DJ T. tour blog: Week 3 and Top 10 chart

DJ T. tour blog: Week 3 and Top 10 chart

30 July, 2009 | 9.42AM

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

The DJ. T tour train rumbles on this week, with stops at 10 Days Off Festival in Ghent, where he bumps into his DJ pals Tiefschwarz and Audiofly, Heile Welt Open Air, where the weather didn’t quite ruin the party, and Cologne, for the long-running Pollerwiesen rave.

After three successful weeks on the road, DJ T. also felt it was time to build a DJ chart featuring 10 classics for the moment.

Check out his musings, videos, photos, and chart after the jump.

Wednesday, 22nd of July, Ghent/Belgium

Yesterday’s train ride from Paris to Brussels was over in the blink of an eye. I have always loved travelling by rail. No idea why, but when the landscape swishes past, it really helps me to unwind or – if necessary – work undisturbed and fully focused, preferably in the buffet car with a glass of wine at hand.

On my arrival, I was greeted by Jeroen (from the 10 Days Off Festival), a by now, well-known and welcome face from previous gigs. He picked me up and drove me to Ghent. Isn’t it great when, over the years, even the drivers become firm and friendly fixtures?

Generally speaking, playing this festival is a bit like coming home. This year must be my fourth or fifth time, I can’t quite remember. The event’s promoter, Philip de Liser, is another one of those people who has become far more than the average, anonymous string puller behind the scenes, unlike some of his peers at similar large-scale events.

Philip tackles both his parties and love of music with an infectious old school enthusiasm. Sure, everyone has his quirks, but all in all, he is a thoroughly likeable aesthete with a wide range of interests – and a great conversationalist to boot.

This time proved to be no exception. When I joined him and several other artists and bookers for dinner, I immediately noticed the woman at Philip’s side, someone I first took to be his wife, but who later turned out to be an old friend from way back. Just like our host, she was totally focused on the conversation and made some eloquent contributions.

On our stroll back to the hotel, I learnt that her Antwerp-based label Café Costume is one of the Benelux countries’ hippest menswear lines. If I got this right, the family-run label is all about made-to-measure suits and, most of all, a very individual and intimate preliminary discussion ritual.

Naturally, there is also a strong link to club culture; among others, the guys from Soulwax go to the van Gils-clan for their stage outfits. I can’t remember the last time I met a woman with such passion for her own vocation. And passion is still the best prerequisite for success – measured in those terms, this lady must be a true natural at promotion (well, judge for yourselves at www.cafecostume.com).

Philip and his crew at ‘vzw 5 voor 12’ have been running the 10 Days Off Festival at the same, seminal location for the past 15 years: the so-called Vooruit Arts Centre.

The festival itself is one of the four official pillars of the ‘Gentse Feesten’, Europe’s largest city festival, drawing more than a million people to this tranquil, in parts almost medieval town of Ghent.

The centre’s main venue is a stunning classical concert hall with a 270-degree gallery, a structure that might have time-travelled straight from the 19th century. Well, as you might have guessed already, the festival itself lasts for a cool ten nights and sees around 100 artists sharing three different floors.

Besides this flagship gem of an event, Philip also has his finger in plenty of other pies as well as the Petrol Club in Antwerp – I like ambitious jack-of-all-trades!

Before my set, Philip gave me a warning: Apparently, the previous day had been a public holiday, so most of the crowd would be partied out and he was expecting the quietest night of the festival so far.

I was sharing the smaller floor with my label colleague Einzelkind, one of my current DJ faves, as well as German-Argentinean Matias Aguayo. Unfortunately, I had to miss Matias’ live set due to an acute case of sleep deprivation.

‘Only child’ Arno and I managed to lure around 250 serious house connoisseurs to our stage. Feet on the ground and hands in the air, they gave us their vote of confidence and made it all worthwhile in the end.

After our sets, I made a beeline for the large floor where the two Tiefschwarz brothers and Luca (Audiofly) got down to business. It’s always fun to watch grown-up men and world-famous DJs turn into kids behind the decks and fight over who gets to spin what next!

Officially, it was Luca’s turn to play the last set, but Tiefschwarz’s Ali obviously couldn’t stop himself from pitching in and throwing Luca the odd (sonic) curve ball. After everyone else had left the stage, I stuck around to listen to Luca – and really enjoyed what I heard.

A strong house flavour with plenty of punch. Saving it up for the grand final, Luca finished with a 14-year-old house classic by Henry Street, leaving the last remaining 100 or so dancers with a huge grin pasted across their collective faces.

For a brief round-up of some of those classics that really stood out (in my own sets and those of the others I got to see), just scroll down to the end of this week’s blog entry: I have picked the ten best crowd pleasers from this bunch of current rediscoveries.

Fortunately, it’s okay again to drop the odd classic and I love the way these tracks – especially house – fit in with the latest contemporary sounds. Right now, DJ sets that steer clear of any such surprises simply bore me.

Sunday, 26th of July, Moers/Germany

The most spectacular thing about the ‘Heile Welt’ (safe and sound) open air in Moers? Its location, without a doubt. 150 years ago, the so-called ‘Halde Rheinpreussen’ had been one of the region’s first ever mines.

In 2001, the current waste tip’s plateau, reaching up a good 100 metres, received an artistic overhaul with a new lighthouse – shaped like an outsized Davy lamp. And it was here, all the way up on the plateau, that the party took place.

After being dropped off somewhere in the countryside by my extremely nice, solicitous driver and braving the last few metres to the top, we were treated to a spellbinding 270-degree panoramic view.

This picture-perfect image of forests, fields and villages – stretching all the way down to the horizon – was only disrupted by a few scattered industrial sites (the most obvious cliché of the Rhine region), but even those couldn’t stop me from lingering a few minutes longer to enjoy this stunning outlook.

Meanwhile, the party behind my back seemed a bit lacklustre. Around 600 clubbers had made it all the way up to the plateau; probably a lot fewer than the promoter had hoped for. According to him, they were lucky to run the party at all: Only this morning, they had been expecting a total mudfest.

Endless thunderstorms and gale-force gusts seemed set to sabotage the party, but then the rain and wind had stopped to give the site just enough time to return to something approaching a danceable solid state. 

After taking the helm behind the decks, I got the day’s second positive surprise. Despite my earlier misgivings, I found that I didn’t really have to compromise in terms of style or bpm.

There’s time for teaching and time for pleasing, and right here, in the backwoods of the Rhine region, I had expected to do the latter, but the crowd were willing to follow my lead. And in the end, when I still needed a big bang to finish the set, I decided to reward all these brave souls with a few, long-shelved classics from the archives.

Last note of the day: memo to self – I REALLY could have done without that huge McDonald’s feast before turning in …

Monday, 27th of July, Cologne/Germany

The short hop from Moers to Cologne’s city centre meant a second stretch with my highly-motivated and inquisitive driver. Finally, the weather gods deigned to flash us – and the upcoming Pollerwiesen open-air – a brief, fickle smile.

Sunshine, azure sky and a balmy 27 degrees C. I was really curious to see how this event had changed over the years. At my last private Pollerwiesen party I had met my (now ex) girlfriend from Cologne. 

A few days later, fate threw us back together on one of Berlin’s Loveparade floats – the perfect Techno cliché ;-) But all of this happened over a decade ago and my last stint as a Pollerwiesen DJ dates back at least another two years.

Pollerwiesen is one of Germany’s longest-running open-air raves. In the 1990s, they started out by roaming the fields and changing location, seeking out ever new remote pastures, guerrilla-style, to set up their own autonomous zone for one Sunday only – often completely unnoticed by the police and public authorities.

Back then, they didn’t charge any admission, there was no security and they only made money on the drinks, sold from the back of a tiny van – a picture-perfect 1990s rave idyll.

I fondly remember the event’s invariable, traditional last act, when promoter Patrik Peiki would grab the microphone and sternly ask the assembled, partied out masses not to leave before everyone had done their bit to return the field to its previous, pristine state.

This would be followed by half an hour of diligent, sweating ravers stumbling over the rough terrain, rolling their eyes, but picking up trash and restoring nature as if their lives depended on it. And in a way, they probably did – after the party is before the party and nobody wanted to spoil their chances of the next one.

Fast-forward to 2009 and Pollerwiesen has become an efficient, meticulously planned open-air event like any other: They charge admission, have proper food outlets and get into trouble with the authorities over volume, opening hours and security measures – the usual points of contention.

Video: DJ T. @ Pollerwiesen/Cologne

The track in the video is Masomenos ‘Les Trois Petit Cochons’.

Their current location, the Jugendpark between Cologne’s trade fair site and the Rhine embankment, still makes for a relatively charming space, bordered by a climbing range behind the stage.

Here, brave souls can use professional equipment and expert guidance to move all the way up into the towering trees and shimmy along, far above the ground, with the help of just a few ropes. A strange view for either side – the assembled field ravers and tree people.

With another strong crowd puller just a few miles away – Richie Hawtin and Loco Dice at the nearby Kiesgrube – no one seemed surprised that today’s event was a little less packed than the previous ones. But the overall mood was unaffected; smiling faces and blissed-out dancers wherever I looked.

The latter took advantage of the extra space to perfect their wandering and jump up choreographies, something I hadn’t seen in ages. I was pleased to see that – just like in Moers – house has made it back into our collective consciousness, it even works in venues usually associated with techno or minimal.

Strange, but true: Gone are the dark days when people would flee the dancefloor at the first hint of funk or soul. I really hope this is here to stay. Towards the end, my friends and fellow label-ers M.A.N.D.Y. took over the decks and we had buckets of fun together – I guess the film says it all!

Video: M.A.N.D.Y. & DJ T. back to back @ Pollerwiesen, Cologne

The track in the video is Underworld ‘Dark & Long’ (Dark Train).

DJ T.’s 10 classics for the moment chart

Listen to the tracks in the player below (the order in the player is wrong).

Mike Delgado ‘Byrdman’s Revenge’ (Henry Street)

Soundstream ‘Good Soul’ (Soundstream)

Green Velvet ‘La La Land’ (Music Man Records)

Ron Trent ‘Altered States’ (Prescription Classic Rcordings)

Moodymann ‘Shades Of Jae’ (Peacefrog Records)

Chez Damier ‘Can U Feel it’ (MK Dub) (KMS Records)

DBX ‘Losing Control’ (Remastered) (Accelerate)

Freeform Five ‘Perspex Sex’ (Ewan’s High Nrg Remix) (Classic Recordings)

Blaze ‘Lovelee Dae’ (20:20 Vison Remix) (Playhouse)

DJ T. ‘Philly’ (Get Physical)

• (2) Comments
• (2880) Views
• Get DJ T.'s 10 classics for the moment chart