And so it began once again, Movement, Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival ‘08 version kicked off yesterday in the familiar environs of Hart Plaza right downtown next to Joe Louis arena where the Red Wings were playing for the Stanley Cup.
For the third year production crew Paxahau were at the helm and they seem to be locking in on the set up for the event. Five stages boasted thunderous sound and the side stages feature roofs without ever feeling confining. Perfect weather greeted a first day highlighted by sets from Newcleus, Jooris Voorn, Deadmau5, Moby and Christian Wunsch.
First up of note was Deepchord presents Echospace with an afternoon set that washed the main stage in enough bass to match the warm sunshine, but with enough rattle to fight right in among the urban backdrop. The duo of Deepchord and Soultek had a few people dancing to the steady pound of their ample kicks, but most just relaxed on the steps taking in the music’s chill overtones and luxuriant bass.
Over by the river, after a long delay to get things set up a reunited Newcleus showed Detroit the point where hip hop and techno first crossed paths. Lamentably the costumes from their Jam On Revenge days were nowhere to be found, but the pulse of their electro still hits hard. Gone was the band, replaced by a laptop and one Kurzweil, but the songs stayed the same with plenty of bass and an uptempo party vibe. Lead man Cosmo D showed some flow on songs new and old, and called out Stetsasonic and Snap for transgressions from long ago. The set got clunky at times and the odd staging with a table up front, made the band a bit disconnected from the crowd, but when they dropped ‘Computer Age’ and ‘Jam On It’ the crowds new just what to do.
When they left the stage, fellow electro pioneer Egyptian Lover stepped up for his turn on stage. Working turntables and actually playing records (instead of off a laptop) he set right in with Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Planet Rock’ and never looked back. Dropping doubles of a stream of electro classics, EL kept the place bouncing.
As the day wore on the music started getting serious over at the Beatport stage as Jooris Voorn was busy working a large crowd with his minimal beats that verged deep into tech house territory. The sounds were heavy as he pushed and pulled everything he could from the stage’s robust system and just as the crowd was moving in front of him, Voorn was dancing away behind his gear while pushing the buttons to control the action. Just as he’d built things into a frenzy the crowd began chanting someone else’s name, but can they really be blamed for taking note of Deadmau5 as he stepped to the stage?
While the eyes on his giant red head glowing, he set into his set with some pounding beats and a growing collection of auxiliary noises to work the edges of the rhythms. After a brief while things got too hot even for the Deadmau5 and he looked relieved to remove the costume head and get back to work with just a hat in its place. As if on cue a Daft Punk robot walked into the tent as Deadmau5 began a reworked version of his remix of ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ and the crowd lost control each time he unleashed a bit of those now iconic vocals.
Back at the main stage Detroit’s DBX was working out a very live PA. Dan Bell was alone on the massive stage surrounded by his collection of keyboards, mixers and other assorted gear as he tightly controlled all the noises in his classic minimal beats. Of course there were plenty of his signature tweaky acid bursts to keep everyone on edge and the crowd was dancing all the way up the tiers of steps surrounding the stage.
After stopping off for a bit to eat, it was off to chill on the pyramid steps by the river while hip hop legend Pete Rock was getting busy for an excited crowd. Sticking mostly to classic beats and breaks, Rock kept busy cutting and scratching and flipping back and forth with doubles of everything. It was a classic hip hop set from someone who’s proven again and again that he knows just what he’s doing.
Back at the Beatport stage Alex Under was making sure no bit of the soundsystem was left underused. His relentless beats were matched by cascading bleeps and the crowd seemed to want more and more. It was an excited atmosphere in that tent, but it didn’t come close to matching the frenzy going on back at the main stage.
Moby’s done many things in his career, but this was the first time he’d played Movement in any of its incarnations and he seemed excited. Starting out with some Detroit sounds he had the stage as packed as it could be and everyone was on their feet and often had their hands in the air. His song selection moved toward his own works and the crowd certainly knew what was in store as he dropped hit after hit. It might not be my taste, but the many certainly had that crowd following him wherever he May have wanted to take them.
Of course the festival doesn’t really end when Hart Plaza shuts down, and for the first night it was off to the Friendly Integration afterparty for some of the hardest sounds heard all day. The line up had an international flavor with talent from around the country and over in Europe combining for a serious time. Amsterdam duo Museum took over the back room with shuffling beats and well timed snippets of voices worked into their rhythms. The live set had the dark unadorned space so hot the floor had a slippery film that only aided and encouraged the dancers.
Next up was former Midwesterner Mark Verbos who keep the beats steady and worked his 303 to deliver his acid beats live. Then Spaniard Christian Wunsch came on with his live PA, and that destroyed everything that came before. Hard in every way, his beats seemed built from a scatter of drums and noises enveloped in clouds of bass. It all comes together in unyielding downpours of unexpected rhythm. When that set ended, there was really no point in hearing anything else for the night.
Check back tomorrow for the wrap up on sets from The Cool Kids, Paco Osuna, Carl Craig and Richie Hawtin.
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