DEMF 2006

Presumably he's from the Madrid that's in Bavaria.

What the hell does Detroit having "one single successful house night" have to do with the purpose of the festival. The purpose is to pay homage to the true spirit and history of Detroit dance. Sorry if you don't understand that house music and classics were being played and came BEFORE techno. And even if we're talking techno, true techno as mentioned is that of retro-Detroit, Derrick, Juan, Kevin and others. This is the techno I myself could put into any house set or any hot music set to be specific. I realized after I mailed off a submission package to Paxahau, what the hell did I do submitting a package to a company called Paxahau. How the heck is this organization qualified to 1)judge hotness and 2) understand how deep and rich the history of house/Detroit techno goes and 3) respect the integrity,blood,sweat and tears of our music and culture.

Why do people mention race? Because it is RELEVANT. Of course music is for all, no sh*t Sherlock! The point is that when disco music surfaced (the precursor to all this sh*t), it was underground, black/latino and gay. Go check your history. So while we were ostracized by mainstream, we created, produced, and dj'd our own music on our own terms, we were free in our underground. Everyone who embraced it was welcome, including white folks. Of course there are pioneers that are not black, such as David Mancuso, Nicki Siano, Francois K, etc. But they will tell you they were inspired by black music.

So fast forward to 2006 and a Detroit Music Festival. What a damn shame to know there will be a lack of the truth. Detroit was its illest dj's including Mojo, The Wizard, The Maestro, Reckless Ron Cook, Will Guest, Gary Chandler, Terrence Parker, Duane in the Mix, Al Ester, Ken Collier, Direct Drive, the list goes on. Even Theo Parrish is actually a late addition to the history of what it was back in the day. Theo only recently came to the D in 1995 (and Lord knows I love me some Theo). In fact, if you are from Detroit and didn't shop at Buy Rite Music back in the day, you cannot possibly give justice to the true history of Detroit. If you have no connection with Daryl,Darnell, Rick Wilhite...something will be missing.

This email is obviously at Detroit cats on here and they will know what I'm talkin' bout!

I forgot why I even wrote this email, guess I'm just another pissed off dj from Detroit that feels my city's history is not being given justice.

Oh, and I'd be happy to address anyone Detroit imposter on the tables--like it should be and how it was back in the day.
-Steve Crawford - Founder DFC
http://www.detroitfightclub313.com

-- Erick H (eshaigh...), April 24th, 2006

i'd say pretty good considering Paxahau is running it–the first time since year two that an actual promotions company has the festival's reins

How the heck is this organization qualified to 1)judge hotness and 2) understand how deep and rich the history of house/Detroit techno goes and 3) respect the integrity,blood,sweat and tears of our music and culture.

And the answer is because Paxahau has actually been successfully booking electronic music in Detroit and stepped up to the plate to organize this year's festival. I'm pretty sure the Music Institute has been closed for a while now. Can we get on with it already?

Anyway, good sign that they actually managed to get corporate sponsorship this time around. I'm thinking this year's DEMF might be the excuse I need to finally head back to Detroit.

(Hi KT!)

POP AMBIENT / KOMPAKT & FRIENDS
Donnacha Costello - live
Frank Martiniq
Jeremy P. Caulfield – live
Klimek - live
Markus Guentner
Mikkel Metal – live
Superpitcher

Le Petit Orb is more decks and efx than live techno making as i understand it.

(They're listed as Le Petit Orb - live

This will be awesome

Anybody planning on going to any of the afterparties? My friends are playing at/putting on a few.

Thomas Felhmann doing the live stuff on the Apple Mac and Alex Patterson 'playing' on the decks (read: occasionally fading in a record over the top of the live stuff)

Also, first 'groove la chord' airing: 2:50pm saturday. That's only about 3 hours into the festival folks.

Rave, shirtless, all night for me.

more reports back please!

Also, everybody can quit trying to be the man, because compared to Carl Craig, you'll just be in second place. It's kind of liberating to not worry about having to try for the top, actually. He was so awesome at the festival just now!

Friday: Matt Johnson amazing at opening party

Saturday: Dan Bell good, Pantytech good, Dandy Jack real good, Kooky Scientist AMAZING on the main stage. I wanted to pay more attention to Superpitcher but the underground stage was setup so horrible that I couldn't stand being there for more than a little while. I loved Rob Hood on the main stage, he was about the only guy that played a lot of Detroit Techno on the lineup.

Sunday: Got there early and parked it in the Twilight76/DataBass tent. What you expect from those guys. Starski and Clutch played a shambolic set of electronic funk classics, even started the set off with a recoding of Mojo's show opening speil. Godfather tears it up on the turntables, some girls were doing amazing dances. After that I caught KMS on the main stage (eh...nice and banging but a little non-subtle) and then Le Petit Orb. I wasn't expecting much from them after catching thier poor performance in LA, but they were great! Fehlman was jacking up and down behnd the Laptop, and their tracks sounded HUGE on the big system. Those Schaffel tracks they released on Kompakt made me very happy, and the way they worked 'Fluffy Clouds' in was swell.

Monday: Came straight from a seriously cracked out afters to catch Craig in the WAY TOO HOT sun. He was the best. Kompakt guys in the tent were great, and a welcome respite from the intense sun and intense beats everywhere else. Did we really need Adam X on the main stage at 2pm? No. Left for the hotel and came back to catch Derrick May throw down. He is the man, and one of my DJ heros. So much soul! Bangin and fun. Nitzer Ebb were o.k. Sounded a little quiet, didn't have a very dynamic setup. Good to hear all those tracks I liked back in H.S. though. Hawtin came on a little late after that and was really good. Left there and checked Mike Huckaby for a little while at the end of the night and was really glad I did. I really needed to hear that deep Detroit soulful sound. Great crowd over there too, friendly faces and good dancers. The perfect close to the fest for me.

Caught Hawtin at the afterparty at Oslo after that. I guess that was kind of a taste of what life in Berlin is like, pretty intense! I don't know how long I'd last!

Derrick Carter was probably my favorite. That Greenskeeper house band were a lot of fun, at least the little bit I caught. I've confirmed that I'm not a huge fan of the Perlon/microhouse style after seeing several DJ/live sets of that style, but Dandy Jack were pretty good. I thought Superpitcher was disappointing, but I agree that the Underground Stage was not the ideal location for him (or anyone, really) to play. Nitzer Ebb did remind me of high school, oh so long ago. And geez, Otto von Schirach -- gabber gabber GABBER!

did donnacha costello just do a set of minimise-type stuff or was it all new and unrecognizable?

how about carl craig? i remember hearing him play a set probably about 4-5 years ago to around 200 people at a small-ish venue where he just built and built from dubs that were obviously his own stuff, but pressed specifically for dj-ing. by about an hour in, he had the whole place locked and it continued that way until close and rapturous applause. it was right around the time he was doing the tunes/remixes that i imagine now would neatly foreshadow and link together stuff like innerzone orchestra and paperclip people to what he's doing today. it was very underground and still in the blakula phase with more eastern percussion than big analog riffs and detroit techno strings, but there were moments of analog goodness - definitely his brand of swaggering almost downtempo house. i am thinking of massively dubbed out and beefy versions of the remixes he did for the orb and tori amos or even that huge cesaria evora remix he did. great stuff and i am thinking it would've been so excellent to hear his 2006 update...

While Carl Craig was pretty sweet, I'm almost ashamed to admit how much I liked seeing Nitzer Ebb live for the first time ever. To segue from Derrick May's solid two-hour set into the first rumbles of "Getting Closer" reminds me why I still get excited to see the lineup after all these years. Makes me sad that I couldn't do the other days...or the afterparties, for that matter.

(And if anyone has 2001 European TV footage of a black-jacketed 6'6" interviewer, let me know...I want to prove to my near and dears that it actually exists.)