- Yes people, it's festival time again!
While more general music festivals like Oxygen and the upcoming Electric Picnic have been getting the majority of media attention in recent times, it was good to see Global Gathering Ireland with its strictly dance-oriented line-up - and one appealing to dance music fans right across the board - take its place amongst Ireland's festivals for the summer.
With the likes of Oakenfold and Tiesto headlining the Godskitchen Arena and Sasha and Digweed in the Global Tent, it was only fitting then that Carl Cox should bring together the cream of European techno in his own arena.
The day proved to be the ideal setting for those who wanted to dance; the weather holding up and the ground underfoot at Cork's Green Glens in good condition. And that's exactly what people did down at the Cox arena.
From the moment I entered the tent to the sounds of Philip Straub I knew that some very fine techno was on the menu for the day; Straub laying down solid rhythmical grooves as the arena started filling up and the energy of his set keeping techno afficianados and curious kids alike on their toes for a couple of hours.
Next up was Slovenia's finest in Umek, who standing over six feet tall and with hands that Gordon Banks would have been proud of, is a giant in more than one way when behind the decks. Surprising a lot of his die hard fans by diverting from his trademark funky techno and going straight for the jugular with more solid workouts, Umek put on a set which seemed to be continually building; creating an amazing vibe at only 4 in the afternoon!
The pace lifted on his customary 3 deck set (he has been known to use 5) when he dropped 'Neuva York' by fellow countryman Valentino Kanzyani released on the host's Intec imprint. Umek left us in no doubt as to why he is so highly regarded as a DJ and playing many of his own tracks, he also showed us his prolific production rate.
Marco Bailey took over just after 6 and brought the music on a different route with a more minimal, stripped down sound than Straub and Umek while rumours were rife among the crowd about a new night this man is meant to be fronting in Ireland. Bailey has sometimes been known to release material (on labels like Billy Nasty's Tortured and his own MB Electronics) confined to a particular techno sound but his set this evening threw that form book out the window coming up with a very diverse set and bringing the crowd along with him too.
The sun shone and the up for it and clued in techno fans along with some newcomers made the arena a special place to be; the only blot on Bailey's copybook being the occasional mixing error and the sound from the speakers becoming very distorted and muffled. Although this was quickly sorted out by the sound engineer.
A huge roar rose up from the crowd when Dave Clarke was spotted on stage to the left of Bailey. Unlike the other DJs, Clarke opted to play entirely from CDs and went about tearing the place apart with hard industrial sounds right from the start. Clarke scratched, cut and mixed his way through his set and within 20 minutes had laid waste to the entire population inside the techno tent; once again pulling no punches as he pushed these harder sounds onto the crowd resulting in it thinning out a little.
While there was not the usual variation in his set, he did manage to take the tempo down a little, surprising many of his fans by choosing to omit a lot of material from his "World Service 2" album. Then again, Dave Clarke is another man who never sticks to the script.
Since Clarke had lit the afterburners and proceeded to melt the soundsystem, many people in the arena were unsure what Chris Liebing would do to alter their perception on techno. For me and a lot of others, Liebing stole the show with tough minimal techno heavily influenced by the german sound.
Reminiscent of the stuff played at Tresor and reminding me of some of Joey Beltram's sets, Liebing really looked to be enjoying himself as he bobbed and weaved behind the decks. He was a joy to watch and really seemed to get involved with the crowd - a sharp contrast to Clarke before him. Again his set was comprised of a lot of his own tracks with labels like 50hz getting props; his sound in some ways akin to Marco Carola although tougher and grittier.
The biggest cheer of the evening of course came when Carl Cox appeared, grabbed the mike and asked everyone to make some noise for Chris Liebing. The vibe and energy at this point had been brought to a crescendo by Liebing but now it was time for the big man to finish it in style.
Cox started his set with his trademark funky tribal techno sound before dropping a bootleg using a sample of Blur's 'Song 2' early on and the mash up of Renato Cohens 'Pontape' and Tim Deluxe's smash 'It Just Wont Do', which earned him a smile from the ladies in particular.
The party vibe continued with Inner City's 'Good Life' thrown in for good measure; Cox pulling off some nifty spinbacks and jumping from track to track with apparent ease. At various points, he took to the mike urging on the crowd, who enthusiastically responded, showing there is a fun side to techno which is often overlooked by others.
Asking the crowd if they could handle some old skool hardcore sounds, with a flick of his wrist he then brought us back in time to his jungle days around '93. The older ravers in the crowd absolutely loved it and it reminded me of some of Carl's old mix tapes; the only difference being him providing the adlibbing instead of Magika.
Cox is just great to watch and is an example to many as he really gets into it, dancing behind the decks himself. While he may not have provided us with the obscure minimal sounds of those before him he certainly showed that he has still got what it takes to be................a legend.
At times the crowd thinned out but then with the likes of Oakie and Tiesto pulling the younger dancers away, that was to be expected. I have to say it was a great days entertainment that proved that techno is still at the cutting edge in underground electronic music.
Lets just hope we see these guys together on a stage in Ireland again very soon.