- It may seem contradictory to brand a festival as both vitally important and nonessential, but you'll have to bear with me on this one.
Now in its fourth edition, Movement Torino—the Italian counterpart of Detroit's annual three-day bender—was making a concerted attempt at exponential growth this year by expanding its main event over two days, with various pre- and post-parties bookending it. Arriving on the Friday afternoon, we had missed Omar-S' performance at Magazzino di Giancarlo as part of the official warm-up, but anecdotal reports of a packed venue, and the Detroit doyen playing well over his allotted time, boded well for the subsequent two days.
Friday
As noted in RA's coverage of last year's event, Pala Olimpico Isozaki—the purpose-built site used to house 2006's Winter Olympic games—is an undoubted beast of a venue; all polished glass and brushed metallic surfaces, you can't help but marvel at its ultra-contemporary aesthetics, yet in the same thought wonder if such a space can really be conducive to a kicking party. UK space cadets A Mountain of One opened the main space, and, as you might imagine, the group's Balearic excursions were completely lost on the few hundred or so people who had turned up around the 11 PM start time. The second, much smaller space was enjoying a similarly slow start, with the local warm-up DJ exuberantly spinning fast and funky house to a young and local crowd.
I must at this stage give a mention to the frankly bizarre Motel Connection group who followed A Mountain of One back in the main space. The indigenous three-piece emitted a heavily Underworld-influenced live show that culminated in their DJ playing a jumbled selection of techno hits ("Spastik," "MPX 309") as the group's other two members chanted, and pretended to play bass respectively. Despite the charade, the room and the crowd had by this stage built up a healthy head of steam for the arrival of Derrick May. The event's chief went swiftly to work in his typically syncopated fashion, cutting chopping and EQ-bashing his way through an intense and electro-flecked two hours. Despite holding the amassed bodies tightly in his grip, you could sense that the buzz among attendees was building more in anticipation of Luciano's performance. Beginning with "Los Ninos de Fuera"—his recently released LP's opener—the Cadenza boss tore purposefully through a much tech-ier selection than his recent lurch towards house climes would suggest, only allowing respite through elongated periods of filtering and layered passages of his now trademark brass instruments. Tangible hooks did raise themselves from the chug, although when they did, it was via the somewhat lazy sounds of Sebo K's ubiquitous "Sax Track," and a quite frankly irritating remix/acapella of Lumidee's 2003 chart smash "Never Leave You (Uh Ooh, Uh Oooh!)."
There had been earlier whispers of a back-to-back slot from May and Luciano which, as the 5 AM finish time rapidly approached, seemed merely to be a case of hearsay. But in true theatrical style, a one-hour extension to the night allowed the duo to double up for the first time. As is often the case when contrasting artists are pitched together, the excitement of the spectacle, rather than the musical results, was the definite buzz builder. If the pairing really was a "VS" situation, May carved himself a clear lead over the Chilean with the beats increasingly lurching towards the dark side.
Saturday
Arriving for the following evening's festivities somewhat sluggishly after the previous night's exertions, we found a decent-sized gathering getting down to Michel Cleis' warm-up in a far more purposeful manner than Friday.
Meanwhile, in the freshly opened space at the back of the complex, Mike Huckaby was ricocheting terse techno beats around the room's mirrored surfaces at an unsuitable rate of knots. It could be said that having him open the room was an oversight on behalf of the organizers (the housier end of his range would have gone down a treat personally speaking), although those who did choose to begin their night there were hungrily gobbling up his offering.
After a brief stint back in the main room to hear a neatly groovy and nicely restrained opening 30 minutes from Stacey Pullen, we returned for Huckaby's finish/Villalobos' arrival. It was a scene that could loosely be described as carnage. The long and shallow space was causing a scrum around its centre as a fevered army of Italian teenagers clambered to capture photos and glimpses of the Chilean selector taking to stage. There is of course a fairly solid reason why Ricardo Villalobos is so widely popular: By and large, he completely smashes it. With the crowd feeding off his every hand gesture, eyebrow raise and flick of a fader, he ground out a multifarious selection of undulating house and techno, peaking around the twinned vibes of Mendo's "Everybody I Got Him" and Minimal Man's "Make a Move." lthough hearing it for the second time of the weekend, the airing of "Spastik" at the set's conclusion, could not have been better placed, or further removed, from its previous outing.
With Ricardo now wound up, almost every soul in the building converged on the main space for the climax. Richie Hawtin —who was set for the closing performance—was apparently knocked to his feet by a stampede of fans while trying to make his way to the stage, which should give an indication as to frenetic direction the night was headed. And what to say about his performance? The man understands how to shake a colossal crowd to its core. Sure, the builds were a little predictable, and the tone pretty much unwavering, but the fundamental sound of Hawtin—love it, hate it—is peerless. Having caught him a fair few times in recent years, the only real niggle was the finale of "Yeke Yeke" and "Who's Afraid of Detroit" for the umpteenth time (surely there's an almost bottomless well of end of the night classics to draw upon), but of course the place went absolutely bat shit.
So: Back to vital and nonessential. Unlike the Detroit leg of the Movement festival, the Torino incarnation finds itself in a territory-specific market. The overwhelming demographic is young (typically 18 to 22 year-olds) and Italian, rendering the task of promoting the event to a travelling European festivalgoer an uphill struggle, despite the obvious merits of their booking policy. But in a much broader sense, the event could be considered among the most important in Europe. There are very few places—perhaps besides the likes of Romania—in which a mobile group of youthful, and moreover enthusiastic, clubbers are enjoying the caliber of the above DJs en masse. It would be foolish to suggest that the majority of patrons at the party could be classed as "clued up," but as someone who spent the formative years of their electronic music infatuation being force-fed mainstream drivel, it's clear that festivals such as Movement Torino are fanning the flames of our global scene from the ground up.
Photo credits - Nik Torrens