From Simon Walley Sent Tue, Nov 10th 1998, 09:44
From Simon Walley Sent Tue, Nov 10th 1998, 09:44
Lifted from UK-Dance: -- >Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 19:21:02 -0800 >From: Catweasel <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> >Subject: Chain Reaction > >Chain Reaction >It had been a long drought, a distinct lack of good music coming to San >Francisco, and post Burning Man I hadn't felt like going out at all, >feeling like escaping from the straitjacket of techno culture >altogether. So the tension was high as I entered the cavern-like space >that is the city nights club on a Sunday evening. Would the night live >up to my high hopes? Could Chain Reaction be as incredible in the flesh >as on vinyl? Could the masters of deep dubby minimal techno make a San >Francisco crowd go off? Would anyone even turn up, as San Francisco is >not known for it's musical knowledge. >Welcoming bass hit my body, the soundsystem, hugely powerful and crisp, >was suspended from the ceiling in all four corners. A huge projection of >some gruesome looking bugs glared on the wall (it turned out it was a >video camera trained on a jar of weird insects, live bug mixing). People >were milling around and grooving as the Sabotage residents warmed up, >playing deep minimal techno. Not wanting to waste any time, I started >letting rip and dancing, I hadn't heard music this good over a >soundsystem this good since Stacey Pullen around a year ago. >By 12 the place was filling up nicely, and time for a live set. Pole >took to the stage and at once I knew that this was going to be one of >THOSE nights, that reaffirm my devotion to the music I love. The sound >was so crisp, so loud. It was as good at The End in London, and a group >of us huddled in the sweet spot in the middle of the room, sucking up >the deep booming dubby bass with our bodies and the trippy treble clicks >and pops with our minds. Pole's music is slow, deep, minimal and a lot >of staccato beats made from trebbly record scratch and pop noises. Truly >awe inspiring. Next up was Scion, which is a collaboration between >Vainqueur and Substance. Truly great music again, it started totally >ambient and slow and dubby, moving harder as the set went on, and was >just exploding to a peak, with the crowd screaming and dancing like >banshees when a technical hitch meant the live system crashed. A bit of >a bummer, but Rene and Pete (alternating behind the decks) stepped up >and started spinning. After half an hour of incredible deep slow techno >Rene really started to let rip on 3 decks, some amazingly good mixing >with scratching, doubles, madcap fader action, the works. I don't think >I've seen anyone spin better other than Jeff Mills, but this guy's music >style was a lot slower and minimal than mills techno. So many incredible >tunes to trainspot, lots of Maurizio stuff (at one point M5 was being >used as the bassline for around half an hour while Kraftwerk was being >mixed in with some other tracks). San Francisco was truly schooled. >It often amazes me that the best music is relatively unknown, and it is >certainly the case with these guys, they don't play out much, they're >not international superstars, and yet their production is well known >among those who know, and the avant-guard arty music posse. If house >music affectionados were to be forced to listen to this, they'd fall in >love, but the fact that it's labelled as techno puts most people off, >associating techno with hard relentless pounding. The beats never got >above 130bpm really, totally slow, totally soulful, totally funky music >that was born in this country and consistently shunned. It took a group >of guys from Berlin to bring it to the West Coast. >If you like expanding your musical horizons you could do a lot worse >than checking out any of the chain reaction CDs, or get the new Pole on >Din records, it is pretty amazing stuff, a cross between autechre and >deep droney dub. >x@xxx > >- -- > =========================================================== >| x@xxx : xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx | >| "to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing | >| its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else | >| - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being | >| can fight, and never stop fighting." - e.e. cummings | > =========================================================== || [CiM] || xxx_@xxxxxxx.xxx || - ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com