Tug guest deejaying.
There are also a couple of good events happening in Brooklyn:
The Trouble & Bass crew are back at Public Assembly (in the back room) with a special guest deejay set from Udachi (Palms Out). Download his Goodbye Clothes! mix at the top of this post (tracklisting below). T&B crew members Drop the Lime, Star Eyes, and the Captain will be deejaying as well.
10pm. $5 before midnight, $10 after.
Udachi – Goodbye Clothes! mix tracklisting
Tim and Eric – Petite Feet intro
Baobinga + ID ft Virus Syndicate – Jump up get Hype [FAT!]
Boy 8 Bit – fog bank [Trouble and Bass]
Shut up and Dance – Sensation [Shut Up & Dance]
Coat Party – Diamonds (Norrit Freemix)
South Rakkas Crew – Mad Again (Boy 8 Bit Remix) [Maddecent]
Moby – Alice (Drop the Lime Rmx)
Rochelle – Untitled – Proper Villains Dub
St Plomb & Water Lilly – Shake a Leg (Jokers of the Scene Remix) [JOKERS]
Toddla T – Ina Di Dancehall (Count of Monte Cristal & Sinen Remix)
Aquasky + MasterBlaster – Ready for this (Baobinga Remix) [Passenger]
Calvertron v Traced & The Mexican – House Party
AC Slater – Jack Got Jacked [Palms Out]
B Rich – Give it 2 Me
Mr Miyagi – Pick your Poison (JFK remix)
KIM – Wet N Wild (Midnight Juggernauts Rmx) [Modular]
Kissy Sell Out – Gonna Make you Mine
DSL – Invaders (Djedjotronic Remix) [Ed Banger]
Phetsta – Four:Eight:Three [Passenger]
H2O ft.Platnum – Whats It Gonna Be (Vandalism Remix)
Lismore – Paradis (Udachi Remix)
John Dahlback – More than i wanted [Pickadoll]
Vitaminsforyou – Flesh Python (Jokers Of The Scene Remix) [Sfeericle]
Teenage Bad Girl – Hands of a Stranger (Yuksek Remix) [Citizen]
AC Slater – Party Like Us (Udachi Remix)
Kanji Kinetic – Disco Vibrator [Subgrade]
Drop the Lime – This is the Way (Drop the Lime mix) [Institubes]
GirlJoy – Clip! (Kanji Kinetic Remix)
Chemical Brothers – The Sunshine Underground
One last option for Saturday:
Famous Friends have put together a great little line-up at Europa, featuring Top Billin from Finland who are making their US debut (check their site for lots of free mixes), a live set from Kap10Kurt, Loose Shus, Romanoff, Bradley D, and VDRK.
18+. $10 advanced tickets available here. $12 at the door.
Sunday (11/9)
– Jamie Lidell is deejaying at Public Assembly. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. I just saw Jamie perform one of his excellent live shows at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last month, and removed from the excellent showmanship he displays throughout, the next best thing has to be when he takes a break from working the crowd to work behind his table of electronics. This sampling, looping, and manipulating of beats, plus his previous more electronic geared project, Super Collider, with Christian Vogel, make me confident this is going to be one great and very interesting deejay set.
– Get your classic disco on with Nicky Siano at Santos.
– Updated, modern, disco-ey stuff with Justin Miller and Jacques Renault downstairs at APT
Monday (11/10)
– Francois K is at Cielo
Tuesday (11/9)
– Sinden is at Plan B along with Nacho Lovers, Michna, Nick Catchdubs, DJ Eleven, and Blu Jemz. Free!
– The ISSUE Project Room Benefit Party is happening upstairs at Santos. Right now a lot of it is TBA, but here’s what we do know about it:
ISSUE Project Room (“one of the warmest and best sounding rooms in New York,” ArtForum 2007) was recently offered a 20 year, free rent lease on an incredibly beautiful 4800 square foot theater in downtown Brooklyn. You can make history and help ISSUE build a “Carnegie Hall of the Avant-Garde” for the next generation of composers, filmmakers, poets, and artists.
LINEUP:
Alexander Waterman (cello)
Moby (ambient set or DJ set)
David Linton (bicameral research A/V, unity gain)
Charles Cohen (buchla music easel)
Bubblyfish (8-bit gameboy jams)with MC Tony Conrad
More performers to be announced soon!
18+, 8pm, $TBD
Wednesday (11/10)
– Louie Vega and Kevin Hedge (Blaze Imprints) are at Cielo.
So…October was pretty much non-stop dance madness with lots of great deejays/bands stopping by for CMJ, and even in the weeks before that. There’s some great stuff headed our way for December (Sebastien Tellier and Fake Blood!)…but November is looking a bit sparse dance-wise (granted I still have to do a lot of calendar checking). What shows are you looking forward to this month?
