- I met Lee before his set and he told me that he really liked to play in Zouk because the club had really good acoustics and an excellent DJ console. He also said that it was always a test to play a club which mostly had a drinking crowd, unlike other clubs/parties in Eastern Europe or elsewhere where people would get completely wasted on pharmaceuticals and would dance to anything that resembled a heartbeat.
His premonitions, if any, were squashed from the moment he put his finger on the shiny deck till two hours later, when he pulled the last record out of its sleeve. Here’s what happened.
Taking over from Sonny T who built up a gilded auditorium of heavy house styles, Lee started to manipulate the crowd by doing garbled house tunes with a vicious old school rhythm. Tapping his finger on the spinning deck and bobbing his head in obvious glee, he brought out an incredible energy from the crowd as they waved & finger-pointed appreciatively. Flashing Warhol TV screens of Lee sitting on the floor in black silhouette signaled the ominous beginning of his set at Zouk. Languorous clubbers took a last swig from their glasses and drifted to the center of the dance floor.
"...no dreamy intros and extended ambient master designs but rather, vigorous kinetic athleticism: keep moving and don’t stop."
The mood was set from the beginning, no dreamy intros and extended ambient master designs but rather, vigorous kinetic athleticism: keep moving and don’t stop. Lee played his usual style of breaks, tribal tech and diverse house while his incredible ability to read the crowd became electrifying addition to his arsenal of spontaneous beats.
Let’s stop thinking about how it would feel, and start feeling for once. What would happen? Not a damn thing as everyone danced under the robotic strobe lights while the crazy tribal house beat moved underneath the progressive swing of invisible double thoughts which manifested as forms of ecstatic light/sound bubbles in our eyes and fingertips. It’s like clubbing for cyborgs who crave mechanical release and fleshy amour.
What’s going on? How do you feel? Smiling with devilish insight throughout the night, Lee unleashed his insidious and contagious viral beats in rapid succession as fast as you could breathe along with tunes that were more potent-sensuous than the sound of an angry waterfall at night. The crowd was rocked hard and dancing crazy-like slithery snake style was in vogue. I tried to keep up.
No one was prepared for Lee Burridge. Were there any survivors?
I couldn’t tell.
Special thanks to Esther Tan and the staff at Zouk Singapore.