What's all this fuss about Rapido?!

So the buzz has been growing about this club in Amsterdam called Rapido. A few weeks ago tickets were released to it and some chap I knew was genuinely distraught about not getting a ticket, I thought something serious was up: his ashen face, slightly choked words as he broke the news to me!!

As it turned out I was in some other party called Fresh a few weeks back that was promoted by the same guys and ran into my old pal Jack Chang who was over from London and spinning there, he was also booked for the Rapido party. I was set on going and when I got into work next week I made a few MSN chats and eventually managed to secure an invite thanks to my friend Oliver M.

I turned up at the party around 1700 on Sunday which was club Paradiso, a venue used by stars such as Skin, Robbie Williams et al when they have concerts in Amsterdam. Both queues were gigantic and as my mates had already gone in ahead for the sound check I was left facing a hairy wait; fortunately rescue was sent and my entrance expedited.

First impressions were as I walked through the hall and into the dance hall were wow, this place is pumping! Another London DJ Fabio White was on the decks when I got there and there were some good choons coming out of an impressive speaker system. The bar man served me my JD & Coke with fantastic alacrity (and continued to do so the rest of the night I may add) and before long I was on the stage meeting Jack and his boyfriend Paul and then subsequently the people behind the event. The promoter Edgar was looking quite casual and amusingly had a pair of ear phones dangling from his T shirt, I had a few words with him before being introduced to Doug Gray and his Bulgarian b/f Stef who were also involved in a musical capacity: they were great fun and I continued to party with them all night.

After an hour or so the place filled up to the rafters, the lights got lower, the dancing got sexier and I could see row after row of virtually naked boys gyrating on this huge scaffolding behind a black awning on the stage. Clearly the party was starting up ... there was a moment of confusion where the awning kept falling off the edges slightly, before collapsing completely to the ground: in true 'show must go on style' no one seemed to mind, quite possibly the opposite actually. An extremely cute VJ then appeared and proceeding to co-ordinate my, I mean the attention of six lasers of varying configurations upon the dancefloor bathing the whole party in this awesome unearthly light, which by this stage was just reaching fever pitch.

Then I toured the rest of the club with my friends and took up residence upstairs, where there was a little tinsy bit more room to actually move. Doug played a great set consisting of some cool grooves with a deep compelling beat behind each of them, (thank god for my snake hips). Jack then took over and started to lay down his harder more industrial sound which had the whole floor letting loose. 2200 hours rolled on by, and with enough vodka, redbull and the inimitable influence of the Gay Walt Disney party american promoters Ray and James saw me dancing away shirtless and grinning over what was a truly great evening.

















Now I know what all the fuss is about ;-)

Recovery Sounds - New Track

I spent Saturday afternoon with DJ Recovery Sounds from ADHD Sessions. He kindly invited me over to his apartment and we hung out with a few beers in his studio chatting and pulling together a new track. I also got to hear him arrange his next few gigs and find out what a smooth talking dude he really was.

This was a very cool experience for me (it's been a while since it's been my first time doing anything!) and very interesting to see how far the computer has brought making music: the software is just incredible, with just a small synth (maybe an octave long) and plenty of mouse action chords can be created, distortion added, filters places over filters. Anyway, check out the track it's fairly minimal but gets chunky later. Watch this space is all I can say.

The track is called License Key and you can listen to it here.

More on Luke Slater

So Saturday night descended and my smile of expectancy grew, I'd gotten a few friends of mine together who I know appreciate some good music, had a big meal of sushi and medicinal sake, and rocked on down to Studio 80 just after midnight. The crowd was already enjoying themselves, the resident DJ called Mark / aka Recovery Sounds was really laying down a deep carpet of sexy dark techno and I just knew I'd come home. This was the first time I've been in a club since Ibiza last year that I wanted to just motherfucking dance! (Cue song from Jerry Springer the Opera)

Recovery Sounds played a storming set before Luke Slater came on (with a slightly unnerving bottle blond look) laying down his first tracks and taking no prosoners at all. His favourates came out through the course of the evening - Planetary Assault Systems, All Exhale, there was even a minimal mix of Freak Funk. After the first hour there was a bit of a let up and he moved more into his techno pop experimental sound, people took this as a natural break to grab an extra few drinks, get to know those around them, before the tempo picked up again. The rest I can't report on accurately, I left around 0530, feeling like one lucky sated bitch!

Good music / lack thereof

Without descending into a rant about the state of music *yawn* in the club scene I have recently been despairing about the good ol' days. I spent a week in London in December and if it hadn't been for the steady supply of strong liquor chasers and Magners cidar that has suddenly become de rigeur I wouldn't have made it through the clubs. The music is garbage, re-cycled 4x4 beats with a lame voice over by [insert dragqueen / diva name here].

Completeley by chance I was in a club in Amsterdam called Studio 80 recently, and was leaning against the wall in the toilets waiting for the multiple people in one locker to exit when my eyes were caught by a striking poster of one Luke Slater. I used to listen to his music back in 97 and 98 and was blown away by his mind fuck progressive futuristic blaze of beats. It turns out he was playing there the next week. I spent that week digging out my old CDs, getting them on my iPod and working out to them / cycling to work remembering how much fun they were.

He's got a huge body of work since I last bought anything, and I see also that he's now signed a contract with Fabric London to play there 5 times a year - next gig is on the 25th March. I'm so there :-) I can recommend the first disk of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It's the best workout CD ever .. more later when the rest of my amazon container arrives, oh and more on the night as well!!