This past week, I had the fortunate ability to catch some fantastic DJing in Atlanta courtesy of the Converse sponsored afterparty series for the XX US Tour. I forget how exactly I found out about it; it was pointed out in another blog that this show was not heavily promoted. I put up a post on a local electronic music forum and nobody had any clue about this event happening, however the line-up of Dusk & Blackdown, Cooly G, and Fantastic Mr. Fox had already been confirmed.
Cooly G opened the night with a phenomenal set of contemporary sounding house oriented tunes, very reminiscent of the current output of Hyperdub, the label she has the most notoriety representing, An hour of busy drums and rolling basslines unlike any of the house or ‘funky’ sets I have seen in Atlanta this year, to say I was impressed with her selections during her set that evening would be a cruel understatement. Large up to Cooly G, as she put the whole thing down on her UStream channel, go watch the evening here. You can probably catch me, Infernal Techno, and GrimeSpree all dancing like madmen on the empty dancefloor early on. I also caught a short video of part of Cooly G’s short set later in the evening. Fantastic Mr. Fox played shortly thereafter and unfortunately his set seemed plagued by numerous sound issues and was unfortunately cut short. Memorable selections from his set included some recent Mount Kimble, and the always enjoyable Burial — which I’m sure was a first for MJQ’s soundsystem.
A highlight for me personally this evening however was the opportunity to finally meet garage / dubstep icons Dusk + Blackdown. I have obviously been a fan of their work for a long time, especially more so now as my appreciation for the UK Garage roots of dubstep has increased exponentially over the past year. Additionally, my infamy surrounding the creation of the Brostep Forum led me to start to speak to them around this time last year; it’s always excellent to meet some wonderful people face-to-face after a long period of back and forth time online. On top of some excellent conversation between Dusk, Blackdown, Distal and myself, I got to see Dusk and Blackdown play a wonderful garage oriented set in Atlanta. Blackdown gives a much better rundown of his experiences on this tour on his own blog, including a very humbling short snippet regarding our short conversation last Wednesday evening.
Granted all this went down on a school night; it is rare for me to make it out during the week and especially for as long as I did. I am sad I could not stay til the very end but 2:30 on a night where the club closes around 3:00 AM is pretty good considering my legitimate work day starts at 9:00 AM. Thanks much to Converse for making this event available to everybody in Atlanta, especially for free. Thanks to all the artists involved, Cooly G, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Jamie XX, and Dusk and Blackdown for bringing some truly progressive and unique sounds to MJQ Concourse and Atlanta as a whole, we are extremely appreciative of what we witnessed.
Cooly G UStream of 10/6/2010 at MJQ Concourse
‘The XX Afterparty US Tour’ [via Blackdown]
‘Cooly G and Blackdown 10/6′ [via Donuts]
iPhone Video of Cooly G 10/6/2010 at MJQ Concourse