Welcome to the first of my ‘reflections’ posts. Written thoughts and comments about past minimal, tech-house, techno, house etc. music party/club events, featuring international DJ/producers and live acts, that I’ve been out to here in Sydney, and until now had not yet blogged about.
I’ve had most of these posts sitting in my drafts for months. I really have no excuses for the delay publishing them, other than being both too busy and too slack.
Let’s head back to the start of the year, when it was much warmer than it is currently here in Sydney…
Claude VonStroke, Christian Martin, Unabombers, Gucci Soundsystem @ Pulse Radio Yacht Party 002 – MV Starship (Sydney Harbour Cruise) : 24.01.2009
Claude VonStroke @ Pulse Radio Yacht Party 002 – MV Starship (Sydney Harbour Cruise) : 24.01.2009
Photo by Patrick Munoz from RA
Ahoy, me mateys! We were back again, cruising the waters of beautiful Sydney Harbour on the very modern, stylish, comfortable, multi-level ship/boat: MV Starship. And, once again it was another sweltering hot summer’s day, with blue skies and the sun beating down upon us, with 35-40+ (c) degree temperatures.
All the little problems from the previous party featuring Luciano on the same boat/ship (read about here) a month prior, seemed to have been taken care of. Everything was much better organised, less queues, less waiting, more staff/service, all made for an enjoyable, fun day.
I really don’t have any complaints, I guess just a little one. I would have liked to have heard some deeper, softer sounds to warm up into my day, but that’s just me and my old-schoool ways. The ‘up-for-it’ party vibe started from the second we we were all on board, and departing from the dock around noon.
The crowd was great, friendly, happy, lots of smiles, lots of babes in next to no clothing, lots of people there following the hype from the first party they didn’t attend, did attend, mixed in with the true music lovers and clubbers. Sound systems on both levels were Funktion One, once again. They are certainly loud, but I’m still not won over on their sound. I was thinking, they remind me of the sound people would get with mega Hi-Fi systems in the 80’s setting the multi-band graphic equalizers into a smile shape, with over boosted lows and tops, and nothing in the middle range.
San Francisco DJ/producer Claude VonStroke does a fantastic job of bringing the party vibe. This is the second time I’ve seen him play in Sydney. He layed down a great mix of fun, party, tech-house and minimal sounds, with some nice deeper moments. There were lots of buzzy, synthetic melodies and sounds, deep throbbing bass-lines and tones, white noise builds, and little sonic influences from electro-house, techno, drum’n’bass, hip-hop, house, r’n’b, reggae, and ethnic, tribal, Latin percussions all sneaking their way in, much like the sounds you find across his Dirtybird label, and with the darker tones from his Mothership label. I was impressed with the amount of his own productions, remixes and releases from his labels that he played. His great remix of Sydney’s Poxymusic – War Paint, brought a big cheer, nice to see recognition from the crowd. A few of his own tracks/remixes I remember hearing him play…
Claude VonStroke – Who’s Affraid Of Detroit?
Poxymusic – War Paint (Claude VonStroke Remix)
Claude VonStroke – Scarlet Macaw
Claude VonStroke – Deep Throat
I have to say, I’m not as much of a fan of those sounds as I used to be in years gone by, but he certainly had the dance floor jumpin’ and the boat a’ rockin’ and I had fun.
I wasn’t as into the sounds mixed up by his label co-founder/mate Christian Martin, who played prior, and leaned more towards the, dare I say, electro-house style sounds, and generally just sounded more buzzy and noisy in comparison. at times it was like breaks meets acid-house. The crowd loved it all though. There were certainly some good moments, a few tracks I remember hearing him drop.
Roel H. – Dancing Bears (Phil Kieran Remix), thanks to Dariya for the ID.
And.ID – Acapulco
Tim Green – Revox (Justin Martin Remix)
Unlike the previous party on the same ship/boat, this time I actually managed to explore more of it, and spent some time on the middle deck with open sides, chilling out. I even made it up to the very top level outdoor deck, checking out some disco/nu-disco type sounds amongst the sun worshipers, I only lasted a few minutes up on that hot plate though.
All in all, it was a good fun day shared with new and old friends with solid, fun sounds. Reading, editing and posting this up in June, makes me realise how much I miss that happy, warm, summer vibe. I really enjoy these day-time harbour boat cruise parties, makes for nice change from being out all night till early morning in night clubs.
More data:
http://www.myspace.com/claudevonstroke
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Claude+VonStroke
http://www.mothershipmusic.com/
http://www.dirtybirdrecords.com/
Here, you can check out some Claude VonStroke tracks, remixes, releases…
And his Dirtybird label…
And his Mothership label…
Here’s a link to the ITM thread all about the party.