- In the 1950s and '60s, Greenwich Village was Manhattan's countercultural haven, providing a collective meeting point for the Beats, hippies and other offbeat intellectuals. This part of town includes Bleecker Street which, nowadays, boasts a smattering of touristy bars frequented by frat boys and boisterous visitors from New Jersey and Long Island. It's the type of street that, on a typical Friday or Saturday night, is strewn with a sad trail of vomit, cigarette butts, and abandoned high heels. So when (Le) Poisson Rouge opened its doors smack in the middle of its busiest block during the summer of 2008, local music lovers found welcome respite from the drunken throngs in a venue with one of the most forward-thinking, eclectic booking policies in the whole city.
Just recently, for example, it played host to a record release party, celebrating Londoner Jamie xx's Gil Scott-Heron remix album, We're New Here. A mostly college-aged crowd had filled the venue by 10:30, as local producers/DJs Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard, AKA Creep, took to the stage. Their set was quite different from their productions, which sway to the darker, witch housier side of things. Eschewing this sound, they opted for a selection of highly danceable tunes including Crime Mob's "Rock Yo Hips," Nguzunguzu's remix of Ciara's "Deuces" and Light Asylum's "Dark Allies."
Up next was Sepalcure, the duo of Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) and Praveen Sharma. They began with some '90s house with acid's trademark squelchy synth sounds placed atop, and generally showed they've got a more diverse sonic aesthetic than that which appears on their focused releases. "You're in New York!," Sharma shouted over the mic, displaying severe enthusiasm from behind the decks. Before the crowd had the chance to get excited, the guys started jumping up and down like they were performing on the main stage at Glastonbury. While this felt unwarranted, people did eventually and rightfully join in with their glee, heavily grooving along to George Fitzgerald's remix of Groove Theory's "Tell Me." One girl, near the front by the booth, even did a Riverdance-like jig (Lord of the Dancefloor?).
Finally, Jamie xx came on, wearing a knowing-yet-chill smile. He seemed totally in his element, calmly scratching over some Gil Scott-Heron vocals and easing into the first track on the LP, "I'm New Here" (which also features sped up samples from Gloria Gaynor's "Casanova Brown"). Starting out with deep, dub-influenced sounds, Jamie xx's set soon coalesced to include more festive tunes like "Basement Party" by The Cool Kids, Sepalcure's "Love Pressure" and his own minimalistic, bass-heavy remix of The xx's "Islands." Cueing up records, the 21 year-old phenom of a DJ/producer looked like he could be your little cousin. However, he played a nuanced, all-vinyl set, amply proving to a New York audience that he is wise beyond his years.