French, minimal techno producer Paul Ritch was awesome! He played out of an Apple laptop, guessing he was using Ableton Live with some kind of external MIDI controller. I couldn’t get close enough to see, too many people, and was too into the music to care! I’m not clear if he was playing only his own stuff (a live set), although it wasn’t hyped as a ‘live set’, or if he was just doing a computer based ‘DJ’ mix/set of his own and other people’s productions.
It was all solid maximal, minimal, techno, throbbing beats and bass, heavily shuffled 606 toms, and spun out/white noise breaks/builds. It all had a great intensity. I didn’t know much of what he played at the time. After checking out more of his productions and remixes afterwards on Beatport, and via his Quartz Music MySpace, I’m pretty sure I heard/remember him playing his tracks: Split, Walk The Line, Aquarel, Winter Ceremony, Nordbanhof and his remixes of Shonky’s – Time Zero, Bloody Mary & Sierra Sam’s – Day Light, and Kabuto & Koji’s – Butterfly, to name a few.
They had him playing in the smaller side room (Bump Lounge) of The Cross, which has much better sound than the main room anyway, all good, but, only problem is, it was rammed full, you couldn’t get in/out very easily. It was such a busy, sweaty party, well, apart from the disco bunker which everyone seemed to forget about on the night, or so I heard, probably empty until Spice started up. Tad was dissapointed the advertised Unabombers didn’t show. Usual deal with the messy, rude crowd, spilt drinks, bashed into, no apologies etc. I set myself on /ignore. I’m surprised so many people get into the dress up themes of these nights, there were circus freaks/clowns everywhere. I really didn’t take much notice of who else played, or what they played. Yousuf played the main room, same time as Paul Ritch was on. My ears did prick up not long after arriving hearing Miss Fitz – Colici (Sascha Dive Remix), Lee Jones – Safari (Stimming Remix) and Tiefschwarz – Liquid Cherries. Was really only there for and during Paul Ritch’s set. It was a fun night, I lost my baggage! Happy 1st Birthday!
http://www.myspace.com/paulritch
http://www.myspace.com/quartzrec
The next Lost Baggage party coming up, in November has Shonky, Style Of Eye and more, should be fun.