What We're About
The WMC '07 Miami Guide gives an insider's peek at this year's Winter Music Conference, serving up daily event previews, DJ profiles, insider reports, and audio/video clips.
WMC Day 3: escaping the heat
Remember that old Siouxsie & the Banshees song, "92 Degrees"? It posits that "more murders are committed at 92 degrees than any other temperature. At lower temperatures people are easygoing; over 92 it's too hot to move. Just 92 — people get irritable!" Fortunately it hasn't been anywhere near that hot down here this year, but even so, the endless lines, drunken spring breakers stumbling along Collins, tire-squealing sports-car drivers, and exorbitant drink prices (isn't charging $8 for a bottle of water in violation of the Geneva Conventions?) are enough to make the most seasoned festival-goer a little cranky. What was rumored by passersby on Collins Ave to be the aftermath of a shooting yesterday — police cordoning off the street and laying down yellow numbered placards, presumably where the shell casings fell — only underscored that beneath Miami's cool blue facade, tensions often glow red. Sometimes, you just need to get away from the madding crowd. Ann Arbor's Spectral Sound label — the techno imprint of Ghostly International — provided the perfect escape…
The Spectral Social, a private party held in the courtyard of the Clinton Hotel, was exactly what Friday evening called for: a cool refuge dotted with plants and soaking pools, cheap (and stiff!) drinks, and high-definition minimal house and techno with just enough oomph to recharge your batteries. Sweden's Pär Grindvik was playing when we arrived; apparently he's a protégé of Adam Beyer, though you wouldn't necessarily have known it from the suppleness and electric warmth infusing his tracks. Audion, aka Matthew Dear, played a more restrained set than at his Immigrant Party appearance, before ceding the headphones to Spectral's secret weapon, Ryan Elliott. The only place Dear didn't show restraint was with his new remix for Black Strobe. He not only led off his set with the tune — a crazy upward spiral of rosy synths and rock 'n roll moaning — but he also jumped into the middle of Elliott's set to play it a second time. No one was complaining; we hadn't gotten enough of it when Richie Hawtin had dropped it prominently at the Beatport Poolside Sessions hours before. Third time was a charm, convincing us that this Carl Craig-inspired slow burner is bound to be one of the summer's biggest cuts. Batteries recharged, it was off to join in the mayhem at the FIXED party — but that'll have to wait for another installment.
Oh, and an addendum to our previous post: we found yet a third way of keeping clean during WMC, beyond wet naps and spa treatments: those torrential spring showers! Bring a travel-sized bottle of shampoo in your day bag, and you'll never even need to go home to wash up.
March 24, 2007, 07:14 PM
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