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10 Days Off 2002 - Day 1

20 juli 2002, Vooruit, Gent (B)

Tekst: da volgaBabe

Publicatiedatum: 20 juli 2002

Day number 2 means day one for the official "Gentse Feesten," a ten day city fiesta that has always been the setting for the 10 Days Off festival. Luckily for people wanting to avoid the overwhelming beer-and-hot-dog crowd, the festival's venue is a bit out of the centre, and heavy rains are keeping many people at home. No storm could keep us at home though, because tonight's lineup breathed only one thing: quality overload!

Room 2
The Ten Days really shifted into gear with the Plaid gig. It was my third encounter with the duo, and time and time again I stand amazed at the sounds these guys pull out of their laptops. These sole innovators of the nineties UK electronica wave always manage to make waves when in direct contact with the public, and they effortlessly did it again, with their truly warped workout. With a firm rhythmic base in hip-hop and drum 'n' bass, the most miraculous and fairy-tale-like melodies escaped from their equipment, from time to time thwarted and disturbed by grandiose noise outbursts and the sound of machines gone mad.
But the most unique thing about Plaid remains the unearthly beautiful melody-making: childish and naïve enchantment nervously pushed in all directions — a bit like Aphex Twin in his best periods. These guys retain a unique spot of their own in the electronic landscape, and the public seems to appreciate it because there was cheering and applauding after even the most intimate-sounding and cinematic tracks. Credits go also to the third member of the Plaid team, who provided some of the most inspired graphics we've seen in quite a while.
Next was an inspired, yet at times too restrained, DJ set by Lo Soul. A lot of minimal bleeps paired with dry, metronomic rhythms, occasionally spiced up with vocals, with inserts of sparse but funky house. A true showcase for Deutsche Grundlichkeit, albeit that the later part of his set relied a bit too much on the heavier tech-tones.

Room 1
To the main room then, with tonight being dedicated to smooth American house. Warm-up was courtesy of Mauricio Aviles, who played a nice and entertaining set but left it at that,consequently failing to ignite the fire in us mainly because he relied too much on general smoothness and classic house tricks, such as percussion climaxes and clichéd vocal breakdowns.
Things, surprisingly, did not improve with Miguel Migs, one of the people we expected a lot from. But the semi-live concept with singer Lisa Shaw didn't work all that well, and out of his record bag came too much of a general party atmosphere, a big-room-house sound, instead of the warm-blooded soul he displays so masterfully on his records. Not bad, but we were quickly lured away from the traditionally very sweaty main room to the magical and enchanting tones of At Jazz and Osun Lade.

Room 3
Because things were considerably more inspired in the less crowded top room where we had — important! — more room to dance, and — not to forget — a meeting with newcomer At Jazz and new hero Osun Lade. Martin Iveson (aka At Jazz) was the big surprise of the evening.
Not that his recent output made us expect anything differently, but this man played so many good tunes! He took us on an adventure through breaks and nu-jazz, sniffed at disco and deep-house, and spiced it all up with groovy percussive workouts and relaxed, dub-influenced shufflers. An acquaintance we're not likely to forget in a while. Soul in abundance has possessed this man. So much soul, in fact, that the DJ next in line, Osun Lade, got stuck on the dance floor for the full two hours of At Jazz' set. But after his little dance, the wizard of soulful house, the medicine man of the dance floor, once again provided us with the perfect apotheosis.

What can we say? The man is undoubtedly the new Black Messiah. Dancing behind the decks, constantly working the buttons, creating climaxes and rest points, singing along with the vocal tracks, slowly luring the crowd into incantation and hypnotism, while dropping one classic after another: Joey Negro's Wishin' You Were Here; Morgan Geist's Metro Area 4; Pépé Braddock's quintessential Burning; Aly-us' Follow Me; Lil' Louis' French Kiss; Theo Parrish's Dark Patterns; his own Cantos A Ochun Et Oya; and — new realms of ecstacy!!! — the Wahoo Mix of Jazzanova's heavenly That Night, the crazy crowd-mover it rightly deserves to be. When the man stopped his impeccable set, the crowd just kept on cheering, applauding, and eventually even stamped their feet on the floor.
If the crowd starts making their own music after the lights go back on, that's when we call an evening a true success. Day Two was an early topper. Makes for another nine days full of promises, we dare to hope.

» Click here for the KindaMuzik Q&A with Osun Lade

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/beats/article.shtml?id=1705
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