Marc Reck

A mammoth weekend started with a 3 and a half hour set at Project X Presents, followed by my first community workshop, and then a gig with the Heels, and ended with a very nice 18 hour sleep!

Photograph from Rob Nicholas (More can be found here)

I was pretty nervous on Thursday night, as it was to be my first outing with Traktor scratch, 2 months ahead of my proposed schedule! Alongside wondering if my laptop could handle 4 hours and 4 decks, Steve had been unavailable to rehearse til Thursday, and i wasn’t sure if this new interface would be too much to get used to, if i should really play out all this new music, and if to revert back to just my trusty cdj’s? The next morning however i got more music prepared, had a few more run-throughs of the Completion duet, and started to look forward to the evenings proceedings once again.

Preperation was somewhat stifled by some upsetting news from a friend in the afternoon, but by the time we’d got to the venue, soundchecked, eaten and returned, the evening led the way. Concrete looked suitably transformed, with the work from the object x-ers demonstrating just how clever they really are! An overhead projector that had been bastardised, a sofa that had been turned into a phone booth, a staircase that lit up as you walked down it, and an interactive game of light snap, were just some of the interactive attractions that the crew had been hard at work on.

The bar was busy at the bottom of the staircase, and i proceeded along the corridor into the main room, where I walked into the sounds (and chaos) of Leon doing his youtube set. It was quite the spectacle, possibly drawing inspiration from Leon’s trademark methods of organisation. I unfortunatly missed chunks of the show, due to the amount of people to meet and greet, the short length of the sets, and how far apart the rooms were. I heard that Steve Loopz played some beautiful tunes, the first band were gorgeous, the Opera was interesting, and Shana Tova rocked! Not the best review i know, but suffice to say i did take my usual spot in support of Koala Grip, who gave a great performance in an old/new lineup, and culminated in Ant almost having a hernia when signalling their last song!

The cast and crew who were over 40 strong achieved some inspiring feats, from the organisation to the performance, and i was lucky to be part of it all. Apparently we were just 20 people under a full venue, featuring a mixed up crowd of alternative, underground, beautiful and electic people, who all created a real friendly atmosphere. I was most impressed by just how many people stayed for the long haul (after the event had been extended by an 2 hours), but i was kinda dissapointed by a friend of ours telling everyone there was an “afterparty” from 2 at his nearby pub, where they could get much cheaper drinks and smoke inside.

Djing wise was amazing, and i had nothing to worry about regarding the new music and Traktor stability. Rich Batsford playing live in Australia was great, and i was fortunate to be able to drop some samples of Howard Marx in our first intercontinental duet. Highlight was when the link broke and then came back to a huge roar! (This footage was recorded in Australia but i have some of Birmingham which i’ll post soon.)

It all paved the way for a really responsive dancefloor, and for the first hour or so, i got play music from across the board, from nu jazz like Quantic, to reggae greats from Trojan and Dawn Penn, from big Showtunes like All that Jazz, to classic rock like Senser’s Age of Panic, which all went down an absolute treat. Steve only had a box breaks with him, so the second hour we built it slowly through all our biggest breaks, finishing with a drum and bass finale, and an encore of classics from the Banana Boat song to the Prodigy.

All in all a fantabulous affair, and a great test bed for some ideas for the big one on June 14th 2008.