Monday, August 6, 2012



this dude-that-i-never-heard-of-before played my favorite set at Hard Summer

the above isn't it (posted 7 days ago, the gig was on Saturday) but seems like this mix was made in its honor, or something like that

now Datsik and 12th Planet were ruff, and Skrillex is an amazing entertainer, but what I dug about Claude Vonstroke's set was that - in the midst of a context of relentless digi-maximalism, overbright sonic blare, his set had a bit of analogue-era depth and deepness to it ...  there wasn't that compulsion to fill in every corner of the sound-spectrum with fizzy excitement

so it was actually hypnotic... you could fall into its spaces, its elongation of the moment...  fall under its spell

i couldn't really tell if he was using turntables and vinyl -- it looked like it -- but it felt old skool...  still part of loop da loop era, but not nostalgic or retro-reverent either particularly...

he's an endearing dj too, bouncing up and down behind the decks




elsewhere i had to conclude that just about my least favorite sound in contemporary dance is electro-house....   all those grinding, whirring "dirty bass" lines e.g







a lot of the stuff on offer sounded like Rustie but with all the good bits (majesty, humour, emotion, intelligence) flattened out of it

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