(idm) rephlex all-stars night in .be (better late than never - review)

From Danny Thierens
Sent Tue, Nov 24th 1998, 14:36

hi all,

for those of you interested, herewith my (little) review of the _rephlex
all-stars night_ in ghent, belgium last thursday (november 19th).

the venue ... one of the best concert halls in .be, a converted theatre with
approx. 600 people capacity. a big projection screen above the stage (it was
too dark to spot anything else).

the bill : dj mastercontroller (or something similar), dmx krew live, cylob
live, mike dred live, dj aphex twin. dj luke vibert was apparently not on
the spot.

surprisingly enough, the hall was packed (!) by 22.30 with the first dj (who
would also spin between each live set) spinning some old school electro,
loungy bits and loads of '80s stuff. first impression : way too loud ...
something which was going to increase as the evening progressed !

dmx krew was fun, lots of electro-ish and late '80s rave tunes with slightly
vocoder-ed vocals on top. it got the crowd going and my foot tapping. funny,
the kind of stuff you can make with you a few old synths and a drum machine.

cylob was crunchy and messed up, just the way i like it. at times, it
sounded like his equipment crashed but the tracks all ended up just right in
the end. by this time the crowd was going nuts. i guess 50-100 people would
end up deaf by the end of the night, because of the proximity and volume of
the speakers.

mike dred, who is becoming a regular in .be (loads of kozzmozz related
events), brought a wonderful display a 4/4 pounding acid and downtempo
interludes, with a (more than) 10 minute long version of _macrocosm_ (which
i knew from _in order to dance vol. 5_) as top ... more acid than anyone can
take !

aphex twin started his dj set at 2.15 am, with most people already worn out,
sitting (lying) on the floor in the corridor next to the hall. he started
with what i can describe as an aphex twin remix of a john zorn number,
completely fucked beat with more rhythm patterns than you can count and a
squealing sax on top.

after that ... glory ... _confusion's revenge_ by armando (one of my all
time acid fave's), followed by what sounded as a new breakbeat version of
baby ford's _flowers_ (another fave of mine, alongside _oochy koochy_ ...
the bass-cruncher of all-time) ... does anyone know if this is released
somewhere ? after that rdj got started on a neverending train of twisted &
dark breakbeat stuff, some of it sounding like _dhr_ stuff. my ears could no
longer take it, so i decided to catch up with some friends in the
side-corridors, which by now had turned into a kind of bomb-shelter with
people everywhere and rdj's war soundtrack in the background.

it was 3.30 am and i decided to call it a day ... i had fun though !

dv8 (wondering if the v/vm live event (x-mas special ?) in a few weeks will
be worthwhile to travel to ...)

ps : to my surprise, rdj was quite the mixer/beatmatcher ...