Eddy Says

Eddy Says: Remix All-Nighter@matter #1: Debrief

By | Published on Monday 25 May 2009

Matter

Wow. First off, thank you so much to all of you who came to matter the Friday before last. A great time was had by all. Except, maybe, Kaya (or Effy if you like) from ‘Skins’, who got so trashed that she and our mutual friends, The Ruskins, had to leave before my set at four!

They missed out, I really enjoyed getting up there! And gosh that new Prodigy mix works rather well doesn’t it? I can’t wait to play it on the radio for you, we just need to finish it off – it’s a work in progress at the moment. But it sounded good at the All-Nighter, and it was such a pleasure to get to play it on a soundsystem like THAT.

In fact I don’t think I have ever heard sound quite like what you get at matter in any other club, or even at a gig. The closest thing I could compare the sound quality to is the last time I saw Tool. But matter is even better than that – I know that sounds inconceivable – because they seem able to achieve that warmth and clarity, with phenomenal bass and a lovely sizzle at the top end – but that dancefloor, with the woofers and pisons underneath, it’s just staggering.

And especially at the beginning of the night, when Joker, N-Type and Youngsta were smashing it in there with some real bass heavy dubstep wobblers. My manager Rob ventured that any 17 year old in there on a strong pill for the first time in their life would just loose all bowel control on that dance-floor.

The prospect of a punter shitting their pants in the middle of any event would cause, well, some concern, for any club or event in the world, but matter, I feel, would deal with any trouser emergency with the same brilliance they dealt with everything else at their first Remix All-Nighter. They even have a MOP BOY for fuck’s sake! Yes, they have a guy cruising the dancefloor discreetly, with a big mop, taking care of any spillages so we can all dance safely.

All of which brings me to a really important point. Club staff. Especially, security. Now, do you remember the Remix Allnighters at seOne? Some of you may know this, but last time we did this event, those fucking steroidal nutjobs at seOne attacked Vitalic, our headline act, and hospitalised his agent, a very nice man whom we’re incredibly fond of. Some gorilla, whose job it was to PROTECT the artists who were playing and staff who were working, twatted him with a knuckle duster ring, ensuring a night in casualty and some unwelcome facial stitches. I vowed never to return there after that, and it’s taken us this long to find somewhere else more suitable.

Now, matter security…..how nice were they? I mean, you couldn’t have asked for a better, more professional, attentive, polite, helpful bunch of people outside of your own family. I was stunned. All my mates said the same thing. It makes such a big difference, because even the best soundsystem in Europe could be ruined by a bad bouncer; so matter, hats off to you.

I loved the curtain too. It gave the performances a sense of real drama. A big black curtain by the main dancefloor opens and voila, a band from Los Angeles; then it closes and we’re all dancing, focused on the DJ, no reality of chubby guys in sweaty Zildjian t-shirts moving amps around and plugging boxes in and saying ‘two’ a lot in any microphones they come across. No. it just opens an hour later and voila, another band, but from New York, then another, from Holloway… it was such a simple thing but another really nice touch.

The whole place is so well thought out, perfectly designed for what it is, a night club. A place to dance, to listen, and to buy a drink and have a chat and sit around if you want to, or smoke a cigarette in peace without being coralled into a fucking veal crate by some moody east-European muscle-mary. You HAVE to see this place. You have to HEAR it, and more to the point, you have to FEEL it. There is no venue in the UK that can deliver a sound like that for a band. Nowhere. It sets a new standard.

And if you are yet to experience matter, well, I have just the night to do it on. July 17th. Get it in your diary please. Ladytron (live), Losers (live), Japanese Popstars (live), Burn The Negative (live) + Phil Hartnoll from Orbital, Alex Metric, Punks Jump Up, moi, Mary Anne Hobbs, Matrix and Futurebound and a couple of surprises were working on now….come, leave your inhibitions, don’t worry, mop-boy will take care of everything.

x eddy

Eddy Says from this edition of the CMU Remix Update.



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