london: dozzy-style

last year during dozzy's legendary labyrinth set he dropped one of my all time favourite records, and one that i had never heard out before: 'consumed' by plastikman. on friday night, donato did it again. this time it was 'upekah' by son.sine. it is moments like this that you feel the full force of techno. everything else fades away, life is momentarily in balance, all you can hear and feel is the music. moments like these are so rare and beautiful that each one should be treasured and remembered. i now owe donato for providing two of these two me. this is why dozzy is - as far as i am concerned - pretty much the best dj about at the moment. he is someone who deeply cares about the music and wants to share that feeling, and this comes across in the way he plays.

the night started off with donato warming the place up with ambient sounds. while the records were lovely, it wasn't quite working - the volume levels were too low and people talking were way too noticeable. ambient is often most powerful when up loud. just because it is ambient, this should not be an invitation to keep the volume down. the sound guy definitely made a mistake on this one. shame, it prevented an excellent idea (donato opening the party slowly) form working properly. at some point early on i found myself in a conversation with derrick may, who happened to be in london and came down to check out the party. i must admit, i did not have too much time for his opinions on politics which he decided to share with me, as my full-time occupation is to research and write about politics i am not a fan of being told 'how it is' when it comes to politics... saying that, i was impressed that still after all these years someone like may would come out to a party he was not playing at just to check things out. also, he was very interested and impressed with dozzy, despite it is being quite different from the sounds may would normally spin. it often seems that the detroiters themselves are much more open-minded than their sycophants...

after about 90 minutes or thereabouts, the volume got turned up to an appropriate level and things got going. i should also add that corsica studios is a great little venue with a lovely funktion one system and a bit of a warehouse vibe to it. definitely a good environment for headfuck techno, which is exactly what donato was serving up. dozzy's set was exactly what we have come to expect - deep, tripping techno that puts your mind in a blender. by the last hour he had control of the crowd and used another monsterous track from emmanuel top (i think it was him) to tear the place apart. by the time he finished at 2am, i don't think anyone wanted him to stop, he could have easily played a couple more hours, something i would have been very happy with.

it was time for omar s to step up, however, so donato handed things over. i should also say, i had a brief chat with omar earlier on in the night and my take is that he is a cool guy - friendly, relaxed and very helpful when i asked him for some suggestions for future ssg mixes. anyway, he began his set with either 'french kiss' or 'how's your evening so far' - i dont know, i was outside in the smoking area before i could find out. i needed to recover a bit from all the dozzy-ness. after a while chatting with people i decided i should go check omar. he was playing quality house sounds and the crowd seemed to be loving it. unfortunately my mind was still in headfuck techno land. i just couldnt get into omar's sounds. it had nothing to do with him - his set was definitely very good from what i could tell - but i was not able to shift from donato to omar. it was too big a leap for me to make, despite repeated efforts to have a dance to omar. in the end i spent the rest of the night talking shit with donato and other people i had met, which was most enjoyable.

i think the pairing of donato and omar was a brave one and had mixed results. both delivered high quality performances that were enjoyed by a full (but still comfortable) dancefloor throughout the night. still, they play very different styles and i am not sure how easy it is to transit from one to the other. for me, at least, the distance was too far. this could have been my failing, however. regardless, what i would say is that the bleep43 crew put on an impressive party. to date, i have had (putting it mildly) very mixed experiences going out in london. this was by far the best i have been to - top notch music, excellent venue, quality sound system, a warm friendly crowd, and a great vibe throughout the night. these guys really care and it shows. big thanks to bleep43 for doing it right.

i'd also like to say a big 'thanks' and 'hello' to all the people i met during the night. it really was overwhelming all the positive feedback i received about mnml ssgs. myself and the other ssgs really appreciate it. it is things like friday night that give me great motivation and energy to keep going with ssgs, pushing deeper and further. thanks so much for the support and encouragement. and, of course, much respect to donato for delivering the goods again. dozzy-style = true.techno.music.