Last night as Democratic convention guests partied at the hip, upscale Conga
Room on Wilshire Boulevard, just three blocks west the locals had their own
party goin' on;
Gilles Peterson spun here in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre. The
predominantly thirtysomething and late-twentysomething crowd was slightly
lighter in attendance than his previous appearance here in March at the Fais Do
Do Ballroom, but the environment was much more comfortable. 2Step guru MJ Cole,
despite the billing, was unable to appear due to visa problems. So local homeboy
DJ Jun spun for over two (mostly gruelling) hours - towards the latter part of
his set he spun incredibly hard-to-dance syncopated samba house (the ones where
the snare drum is all over the place) before the Big G took to the decks.
Unlike his earlier appearance, it was less a 'Best of Gilles/Talkin Loud'
appearance and more on the progressive, though slightly less eclectic, tip. True
to GP form, his set jumped from the expected hokey-but-groovy late '60s track
(as was his opening tune) to samba to house to syncopated samba house to
familliar R&B/funk (Denise Williams' "Free" and EWF's "Run Away"). But the
highlight of Gilles' set was his dose of freshly imported UK 2Step Garage,
perhaps the first new dance music genre craze in the 21st century. He flew
tracks like the Mr.-Oizo-meets-'80s-funk sound of Azzido Da Bass' "Doom's Night"
and Wookie's "The Battle," (a recent "Worldwide" radio show staple), as well as
another track (can't ID it) that demanded a rewind (the same track was spun by
DJ Jun earlier in the night and also got the backwards spin).
Noticeably absent from the set was any sort of acid jazz or (shock) drum n' bass.
While his previous appearance was more of like an introduction to Gilles' style,
this one is more of Gilles today. Nevertheless, he still rocked the crowd, and
we look forward to being rocked by him again. It's too bad it took him a over a
decade to get over to this continent.
Elson
- 30 -
:. elson trinidad, los angeles, california, usa
:. elson@westworld.com
:. www.westworld.com/~elson
"music is a form of rapid transportation" - john cage
[ the futurethnic beats of e:trinity - www.e-trinity.org ]
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