- It's taken them a week to recover and their doctor's say we're never going to dance again - can't you see they're got no rhythm. But here it is. The review of Cass and Hernan Cattaneo's extraordinary 12-hour back-to-back set at Tokyo's Spacelab Yellow last weekend. RA's team in Tokyo, Don&Tami give their account of what they remember from this 'pantheon of nights'.
Rodgers & Hammerstein. Sonny & Cher. Kylie & Jason. Cass & Hernan.
Tonight Cass and Hernan Cattaneo joined the esteemed ranks of legendary musical duos as the pair delivered a marathon 14-hour set - twelve of them back-to-back- in a night of epic proportions that would easily surpass any 'Be Yourself' indulgence by DT.
Tokyo's Spacelab Yellow - which had Sasha dropping in last year for an impromptu after-hours set - has always had an underground, anything-could-happen feel surrounding it - think a Digweed 8-hour stint, a 10-hour serve of Deep Dish and repeated start-to-finish performances from Francois K and Derrick May. Tonight, those sets paled in comparison as Cass and Hernan layed down a magical, mythical, marvellous journey capturing every essence of the word 'underground'; forever leaving their mark on the bassbins at Yellow.
Inspired by Hernan and Cass' 10-hour back-to-back outing in Buenos Aires on New Year's Eve in 2001, promoter Far East Underground dared to go one better, promising a 12-hour start-to-finish set by the duo. Arriving to an already-busy club, we hit the mainfloor just as the back-to-back phase of the night began; Cass having provided the warm-up.
For the majority of the crowd, tonight was the finale in a 3-day weekend bender - Sander K and Layo & Bushwacka! on the agenda the previous two nights. Still, everyone knew this was THE party and while the DJs had to pace themselves, the crowd seemed intent on going hard, early on. Even in the first hour, tune-after-tune was greeted with cheers including Cass' latest collaboration with Luke Chable, the mouth-gaping 'Opiate'.
In the third hour, the rammed dancefloor erupted as Cass (unable to help himself and in hindsight, who could blame him?), dropped the mammoth Infusion vs Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill', which he helped to arrange with Jamie Stevens. It's quite possible that a Japanese crowd have never seen a DJ go so sick as they watched him shaking his head back-and-forth, head-butting the air so intently a portal to a parallel universe might have opened up right there and then. It was indeed a spine-tingling, arm-hair raising, goosebump-inducing five minutes all instigated by THAT key change. Utterly, utterly mad stuff. And that was just the first time it was played...
Indeed the night was a very antipodean affair, littered with a bunch of new remixes and tracks from Infusion, Andy Page, Luke Chable and Vance Musgrove. Plus Martin Garcia's breaks interpretation of Cass, Hernan and Tom Mangan's collaboration, 'Hubbub' and some more housey and techno numbers from Hernan's crate including Sander K's newie - the diva-ridden 'Work To Do' and Agoria's 'La 11eme Marche'.
The pair worked really well together; the unmissable stature of Cass bopping away alongside the quietly-busy, concentrating Hernan. The crowd enjoyed the two as they worked off each other both musically and as mates - Cass steering the good ship into breaky waters, Hernan keeping the 4/4s coming; Cass dictating the overall programming, Hernan holding it all together and teasing the crowd with aptly-timed bursts of energy.
Having notched up four visits since first playing in Tokyo a year and a half ago, Hernan has acquired a massive following amongst Japanese punters; his ability to rip up the dancefloor and drop a killer tune at the perfect time be-lying his gentle, easygoing character. Having rammed Tokyo's biggest and best clubs on every occasion
once again he didn't disappoint.
As Hernan began tucking into the strawberries, it was heads-down action for the hardcore contingent of the crowd. Having survived the temptation of the trains and chosen to ignore the gradual, creeping numbness in their toes, there was no time to ponder lost Sunday plans. And as hour after hour after hour passed in a string of wicked tunes, we stayed glued to the dancefloor enjoying the twists and turns of the night.
Pleasure turned to pain and the glances at our watches became more frequent but Hernan and Cass just kept laying down the tunes - a hundred or so of us still shuffling away on the dancefloor; in two minds as to whether we wanted it to end or continue but not before Aria's 'One' - undoubtedly one of Fire Recording's finest releases before its sad demise - and an encouraging grin from Hernan, gave us our second wind.
The end finally seemed within reach when Cass dropped a deadly breaks track before bounding out onto the dancefloor to bust a few moves. But then, as the lights came on, Yellow's newest punter was spotted on the dancefloor yelling "One more! One more!". Hernan responded with a rockstar-esque male vocal track, singing along to himself in the booth while Cass continued to make new friends on the dancefloor. A brief silence then followed before Cass rushed back to the booth to cue up the final track - Underworld's 'Dark and Long' - reminding us of the not-so-dark train journey home awaiting us.
Momentary spasms were induced when Hernan came out on the floor to thank the punters, adding, "I could keep playing for another 14 hours but I don't know if you guys could keep dancing." But no, the night was over and as we limped out of Yellow and down Roppongi Dori we knew that tonight we had experienced something really, really special.
Special thanks to Koji, Yuko Ichikawa and Washi at Yellow.