Edit: Here are the videos!
Magda dumps the minimal techno in favour of some Italo to the delight of Simon Conway
The music might have been minimal but the crowd on the dancefloor wasn't!
The plinks and the plonks get a workout by Magda
Magda at the Stiff Kitten
Awwww, old school!
Donnacha Costello leppin' about like a kid at Electric Shock #5
Steve Bug pays no attention to the Akira DVD in the background at Electric Shock #5
Meanwhile at McGruders Simon F surfs some sinewaves
It has to be said, without one shadow of a doubt, the October bank holiday weekend is easily Dublin's craziest, most hedonistic and most hardcore party weekend of the year. Maybe it's the fact that summer is finally over and we need one big send off before it gets even darker and wetter, or maybe it's some Celtic genetic trait that makes us go mental before Samhain. Apparently in ancient Celtic history November marked the start of the Celtic New Year, that'd definitely explain some of the mental activities I witnessed over the weekend! Also the fact that the DEAF festival and a whole host of other gigs are on doesn't hurt either.
I was actually feeling a bit delicate last week after my trip to London, so I wussed out of some of the mid-week events until Thursday rolled up which meant heading down to Wax to see the Polish pixie of minimal, Magda, get busy on the wheels that are made out of mainly steel components. It hadn't been long since she was last over, in fact I think that was the shortest length of time an international DJ has been asked back to Electric City, she must be doing something right! Thankfully it was less packed then the last time, but still a bit hard to bust a proper move on the dancefloor. I much preferred her set this time around, she seemed to be a lot more into it, putting both her little sampler thing (Eddie Brennan uses the same model, he was supporting her that night but I missed most of his set unfortunately, sorry Ed!) and an old school Boss digital delay pedal to good use. As usual with a member of the Minus crew I recognised hardly any of the tracks, most of them probably haven't been released yet but there was some Troy Pierce thing that stood out alongside a forthcoming Hot Chip remix of Matthew Dear (!!). Near the end she surprised the whole room (and enamoured Simon Conway for life) when she dropped the Italo classic "Spacerwoman" by Charlie (track seven on I-F's "Mixed Up In The Hague" compilation, check it!). The place was going pretty mental all night but for me that was the highlight of the set.
Seeing as she played so well on in Dublin on Thursday I decided to grab the train up to Belfast on Friday to catch her set at The Stiff Kitten which I'd never been to before. It's quite a swish venue, a Funktion One sound system that sounded nice and beefy, along with lots of purple velvet drapes and velvet bits on the back wall. I just caught the end of Phil Kieran's set but I liked the small bit I heard, he had a queue of people coming up to him after he finished congratulating him! Magda rocked it but I thought the set wasn't quite as good as the Dublin one, she did play a remix (that's not out yet obviously!) by Someone Else that was aaaaaa-mazing, I'm gonna have to keep my ear out for that one (I can't remember who the original artist is though)! Special thanks to Alan Simms who showed me a great time up in Belfast, and everybody else I met there actually, they're all sound up there. I recommend making the trip up sometime.
On Saturday it was back down to Dublin for some more boozy antics, I kicked things off nicely with a few cans on the train then it was straight down to the Temple Bar Music Centre for the fifth Electric Shock starring Steve Bug with support from Donnacha Costello and Eddie Brennan (again! When's my next gig lads!?) Donnacha's set was the highlight of the night for me, I was never really that big a Steve Bug fan. His set on Saturday was enjoyable enough but I found myself more hanging out in other rooms and talking to people, he didn't keep me on the dancefloor for long. Most of the crowd seemed to enjoy it a lot more than me though!
After the TBMC kicked us all out it was time for a bit of party hopping, starting off with "that" infamous house near Merrion Square where there was a bit of dancing to be had, one popular party guy was selling hits of Nitrous Oxide out of a metal canister! I decided to skip off at around 6am to another party (which was actually two parties but I heard some pytrance being blasted out of one so didn't go in). Hmm, uh, it gets a bit blurry here, and what better place to go when you're blurry than Mixed Salad at McGruders? As usual it was caner central, unfortunately the place smelt pretty bad too but I suppose that's part and parcel of it all. Simon F impressed me no end when he dropped a load of decent tunes including "Quioxte", that's some classic Polygon Window that is! Actually beforehand I'd been at his place and was picking out records for him (half of which he vetoed), he did bring down an Autechre album but chickened out of playing Arch Carrier at 45, the set was an old schooler though so I'll forgive him!
Bassin's tenth birthday down at Traffic was our next port of call. It's been a long time since I was at a Bassbin night so it was good to see a large amount of familiar heads again. Overall I wasn't too impressed with the music though, probably because they were playing more "party hits" type of stuff, or maybe the MCing put me off. I was never a huge dnb fan anyway, unless it's really dirty jungle stuff like Remarc or something. A fun night though, but I was starting to fade so it was off home pretty soon after the final tune.
What a weekend, my body's paying for it now though!