On the other hand, I started the day by interviewing the charming producer/dj Kaskade. A clean living and spiritual family man and DJ - who produces great music for the clubs - who woulda thunk? The recent move from San Francisco to Los Angeles gave him more space to spread out his ProTools rig as he continues to churn out massive quality remixes of pop artists (Britney Spears' "Womanizer" recently finished) as well as his own personal productions. Congratulations to him and deadmau5 for their current number one on the dance radio airplay chart "Move For Me." Watch for the interview here in the very near future.
The day for me was stacked with meetings (Armada, PvD, Big in Ibiza, Incentive) - all of which yielded some incredible music that I look forward to writing about (and spinning.) I managed to schedule a meeting with the Tonium crew with Jim Tremayne (DJ Times) and Russ Harris and we discussed the 2009 US launch of the Pacemaker. Yes, you are right, I keep talking about the Pacemaker.. when you see it and play with it, you will understand why. This is a revolutionary device - the way that MP3s made dance music available to everyone (and not just DJs) - the Pacemaker will make mixing music accessible to everyone (and not just DJs.) So watch out DJs, its 2008 and beatmixing music is not going to be enough..
I stopped in the Focus on the USA panel and have to honestly say that I was a little bit disappointed. Ok, call me a drama queen, but based on past panels and my relationships with everyone up there, I was expecting a Jerry Springer show of explosions, fireworks and outbursts. Everyone was surprisingly well behaved and offered lots of good insight and information to the attendees about the dance music scene in the US - which of course is a good thing. And yes, throwing chairs at an ADE panel would not have made us yanks look good, but it surely would have made writing this last paragraph a lot more fun.
A few good quotes:
"There is ignorance in the US. There is fear in the US. If it's not pop, if it's not hip hop, if it's not rock, what is it?"
- Brad Lebeau
"The brand has become the artist."
- Gary Salzman
"Club charts are the spokes of the wheel, the artist is the center."
- Brad LeBeau
"Less drinking, more questions."
- Cary Vance, jokingly after a lack of questions from the audience
Party time Since I spent just about all of Thursday night at one venue, I knew I had to hit several places last night. First stop, was the Armada/Ultra/Fuga on the 7th floor of a ritzy office building. These kind of industry events are often surreal - reminiscent of the Madonna release party in Miami this past year. There we had a small event with say 200 people mingling and enjoying the spinning talents of Bob Sinclar, Junkie XL, Danny Tenaglia and Tracy Young. Imagining how much that would cost at a real life event is mind boggling. The party featured sets from Mischa Daniels, Stonebridge and Kaskade. The vibe was great and the DJs played a mix of their records and big choons to watch for. It was one of those parties where I was having to focus on the music to write down titles that I needed to track down.
For some reason, which I won't go into detail here, I ended up in the "gay district" and went to Club Exit. What a disappointment. You would think in Amsterdam with so many incredible clubs and top calibre djs in town - that the big gay dance club would seize the opportunity. Wrong, 10 minutes in the club and I realized that the non-gay clubs were the place to be. The honest truth is that the other clubs are so well mixed (and the Dutch people are so open to everything) that the gay thing is not even an issue. If you want to dance with a guy or a girl - it doesn't matter. Everyone there is to party and have a good time.
Since I had missed his set at the A/U/F party, I ran to Rain to catch Stonebridge's set. Perfect timing - the floor was packed - the MC was toasting and Stone was rocking the crowd (and the effects on the Pioneer DJM mixer.) Its great to see DJs who work the equipment to the limit rather than just mix one track into another. I could have spent all night dancing to Stone's mix of disco and vocal house - as he threw in classic acapellas over current beats. This was music for partying and the people were clearly in the mood. I would love to book him to spin at my club in Nashville - that would be such an amazing night.
I took my own advice and headed to a party with a DJ that I'd never heard before - Michel de Hey spinning techno at Club 80. Was it minimal? Was it tech? Was it groove? I really don't know how to classify it - other than it was was great. I don't know much about Michel, but colleagues seemed to describe him as a master of the techno scene. After hearing him spin, I will definitely be hunting down more of his releases.
