Quentin Harris & Danny Tenaglia at Cielo 5/21/06
I am pasting this review of Quentin Harris and Danny Tenaglia at Cielo for Benny Soto's birthday at the "Fresh Fruit" party. It was written by my friend Julian aka DJ 138. The review conveys his excitement over the DRAMA both DJs brought in their sets. Why DRAMA? Drama in a DJ set is tension, story, up & down, left & right, movement, suspense, release. Drama is that quality that keeps you engaged in a DJ set, keeps you waiting for the next track, the next peak, the next drop. It is mastery over technique and narrative. Drama is a special and rare quality for DJs to have. You know it when you hear it. Thanks for the review, Julian.
=
great, GREAT fucking party.
Standard packed Cielo crowd. Lotsa hot women. Smattering of heads. Great vibe in the room.
They had an outlandish 12-tier bright orange layer cake in the shape of an aztec pyramid covered in fresh fruit behind a velevet rope next to the DJ booth for Benny's birthday.
Quentin played really well. Mad energy, as always, and he's really steppped up his DRAMA skills - A dying art among DJs, if there ever was one. He tore the roof off with "Haunted", causing wild screams and raucous demands to BRING THAT SHIT BACK, which suprisingly enough, he promptly did, bringing the floor to a frenzy yet again.
He turned it over to Danny Tenaglia at about 12:30, with a packed house teeming with anticipation. There was most definitely a "history in the making" vibe in the air. In typical Danny fashion, he immediately killed the music, picked up the mic, and spoke very candidly about his love for Quentin and how he was all nervous having to represent amongst the likes of Quentin, Danny Krivit, Joe Clausell, Louie Vega, Kenny Dope, Frankie Feliciano and all the other DJs that had shown up to see one of their original soldiers go back to his roots. and then he TORE THE PLACE TO SHREDS. Countless classics. Back to back. As good as only the handful of true masters like Danny or Louie can do it. Flawless mixing. Tons of dramatic pauses, anthemic build ups, piano breakdowns, and acapella intros. He didn't miss a step. The crowd was thrilled. highlights for me were "Comin' On Strong" (NOBODY plays this record anymore!), "Never No More Lonely", a nice remix of "Bra", and some ridiculous old track that looped the NYC Peech Boys acapella endlessly (ID? Anyone?). So much fun. Towards the end he did some truly bugged out shit with the "Follow Me" instrumental and the "Finally" acapella, where he somehow dropped the vocals by an octave or two, to where it sounded like a man was singing. Not sure if he was doing this live on a laptop or what but it was fucking nuts. Just when the crowd was fucking losing their minds he brought in a hip hop break and stretched the vocals out over that all chopped up at 90 bpm. People went ballistic. All I can say is, you missed a great fucking party. Props to Benny and Quentin for making it happen.
=
For the full thread, which includes some interesting comments on DJ sets with drama and "deep house" vs. "big room" splits in the late 1990s NYC house scene, click here.
I am pasting this review of Quentin Harris and Danny Tenaglia at Cielo for Benny Soto's birthday at the "Fresh Fruit" party. It was written by my friend Julian aka DJ 138. The review conveys his excitement over the DRAMA both DJs brought in their sets. Why DRAMA? Drama in a DJ set is tension, story, up & down, left & right, movement, suspense, release. Drama is that quality that keeps you engaged in a DJ set, keeps you waiting for the next track, the next peak, the next drop. It is mastery over technique and narrative. Drama is a special and rare quality for DJs to have. You know it when you hear it. Thanks for the review, Julian.
=
great, GREAT fucking party.
Standard packed Cielo crowd. Lotsa hot women. Smattering of heads. Great vibe in the room.
They had an outlandish 12-tier bright orange layer cake in the shape of an aztec pyramid covered in fresh fruit behind a velevet rope next to the DJ booth for Benny's birthday.
Quentin played really well. Mad energy, as always, and he's really steppped up his DRAMA skills - A dying art among DJs, if there ever was one. He tore the roof off with "Haunted", causing wild screams and raucous demands to BRING THAT SHIT BACK, which suprisingly enough, he promptly did, bringing the floor to a frenzy yet again.
He turned it over to Danny Tenaglia at about 12:30, with a packed house teeming with anticipation. There was most definitely a "history in the making" vibe in the air. In typical Danny fashion, he immediately killed the music, picked up the mic, and spoke very candidly about his love for Quentin and how he was all nervous having to represent amongst the likes of Quentin, Danny Krivit, Joe Clausell, Louie Vega, Kenny Dope, Frankie Feliciano and all the other DJs that had shown up to see one of their original soldiers go back to his roots. and then he TORE THE PLACE TO SHREDS. Countless classics. Back to back. As good as only the handful of true masters like Danny or Louie can do it. Flawless mixing. Tons of dramatic pauses, anthemic build ups, piano breakdowns, and acapella intros. He didn't miss a step. The crowd was thrilled. highlights for me were "Comin' On Strong" (NOBODY plays this record anymore!), "Never No More Lonely", a nice remix of "Bra", and some ridiculous old track that looped the NYC Peech Boys acapella endlessly (ID? Anyone?). So much fun. Towards the end he did some truly bugged out shit with the "Follow Me" instrumental and the "Finally" acapella, where he somehow dropped the vocals by an octave or two, to where it sounded like a man was singing. Not sure if he was doing this live on a laptop or what but it was fucking nuts. Just when the crowd was fucking losing their minds he brought in a hip hop break and stretched the vocals out over that all chopped up at 90 bpm. People went ballistic. All I can say is, you missed a great fucking party. Props to Benny and Quentin for making it happen.
=
For the full thread, which includes some interesting comments on DJ sets with drama and "deep house" vs. "big room" splits in the late 1990s NYC house scene, click here.
posted by Lola | 9:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home