Odessa opened the 10 days off with a perfectly mastered set at the Vooruit, Ghent.
Difficult position, as the White room was quite empty for the first song, but gradually it filled up to a good space of dancing and listening.
They played at good volume, one which allows the ear to tune in, with Frédérique’s voice floating lightly above the surface.
Towards the end, May turned up the sound, the voice was more “inside” the music, and it was really pumping.
After the set, we spent the evening together, enjoying the gigs ans sets, and drink tickets!
In the Ball room, we danced to Paul Kalkbrenner, an old time favourite from BPitch record label.
He played an amazing “metropolis” set, mixing his tracks, unfortunatly we couldn’t work out what source he was using as the podium, covered with advertising, was up in the gods, allowing no vision at all of the machines or hand work, quite frustrating.
His set was full of samples overlayed and woven in and out of his well know tracks, that had re-manipulated or was manipulating live…he also kept inserting breaks, everywhere, which seemed to drive the ravers crazy.
It was a really fun set, quite joky in a way, and very rave…and he seemed to be really enjoying it.
Next Ada played the White room, she started her set in a mess, with technical problems, which didn’t seem to take over her, she just calmly adjusted her machines, spoke to the technician and sorted the problem out.
Then she began, with cool beats, manipulating what looked like a drum machine, a sequencer/ sampler, a mixer and maybe a Cd.
As she turned the knobs she drew her ear towards the machines, as if she could hear them speak. Progressively her set became more trancy, with layers of soundscapes and a bit of voice, bringing the listener in on her sound, never imposing it.
Really clever, and very romantic.
The only downfall, was the lighting, the technician obviously didn’t get the sense of the music and did a clumsy job, which was rather ashame. Too much light, too many colours.
We finished the night with a super Dj set by Konrad Black, on Wagon repair records.