Saturday March 23rd, 2002

Yoshitoshi Party
Club Space
Friday night's WMC 2002 warm-up event at Billboard live was going to be a tough act to follow. Our first choice for Saturday night was to visit the massive and very popular venue Club Space...located in downtown Miami. “Space is the place” where all the heavy hitters have been playing over last several months...with one of the largest capacities of any club on the East coast, Space has become an immediate choice for hosting parties of large magnitudes. Tonight's featured presentation was the Yoshitoshi event headlined by Deep Dish and supported by a whole slew of forward-thinking Yoshi artists.

Early arrival was in our best interest for a night like this. Whether you're on the list or not, when a venue's this big, it pays to get in early. After dropping $20 on a cab-ride down to the super-club, we found nothing but disappointment upon entering the line. Although we had already spoken to an employee of the club that night and cleared bringing in a backpack of promotional items in with us ("Yeah sure, you can bring backpacks in here...I see them all the time") we were told by security at the door that we couldn’t enter with it. Even after even trying to politely suggest a suitable alternative by asking if we could “coat-check” the backpack for a fee, it was clear by their rude reply that the meat-heads were going to get their way (“It looks like you’ll just have to take a cab back to your hotel, won’t you?”)  You'd think that during the WMC it must be understood that promotional material will be floating around! Not being the type to let a little setback like this ruin our evening, we decided to blast off from Space and return to the land of reality by heading back to our room to drop off the backpack. We dropped another $20 on another cab ride back to the hotel, and after speaking to another member of management at the club again on the phone to politely explain the difficulty we just encountered when trying to enter the club, it became apparent that Club Space’s management is just as far into orbit as their meat-head doormen are.  Time to adjust the controls because we’re not docking into a place like Space anytime soon. We will surely missed out with the lineup Yoshitoshi had, but our business is better suited for clubs that appreciate it, thank you.

After-ours
The Living Room
Time to chill and then cut out the middleman as we decide to go straight to our after-hour plan for the evening: After-ours at the Living Room. The bill was tight and just as impressive as the Yoshi party. It's 4AM… do you know where your party is? Another cab-ride, and we’re back into downtown Miami for a different flavor...The Living Room. It would appear that Saturday nights are regularly hip-hop and rap…add to that the fact that there was no line made entry quick and painless. Upon entry we scanned the layout: A large centerpiece area with plenty of lounge room for the VIP’s, the dancefloor was immediately behind the centerpiece and was flanked by four of the tallest speaker columns we’d ever seen, hidden behind decorative middle eastern tapestries. Upon closer inspection we saw that the towers only contained speakers about half the way up, but that didn’t stop the sound, which turned out to be quite possibly the loudest sound system for a dancefloor that we encountered during the WMC. Thee-O was on first and shifted the music from the normal Saturday format and into the right direction. Kudos to Thee-O for building up the night slowly, musically speaking. The crowd filled in a little slower than expected and even at one point felt like it wasn't going to happen. Finally around 5 or 5:30 the club started to fill in nicely…that’s right…another fashionably late crowd. Kazell stepped up to the decks and from that point on the night took on a different vibe. Now Kazell is a long time favorite of the Atlanta scene and a favorite of Liquid Groove partygoers everywhere. Transplanted a few years ago out to LA, he has been making waves on the west coast with Liquid Groove’s west coast division, Liquified. When he’s on the decks, you will definitely know it. He punched the night into the right direction…and within a few songs into his set, there was little dancefloor space left. Nice one!

After a solid set by Kazell, everyone was geared up for the next DJ. A new talent to many here in the US, recording artist Leama from the UK queued up for a turn behind the decks. He jumped right in where Kazell left off, and kept the momentum flowing in the right direction. Laying down some fine melodic progressive gems, it was apparent that Leama’s talents are not limited to only the studio. By the time Anthony Pappa made his way to the booth it was definitely on. Ladies and gentlemen please bring your seats to their upright position… and your tray tables to their upright and locked position. Oh yeah…don’t forget to fasten your seatbelts because you’re in for one hell of a ride. Trainspotting mode in full effect, you could stand in the center of the dancefloor and still have a perfect view of the decks reflected through a huge hanging mirror on the wall behind the DJ. God bless the interior decorator…you’re a saint. After a while it became apparent that it wasn’t even going to matter, as all you could see was white, after white, after white. Trainspotting lost all meaning at this point. Maintaining position on the dancefloor was all that mattered. The music coming from the booth was amazing. Anthony was totally in key, and on tap… there was no looking back. Bottom line: He rocked it and had arguably the best set we experienced at the conference.

Never one to worry about following up a wicked set like Pappa’s, Taylor slid behind the decks for a fine uptempo trance-laden set of his own. Anyone that is familiar with Taylor knows what sound to expect… and that’s a good thing because he’s one of the few trance DJ’s that truly has their own signature sound. Call it Taylor-trance, call it whatever you want… we like it, and it was a fitting follow-up to keep everyone movin’ on the dancefloor until the early hours. The party ended with Taylor, Leama, and Kazell trading off one record after another until Leama dropped the last song of the night, Cosmos’ hook laden “Take Me With You”. A fitting ending to a fine evening.

Sunday March 24th, 2002

SAW Party
Lola
It was Sunday night and the decisions on where to go were beginning to become tougher each day…with so many parties to choose from, and so little time, something just has to give. There was something about club Lola’s bill for the night, which was hosting the SAW Recordings party, which broke down the equation to one that made the decision a much faster one: Satoshi Tomiie + Scot Bradford (Lexicon Avenue) + Hector Romero + Free Entry = Easy choice.  Lola it is... Approaching the club, the queue made it quite apparent...everyone else had the same idea we did. Proper tunes were already emerging from the doorway and had everyone anxiously positioning themselves to be next in line for chosen entry by the doorman with the swanky fur cowboy hat. After about 20 minutes of rubbing elbows with the rest of the cattle line of strangers while an anxious looking Fire Marshal scanned the scene in the club and talked to the doorman, we finally made eye contact with our cowboy hat donning friend and made our way quickly through the crowded doorway.

The first thing we noticed upon entering the club was the fully equipped bar… located right in the center of the very roomy (but oddly shaped) space, it stretched almost the full length of the club. No complaints here, that makes it that much easier to get our drink on… who’s buying?  Drinks in hand, we scanned the DJ booth. We must have just missed Hector Romero's set because Scot was already behind the wheels of steel and setting the mood...deep, dark and tribal. You couldn't help but notice the few selected Lexicon Avenue tracks strategically placed throughout his set. Mooncat's "Strong" and a wicked new remix of "From Dusk Till Dawn" are tunes that stood out early on in the night. No complaints here! The PA, although loud and clear, was not overbearing. An interesting configuration on the PA was apparent as well:  Horizontal stacks for the subs and a large wide-dispersion horn mounted not to the sub stacks, but to the wall at a height of 2 ~ 3 feet above the sub stacks. Very effective in dispersing the sound around the room… this PA had the smoothest frequency response we heard… tight, clean, and transparent. Word has it that Digweed holds ownership in this club at some level, so we can see why the attention to sound is there.

Allright…time for a little meet and greet as several of our friends were kicking around the space tonight. Martin Villeneuve and Luke Fair from Bullit Management, Barry and Sara Gilbey of Mara, Gene Carbonell and Scot Moskos of Dark Driver, Matt & Pankaj of Trendroid, Michael & Jerome with the rest of the Release crew, Austin Leeds, Mark Hunt...and even Jimmy Van M chilling over by the Bar. Truly a who’s who for cutting edge underground dance music.

By three o'clock it was time for the man of the hour to take charge. Satoshi took his place behind the decks and rocked it. We were quite impressed with his DJing skills. As a producer, he’s excellent, and now we also have newfound respect for Satoshi as a DJ. His attention to detail in the studio flows over to his DJing as well…very active EQing during mixes, along with tight transitions from one song to the next. It was apparent that he enjoys his time behind the decks as well by his energetic nature and frequent smiles and interaction with his crowd. If you are lucky enough to have the chance to catch him DJing somewhere, then take advantage of the opportunity as his studio schedule makes his appearances in the public eye few and far between.

Excellent night all around… many thanks to the SAW Recordings crew for a memorable party!

Monday March 25th, 2002

Danny Howells
"Made in Bed" @ Bed
Monday night is usually deemed a school night for most...but this Monday night was a little different. A good starting point for the end and a time for most to wrap things up at the Conference, it was our last night out on the town. We began our evening a bit earlier at the Giant Pioneer/Nettwerk/Bedrock party which made it a little difficult to keep the momentum going but, something told us that night we were in for a treat night and making the right selection for the nights festivities was key. Will it be Danny...or...Danny tonight. Taking a chance on the guestlist only status and reasonable entry fee, 2 am found us making our way through the doors of the first bedroom of the evening. Many thanks to the generous doorman for the hassle free entry. The moment you started to make your way inside you could just feel the strong vibe and it felt like it had been going for some time. Bed is a small but quaint venue decorated like a luxurious bedroom to the tee. White shear drapes, giant size beds in the center of the club, candles burning, and beautiful people everywhere. The dancefloor, though taken up by beds, fell short on floorspace but didn't stop a soul from getting their groove on. Not a still body in the house and Danny was giving it to them right there in Bed. Sexy and dirty track after track...really set the mood for the night. After a good rug-cutting session, it was time to make our way to the bar and par-take in a good old fashion libations. The club by far had the best bang for your buck on water, served with a tall glass-like pitcher and two proper water glasses...a very nice touch. Taking a moment to look around the club, you could see the industry faces...Dave Seaman, Satoshi Tommie, Scot Bradford from Lexicon Avenue, Taylor, John Graham, Steve from Renaissance...everyone was having a good time. Danny definitely had the crowd wrapped up in a blanket of body shaking grooves. But before you knew it, it was time to go...leaving many wanting more. What a perfect way to end four days of complete music overload. How many times can you say that you spent the night in Bed with 400-600 complete strangers.

2002 WMC Interviews with:

Chris Fortier for the Bedrock 3
and
DJ Hyper for Bedrock Breaks