Sunday, December 5, 1999   TRANSMAT Label Tour, Culture Club, NYC

The Transmat tour at the Culture Club in NYC was quite special. The
music was beautiful all night long and kept me dancing, dancing,
bouncing, screaming, pogoing and happy throughout the night. The
crowd was mostly into the music and dancing and happy but people
overall were the normal NYC reserved as in who are you and why
are you bothering me. Trust me I was talking to them about the
lovely music and not their sexual preferences ;) There were a
number of happy friendly folk who I hope to meet on the
dancefloor again otherwise I spotted James B. and Margie on the
line, tall Roland of Pseudo.com, Dori, Jill & Martha, Peter Jay
and Kioki (?), Jason of the Pure Children, DJ David Hollands, DJ
Mike ? (sike?), etc....

The music was phenomenal all night long. I'm unsure who the
opening DJ was in the main floor but he was fine - next up was
Stacey Pullen with detroit machinetekno which rocked my world and
definitly entertained me more than both the normal feelings of Dirty or
Vindaloo. For some reason SonicGroove style techno/house does
very little for me but Detroit stuff always moves me. Next were
the live the awesome PAs by Aril Brikha and
Time:Space. Techno/eelctronic usic PAs are special to me because
the music flows so smoothly whereas the best DJ still has to
contend with the fact he's connecting separate tracks. Both the
live PAs were simplely amazing but it seemed a lot of folks went
the the upstairs room or left. Also lots of people were resting
by sitting on the floor, bleachers, etc. This might have been so
because the PAs were slower BPMwise than the main djs on the
night. I sure was dancing and hollaring however :) Aril was very
smooth but detailed textures. Time: Space (guess they could take
Spacetime cause of Jonah Sharpe ;) ) were an awesome collection
of beat artists and musicians on drums, bass, guitar, etc. Their
set had that jazzy feel which just makes me move - me guesses I
should investigate acid jazz much more than I have so far.

Last up was Derrick May. He started with the same track opening
he used in DC last weekend at Ultraworld's Engage party. A nice
cricketty soundscape to move us into his pleasurable mix of down
and uptempo techno, house, salsa and other world beat along with
some hiphop and disco as well!! While his track selection was
amazing his mixing was a bit off on the night - some tracks just
did not move smoothly into others while occasionally he let an
ambient intro separate two tracks rather than beatmatching. While
his track were off at times,  most times the switch over was
seemless. 

At the opening of the night it seemed like the club would not
fill up. If it hadn't it would have been a real shame for such
amazing detroit talent to go unrecognized - maybe they just need
to come back once a month ;) I stayed to the very end at 5am -
the club had emptyed out by then but those who were there danced
almost nonstop and it was a great evening!

It was special to go to a techno party in a 80s music club! This
is where the music belongs however unrecognized and
underground it was then. I'm glad the owners of the club agreed
to host the party given it was outside their normal genre and
that the promoters (Transmat / D.A.T. / whoelse?) thought to give
this place a try! I guess being on a Sunday made it easier.

It was awesome to have a party in a club that was completely new
to me. The Culture club normally plays host to 80s nights and
hiphop nights (and teen nights.) The decor matched the themes
with a huge Pac-Mac on the outside of the club, murals of Guns N
Roses, Led Zeppelin and other rock n roll greats. Main floor had
awesome large scale rubic (rubix?) cubes hanging from the
ceiling, along with an automobile front and large neon BEER signs.

Both floors had awesome lighted dancefloors. The cuties were
digging it upstairs and totally preening and showing off and
having fun :-) Also, it was a blast to dance on the plexiglass
covered areas because of the springboard effect! More bounce to
the ounce :) 

Fall 1999 has been an awesome party time in NYC! I've been at so
many excellent parties -- Organic Grooves at DUMBO Arts Center,
Jazzanova at Vinyl, Direct Drive at Bhaktun, Body & Soul goes
without saying (just that I have to go more often ;) ), Sven Vath
and Der Dritten Raum at Twilo, Warp 10th Anniversary party
w/Plaid at Bowery Ballroom, Dirty at Mother, Banco de Gaia/DJ
Chebi Sah and Mutamassik at Cooler and now the Transmat
tour at Culture Club.

Whats next?!?! :-) I guess the year 2000!! Wooohoo! I make a
resolution to hit a Tsumni party in 2000 - perhaps even the NYE
party at Vinyl.

enjoy :)

.\.\ichael -- sentinel