decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

After the fun of DJing at FECKNO! in Bondi Junction, my girlfriend, friends and I made a spare of the moment decision to head into the city and go check out Josh Wink at Chinese Laundry, not knowing what flavour of techno/house music he was going to play. Much thanks to Quest and his sexy new car.

Once Josh Wink started up we were very happy we’d made the effort. For the first hour and half he blended up a fantastic mix of funky, hypnotic, minimal, techno grooves, featuring lots of Alex Under sounds/type-sounds. The cave/room had space to groove and move, with the right amount of people to create a happening/friendly vibe. I think a lot of the ‘usual’ type Laundry crowd don’t ‘get’ minimal, so they’re kept entertained by the party-house/electro-house in the other room.

I didn’t get a good look at what Josh Wink was using to mix, but imagine he was using CDs with CDJ-1000s as there was a lot of looping going on. ** He would often use a looped section of one track to bring in the next track over the top. He never really let tracks reach their break-downs, so the continuous beats/grooves and hypnotic cycles of sounds had a great dance-floor intensity. It reminded me of the vibe Richie Hawtin created when he last played in Sydney, layering up loops of parts of tracks.

I only recognised a handful of tracks Josh Wink played/looped, which is how I like it. Some train-spotting…

Friendly People (Alex Under) – Music Is Improper
Alex Under – Multiplicanciones2 (C2)
Audion – I Gave You Away
Joris Voorn – Year Of The Monkey (Can You Feel The Force)
Matt O’Brien – Serotone (Radio Slave Panorama Garage Remix)
SLG – Caffeine
Alex Under – El Danubio Universal

There were also some Jacek Sienkiewicz, Donnacha Costello sounding productions as well, I may be off the mark on those though.

We left as he started getting into more harder, louder, head-smashing, old-school techno/acid sounds, heard a Hardfloor track amongst that. I think he was mixing up an old, banging Robert Armani track as we headed out.

Reports on ITM about ‘The Future Music Festval’ where Josh Wink played earlier during the day/night, said he played a lot of old, well known, techno classics, and older tribal-techno. I’m glad we got to hear his minimal side.

A fun night out.

** : Someone on ITM just mentioned they saw he was using a small unit with 8 rectangular buttons and a dial on it. That sounds like one of the Red Sound looping units… http://www.redsound.com/products/soundbiteXL

Photo by Benn Glazier http://www.flickr.com/photos/royaltech/

Fantastic! I had a really fun night, lots of old faces and friends about. The Cross would have to be one of the best venues I’ve been to in Sydney in ages; fantastic sound, great dance spaces, nice lounge/chill spaces, large, modern, clean toilets. I think they’re covering all the renovation costs with the $$ drink prices, ouch! Great music loving friendly crowd of about 300 people.

Just quickly, how’s this for a mixed up assortment of music? Some train-spotting at Laurent Garnier, with a little help from friends and ITMers.

Marcel Dettman – Quicksand
Mike Shannon – What’s Your Pleasure?
Johnny Future – Perfect World 02 (B)
Slam – Azure (Part 1)
Ralphi Rosario – You Used To Hold Me
Housemeister – Bubblegun
Inner City – Good Life (Carl Craig Remix)
Son Of Raw/Dennis Ferrer – A Drumstick & A Light Fixture
Shlomi Aber – Crop Duster
Liquid People Present Danism – Koopers Troopers
Rhythim Is Rhythim – Beyond the Dance
Sleeparchive – ? from Hospital Tracks
Stephan Bodzin & Marc Romboy – Puck
New Order – Temptation
The Presets – I Go Hard, I Go Home
Blur – Song 2
Nirvana – Lithium
Giorgio Moroder – The Chase
The Cure – A Forest (Electronic cover version by ?)
Julian Jabre – War
Nancy Sinatra – These Boots Were Made For Walking
Sebastian Leger – Bad Clock
Underground Resistance – Amazon (Live Version)
The Doors – Break On Thru To The Other Side (Remix ?)
Laurent Garnier – Man With The Red Face
Sylvester – You Make Me Feel Mighty Real

He played for 5 hours! Such a variety of sounds, there was also a lot of (perhaps too much for me) breaks, old-school jungle, and drum ‘n’ bass sounds as well, all beyond my scope of train-spotting. There wasn’t much techno or minimal, but I wasn’t expecting much anyway, the tracks he did play of that were quality though. There were some fantastic sections of music with clever style transitions. The energy level stayed high, at times he was a bit cheesy with some pumping house stuff. He’s still got a lot of energy as a DJ too, did some great tricks/loops with CDJ-1000s, playing mostly CDs. I enjoyed it.

I’m often dissapointed when friends don’t come out clubbing. On this occassion I’m really glad they didn’t join me. This was a really funny (read tragic) night, I’m glad I didn’t subject them to it.

Some random thoughts and observations in regard to this night out…

• So, Bread And Butter – Is a ‘minimal tech’ night huh? Sounds like house/electro-house to me. No idea who played for the 40 minutes heard before Oliver Huntemann came on, but it wasn’t minimal and it wasn’t tech.
• The all too predictable ‘who are you/why should I let you in’ vibe from the bouncer at the roped off entrance to the club with no name outside, said it all, as to what kind of club/night this is/was going to be. *Tip* Say you’re on the (ITM) guest list regardless if you are or not.
• You’re giving us _that_ attitude outside and _this_ is the crowd inside? Err, who are you not letting in?
• So this is where all the young, trendy, fashion obsessed, vain, self absorbed, MySpace generation hang out. The place was absolutely packed full of them!
• This club has completely changed from the days of Crunch @ Frontier, it’s really been opened up, with ‘pretty’ (read horrible) decor everywhere. The DJ booth is right down in the back corner of the venue. I doubt most of the crowd there even know/care where it is. Sound is loud and harsh on the ears.
• Checking out the crowd, I’m surprised there’s still any stock left in Industrie stores. I hate those buttoned white striped t-shirts! Sheep! Why is everyone wearing white to night-clubs these days?
• Do girls learn how to (lack of) dress and dance from Usher and 50 Cent videos these days? They hate being ignored too, it really confuses them.
• So many vain people, taking photos of themselves, checking themselves in the mirrors at every opportunity, dancing to be noticed; pay attention to me, I’m beautiful. Eugh!!
• The ‘real’ minimal sounds Oliver Huntemann played actually sent a large portion of people off the dance floor. Heard/saw quite a few people around us saying “What’s this shit?” walking off in a huff.
• The over excited DJ fan-boys crowded around the DJ booth screaming and arm throwing at every slight variation of music intensity was hilarious. Woo, a hi-hat came in!
• I think Oliver Huntemann would sound more interesting if he actually ventured outside of that Giant Wheel, Spiel-Zeug Schallplatten, Int. Deejay Gigolos, Confused, Rekorder labels sound. Mixing everything outro to intro is pretty lame. We stayed for an hour of his set, it really didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Sure, I like some of those tracks, but played all together in a row like that isn’t very interesting.
• I noticed quite a few dodgy looking old guys (40+) in this place too, shirts and suits, with their eyes popping out of their heads at the sight of any young girl in the place. Mates of the owners? promoters?
• The obvious ‘powder room’ employees only door with packs of guys entering/exiting constantly near the DJ booth is very… err… obvious!
• I found it really hard to stop myself from laughing at all the totally clichéd people/sights and happenings in this place.

I love being jaded. Yeah sorry, it’s just not my scene. I like being amongst people who care more about the music than how much time/$ they spent on their image to be seen in the scene.

🙂

More info if you’re interested…

http://www.huntemann.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/breadandbuttermusic
http://www.myspace.com/ladyluxnightclub