Time is a helluva subjective entity. I say this only because the slightest variation in weather, and the activity you’ve got planned for your day can throw you off by hours, even days, when it comes to remembering exactly what day it really is. The Exclusive Blue Boat Cruise, a launch party showcasing the underground DJ talents of the Exclusive Blue management agency, was the activity, and the day was a Saturday. However, the combined elements of the gleaming (not to mention shit hot) rays of the sun, a steadily-cruising boat, non-stop music and copious amounts of alcohol somehow convinced my brain that “hmm nah, today’s gotta be a Sunday…yeah, it’s Sunday”. Thus Sunday turned into a Monday and here I am, typing this review on Tuesday morning… No wait, I mean Monday morning.

Anyway… Most people who know me presume that I’m opinionated on pretty much everything and anything, and I’m not easily swayed. Aah, fools. While I may be an individual in the way that I present myself, I am a huge sucker for advertising and marketing. If I’m in love with a particular TV show that I can’t stop watching, and that show features lots of smoking, graphic violence and sex, then I feel the urge to do exactly the same. Hell, I watched Fight Club and took up boxing as a sport, hoping that someone would pick a fight with me so I could lay into em. I even tried to start my own ‘Project Mayhem’, but I can’t talk about it. That’s the first rule of Fight Club. Like I said, easily influenced. So what does any of this have to do with the cruise? WELL, to an easily-duped automaton such as myself, seeing the flyer for this event convinced my poor brain that the boat on which the festivities will be happening on would be like the ones you see in Jay-Z music videos. Big, white, multi-level, complete with rich dudes pouring out one’s expensive bottles of champale for one’s homies.
Yep, I watch WAY too much TV.

To bitch about the over-expectation of the boat itself is pretty pointless. As I said to some of the good people I met on the day, in the end I coulda been on a large double-story dinghy and, as long as there was alcohol, good peoples and music (as was promised), I still would have had a great time. I may have had an issue or two with the dinghy’s buoyancy after a few drinks, but you catch my drift. HA! Drift. I’m such a writer. So getting back on topic, it resembled more of a ferry than a hip -hop mogul’s party cruiser. However, it did the job. The Victoria Star had two levels: the Exclusive Blue stage featuring Danny Bonnici, Chris Meehan, Sean Quinn, PQM and Luke Bowditch, and the Carnival Stage featuring Chardy, Tahl, Sean Rault, Jean-Paul and Matty Bang. People could move from up and downstairs, each level was equipped with a bar and waiters dressed as life-guards serving fruit, cheese and other assorted snackages. Most people congregated on the outside balcony areas though, as the weather was simply too good to be inside.

On that note, while the music itself was good enough for the occasion, the lack of party goers going off to it in the stages/rooms was mostly due to the time of day and the glorious sunshine-filled blue sky. On a day like that, people are hardly going to be concentrating on the music, everyone was getting drunk outside and catching some rays. The monotonous minimal house that was permeating from downstairs from about 4-6pm also didn’t help anyone get on the floor. But thinking about it, the music helped perfectly accentuate the day. It wasn’t a crazy wild boat party, we weren’t going to Cancun or anything. Either the organisers miscalculated the prerogative of the crowd, or they are mad marketing geniuses. The genius being played out on a subconscious level, that is. From what I can remember, I spent the last half of the 4-hour cruise around Docklands sitting on the outside bench with my girl, listening to one minimal track bleed into the next, and just completely zoning out under the sun. The purpose of the music at that point wasn’t to get asses shaking, even though I did see a random person or two dancing around on their lonesome from time to time. I’m thinking the purpose of the DJs this time was to act as really good background music, but still have an effect on you on a subconscious level. The cruise is all about the talent after all, and talented they were. Personally I preferred the first couple of hours of music as I heard a bit more of the deep house. The rest seemed like more minimal and tech territory, which I also love, but nothing beats deep house for me. I felt like if I were DJing on the boat that day, I woulda just stuck with the Naked Music catalogue. Their shit is built for this kind of thing.

While I am no closer to finding out more about the management company and the DJs themselves, the experience was a really chilled-out one. A sunny boat-cruise with loud music pumpin’ and a bunch of beautiful people wearin’ bright clothing is a great way to spend your non-Sunday Sunday. From the crowd turn-out, I’d hazard a guess and say the day was a success (that rhymed… man I got talents, y’all don’t even know). And why wouldn’t it be? The flyer could’ve read “GET DRUNK ON A BOAT AND LISTEN TO MUSIC” and I still woulda been the first in line. The cruise itself made me appreciate even more the city we live in. I thought it looked gorgeous at night, but on a clear blue sunny day? It looks heavenly.