Four Ted, Dub Step, Mike Relm

I was in San Francisco last week where I used to live for 6 years and went out with my great SF friends. One of the high lights is the last Saturday night when we went out for Four Tet/Jon Hopkins at Mezzanine and later to The Triple Crown for Surefire Sound's dub step party. When we arrived at Mezzanine Four Tet was already planing and we missed Jon Hopkins, which is such a bummer.... Four Tet was ok, nothing really special about. But the thing impressed me was the SF audience. I saw Four Tet/Jon Hopkins a week ago at Museum of National History in NYC and saw only about 20 people out of 500 (or so) were dancing. But at this show at Mezzanine most of people were pumping and dancing. I actually thought the SF crowds would be dancing hard because the electro music in SF is really hot and people in SF love dancing and feeling the music. But it was great to see that was really happening.

After we couldn't get to where we wanted to be at Mezzanine, we moved to The Triple Crown for a dubstep show. Man, this show really kicked our ass so hard and shaked all of our bodies! MC and the dubstepping style was so cool and the DJs were droping from dypical dubstep to crossover style and kept the crowd moving and pumping. I still remember we were all sweaty and screaming and smiling at each other.

So that's my music high light in SF this time until right before I was getting my flight at San Francisco airport. After I was closing my laptop and was about to join a long queue to the gate, when I looked up there was a guy who looked so familiar. And then boom, wow Mike Relm ! He was just standing in front of me. He is one of my current top 5 most interested Producers/DJs so I was so stoked! Of course I started talking to him and he was such a cool guy as expected. We talked about the audience in West coast/East coast, Burning Man, etc till I almost missed my flight! ;-) He'll coming back to NYC for opening up for Dell the Funky Homosapien on 4/29 at BB King, so I'm already looking forward to it.

From SF Chilling March 09

If you don't know who is Mike Relm, check his web site or try this youtube, he's genius!



Lastly, I had a great SF trip thanks to all of my sweet and great friends in SF. Can't wait to go back soon!

Fernando Otero from Argentine

There is a show tonight where Fernando Otero will be playing at Joe's Pub. I actually don't really know about his music, I checked his music at youtube and sounded very acoustic or classic kind of music plus Algentine tango influence. My friend Steven told me about this show so it's got to be good, and I'm always very excited to explore new music & sound. Stay tuned for an update....



Here is an introduction from the Joe's Pub's web site.

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SHOW DESCRIPTION
Argentine composer and pianist Fernando Otero found his voice as writer, musician and bandleader when, at the urging of one of his music teachers, he began to incorporate the indigenous sounds of his native Buenos Aires into his work. Twenty years have passed since Otero opened his ears to this wealth of ideas, and ever since he has pursued his vision of X Tango. On his Nonesuch debut "Pagina de Buenos Aires", he does evokes a feeling of Buenos Aires – something you can sense even if you've never been there --through his innovative use of the bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument at the heart of all tango. But the world Otero conjures up is really all his own.

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Usually I don't go to this type of music show especially the one where I need to sit down the whole time. But this one turned out to be a great beautiful music show that kept me feel good. It was great modern Jazz influenced by Argentine tango. It is always nice to explore new music...

From Fernando Otero at Joe's Pub

Jon Hopkiins Update....

Wow, his new album is due out on May 5th this year and given the show I went two days in row I'll definitely buy more than one! And as a great surprise, he's made one of the songs from the album available for free download! And that is the song that really drove my ass shaking those two nights! The song is Wire, and here is the download link....

Be careful, because this song will shake you up so hard that you want to go out and party! ;-)

Jon Hopkins at Pianos

From Jon Hopkins at Pianos

Since the night before we were so impressed by Jon Hopkins world at One Step Beyond party at American Museum of National History we decided to go to check him again who was playing at Pianos in Lower East. It was only one hour show and the venue was kind of wired place to have his type of music, it was more like rock music live house and other bands before and after were some like that. But again, he dropped his shit again so hard and hit our heart with his beautiful yet powerful sounds and we were just so enjoying the journey of the sounds. At the climax we were all so into it and dancing so hard. It was just so amazing looking at him playing his synthesizer and machines to play and create those sounds lively. Once he finished his play we were all like ok, let's go, we had so much fun..... even though there was more bands after him. But we knew what we wanted. There is only one video clip and one pic from the show. I was so busy dancing and no time to record the video.... :)

Four Tet & Jon Hopkins at Museum of National History!

Wow, they will be playing at American Museum of National History this Friday night, amazing! It's so timely that my friend Steven just told me about the music even happening at the National History museum the other day when we were dancing at another party at Brooklyn museum, and now I've just found that Four Tet and Jon Hopkins will be playing there on this Friday. It's awesome! and it's so cool just to imagine listening and dancing with their music under the huge whale or the dinasour !! (though I don't really know where the music will be...)

Here is a link to the event.

Update:

Wow, what a night.... somehow we thought it was going to be a lot of people at the entrance so we should have been there earlier but when we got there nobody, no entrance people, nothing. I thought it was canceled or something. But exactly at 9pm they opened the door. It was kind of wired because even though the party was presented by this people called Fader but all the people who selling/checking your tickets, coat check, etc are all Museum people.

But once entered inside it was so cool that we were literally walking into the National History Museum looking the Dinosaurs, space planets, etc. The dance floor was in the planetarium area and this was so perfect for the music like the ones from Four Tet, Jon Hopkins. It was super excited walking down to the dance floor looking at all the space and planets sculptures stuff.

Long story short, all the music was absolutely cool and this might be the best show I've ever been to in NYC in terms of the quality of music. The people at the party were many young people and seemed had no idea about the kind of music and didn't know what to do with it. So it's not like the time I use to go to underground parties to see cool music. But still the situation of being under those planets and spacey setup made the ambient so cool. And the very front area, right in front of the performers sets area had many music lovers and it was so fun to dance with them and with the fantastic music.

Four Tet was cool, but this time, Jon Hopkins totally rocked the floor and shaked ass so hard. He started very spacey and trippy sounds which totally went well with the planetarium setup. And he started slowly moving to minimal techno to progressive, and eventually progressive breaks. At the point we were all dancing and jumping and I just couldn't stop smiling and that was not only me...

Jon Hopkins will be playing at Pianos tonight, so I might want to check him out. He was that great... Thanks Jon!!!!

Here are some pictures and clips from the night....

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

From One Step Beyond at National Museum of History

Jon Hopkins - Part 1

Jon Hopkins - Part 2

Jon Hopkins - Part 3

Four Tet - Part 1

Four Tet - Part 2

Slavic Soul Party! Tonight....

These guys play east european/gipsy/funk/jazz style of music and they're pretty good. I've seen them once at this bar called, Barbes, and it was such a great live music & dancing. They are actually playing every Tuesday now. Not only the band, I really liked the bar too. Good vibe, good people, and it's like a place where people come not just for drinking, something beyond...

Anyway, I'll be going to the bar to check the music and dance with my friends tonight!

Update:

It's always good music and good vibe at this party. I had a great time and danced with their great music. Also it was so nice to hang out with my great friends surrounded by good music. Surprisingly there were many Japanese, it was fun though!