DJ T. blog: Week 17

DJ T. blog: Week 17

7 November, 2009 | 3.44PM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: dj t, dj t blog, get physical

DJ T. finally kisses goodbye to South America after four weeks on the continent, and heads straight to North America for three back-to-back DJ gigs in Montreal, Chicago, and New York.

In this blog entry, he also reveals the three winners of round two of the Get Physical Producer Challenge - click through to listen to the winners, and to find out how to enter for next time.

After four weeks and countless of gigs in five different countries, it almost hurts to leave Latin America behind – in the end, I had made my peace with the slower pace and obvious differences in mentality.

If you really have, or want to, you can get used to pretty much anything, including the sometimes exasperating circumstances that come with running a club in Mexico (see last week’s blog entry).

There’s only one way to cope with this – go with the flow and assimilate. If you went in with a German’s characteristic exactitude or insisted on everything running according to plan, you would be in for a world of pain. Time and again, the best thing is to simply take a deep breath, calm down, wait and see or do whatever might stop you from losing it.

This is something Heiko Goetze has to deal with on a regular basis: every day, he finds himself confronted with the inevitable and recurring revelation that the only thing you can rely on is that you can’t rely on anything or anyone. A few years ago, he decided to drop out of the rat race and escape a life of stress, ditched his well-paid job and moved to Playa del Carmen.

A full-on raver since day one and a regular at iconic clubs like the Rhine region’s Tribehouse, he soon spotted an opening in the local event and entertainment scene. With plenty of sweat and determination, he has turned his fledgling efforts into a respectable business and enjoys an excellent reputation among local clubbers. Despite almost two decades in events, I’m not sure I could do the same.

Wednesday, the day of my set (and a relatively last minute booking), turned into the by now familiar “will it/won’t it” game. My hotel (a rather upscale establishment) and the associated bar/party venue had suffered from unreliable electricity for a day or so and now experienced a complete blackout – no juice anywhere, even the hotel lobby was in complete darkness.

Besides a lonely soul manning the front desk – who continued to repeat the desperate mantra that “everything would be back to normal in two hours tops – honest, senor!” – the entire staff simply took off.

I decided not to worry and went over to Starbucks to catch a few rays and finish last week’s diary entry. Heiko, on the other hand, got increasingly antsy.

At 8pm, two hours before opening, the entire building was still pitch black and I had resigned myself to a night off.

Well, as usual – and predictably unpredictable – it all worked out with minutes to spare and the party kicked off without a real sound check, but plenty of beautiful people who were up for a night of dancefloor abandon. I would have loved to spend a few more days in Playa and Tulum – the brief visit reminded me of the deep spiritual bond I feel to this unique area.

Next stop Montreal, Canada, a city famous for being the most ‘European‘ of all North American cities, not least of all because its French speakers outnumber English ones by 4:1, making it the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

I was booked to play a gay club called Parking, a place with a long Thursday night tradition. Originally home to unadulterated electro beats and related flavours of techno, Parking has seen plenty of seminal parties by Tiga and his local Turbo label.

Nowadays, it seems to have opened up a bit (both musically and in terms of sexual orientation). The crowd obviously enjoyed their generous dose of house and my set-ending foray into disco.

Unfortunately, Montreal enforces a very strict curfew and there are only two after-hour clubs, Circus and Stereo, for those who want to continue the fun beyond 3am. Both competing clubs (and Parking, too) are on the same street, just a stone’s throw apart.

The street itself is surrounded by plenty of rumours and conspiracy theories. Over the past 18 months, Stereo – one of North America’s most famous clubs with one of the continent’s best soundsystems – has suffered several fires and many local clubbers suspected arson or sabotage.

The first blaze took the club by surprise in spring 2008, followed by a second (and larger) fire in July 2008 that forced the club to close its doors for a year. The third fiery incident coincided with the club’s reopening weekend this July.

Not an off-day in sight, Friday took me across the US border and back to Chicago’s Smart Bar, a club I’d played a few years before. Back then, during my first ever US tour, the Smart Bar had been managed by Brad Owen, my current North American booker at Windish Agency.

But before I could make it to the States, I had my first truly ugly airport skirmish, with Canadian ground personnel, because some deskbound idiot felt like wielding the little power he had.

After sending me back to the rear of the line THREE times in a row for some tiny formal error or other (instead of giving me the few seconds to rectify my mistake right there at the desk) he engaged me in a heated, five-minute argument for only knowing the name, but not the full address of my Chicago hotel.

He simply couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that the hotel had been booked by a company who would pick me up from the airport and take me there. I really hope I won’t have to deal with more bullshit like this for the rest of my tour, there’s nothing I hate more than gratuitous pettiness.

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The subsequent gig at Chicago’s charming basement club – a place that exudes history – turned out to be a fairly laid-back affair with everyone saving their money, energy and sanity for the following day’s Halloween extravaganza. Nevertheless, there were a few touching highlights, most of all one fantastic couple, a pair of die-hard Get Physical fans, who had decided to spend their wedding night on a five-hour drive, just to see and hear me play.

So, although it wasn’t the greatest of nights, they danced all night long and had the time of their lives. Those are the things you remember for ages and take home with you after a tour.

New York, New York, big city of dreams. Any fears of imminent collapse turned out to be unfounded. Gearing up for the fourth night of DJing in a row, I had expected some kind of slump or medium-sized dizzy spell, but somehow a two-hour nap before the show roused me from a zombie-like stupor and got me back onto my feet. And it was worth it: during the short taxi ride from my Chelsea hotel to the Sullivan Room, I enjoyed a familiar, yet alien spectacle.

All of New York had taken to the streets to celebrate Halloween and every square foot was teeming with extravagantly styled party fiends on their way to the nearest thrill. Okay, some German cities go through similar mayhem in carnival season, but over here, the whole masquerade takes on an entirely new dimension.

Somehow, it feels more natural and anchored in the collective psyche: even style-conscious clubbers go to extremes to fine-tune their costumes. Sure, there were some slackers who thought a wig and a few speckles of paint would do, but most of the people on the street had obviously spent a tidy sum (and many hours in front of the mirror) to get their look just right and celebrate this momentous and gloriously gruesome occasion.

TV and movie themes seemed especially popular: I spotted entire gangs of Clockwork Orange look-a-likes, perfect Darth Vader clones and Starship Troopers, Gandalfs and orks, a few Freddy Krugers and all sorts of other horrors, several Cookie Monsters and even an Oscar the Grouch (with full-on garbage can).

Further into the realm of the surreal – or plain ludicrous – there was a human French fry and someone in a nude bodysuit proudly wielding a sock-clad dick.

The party at the Sullivan Room was a true revelation and a culmination of everything one could ever want from a wild, rousing, glitzy New York ball. Over many years of passionate club promotion, my two perfect hosts, the couple Begona and Mike Gwertzman aka Sleepy & Boo, had built up a fantastic crowd of regulars and devoted followers.

It felt like playing at a great family function and, somehow, my sound seemed tailor-made for this venue and its powerful, warm soundsystem – a perfect fit like (almost) no other on this tour so far.

As if this wasn’t enough, we also gained an extra hour from the clock change … and I wasn’t about to say no to a lap of honour behind the decks. A night to remember!

Get Physical Producer Challenge

Dear Beatportal readers and contest participants. It’s time to reveal the second round of winners of our ongoing producer challenge!

Again, we’re pleased to present three tracks that are bound to find plenty of fans among the discerning Beatportal crowd and definitely worth a release.

Unfortunately, we didn’t receive quite as many entries this time around – maybe some of you didn’t understand that this is an ongoing monthly competition, scheduled to run until the end of my world tour, i. e. the end of the year.

There are another two months to go and we look forward to your unreleased masterpieces. At the end of round four, there will be a grand showdown between the four monthly winners to find the final favourite who will make it onto a Get Physical release. So, no slacking and off to the studio with you!

E-mail download links to your tracks (links only please, no MP3s) to competition@physical-music.com (and add ‘Get Physical Competition‘ to the subject box to be on the safe side).

Okay, here we go:

1. Our October faves are The Midnight Perverts vs Michal Ho Attik with their funk monster ‘Miami Sucks’. They win the Beatport download voucher and get to pick their ten favourite tracks from our three labels (Get Physical, Get Digital and Kindisch) as a digital download.

2. In second place, we have Archie Hamilton with the up-to-date minimal house of ‘Coqui’. His prize: five tracks of choice from our three labels (Get Physical, Get Digital and Kindisch) for free download.

3. Third, but by no means least, is Michelle’s stomper ‘Sometimes’. She too, gets to choose five free downloads from our label roster (Get Physical, Get Digital and Kindisch).

DJ T. - The Inner Jukebox Worldtour 2009

November
10.11.09 - Tapas, Newport Beach (USA)
12.11.09 - Habitat, Calgary (CA)
13.11.09 - Mighty, San Francisco (USA)
14.11.09 - Lotus Sound Lounge, Vancouver (CA)
20.11.09 - Rise, Boston (USA)
25.11.09 - Electric Pickle, Miami (USA)
27.11.09 - Gallery, Washington (USA)
28.11.09 - Asylum Afterhours, Honululu (USA)

December/January
04.12.09 - Zouk, Singapore (SG)
05.12.09 - Stereosonic@F4, Melbourne (AU)
06.12.09 - Sneaker Peeps, Brisbane (AU)
11.12.09 - Ink, Auckland (NZ)
12.12.09 - Ladida, Melbourne (AU)
18.12.09 - Pang, Canberra (AU)
19.12.09 - Chinese Laundry, Sydney (AU)
25.12.09 - Club Heaven, Seoul (SK)
26.12.09 - Warehouse, Tokyo (JP)

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