Friday night presented us with many choices, we opted to start with the Photo Records party at Blue. Photo Records is a house label based out of Nashville with releases from the likes of Jake Childs, Slater Hogan, John Larner, Jonene and many others. The night featured Mindub, Busy & Spoon, Chuck Daniels, Jay West and Ricardo Rae to name a few of the artists. Singer Allison Joyce graced the mic for a few songs with Ricardo Rae, her voice filled up the small venue and went ever so well over house music. If you ever get a chance to see this talented singer, do not miss her. And once again we were off to our next stop at Bed. The night featured German's Loco Dice, Martin Buttrich (live), and Steve Bug- a who's who in the techno scene. Musically, Friday night had to be the most appealing to my current tastes. I did not recognize one track that any of the guys played. In my opinion that is a big part of WMC, hearing tracks that will not be heard for months, or ever, for that matter. A who's who of dance music was also present in the house. The likes of Sharam, Richie Hawtin, Lee Burridge, and D. Ramirez were all getting down to the Germans.
Back at the hotel around 6 am I managed to lay around until mid afternoon until it was off to Ultra again. Saturday proved that it was the biggest challenge to get a cab out of South Beach to downtown. I waited around for a good half an hour or so for a taxi. All the while running late as can be for a Carl Cox photo shoot which I missed by the way, thanks Miami cab drivers. Day 2 of Ultra presented a much stronger line up then the previous day. The day was a wash out practically, I managed to catch M.A.N.D.Y and Marco Bailey at the Amnesia Ibiza Electro - Techno stage before the rain started. I couldn't handle being in the rain anymore and left. Walking out of Ultra it was a complete mud fest, eager fans still danced away.
Saturday night we finally managed to have a proper sit down meal at an Italian joint on Ocean. The food was decent, but for the price it could've been a lot better. Walking down Ocean we found a place that was serving half-price drinks. This practice is mostly unheard of in South Beach, I believe the place is called Oceans Ten. After many cocktails later and a cab ride once again to downtown, I was at Studio A for the Downtown Riot party with Mstrkrft, Tommie Sunshine, Princess Superstar and many others. Our Canadian heroes Al P and JFK, also known as Mstrkrft, were on when we arrived. Imagine Daft Punk, only in a lighter version. The boys played quite a few of their tracks from their album 'The Look.' The godlike Tommie Sunshine was up next, towering over the DJ booth. Sunshine pounded away with a very dirty, dance rock, electro set. We managed to spot the one and only Tiga dancing away as well.
Sunday almost seemed like it didn't happen. I was having trouble staying awake, completely out of energy and going on about 5 hours of sleep. My salvation for the day was a Cuban joint on 8th and Collins one of the best and least expensive meals I had during the week. After doing some shopping, I was off to Oceans Ten again for half-priced drinks. A few cocktails later and I'm making my way to the Little Mountain Recordings party at Shine which is located in the Shelborne Beach Resort. Thanks to the Taylor Singer and the people at Chaotica we got right in with hardly a wait. Talent for the night included none other then LMR main man Sander Kleinenberg, Trent Cantrelle, Rene Amez and Chuck Lepley. In short, Rene Amez stole the show with a very dirty tech house set. Highlight of the night was Rene dropping the classic Faithless 'Insomnia.' The capacity venue nearly exploded. Sander came on sometime after 3 with a special DVJ set, the visuals and the lyrics to the music synched perfectly. I ran out of gas about 45 minutes into Sander's set and left.
Overall another successful conference minus the rain. Big tunes for the week were Bobby Peru 'Erotic Discourse,' the Eric Prydz remix of 'Proper Education,' Trentemoller's 'Moan,' Robin S 'Show me love' 2007 version, Claude Von Stroke 'Whistler,' and Tiefschwarz 'Ghost Track' Radio Slave remix. Until the next episode, peace, love and beats.
