Zest Entertainment DJ News and reviews

Tuesday 12th April 2005

Miami Winter Music Conference 2005

- reviewed by DJ Brian Mole

Picture this: the ground has just thawed and temperatures are starting to hit the double figures as daffodils make their first appearances. So what does a mobile DJ do between 21st March 2005 and 28th March 2005? Well, if you are passionate about your equipment, if you are fanatical about your new music, if you fancy a little heat, and if you like to party hard, then you head for the 20th annual Winter Music Conference in Miami. Add to this the fact that you get just under 2 dollars to every £1, and the cost of living is lower in the US.

WMC2005 is like nothing else on earth. As well as a full on conference or two, complete with equipment exhibitions, demo songwriting and publishing workshops, Q&A sessions, remixing and editing workshops, event promotion workshops, and the International Dance Music Awards to name a few, there are up to 90 events in the stunning art deco district of Miami called South Beach covering all styles of dance music from soulful house to breaks, Latin to drum&bass EVERY DAY! 

Dance industry professionals from all over the globe make the annual pilgrimage to Miami to promote and party. At this time, future hits are tested by the worlds tastemaker DJs on clubs swollen by 15,000 to 20,000 beautiful people who coincidentally head for South Beach from all over America for the traditional spring break. Some of these tunes will become massive hits over the summer months in Europe - some examples of last years biggest tunes were Shapeshifters - Lolas' Theme, Stonebridge - Put 'em high, Deep Dish - Flashdance, and Eric Prydz - Call on me, all of which have been filling our mobile dancefloors ever since.

I have been looking forward to my second visit to the WMC, and when the dates were announced in November, Chris and Robbie from The Party Crew and I quickly snapped up the flights and accommodation. On board the outgoing flight were a mixture of music industry people carrying boxes of 12" promos and CDRs, bleary-eyed DJs with their UDG bags, and families heading for Floridas' fun parks. Amongst the recognisable DJs on the plane were Bobby and Steve, Paul Trouble Anderson, and Pete Tongs Essential Selection producer Damian Wilson.

Tuesday saw Soul on the Beach party hosted by Bobby and Steve with Soundmen on wax at the Clevelander Hotel featuring Bobby and Steve, plus guests including Groove Junkies, D-Train, and Barbara Tucker. It was a pleasure to see Parrish Wintersmith of the Groove Junkies DJ duo perform - this DJ moves like no other behind the decks, we can all learn from his tremendous performance. Wandering in the audience was Pioneer DJ/VJ Dan Tait, video camera in hand. If you went to PLASA or the House Music Awards at Neighboorhood, you may have seen his good work demonstrated on Pioneer equipment. 

Wednesday saw one of the parties that Miami is best known for - Defected in the House at the National Hotel. This was an invite only poolside party held during the day from 1am to 9pm on a beautiful sunny day. Simon Dunmore (A&R Director at Defected) started the music with some classic funk, soul and disco tunes. Simon was followed by Bobby and Steve who were interrupted by an unexpected massive rain storm which lasted about half an hour. When I say massive, I really mean massive. When it rains heavily in the UK, it does not compare to what we experienced. Jay-J followed on with a superbly mixed set of some of the finest house music heard at WMC2005. Bob Sinclair followed with a more eclectic mix of tunes, and Danny Krivit finished off the evening. Live PAs from Latrice Barnett, Barbara Tucker, and Defecteds' newly signed London band Reel People. The whole event was an absolute treat despite the fun in the rain, and a real tribute to house musics finest label. Again, Dan Tait was there gathering more video footage and enjoying the party.

Whilst I was sheltering from this downpour, I had the chance to chat with an American house music fan who expressed how lucky we are in the UK to have a national station such as BBC Radio 1 where the music output was not regulated by commercial pressures. He explained that in the US, the cash rich urban scene governs the privately owned radio stations play lists, and as a result, dance music does not figure in the US charts any more. Furthermore, the sheer amount of US dance music fans I saw at all the parties confirmed how popular this still is with its fans. The advent of the internet has truly brought these fans from all over the world much closer together as they can listen to their favourite ground breaking specialist shows on Radio 1 such as Pete Tongs Essential Selection, The Blue Room, Annie Nightingale, Annie Mac, Fergie, or Judge Jules over internet streams.

Not satisfied with an 8 hour party during the day, I then moved on to Hed Kandi at Opium nightclub featuring the talents of DJs Tom De Neef, Mark Doyle, and Eric Kupper playing an excellent selection of quality house music which we have experienced from the Hed Kandi stable. What was becoming apparent, was the good nature of everyone at these parties. In contrast to some of our UK clubs and pubs, it appears that the punters are actually out to have a good time, not to get blind drunk and pick a fight with the nearest Burberry cap wearing youngster at the earliest opportunity (oops, did I bring up a stereotype here?). 

Thursday eventually found me at the Wyndams Hotel which hosts the Winter Music Conference with all its various forums, sessions, and the exhibition area. The exhibition area featured a demo of Native Instruments Traktor DJ 2.6 which has a raft of impressive new features. James Zabiela gave a demonstration of the rather expensive Pioneer DVX-1 DVD turntables. Again, young Dan Tait was there! Poolside, DJs were battling and showing their skills, artists were handing out their demo CDs and 12"s to DJs passing by.

A very disappointing contrast followed later at the Defected in the House party at Amika nightclub which promised to be another really good party. A combination of the nightclub barstaff being very rude and unpleasant, and the constant use of strobes and minimal lighting meant that we left after a short while. On mobile discos I find the use of strobes tends to alienate some members of the audience, not to mention the potential hazard to some photo sensitive epilepsy sufferers, personally strobes make me feel a little disoriented, so I avoid them.

Friday morning found us joining a huge queue waiting for the doors of Nikki Beach Club to open at 11am for BBC Radio 1's 'In new music we trust' US tour. A short while later, having blagged VIP passes, we found ourselves backstage for Pete Tongs Essential Selection live broadcast. I have a lot of respect for Pete, he seems to pick some top tunes to promote, and many of them do work well the  dancefloors. He also proved to have a very large following in the US who turned out on mass to enjoy the show live through a Funktion-one PA. Live personal appearances from Barbara Tucker, Gadjo, and Juliet complemented a raft of new tunes as the crowd of 2500 fans went wild. Guest Djs in the mix included Sandy Riviera, James Zabiela and Deep Dish, and live visitors to the show included Max Graham, The Bodyrockers, Kelly Osbourne and Chris Cox, whilst backstage looked like a who's who of the music industry with people like Steve Agnello, Timo Maas, Fergie, Pete Gooding, Robbie George, Nick Fanculli, and Dan Tait (I bet by then he thought I was stalking him!). Following this, the Data Records party featured Lee Cabrera, Max Graham, Axwell, David Guetta and Lottie, although by then I was suffering from sleep deprivation (a well known affliction for the average DJ) and a few too many Strawberry Daiquiris (usually the affliction of the DJs long suffering partner).

The week of partying ended in the Ultra Festival on 26th March where the world top artists and DJs entertained the masses, but I opted instead to visit the Eden Roc Hotel which hosted 'Remix Hotel' where there were equipment demonstrations from all the major manufacturers and software vendors, Apple computer, and a retail outlet to supply some retail therapy at discounted rates. This turned out to be a good choice as I got a chance to play on all the new Pioneer kit including an awesome little single CD player called the CDJ200. This new addition to the range is capable of playing MP3 CDs, and has a wicked new loop chopping function which can be used to great effect. 

Mackie were also showing a new venture aimed at the DJ: a DJ mixer dubbed the D2. This little beast featured an interesting Firewire connector and lots of blue LEDs. I suspect we will be hearing a lot more about this soon. Stantons recent rebranding did not seem to help much with the poor feel of their new range of kit. The buttons on their CD players felt like cheap toys unfortunately. I also attended an in depth demonstration of the new features that Propellerheads Reason 3 offers from one of its authors followed by a Q&A session, and a chance to test it. Reason is one of the most popular music production tools around for Mac or PC, and the new features include some really impressive mastering devices, remote control technology and a superb new instrument browser.

So what did I get out of this? Well, a very pleasant break from work, I learnt some new techniques, saw and tested some new equipment, networked with a lot of diverse music industry people, and picked up some future hits, and best of all, it is a tax deductible expense. Who's coming with me next year then?

DJ Brian Mole

Zest Entertainment