Pete Tong’s DJ diary: Toronto, 10/21/08

Toronto, 10/21/08

Pete’s new favorite store in Toronto

“Here I am back on the road in North America.

I arrived in Toronto from London on Monday and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a very helpful crew at immigration, who later asked my tour manager Paul if I was deaf, so they must have taken pity on me.

The force of It’s All Gone Pete Tong is strong in this city! I shouldn’t be surprised as it’s director Mike Dowse’s home town.

Arriving the night before a show and having a moment’s breathing space is a thing to cherish, so with the best intentions I hit the sidewalk for a bit of leg stretching.

This was brought to an abrupt end when I realised my fingers were frozen and all around me were people dressed for the North Pole. Someone hit the turbo button on the wind machine and bingo, it started to snow.

The only journalist in Toronto without a hat!

Back inside the safety of the hotel I did a bunch of interviews with some very nice people who all wore hats (except Fernando Fernandez, the guy in the picture!).

In preparation for this tour and the whole Tong Factor competition I have spent quite a bit of time on Beatportal so it didn’t go unnoticed that Adam Beyer had recommended the same music store on his Drumcode Tour blog as Deadmau5 had to me in Manchester over dinner before the Warehouse Project.

So in the afternoon armed with a credit card I spent an hour at Moog Music, a Pandora’s box of musical gadgetry for geeks and trainspotters. I left with a Faderfox controller, Dave Smith’s new Morpho Synth (a beast in a small yellow box) and some spanking new headphones.

We had an early dinner at Joso’s, a legendary eccentric Croatian seafood restaurant run by a lady with an artistic appreciation of the naked female form!

This was a top recommendation from my friend Dubfire and they served up awesome flavour-packed fish to rival my favourite haunts in Ibiza.

The first Tong Factor demo arrives

Arriving at the Century Room venue for the show I’m pleased to say it took less than 60 seconds before someone handed me a demo CD so it looks like Tong Factor will prove very popular.

Going through the CDs the morning after, the quality was very high.

As for the gig, Century Room was packed with a very hot looking crowd which was surprising for a Tuesday which is known as ‘industry night’ round these parts.

The DJ booth was a bit of a challenge as it was located up above a bar but other than that it was a great start to my two week trip. Next stop: Chicago.

My biggest tunes of the night

Dirty Vegas ‘Pressure’ (Sultan & Ned Remix)

This is the first single from Dirty Vegas since they got back in the studio, and this mix combines tough tech rhythms with distinctive anthemic vocals. Quite refreshing when you hear someone singing!

Tiga ‘Mind Dimension’

The Canadian electro wizard’s new single is one part Mr Oizo, two parts acid house and a dose of those familiar vocals from the man himself!

This is the second time I have played this out since its debut at Wonderland @ Ministry of Sound last Saturday, and it tore the roof off. ‘Mind Dimension’ is going to be huge.

Tong & Spoon ‘Gas Face’ [Televizion]

The recognition I get when the bass drops still amazes me as ‘Gas Face’ (listen to it in the player below) was only finally made available to download on Monday. It’s currently at No.1 in the UK Buzz chart.

I’d describe it as six minutes of a wobbly bassline that I made with Dave Spoon for a movie called Beyond The Rave.