Global Gathering 2004 - 31/7/2004

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  • With Homelands and Glastonbury passed and Notting hill Carnivale and Creamfields to come, Godskitchen Global Gathering appeared as the event of July (and very early August) in many people’s calendars. Disputably, the event held the largest and most diverse line-up of DJ’s and live acts of the summer, one that certainly tempted this Aussie to making the effort. Located at Stratford-upon-Avon (hopefully not confused by many with the suburb in London sharing the name), approx 2 hours northwest, the local airfield supplied the venue for a set-up that proved to be simply enormous. With over 100 artists in over 9 Arena’s, in a 15 hour musical symphony (4pm – 7am), all clubbers ears were bound to be treated at some stage or another. Trance, breaks, d’n’b, ‘progressive’ house, vocal/deep house, techno tents and a beach chill arena all proved to be popular for all fans throughout the event. Our car trip was slightly delayed due to imminent house moving on the same weekend. However, we managed to get away by 3.30pm in aspiration of arriving round 5.30pm and only missing a little of the beginning. Unfortunately traffic is something you cannot predict and our arrival as well as a number of DJ’s, was further postponed due to the crashing and explosion of a car on the one (!) street coming in through Stratford. About 1km from the venue, my body told me it was beyond the time for me to use the bathroom and decided that the open field by the side of the road was as good as anywhere at this stage. With traffic basically stopped all seemed well until the pace picked up and I was sent running after the car for a 1km all the way into the event. Not a great start for my legs. Dividing up the site was food stalls and rides which were good for a break away from all the action. Surprisingly as well there was an added tent where I was told stand up comedy was performed in conjunction with female clothes removal! Due to musical preference, the Bedrock tent was my main concentration for the evening/morning, and was where I first progressed. Unaware of the set times changes (due to the aforementioned delays), I believed I had just missed Jimmy Van M, on the contrary I had arrived just in time for his opening. He was slightly different from the last time I saw him in 2001, but played a warm groovy housey progression with minimal disco and funk elements. A very cool introduction to proceedings. The next duos were pretty much everyone’s pick for the evening. It’s rare to see both Sasha and John Digweed on the same bill let alone playing back to back. They played an hour each then track for track after that. John for me had the upper hand on Sasha on the evening, playing consistently building deep melodic progressive tunes. Like the Sasha of late (similar to Involver), his sound has digressed to incorporate a more electro jumpy sound and this was evident at Fabric last weekend as well as here where all the best bits were amalgamated. Are they growing apart? Or does it grow to the appeal of the listener to get the best of both worlds. Spotted : Harry Peat – Affrodiziac , Scissor Sisters – Laura (remix?) , Miss Kitten - Professional (remix?) , FSOL – Annihilating Papua , Watching Cars Go By (Sasha extended edit) , N.E.R.D – Maybe (Sander mix), UNKLE – Reign (WOW mix?) The sound was disastrous at times, as the left hand side speakers completely died. It seemed to quiet, when you would talk to those next to you without having to raise your voice. Also the investment in decoration and designs in the Bedrock tent must have been minimal compared to the lavish illustrations of the Godskitchen arena. With the addition of a stage below the DJ box in the godskitchen, the crowd were entertained not only to the sounds of Messrs Van Dyk and Corsten but topless female dancers who had a knack of twisting into extraordinary positions and developing a strong rapport amongst each other. Needless to say, I was baffled into whether this just completely distracted the audience from the headlining DJ’s or just another part of the ‘show’. The arrangement of the tents in relation to surrounding attractions was perfect with each being a short stroll from one another. Sound generally never travelled outside the given area, except in the open-air smaller tents like the Strongbow section, but that was controlled by volume and size. My expectations were of a far more crowded atmosphere in each tent, however I was pleasantly surprised by the liberality of the individuals and plenty of space throughout the event. Another amusing bolt from the blue was upon entering the Strongbow gazebo, ideally located in the corner was a spa with coincidently a few scantily clad females, keep the male population once again happy. Back to the music. By the time Sasha and Digweed had wrapped up by 1.30am, it was time for the Argentian revelation (RA columnist) to continue for another hour and a half. He took the tunes into a deeper tech house movement and the crows responded accordingly. Due to hunger and excessive heat exhaustion I decided to check out what the other tents had on offer at this time. In the breaks arena, Mr Freeland was brining his rock/ electro elements to life, PVD was championing his Euro uplifting trance style to thousands on punters in the Godskitchen arena, Lisa Lashes was taking it up another notch in the Polysexual Hard House tent, the Air stage had Junior Jack and Kid Crème playing a slightly more chunky and driving house sound, Medicine8 was grooving along with a touch of electroclash in the Strongbow house and Ali B was rolling and bouncing out the tribal d’n’b to its fans. An immensely diverse collection of sounds, to a plethora of assorted musical preferences. The most common clothing accessory for the night was the fluffy boot warmers worn (primarily) by the girls, coming is almost every colour of the rainbow. On the other hand the male populations most common clothing attire, funnily enough, was no shirt and hot sweaty body. A pretty sight for some  . Everyone’s ‘boy’ of the moment, here and back downunder, James Zabiela, took over the reigns at 2.30am, to the joy of many. As his trademark, his introduction was a series of loops, effects, vocal inserts and eventually followed by a huuuuuge acid bass line. James’s energy behind the decks is incomparable and was still evident on the evening. His style chopped through house, minimal breaks, tech house and driving into techno all in the space on 45 mins. I was happy to see him keep the scratching to the appropriate moments and successfully use his effects to his full ability. This kid is the future; there is absolutely no denying it. His conclusion included the now prominent Blur – Song 2 (JZ edit) as well as a smooth breaks rework of Massive Attack – Protection. He departed after a colossal round of applause and a slap of the back from Danny ‘the man’ Howells. Having not seen him since the end of last year, I was wound up to catch some more of that "deepsexyfuturistictechfunkhouse” that has kept me an adamant Howells fan for years. At 4am, I couldn’t think of anyone livelier and atmospherically uplifting than Danny, and didn’t he produce the goods. Opening with ‘Strings for Life’ the indications were clear and the driving disco elements supplemented with those giant kicks and bass lines saw the punters throwing hands in the air continuously. Danny’s gee-ing up of the crowd through his facial expressions and dancing unfortunately couldn’t stop the imminent disaster of the monitor speakers blowing and then having mixer complications. This after the left hand turntable had already been replaced earlier in the evening. To his credit kept building the tunes to the point of some seriously pumping techno sounds whilst still keeping the melody and funk prevalent. My body was completely shattered by 5.30am as the sun had begun creeping up and the concept of a new day dawning had become a reality, many of the crowd either began chilling out or continuing till the last tune. Nick Warren ended up being a no show in the Bedrock tent and Luke Fair apparently did himself sufficient favours by closing measures in true Bedrock style. Luckily the drive home was far easier that the drive there, in spite of this two participants lost their lives in a car accident on the way home. Supplement this with the tragic news of the death of the very young Texan producer Adam ‘Starkid’ Spears due to the same circumstances and it hasn’t been a cheerful conclusion to such an enjoyable festival. Overall, with better organization of ticket collection and sound volumes and power output levels, Global Gathering can be contending for the top festival of the summer prize. Honours for the evening personally went to Mr Howells closely followed by Mr Digweed chiefly due to their consistency, rhythm, construction and proper energy you come to expect from a festival-type set. JVM : B+ Digweed : A- Sasha : B JZ : B+ Hernan : B Howells : A Hybrid : B+ Freeland : C+
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