Cultural Alchemy - Soundlab in the Brooklyn Anchorage on July 12, 1996

Soundlab, a night of eclectic electronic music, was located for this
particular night in the base of the Brooklyn Bridge on the
Brooklyn side. While waiting on line in the rain, revelers
noticed the mixing tent. Outside of the event technicians were
taking the input from the various djs and live acts inside and
mixing and mashing so what you heard in any particular room was
some combination of sounds from the entire space. A weird wired
concept that worked fairly well, other than the fact that it was
sort of disconcerting. You would hear things drift in and out,
and for the most part it worked. The space was sort of crypt like
with several different areas.

In the way back was some crazy hip/hop dub. At times they had
rappers playing with the dj. It was a small [sq area wise] room but  
with 4/5 story high brick and stone walls with a strobe pointing up to the 
ceiling. It was intoxicating. A mass of sweaty bodies swaying and
thrashing out to the truly heavy vibes. For more breathing space
this music was also played in a larger room next to this one. 
Equally enjoyable was watching the DJs shadow on the wall next to
him about 10 times that person's height!

In the two main rooms the evening started with mellow ambient house and by 2am 
the speakers started to pump out the most infectious jungle.
Along with this were various light shows, Lazy Boy and TV sitting
areas with SPaceInvaders, and performances throughout the night.

The visuals were astonding with tape loops, lite brite displays,
foam fists, light ropes and other craziness.

There were two backrooms with various artists performing. Early in the evening 
someone was playing a kind of industrial ambience. And the other room had 
vocalists and a dj. Later in the evening this became the chillout
room with deep ambient djs filling the space with sound. This
room had a nice encased waterfall which surrounded you but
didn't.

The music varied past 3:30 in the morning when there was jungle
on this side, techno on that, along with some lazy mixed up IDM
off to the side. This last DJ was putting together various. All
in beautiful Brooklyn Heights.