Tyrant is craig richards and lee burridge tag team combo. Tyrant has never played in the US before, not the two together anyways. They came out with a great compilation which i do not own last year. It got rave reviews among the progressive house heads. craig richards also came out with Fabric compilation set which was outstanding. i've seen lee burridge before on two separate occasions when he toured with jimmy van m and sasha. he was outstanding on both events. this night was highly anticipated amoung the clubbers despite it being the night before easter. i didn't have any easter obligations so it was the perfect day to get lost in the music and remind myself of why i love this music and clubbing so much. i took a disco nap from 8pm to mid night in anticipation of waking up fresh for the event. 1.30am passed by and i was still under the blanket thinking twice about opening my eyelids. thanks to ms. roomie who just happened to stumbled in from her night out woke me up and convinced me that i should do something more worthly than twitching eyelids for the night. i showed up at the perfect time -- 3am., apparently that was when things got interesting. the music was pumping, the vibe was good, the crowd was not overwhelming. it felt good to be there hearing the music again. overall i thought the set was not phenomenal, but smooth, interesting, and funky enough to keep my interest in place. i liked that they didn't bang it out nor got too monotonous. there were a few down songs which felt slightly out of place but they were spaced out nicely to let my feet rest from dancing. towards the end of the night things picked up 5 notches. there was that one song with the saxophone lead and chunky bassline that was exceptionally beautiful. the closing was nothing short of amazing. it was well worth the trip and a few braincells. i proceeded to the afterhours party at astroglyde's loft and hung out till noon.

although the music was exceptional as expected, i was panicking more than ever on this night. it was a wednesday. i had work the next day and there's that status meeting i can't afford to be late to. and the site was launching. i needed to get work done. but it's digweed coming and i was in desparate need of hearing good tunes. so i went. of course somehow in the middle of the dark room and jumping crowd i began to see what looked like my CTO, and my COO dancing on the floor. it took 3 glance to make sure they weren't them. the set started of nicely with some of the old favorites. spotted a new remix of 'the baggio' track and 'i wish you were here' track. things got slightly boring between 1-2 and picked up again around 3am. i had to split early so i left. saw a few familiar faces but didn't hang out with them long. overall the night was a 6/10 -- not impressive but good enough of a fix for the sorely missed tunes. then again, maybe derrick carter had changed my preference to the more soulful house vibe.

i honestly don't know where to begin with this one. the night started off a bit off-beat with the opening DJ banging inappropriate anthem tunes one after another. then when derrick picked up the headphones, the night finally started. first time hearing this guy live, and i had no doubt in my mind why and how he had become so highly respected not only by the clubbers and househeads like me but also by well known top notch DJs as well. the man has a soul and his soul spoke through his music. the collection of his set was straight up house the way house should be with a tint of jazz that occasionally catches you without knowing and totally make you smile. this is derrick carter night and i will no longer miss anymore of this man's music. 10.10. now if you ask steve, who by the way was rockin till he literally dropped dead tired, then you'd probably get a 15.10 from him, along with the saying 'yaw, dude, he's playing all my records!!!"

surely enough the best way to celebrate new years eve is none other than hanging out with good friends at someone's house party. but when your at d&d's, you are surely to get more than just any house party. filter14 sound system, flickery disco ball, dance floor, champagne, the best spinach dip in the world, a few herbal remedies, and some seriously kickin' party people. PAL was a little bit of a trek. 2 rivers away and a subway ride on the brown line later, we landed at the sweet sweet loft. music was kickin' as expected. (when u go to a dj's house for a party, u can't expect anything less musically) .. franky pep, spoony d, rich, and a few notable locals took turns on the deck. it was a sober night for me as i just got out of a long horrible cold. what a great way to start the year -- good clean fun style.

it has been a long long time since i have gone all out nuts at a club like this night. probably the longest stretch ever since i discovered clubbing. wow. (old lady reflecting upon her wrinkled shadows) needless to say i was not only rusty, but i was also out of shape beyond belief. luckily swayzak's tunes in the arcade made up for everything. their tunes have always been catchy to my ears. did i mention their dope ass website yet? yep yep. so all in all the night was made perfect by the two dorkish looking europeans standing in front of 2 G3 mac laptops and bunch of sound machines (i couldn't see) churning sweet sweet minimal analoggy warm tunes. you have to be there to feel the groove. plexus who opened and closed for them parred up to their standard with his own minimal techno/house style as well. as for howells on the main floor? well, i wish i could tell you more, but it wouldn't be fair to judge his set from the little time that i spent there. so they said swayzak pulled a better set. i say they play different style of music. can't compare apples and pears. festivities of halloween made the night all the better too. especially with so many familiar faces in the scene all in one night. too bad no one recognized my outfit. boooyahhh...

never a religious follower of this group but have heard some tunes and choons here and there. i suppose the first track that brought my attention to them was cowgirl when digweed or sasha played it many many moons ago. then came the everything-everything live album from hamlet's jukebox. a few cds & dvds here and there plus the hype from friends around got me going to this gig. and boy was it worth it. incredible energy, absolute talent, purely an eye-opening rush. even with darren emerson gone from the group, the duo held up quality above par. despite drama trying to get from mezz level to ground floor earlier in the night, the event and time spent with the gang had certainly left me in awe of underworld. must get more of their tunes. More on underworld

so i went to this message board party where the moderators were wearing these signature board t-shirts and they even have name tags. and like the people there were all from the board and you finally get to match the name with the face and oh my god i've seen her in pictures before and oh my god someone recognizes my screenname! oh my god.. oh my god.. JUST KIDDING. it didn't sound as creepy/dorky as you'd think. this little social group that stem from, yes, a message board, isn't all that creepy. they know how to throw good parties and it was fun. music was -- eh, average. the snob within me wasn't too impressed. however, the vibe was wonderful. you get to meet some of the smartest people, and yet not feel intimidated by them. you can be yourself and not be judge upon what you wear, where you went to school, what grades you got, etc.. it's a great feeling that every human yearn for -- social acceptance. i didn't go as far as introducing myself to the world here, but i had my piece of joy in my little corner with the people whom i choose to hang out with. it was as lovely as a party can get. kudos to all that made it all the better. *mwah*

Ya think a free party thrown by yours truly MTV with SASHA AND MOBY spinning would be like wet dream come true, well... think again. Luckily the place (pier 54) was 2 blocks from the office and handy dandy Village Idiot was right on the way. 2 shots, a stoli vanil, and cheap beer later, the gang headed to the water. Crowd was what you'd call a mix of MTV crowd that are "undergrounder wanna-be".. whatever that means. Vibe was ok. Toilets were clean. Our Lady Peace rocked for 45 mins to a crowd that didnt give a shit. Sound got cut off twice when sasha came on. Poor guy has to play through MTV's unprofessional setup. By the time Moby came on to do his usual performance (if you've seen him once you've seen him everytime -- all the same), we were all dispersed and tired. Music was decent given these are top performers. I wouldn't put it anywhere near top free experience tho. Now if i had to pay for the event, i'd be ranting like no tomorrow.

A night in town with my girl Ramya is like living in Sex and the City. Our first stop of the night: Spa. Known to be a place full of frat boys and sorority girls dressed up to play match under the sound of today's hip-hop tunes, what ended up inside this swanky cutting edge spot turned out to be more of a hamptons gathering. Now that I think about it, may be they are the grown up, more matured version of frat boys/ sorority girls. Either way it was quite an interesting shift from, say, Sasha @ ARC two days ago. After 3 strong drinks later I was finally loosened enough to somewhat groove to the music i absolutely don't prefer. Our second stop in an attempt to change pace was NoCa -- another beautiful lounge in TriBeCa. Somehow the hip-hop caught on faster than the cab driver's speed and we landed ourselves in deja vu. Note to self -- NoCa fridays are hip hop, saturdays are house. A quick drink from the crew and a few shaky snaps off the Canon S110 and we were out of there -- to the final destination of the night -- Abaya. Ahh house music. As shitface as we were, the tunes and familiar faces made it feel like home again. One big hangover and a ton of water the morning after, I'm beginning to wish i write columns for a living like Carrie in the show. What I make certainly cannot support this bill nor lifestyle.

Sasha is finally back in Gotham, this time on a WEEKDAY. Luckily I was unemployed and had nothing better to wake up for the next day. His set was, to sum up in one word -- expectedly good. Ok, that was 2 words. I am a big fan of Sasha since the Twilo days so my ears are completely biased. On this night he didn't deliver the most "cutting edge" music out there. The trainspotters were probably nailing every track names and every remix and probably got bored. What he did deliver, however, was the music that i fell in love with years back -- the melodic journey. James Zabiela, a new face in town, opened for Sasha. Known to be Sasha's protege, James, at only 21 years old, ripped the fucking floor apart. His tunes were fresh and FUnkY. I'm not a big fan of labeling music, but i spotted some sick sick breaks. Oh, and not to mention the scratching. While the technique isn't new to the DJ world of skills, this boy definitely carried it to a different plateau. Cheers to that. More on ARC