- The Angels of Love (AOL) posse has been the Godfather, top dog and big daddy of the Italian party circuit for a long time. Since the early 90s, they have been instrumental in bringing DJs like John Digweed, Frankie Knuckles, Carl Cox and Danny Tenaglia to their turf in Naples and doing promo work for insane parties in all kinds of venues. I remember surveying the recent AOL list of club assaults with anticipation: Ministry of Sound and The End in London; Stereo in Montreal; Sound Factory in New York; Tank Club in Sydney, and yes sweaty summer Ibiza with Carl Cox at Space.
Fresh from a Yoshitoshi party in Italy with Deep Dish, Behrouz and Nic Fanciulli, Angel members DJ Simi and Fiore flew in with an army of fat cupids to infect anthems of love within the cavernous bowels of Zouk. I like the concept. There’s always a positive trance-y feel to ‘Angels of Love’ even before you hit the dance floor. It’s a playful, subconscious effect of the mind that yearns for cherubic ecstasy in pearly gate dance-a-thons. At half past midnight, Simi and Fiore started their set with straight no-nonsense house, peppered with occasional techno boogies bearing an instinctive trance lilt that made you tilt your neck and expect rain.
DJ Simi and Fiore explored the inner mechanics of heaven-sound with a distinctive strain of atmospheric trance whoosh going under the central deep house beat. I thought of bubble guns shooting endless streams of rainbow shaped molecules out into halos of street lamps in seedy alleyway. It was fairly erotic. Did I drink too much?
"DJ Simi and Fiore explored the inner mechanics of heaven-sound with a distinctive strain of atmospheric trance whoosh going under the central deep house beat."
Playing the first hour like a lazy champion soccer team, the AOL posse did good to vibe the crowd and keep them on the floor in anticipation for the highlight reel. Invisible Angels guided them: Run the flanks and cut their corners. Look for your man and play them tight. Always go for the shot, never hesitate. While the sound was fairly predictable with obvious crowd-pleasing stylistics, Simi and Fiore were quite simply, having a blast. Holding the knobs with evident relish, as if they were hungry men preparing to devour a scrumptious invisible sandwich, they paused at the right moments to eyeball anonymous flailing popeyes and jungle janes on the dance floor. I don’t know why, but it gave me enormous pleasure to see them watch the crowd move like puppets under their slow-fast stay-run dynamics. Dance music is all about voyeurism.
I didn’t get to see the AOL dancers that I’ve heard so much about. It would have been rad to see the regular fixtures at AOL’s parties, Musdy and Sara do their dervish like hip-wags while wearing insane cutesy Italian anti-haute couture getups.
Honestly, I would have loved a revamp of the Zouk décor to bring it some feverish outdoor AOL festival flavor. The party largely remained an imported DJ showcase, which although excellent, lacked party histrionics (i.e. flat out craziness) and did not entirely bring out the screaming Italian rude-boy in me.
Thanks to Esther Tan and staff at Zouk Singapore.