R.O.B.O.T.

It's Friday afternoon. I'm in a stunning warehouse space at Dock Des Suds in Marseille down in the south of France. All around me dozens of grizzled worker bees are putting the finishing touches to what is set to be a breathtaking production for a show I'm involved in tonight.

There's a robotic, Mad Maxian theme to the proceedings, with performance artists, twisted metal sculptures, TV installations, radical futuristic attire, and the centrepiece in an immaculate 30 foot high 3D video-mapped robot head. The booth is situated inside the demon's eyes, and all around the stage are the unmistakable shapes of Funktion One speakers. This is not a party to be trifled with and it's no exaggeration to say I haven't been this excited about a non-festival show in a loooooong time.

In a nutshell, this is Burning Man. In a warehouse.


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Tales of blind mixing & surgical elbow retraction ...

The monitor sits forlornly. Drooping downwards, devoid of power. The booth is two feet deep ... barely enough to entertain my generous waist. Bending down requires surgical elbow-retraction, and yet still this funny little venue has decided that the place for said booth should be a good 8 feet up in the air. A battered DJM-600, once the go-to mixer of choice occupies the centre ground ... most of it's knobs are MIA, sheared off at the tip, years since the 'effects' functioned properly. The CDJ-800s are basic, unruly with trademark sticky cue buttons.

In short it's a job & a half to make any sense of the situation with the muffled soundfug that's circling around the booth, but I'm faced with a crowd of Motorstorm programmers who are here to unwind, let go, breathe a massive, collective & drunken sigh of relief as their PS3 game is finally on the shelves. I'd been 'warned' beforehand with a wry sense of resignation that 'they are geeks ... and they don't dance'. I love a challenge ...

... fast forward two hours and I switch it up with a dubstep drop. There's a sweaty, pogo'ing throng. There's whooping, hollering, frugging. A roomful of drunken, smiley faces and I'm transported back to the halcyon days of Fused & Bruised residencies at the Dogstar in Brixton where I cut my teeth behind the decks.

All is good with the world.

Adventures

Post-gig / Pre-gig. Transiting across the outer limits of Vilnius where the harsh tower blocks quickly merge into rolling pine tree stands. A vast shanty town-like black market sits on the fringes, and then we cruise the smooth highways towards Klaipeda.

It's sometimes hard to appreciate the moment. I'm someone who needs time to stand back, assess, decide and then action ... and at the moment I'm lacking the luxury of time away; time away from the job, the machines; just living in the now. I need some perspective.

One issue that's troubling me is the Serato Vs CD 'debate' that I've been having with myself. Its often a nightmare & last night was no exception with the two decks wired in right to left. The first mix was a total shambles because your visual references of right & left are completely subverted & it took ages to find my groove after that. I'm seriously considering moving back to CDs!


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