Ever been to a club and come home disappointed? Ever though the sound was shit, the beer was warm and the crowd was full of dickheads? Well for anyone who has ever had a bad clubbing experience, we now have the cure! Take a seat, roll up your sleeve and prepare to take a shot of pure, unadulterated dance music magic – now dry your tears, suck on this lollypop and send your brother in ‘cos Diplo’s got enough for everyone son!
You don’t need much to lay the foundations of a kick ass club. It’s a simple equation really: music + lights x people ÷ drinks = good. So how can so many people get it wrong? If I was to round up a quick lecture on the subject then the people at The Prince would certainly be welcome to contribute as guest speakers. They seem to get it right although it’s a bit touch and go at the start of the night. Long queue to get in – bad. Hot girl with a clipboard – good. Long queue for the cloakroom – bad. Bar with 360° access – good. Another queue every time you want a smoke – bad, bad, bad. Cool smoking balcony – good! It’s a bit like bipolar disorder for clubbers, but after getting over this initial emotional rollercoaster, things pick up like a pint full of Prozac.
Boy 8-Bit is official guest support for the night and he’s ripping it to pieces from behind the decks with a solid selection of electro beeps and bleeps capped over the top of some chunky bassline badness. He may be know for his 8-bit samples, but the boy certainly gets maximum effect from his minimal tools and the kids are loving it long time. As the night goes on the tension rises, and up steps the man with his crate of surprises. Anyone who’s heard a Diplo mix will know that if variety is the spice of life, then this man’s a fucking vindaloo! Sure, he’s known for bass-shakin’ bailefunk, Latin rhythms, Baltimore and Miami bass, but Diplo drops tunes like Tetris, playing different genres from different generations and slotting them together as if they were separated at birth.
Genre-defying DJs are a rare breed. How many times have you read an interview with a DJ who says something along the lines of, “I don’t like to be pigeon holed, I play anything.” No you don’t, you play house. “Yeah, but sometimes I’ll play techy driving house and then I’ll mix it up with some driving tech house!” Pah! Tom Middleton, The Scratch Perverts, Optimo and…Diplo. These people play everything and they play it well. You only wish is that your chin stroking tunespotting skills were up to the match. On the night it was old meets new, new meets newer and not surprisingly, Diplo’s own productions made up a considerable part of his set – the man is fresher than tomorrow’s papers. Anyone with a complete play list should send it this way but on the night we got some given some Switch, a bit of Hot Chip got served up and Wiley’s Rolex got a flash.
He showed his cheeky side and saluted the locals with Thunderstruck by AC/DC and Land Down Under by Men at Work, and at some stage he dropped the tempo down with some heavy tracks from dubstep’s dark knight Skream. The London vibes got blasted with Sinden’s basslines and a bit of speed garage for good measure. Dead Prez’s Hip Hop was a highlight and Beanie Man’s Who Am I? got the dancehall shaking. We also got Deception by Le Tigre, Electric Feel by MGMT, some indescribably wicked remix of The Ramones, Ruff Riders and Watcha Want by the Beastie Boys.
If I could go on I would because it all deserves a mention, but you have to stop somewhere and at some stage the lights got flicked and the party moved elsewhere. Diplo: he came, he saw, he conquered.
Spura says...
Recording of the first half of Diplos set. http://opulentmagazine.com/newsletters/10_10_08/diplo-part1-opulentmagazine.mp3