Transatlantic 3 with Derrick Carter & Chez Damier @ The Palace
Date: 7th of June 1998
The Score:: Tech-house. That's what Chicago's Derrick Carter is supposed to play. And not just tech-house - but also sparkly disco, raw funk, and deep, jacking grooves capable of making one writhe in a rather silly fashion across the dancefloor. Listening to his various mix CDs, this is rather evident, but the question was: could DJ Derrick Carter translate this talent successfully to a Melbourne dancefloor- Would the "techno techno techno" mentality of the Hardware crowds be up for a night of pure, unadulterated house music-
Judging from a jam-packed Palace and the hordes of poor codgers waiting outside in sub-zero temperatures for "any ticket, just one ticket!" (and all night, mind you) Melbourne's party crowd seemed to be itching for a taste of house in no way ever before experienced. Chez Damier graced the central DJ booth at 1am with a set of raw, sexy, saxophone-laden samba house which had the Palace heaving with arse-wiggling clubbers. Absolutely no space to swing a cat - the intelligent ran to the stage where there was more room and fresher air to breathe. Will E Tell took over at 3am, opening with Danny Tenaglia's "Elements" and then launching into a full-on banging set that was a bit too harsh on this girl's ears. I also thought it strange that the organisers thought to insert this kind of hard dark set between two classy disco ones. Anyway, by the way punters were jumping up and down and screaming "Will E!" " Will E" and generally displaying acts that would grant them general admission into the nearest mental hospital, most people at the Palace might not agree with me. After Mr Tell's aural onslaught, Chicago house-master Derrick Carter came on, and then the fun began. On the menu: jazzy house, cosmic disco, the works. Now there was really no room to swing an ant - the Palace became a heaving, hedonistic furnace. Using 3 decks, Carter mixes for four minutes longer than your average DJ - I was quite impressed by that - and also by the fact he mixed two of my favourite tracks together, the wiggly French house of I:Cube's "Disco Cubism" and "The Word is Love" by Voices of Life. Brilliant. After 2 hours of Carteresque mayhem, Richie Rich took the decks with a set consisting of quite a few old ones, Orbital's "Halcyon & On & On," and Phuture's "We are Phuture" being examples. Something for everyone baby.
And the Palace complex remained absolutely crowded until everyone got chucked out at 8am.
Tags