Deadbeat VS Luke Hess @ UNIT in Tokyo

First off, if you’re a reader who’s not into minimal electronic music, just skip this post.

Unfortunately this is not a post of a mix or live pa – just my comments on last night’s show.

So I dig on both Deadbeat and Hess’s music.  I haven’t spent that much time exploring either, but more so Hess because, well, Echocord etc. just usually does my head in.  However after just playing records and drinking at a monthly event at a little reggae bar from 7-12, I wasn’t exactly sure how well I’d hold up listening to some mellow, dubbed out techno until the first train in the morning – as much as I do love that music.

So I needn’t tell you how elated my feet and I were to just get carried away till the end with some banging 4 on the floor superbness all – night – long.  Such a pleasant surprise.

If my foggy memory serves me correctly, I believe it was DJ Wada who was playing before Deadbeat and when I walked in.  EXCELLENT deep and banging warm up set…got everyone ready and cheering.

I was actually worried he got everyone too ready.  As soon as he just killed the crowd with his last 3 or 4 excellent crowd pleasers (builds and everything) I was so worried that Deadbeat might just come and put everyone to sleep…I mean I kinda figured (judging from the new album and all) that there’d definitely be some danceable stuff, but I’ve been put to sleep by better.  How-to-the-ever,  Deadbeat just took that energy and RAN.  Literally, besides a minute or two of warm up beatless noise and a dub track near the end, it was BANGING the WHOLE time.  Maybe others are aware of this side of Deadbeat and I’ve just been in the dark, but considering this was a live PA, it was so much more hard hitting than I expected.  The crowd LOVED it.

Then, Luke Hess took over at the controls.  Again, just kicked everyone’s ass.  Banging the WHOLE set.  Granted, UNIT’s system helped and all, but the energy in this live set, as with Deadbeat, completely surpassed my expectations from what I’d heard up to this point.  For me, Hess’s set was the absolute highlight.  Again, Deadbeat’s set was superb, but I just love that Hess sound…and combined with just banging 4/4….whew.  Really, I pretty much stopped buying techno vinyl and started dabbling in djing other kinds of music about 7 years ago and only occasionally listened to techno in that time.  However, thanks to the Echocord camp, Sandwell District etc…, and shows like last night – I’m back in.

For those hoping for a mellow, dubbed out evening,  the night must have been a major disappointment, but, from the looks of the crowd, Deadbeat and Hess knew EXACTLY what everyone secretly wanted.  It was kinda like going in to an event expecting some Chain Reaction/V. Delay dubbyness and actually getting hard hitting Basic Channel/Maurizio -  hard to be disappointed.  For me it was one of those “ok, techno is really back.  there really IS quality, quality shit being put out right now and there seems to be more to come” realization nights.  I’ll happily enjoy their mellower stuff on my headphones -

I hung around for some of the last Djs set, mainly waiting for the train, but was also a very quality set.

2 random thoughts that came through my head during the evening ~

First,  one of the absolute best things about seeing an artist just work a crowd in Japan is the huge, childlike, shit-eatin grin that inevitably takes over the artist’s face when the Japanese crowd erupts into cheers in all the right places.  It’s heartwarming all around.  It was more than clear that Luke Hess enjoyed the evening, and even more so that we the crowd did as well.

Second, as much as I really really enjoyed Dj Wada’s set, I just can’t enjoy watching CDjs.  I know topics like digital/analog, live mixing/ableton etc… are overly talked about, volatile subjects that bring out the snobbery in the best/worst of us, but I just can’t help it.  Maybe I should look at the bright side and take pleasure in the fact that I was able to sit back and enjoy the visuals more than I usually do when I’m watching the records go round.  But still,  it really just loses something watching, even listening to,  a DJ flip through his CD folder and eject/insert…..   Both of the DJs were CD only, bummer.

My original plan was to repost a Deadbeat mix an oursoundtracks contributor put together a while ago, and one of the Luke Hess mixes floating around on the net, but neither reflect the evening in the least.  So, I’m leaving it here.  If anyone out there has *hard-hitting* sets from either artist, let me know.  I would love to have some audio to go along with this post.