Anyone going to the Movement Festival this Memorial Day?

[Islandman]

Richie is off to the fashion world now. Maybe if he sells enough clothes, he'll start playing semidecent music again. Doubt it.

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=10547

[vintagesoul]

Vintagesoul - Dieselboy is going to be at CPOP Gallery, I think the first night of the festival. Along with Tech Itch. I'll probably try to stop by there as well.

Yeah. Tech Itch. My husband is the hugest fan....lol. I like him too, but I like Dieselboy better. I am more a fan of the minimal stuff, but I have to admit I like a little happy hardcore. It's my guilty pleasure.

Oh and house. Sweet delicious house. In the truest sense - not the gimmicky clubby ish. Especially funky house. Yeeeaaaaaahhhhhh....

Well mclark I'm sportin a head of dark brown dreads and a star tat on my right arm. You can't miss me. lol.

[mclark]

Cool, I'll keep an eye out.
Anyone have a "favorite performance" kind of moment from festivals past?

Mine was probably Scan 7 at the first fest, or Autechre in 04 or 05 or somewhere around there.

[spaceman_spiff]

I'll be there, buying a weekend pass tomorow. The discount sales end the 15th I think. Trying to stretch the money out.
FWIW, I think the festival is a positive event for the city. I have friends [[expats) coming in from Chicago, New York, California, Arizona and the upper penninsula for the weekend. They rent hotel rooms, eat in detroit restaurants, and speak well of the experience for weeks after.
I never plan where I'm going to be, just kind of wander through, and I always seem to have a grreat time. I don't know enough about the scene to pick artists in advance anyway. The trick for me is pace, I always get drawn to afterparties, and run late to the festival the next day.

[BasementBeat]

Yeah, I've yet to have checked out an afterparty there [[Yes I'm aware something must be wrong with me..)...hopefully I'll be able to check one out this year.

[Danny]

I'm going to tech fest and get crunk!

[mclark]

Yeah, I've yet to have checked out an afterparty there [[Yes I'm aware something must be wrong with me..)...hopefully I'll be able to check one out this year.

My problem is that even though there are generally some great looking after parties, after 8+ hours of the festival I just want to go lie down in silence for a while.

[kraig]

There is some pricing information at the end of this article. I think this year is going to be off the hook.








May 17, 2009

Building the perfect beats

After 27 years, 'Planet Rock' remains an enduring theme in the genres it helped launch: hip-hop and electronic music

BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER You won't hear a lot of Afrika Bambaataa on the airwaves these days. It's been years since the last hot single by the New York musician, who has settled into a steady career of globetrotting DJ gigs.
But when you turn on a radio in 2009, you'd better believe you're hearing "Planet Rock."
Here's the thing about Bambaataa's biggest hit: It wasn't even really a hit -- not in traditional terms, anyway, having failed to crack Billboard's Top 40 when it was released in 1982.
But the distinctive, infectious party track has endured as far more than a piece of music. It was a cultural statement, a game-changing work that stands as the cornerstone of both hip-hop and electronic music such as techno -- the rare song that can lay claim to multiple genres. And its influence continues to resonate through popular culture, shaping both the sounds we hear and the mindset behind them.
"Planet Rock" will be in the set on Memorial Day when Bambaataa, 52, makes his first-ever appearance at Movement, the electronic music festival that's notching its 10th year on the Detroit riverfront. For veteran fest-goers, it will be a familiar experience. Perhaps no groove has drifted across Hart Plaza more often than the eerie, sci-fi funk of "Planet Rock," a staple in the arsenal of DJs.
"I've been amazed at so many different versions, how they've stripped it down to the bone to be played in so many other thousands of records," says Bambaataa. "There are the remixes, and the re-remixes, and the re-re-re-remixes."
What Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was to rock, what Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" was to the blues, so "Planet Rock" is to modern popular music: the song that served up the essentials, pointing the way forward and providing a well of inspiration to generations of musicians.
The track, produced by Arthur Baker and performed by Bambaataa and his Soulsonic Force, had timeless elements. The haunting Kraftwerk melody. The elementary but elegant beat. The synthesized orchestra blasts. The robotic rap chant: "Rock, rock, planet rock -- don't stop."
"For almost 30 years, every producer has tried to touch that record at some point -- sampling it, re-creating it, looking for ideas from it," says Marc Kinchen, a Los Angeles producer. "It's a song that doesn't go out of style."
Kinchen was an 8-year-old Detroiter when he first heard "Planet Rock." He was struck.
"It was one of the first songs I paid attention to sonically. I noted all those different sounds, and always wondered what they were," he says. "I was just intrigued by everything in there, from the drums to the keyboard, even the effect on his voice. It took me a long time to figure it all out."
One quirky sound especially puzzled Kinchen, who went on to work with artists such as the Pet Shop Boys and Will Smith. He eventually got it: It was a cowbell as simulated by the Roland TR-808 drum machine -- the device that "Planet Rock" established as rap's go-to instrument.
Bambaataa and Baker have long hailed "Planet Rock" as the first hip-hop record to feature an 808, which amounts to launching the electric guitar. So far, nobody has challenged the claim.
Rap had thrived for years on the New York streets when Bambaataa and Baker burrowed in a studio to craft what became their magnum opus, nicking the melody and beat from records by the progressive German group Kraftwerk.
Others had already been toying with a link between organic black music and the electronic cutting edge. Parliament's "Flash Light" had rocked clubs four years earlier, and groups such as Zapp & Roger were doing it on the R&B side. Bambaataa, a former gang member turned rap spiritualist, was keyed in to European synth acts such as Gary Numan.
But it was the machine music of Kraftwerk that most fascinated him. The geeky German act definitely had the funk, he says.
"It was how they made the drum patterns, how they made the sounds: 'pow, ch-ch ... pow, ch-ch,' " he says. "It was the ultimate funk. It used to just kill at the early hip-hop parties."
Add Kraftwerk to James Brown and the New York rap vibe, and you got "Planet Rock."
"I was trying to make a song that played to the hip-hop and the punk rock audiences. That's the stage I was at in my life. So I crashed the two together," he recalls. "We didn't know it was gonna take off and reach the rest of the world."
'It's about making people dance'
There's a retro futurism to "Planet Rock," a glimpse of what tomorrow was supposed to sound like in 1982. But for all the sci-fi trappings, there was a street-level grit to the track. Years before authenticity became a hip-hop mantra, Bambaataa's single nailed the trick of keeping it real while sounding unreal.
When Marvin Jabiro set out to name his new record store a decade ago, he sought something upbeat, catchy, consummately hip-hop. And so was christened Planet Rock Music.
The Detroit store's namesake song gets plenty of airtime at the Springwell Street locale, where Jabiro says it still perks up the ears of shoppers. They also hear bits of "Planet Rock" in other songs, popping up in work by everyone from Common to Nelly to Three 6 Mafia.
"It's the beat -- you can't get it out of your head," he says.
But the song's true impact wasn't just its familiar four-bar motif. It was the very idea.
A teenager in 2009 has grown up in a world imprinted with the "Planet Rock" approach. He takes it for granted; it's the cultural air he's breathed since birth. Mixing and matching musical bits, repurposing obscure sounds, creating new context for old concepts -- they're the basics of a sampled, remixed, YouTubed life.
But in 1982, it was revolutionary stuff.
" 'Planet Rock' was the epitome of what hip-hop could do," says DJ Z-Trip, who will play Movement. "Take anything, run it through a prism, flip it and make it bigger than it could have been. That's what we have today. It's all an extension of that one thing."
Bambaataa's song had a particular resonance in post-Motown Detroit, where a clique of young black artists was hunting for a new sound.
"That song started Detroit techno," says Kinchen. "It sparked it 100%."
Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson took the "Planet Rock" model, dropped the rap, played up the Kraftwerk and launched the sound that would change dance music.
"Once the electronic stuff got put into the mix -- once people realized you could put blips in the mix -- they realized you don't need a studio band to create music," says Z-Trip. "That's what pushed the boundaries. Producers like Juan Atkins realized this was something different."
For his part, Bambaataa is pleasantly low-key about his role in transforming music, content that he never became a celebrity like many of the artists who followed him.
"Really, it's about making people dance," he says.
Others are happy to provide the applause.
"He ran it to a whole new level," says Kinchen. "He gets everybody's ultimate respect. There are certain people who are untouchable. And he's one of them."
Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM: 313-223-4450 or
mccollum@freepress.com
Additional Facts Movement With Afrika Bambaataa, Bassnectar, Carl Cox, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson, Mike Huckaby, Bad Boy Bill, RJD2, Guy Gerber
and many more
Sat.-Mon.
Hart Plaza, downtown Detroit
Advance: $50 weekend
At the gate: $30 day, $60 weekend, $150 VIP
www.myspace.com/detroitmusicfest www.paxahau.com

[Alley]

I'm going, I've gone to all of them. I had the most fun the first couple years, every year I seem to have less fun to the point that, this year, I'm kind of like "whatever," but I feel a strange obligation. I just can't stand dodging all those 16 year old pre-strippers and homies who don't give a crap about the music, rolling out everywhere while sucking on pacifiers.

[kraig]

What goes around, comes around. I think every poster on this forum can recall older people having issues with us when we were 16. That's part of what made being 16 so much fun. Don't worry, with the right guidance the majority of them will grow out of it. And look at the bright side, at least we know they have some good taste in music.

[mclark]

The amount of e-tards has been vastly reduced from the free years though... Not entirely of course, but they stand out more when there are 25,000 people present instead of 60,000 or whatever. I also have less fun than I used to, but I attribute that to a) getting older; and b) I just don't have as much love for electronic music as I had then... That said, I am still really looking forward to this year. And finally getting to see Flying Lotus live.

[Alley]

Speaking of e-tards...i was horifiedly amused to see a gaggle of them, glow-toyed up and doing head massages, at THE HOEDOWN when I went to see Willie Nelson on Friday. Ecstasy at the Hoedown??? Really??? I think that would be a total nightmare

[mclark]

Hah! Wow, that is just.... I don't even know. Absurd.

[spaceman_spiff]

We could try a meetup at the forum picnic on Sunday, early afternoon, then arrange a carpool/stroll down to the festival mid afternoon. meet some forumers, have a solid lunch [[and affordable brews) prior to the all night marathon that is Sunday at the DEMF. Not too sure how my schedule will work out, but its an idea.

[Russix]

Check out the "I'm On A Boat!" afterparty. http://www.residentadvisor.net/image...99167-back.jpg

[bigtreble]

$51 for weekend bracelets this year. They should really consider a fan-appreciation day discount for michigan residents.

You can see the same the dj's afterhours for free/$5/$10...
http://dtalesdtown.blogspot.com/2009...ties-omfg.html

[BasementBeat]

Yeah its up there in price.
I mostly want to go Monday...but can't stay the entire day since we are hosting people. *sigh*

I agree with bigtreble...they should consider a discount for state residents...hell even just Detroit residents.

[wazootyman]

$51 for weekend bracelets this year. They should really consider a fan-appreciation day discount for michigan residents.

You can see the same the dj's afterhours for free/$5/$10...
http://dtalesdtown.blogspot.com/2009...ties-omfg.html

The weekend wrist-bands were $40 if you bought them more than a week in advance [[like myself and all of my friends). That's $40 for essentially 36 hours of performances - not bad at all if you ask me.

Carl Cox's 3 hour set last night absolutely destroyed. Huge crowd, great energy, and I'm really pretty sore from dancing like a fool all night.

[GOAT]

Any reason as to why the damn bass has to be so loud? I mean a person can only take the same beat thumping in their heads for hours on end for so long. I can hear it over 3 miles away! Why not turn the speakers toward Detroit? Why to a foreign country with condos on the water?

[Alley]

I got a Facebook bulletin from Paxahau saying that Carl Craig will be the Creative Director for Movement 2010.


"CARL CRAIG NAMED CREATIVE DIRECTOR FOR MOVEMENT 2010

DETROIT, May 22, 2009—Techno Music legend Carl Craig has been named Creative Director for Movement 2010. Paxahau made the announcement today as they prepare for the start of Movement 2009 which is set to begin on Saturday, May 23 at noon.

“Movement is already a great festival and a successful brand,” said Craig, “it is an honor to be involved with Movement in this new capacity. I look forward to working with the team from Paxahau to take the artistic vision for the festival to a new level.”

In his new role Craig will be involved in various creative aspects of Movement including artist bookings and the festival’s brand image. He will also serve as an ambassador for the Movement festival as he travels the globe performing for throngs of electronic music enthusiasts.

“Detroit is such a wonderful music town,” Craig continued. “With Movement we have such a great opportunity to remind people from around the world and those that are right here in our own backyard that electronic music in Detroit is very powerful and that our annual festival is the best stage for showcasing the most talented artists of this musical genre.”

The annual Memorial Day Weekend festival has gone through several reincarnations since its beginning in 2000. Paxahau earned the right in 2006 to produce the festival. Since then they have been credited with bringing financial stability to the once fledgling festival and developing a festival atmosphere that appeals to fans because of the high standard of production quality they demand and their ability to book major local and international artists year after year.

Paxahau representatives were elated when Craig agreed to become creative director and believe his involvement will strengthen the future of the Movement festival in Detroit.

“We were extremely excited when Carl agreed to come on board as our new creative director,” said Jason Huvaere, president of Paxahau. “He has a complete understanding of the history of Techno Music in Detroit. He understands its impact around the world because he lives it every day.

“Carl is a musical visionary whose ambassadorship is unparalleled. He will be able to capture the desires electronic music fans have for Movement and help us to incorporate them into future festivals.”

[mclark]

Yeah it was good to hear that Carl Craig is back. He did a great job of representing a pretty diverse array of Detroit bred or influenced music and his removal was petty. And hey, maybe next year it won't be 75% minimal techno!

Anyone make it to any of the afterparties? I went to "Kill Your TV 2", which was pretty ravey [[glowsticks abounded) but Joey Beltram was really good as usual.

[CapitalistPig]

i went monday at around 4-5pm

listened to tiga at the side stage from 6:30-8pm then some bad boy bill. tiga was good!!

that red bull stage was the best tho. busy p had some fresh beats and i really liked the next dj too. bassnectar. it was funky. he said his mac kept crashing so he had to do some backup beats, but it still rocked! benny benassi had two hot chicks in lingerie dancing on the side of the stage...at the side stage. the main stage was ok, more laid back with kevin saunderson and derrick may.

we saw this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzGuWdDxXos

and we saw these demfbots when we were waiting for a ride home near greektown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-3KKUDY4UM

definitely not regretting the $30 spent. just wish i would have bought the $50 all weekend pass!!
great times had by all!

what did everyone else think of demf 2009 and after parties???

[Alley]

I think I loved those videos.
I had fun I went Sat. and wished I'd bought the weekend pass

[Gannon]

Goat,

There is no such thing as 'aiming' transducers that produce those deep frequencies.

They radiate a perfect sphere from their core 'engine', which is bounced back and thusly amplified by any large surface.

Say...like the surface of the earth.

The sound was both hearable and feelable way out past the old train station, although it was probably lower amplitude than that bounced by the tall buildings towards your shore...it would be a curious study in acoustics to measure it all.

Cheers, I am still in shock from it all...but it was amazing. I spent most of my time in Eph's feeding a seemingly endless parade of very cool, happy, and loving people.

It was great fun, and a tremendous contrast with those HoeDowners [[save the Willie fans, ex'd or not). If this is an indirect endorsement of Ecstacy, so be it.