photo credit: Matti Mattila

A conversation on a Thai-airways flight from bangkok to London mid august 2008 approximately 6am many miles above central Europe.  Mark wakes up from a Valium induced stupor still groggy and not quiet in contact with reality.

Gentleman seated beside Mark: “Where are you from?”

Mark: “Ireland, where are you from?”

Last Friday was a big night for Gigs in Dublin, with Battles, Chris Clark, and Kid 606, all billed. It was to The Mighty Kid 606 for me who was supported by Irelands finest Herv and new boi Creator.

For those who are familiar with 606 they will know that he is as versatile as he is spanner bendingly mental, from the beautifully organic ambient sounds of Resilience to the banging electro of Pretty Girls Make Raves, the fever dream of glichy sampling that is The Action Packed Mentalist Brings You The Fucking Jams, and the twisted bounce of Oh So Now You ****ers Want To Dance, and many stupid, brilliant, and beautiful sounds in between. There are also a few free mixes of his, banging around, with one in particular making me incontinent with joy.

Heavy on the bass.

It was for these reasons that Id been looking forward to this gig for quiet a while. I got my ticket early as there seems to be quiet a appetite for this kind of music in Dublin at the moment, if you look for instance at the crowd at any of the Kaboogie gigs over the last six months.

Fire by Night were the promoters, who are new to my ears but their myspace states that the two people behind it have been promoting independent music for years.

I would have taught the logical place to have this would be the Temple Bar Music Centre but with that undergoing restructuring at the mo then the reasonably large area and downanddirtyness of Kennedys would have suited, but for whatever reason the gig went ahead in the Village with an early start (7:30 people) a very unfortunate combination in my books.

This as well as the other gigs going on that night must have contributed to the surprisingly small and in the most cases subdued crowd that turned out, unfortunately I missed Creators set entirely, (did anyone see him? How was it)?

But caught Herv, who played a excellent live set, doing his best to get the mainly muted audience wiped into a frenzy and he was well received with a shriek of joy going up from those in the front when he dropped his gameboy-core anthem “Party Gaff”, from 2001’s Customers.

The pockets of mentalists at the front gradually expanded into pools as the night went on, until eventually, approaching the end of the kid 606s set, there was about 40 people up the front dancing like they were selling hammers. Kid 606 really went ofF in parts but the set seemed stilted with it never really descended into that twisted reverie that I expected.

As a result of the early start, small and muted crowd, and patchy performance in my opinion this gig was less than the sum of its own parts.

We were turfed out at 11pm so that the village could get the club ready for the nightly barn dance. The small crowd drifted of into the nighT, some going to Clark, with scattered reports coming back that it was good at best. Off I was to McGurners which was hosting two sound systems Duplo (DnB/Dubstep) and Headmelt (?), cant tell you what it was like as I succeeded in not remembering arriving or leaving or anything in between, but sure apparently it was a grand old time.

Anyway I still love ya Kid 606,

And for anyone who missed this gig or who would like to get another taste in the near future and is willing to make the pilgrimage (that is not a pun) it would appear from his myspace that he is playing at Bangface in London on the 12 October, as is DJ Ruptures according to hisspace, a line-up not to be sneezed at. I couldn’t find any info for this on the Bangface’s website but in fairness I gave up after 5 minutes as the flashing lights and retarded music was making my head hurt.

P.S. Oh at the end of the gig the promoters came out and apologised for the early start and said to hold on to the stubs form the gig (mine had absconded by then, sure who was to no) as it would get you in free to “an exciting event” in the not too distance future, so expect something similar from the guys soon I guess.

Soot!

photo credit: nudevinyl

Ha ha see what I did there clever yes? No? Oh well never mind

Modeselektor are Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary a two man DJ /producer team from Germany releasing almost exclusively on Ellen Alien’s Bpitch Control label their music is influenced in turns by hip-hop break beats techno and dub exemplified by their first full album Hello Mom released in 2005 and remixed and re-released in 2006 featuring the brilliant euro crunking French hip-hop crew TTC

Anyone who saw the German duo’s Irish debut in the Foggy Notions tent on the last night of the Electric Picnic last year knows how crazy their live sets can be, it was easily the most explosive gig I saw all weekend. However the set up they brought to Dublin on Thursday 8th of March was very different they preformed a two hour D.J set with support from Electric City’s Rian Ryan down stairs in Wax on south William street, in my opinion this claustrophobic venue is unsuited for such a gig with the dance floor being uncomfortably jammed for the majority of the set with barely room to move much less dance.

However after a slow start their use of hip hop, techno & electro went down well with “Kill Bill vol.4″ and The Prodigy’s “Fire” getting the warmest receptions. The crowd was once again electrified and towards the last half hour people were hanging out of the rafters standing on top of ledges and sitting on shoulders in order to dance on the packed dance floor.

As I was plastered to the glass barrier at the front for the majority of the gig I had a good view of the two men’s behaviour behind the controls and it couldn’t have been more different, Bronsert displayed a foppish calm, with the look of a modern day S.S. Commandant leading the crowd willingly to the aural ovens. While Szary jumped around like a 10 year old kid filled with Fanta at a wedding disco, egging the crowd on.

Infuriately the bouncers made them cut the music five minutes early just as they began to play Jeff Mill’s “The Bells.” To top it all off in celebration of Electric City’s fourth birthday they drenched the front rows of the crowd with first a bottle of champagne and then a bottle of vodka. I left the gig sticky and highly flammable but happy and slightly stupider

There is speculation that MDSLKTR will be coming to Dublin with their full live set sometime in early summer, so keep your noses pealed people.