Sunday, June 15, 2008

but you held my hand, you took me right back down to hell

okay, so I guess I owe a review of Kaskade's set from WetBar aka "Swerve" on Friday night. To be honest, he really put on a great show. Much better than the last time I heard him spin at the very same venue last September. Of course, that night it was so hot and slippery on the dancefloor that I really couldn't get into the music. It was like dancing on a greased cookie sheet. As I digress.

Ryan (Kaskade) was in town promoting his new CD titled "Strobelight Seduction" recently released on Ultra Records. I hadn't had the opportunity to listen to this CD yet, but I did go buy it on Saturday.

He went on some time after midnight, opening up with the title track from his new album called "Move for Me" a production that involve him teaming up with Canadian DJ Deadmau5, who in the past two years has exploded upon the house music scene. It's a beautiful track with an excellent female vocal. It was not a huge crowd, but very obvious from the start that everyone there was a huge Kaskade fan. He then played back to back tracks from his previous album, "Bring the night", including "Be Still" and Dirty South's massive remix of "Sorry". The crowd was very into his set at this point, and he then chose to go a little darker, which have been very characteristic of Kaskade as of late. He played several progressive house dubs, and threw in several songs from "Strobelight Seduction". Tracks I remember included a great new remix of Three Drives on Vinyl - Greece 2000 circa 1999, a classic house track indeed and hammered back in the day by the likes of PVD and Tiesto. I would note that the crowd was a nice mix of both gay and straight people. He finished off with one of my favorite new tracks by Funkerman called "Speed Up", then an older production called "Steppin Out", one of my favorites back in 2003. Finally, he ended the night with his relatively new track called "4am", a beautiful track indeed.

As to be expected, Kaskade delivered a quality set. His mixing was superb and on cue. This was my 7th time hearing him and I realize how talented he is each time I go out to hear him.

I would note that Brandon Sutton was there and dancing? which was a nice break. It seems that putting down the headphones has allowed him to come out of his shell and that makes me very happy.




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