Rating: NNNNN
Clean Machine
Jason Ulrich’s latest party, Clean.Break, last Saturday at the Mockingbird, may not have been as well attended as he probably hoped, but judging by the reactions of those who came, he may be able to fill the space sooner then he thinks.
In many ways, his style is similar to that of Toronto’s better-known Jason Palma, mainly due to his knack for seamlessly juxtaposing classic and contemporary dance music.
Very soulful selections, but not too mellow or loungey. If you’re looking for inexpensive deep house parties, keep a look out for Clean’s innovative zip-lock bag flyers.
up a downer
Annual soulful house block party the Up Festival has been one of the highlights of the past three summers. This year’s highly anticipated event was drastically under-promoted, leading to an under-attended letdown of a night last Saturday. It’s hard to say what went wrong — the weather was nice, the DJs were good, the sound system was pumping — but no one was there.
It might have been the lack of big-name headliners this year, but considering that your faithful reporter didn’t see one flyer leading up to the event, it’s more probable that not enough people knew it was happening.
Unlike other years, there were no club events tied in with the festival, nor was there much involvement by other local promoters. Let’s hope they learn from their mistakes.
saturday sag
Saturday was a rough day for party attendance pretty much everywhere. The Electric Workers’ presentation of DJ Godfather at Zen Lounge was pretty sparsely attended despite the quality electro being showcased.
This was also the release party for EW resident Cryogenetic, a rising talent in Toronto’s electro scene who’s poised to blow up soon. He’s a talented mixer, but it’s his mixture of live performance and DJing that’s been getting attention. Funky but dark, his sound is fairly accessible, even outside the electro scene — expect Kenny Glasgow to be playing the fuck out of his upcoming releases soon.
Although the promoters assumed that the low attendance was the result of the DJ Rolando gig the same night, the crowd at Turbo wasn’t much better for the Detroit techno legend.
What happened? Is the entire T.O. techno scene still recovering from last week’s Detroit Electronic Music Festival?
carter catches on
Friday night’s going-away party for local house promoter James Lafazanos (of Phox Productions) at the IV Lounge proved to be a very fun little get-together. He’d wisely cleared the tables and chairs out of the front room to make room for a dance floor. DJ Douglas Carter rocked the decks for the earlier part of the evening, laying down an upbeat mix of classic and contemporary house. As James put it, “He’s one of the most underrated house DJs in Toronto.”
