Vienna (11/10/24)
This weekend in Vienna I played the after party for a party before the party itself took place.
Let me explain a bit better. Over the weekend I attended three parties, two in the same venue, and two of which I played at, though not in the same venue. Some people from the first party were at the second party, and some from the second party were at the third, but I am pretty sure I was the only person at all three. Ok so I’m not explaining it that much better after all. It sounds a bit like one of those logic puzzles – “Tom is younger than Dave but older than Jill” – so maybe the best thing to do is go step by step.
Gaze D’Amore @ Flucc
The first party I went to was Gaze D’Amore, a collaboration between the two well-known Vienna (Gaze) and Berlin (Cocktail D’Amore) queer parties as part of the latter’s 15 year anniversary celebrations. I had seen the Gaze-hosted stage at Lighthouse Festival a couple of years ago (report here) and, since that excellent introduction, I had been waiting for the chance to see the party on its home turf. The venue was Flucc (it rhymes with ‘look’ not, uh, ‘luck’) a two-decades-old cultural institution to the East of the city centre consisting of a large downstairs club room and a smaller upstairs bar-like room that nonetheless works as a cosy club in itself. After a much-needed disco nap following a 6am start that morning, I arrived at the venue around half past midnight and found both dancefloors popping. Downstairs, Vienna DJ Anxious T was playing amped up garagey tunes to a pleasingly diverse crowd dancing beneath hanging jellyfish decorations. The sound was a bit boomy in the big space but mostly controlled. An expansive stage behind the DJ was as yet empty, but it was clear it would only take one or two brave souls to get up there for it to become the dancing platform of choice. One of the reasons I’d really wanted to make it to this party was to see Stella Zekri repping Cocktail, and this was where she’d be taking over at 2am.
Before that, though, I retraced my steps back out to the front courtyard and up some side stairs into the upstairs bar, to be greeted by what I would describe as an almost perfect party scenario. Sometimes you walk into a room and just feel an instant and memorable sense of excitement and belonging. The upstairs bar at Flucc could probably hold about 200 people, but the Gaze team had hung a range of white sheets, black fringe and other objects from the ceiling (including what looked like an oversized whip and buttplugs) to break up the space, creating a cozy and sexy dancefloor in front of the in-set window-style DJ booth. At the back of the floor was a stage that had blankets and pillows on it, turning it into a couple of king-sized beds. When I walked in I saw the shadows of two people illuminated on the sheets hanging in front of the beds, kissing. The lighting was low and soft, smoke hung in the air, and the music was pitched exactly to match: slow (it sounded < 120bpm), slinky, seductive. Again the crowd up here was super diverse and already dancing. A front line of girls held strong for much of the night; two moustachioed boys in fur waistcoats passed by; the tassle of the hanging oversized whip-slash-anal-beads tickled the tops of their heads. A few minutes later the figures behind the sheets were still kissing in exactly the same position, and I finally realised the silhouettes were a video projection - a stroke of subtle decor genius.
Taking charge of the music in this room all night were Gaze founder Rumi von Baires (who’s featured in Midweek Mixes before - here), Freeride Millennium founder Jorkes, and another Vienna DJ called Ciao Ciao. I spotted Loony Toony’s ‘The Right Size (X-Large Mix)’ and the Luscious Dub remix of ‘Bedtime Story’, though at this point in the night I was more into the weirder trippy stuff like Da Juice’s ‘Food For Thought’ (which I featured on my EOS Midsummer Special) and the stripped-back minimal house that Rumi was playing when I first walked into the room. You can tell I was really into the party because I began making prospective eyes at a boy, but just at the moment I felt like I’d perhaps overcome my shyness and start a conversation, Rumi put on Prince’s ‘The Future’. I first heard this tune in a recording of Scuba DJing at Pbar back in 2010 (lol) and it’s been a hit for me ever since, so I rather unceremoniously stopped making eyes at the boy and started freaking out on the floor. Well, the boy was apparently put off by that, quickly said his goodbyes to his friends and left, never to be seen again. If you don’t love me at my Prince freakout...
After that debacle everything was a bit of a blur as I downed several glasses of backstage prosecco and danced to Stella downstairs and the continuation of Rumi, Jorkes and Ciao Ciao upstairs. Throughout Stella’s set both the main room dancefloor and the previously empty stage behind the booth heaved with dancers. Upstairs had a less slamming vibe still and was my preferred room for it, and before I knew it, it was 05h30 and the trippy trio were playing their last tune. I scarpered for the night train back to my apartment to get some sleep before the next engagement.
Semi-private (pre-)afters
That next engagement was a joint afterparty for Gaze and another event, Cyclic Existence, to be held at a semi-secret regular afters spot during Saturday daytime. I had been invited, via the promoter of Saturday night’s event, to play the closing set at this pre-afters, despite not knowing the place or the people involved. All I did know was that it would be vinyl only and have a private sort of vibe. After five hours of sleep I got myself out of bed and jumped on the U-bahn, following the promoter’s directions until I came across a funny private garden space beneath some railway arches. Most of the arches housed offices or garages, but one of them was where the party was happening. I won’t go into detail about the party itself (safe to say it was great and made me think of similar afters in London and Brussels), but I will talk about what I played, since it’s the first all-vinyl gig I’ve done in yonks and it felt good to wheel out some old favourites.
Given I was meant to be closing the afters, I thought I’d take a bag of properly deep soft-landing tunes, though in the event of course the party was a lot more swinging than planned. Indeed, my suspicions that it would likely go on longer proved to be true, so despite having double checked the closing time with the organisers before I played, by the time the clock ticked round to 4pm the soft landing turned out to be unnecessary. I played a fair bit of early 00s housey stuff in the first hour before switching into some trippier stuff in the second. Here are five tunes I played.
I:Cube - Arp Surface [Versatile, 2004]
I actually played both this and the Maurice Fulton remix off this EP, which was met with approval by one of the party organisers.
The Utopia Project - File #2 [Nu Groove, 1990]
I was playing Slick’s ‘Space Bass’, which I’ve learnt how to mix into (it involves a pitch shift of >2) but never learnt when to get out of. Somehow I successfully rode the pitch while bringing in this mellow Rheji Burrell classic. Also, here’s a lovely discogs comment about this record:
Helium Robots - Delve (Wrong Island’s Somnabulism Remix) [Wrong Island, 2013]
A gift from my friend Teamy aka Wrong Island, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to drop this arpeggiated beast in a set. The DJs before me at the afters had been playing more this kind of thing, and it did indeed get one of the biggest reactions of my set. Next time I play here I’ll bring more italo.
Ben Neville & Dub Gnostic - Creston Blue (Ben's Mix) [Mosaic, 2001]
Although in my ideal scenario I’d have played a whole set of this kind of stuff. You can’t force these things though, and I got a second opportunity later that night...
Tangerué - Doin’ Your Own Thing [Unidisc, 1979]
An exemplary piece of Canadian disco, with a sleeve that speaks for itself:
As I mentioned, rather than finishing when I ended my set at 4pm, it was clear things at the afters were going to continue for a while, with the organisers taking over the decks again with some rolling tech house. I wasn’t getting on it so I politely said my goodbyes and headed back to the apartment to rest before the third party started that evening.
Spumante x Noods x Callshop Radio @ Flucc
Well, you might have guessed by now, the party I was originally booked to play at was of course back at Flucc on the Saturday night. So 24 hours after I first went there, I arrived at the venue again for this collaboration between local promoters Spumante, Noods Radio from Bristol and Callshop Radio from Leipzig. Sadly the Gaze crew had taken down their decorations so the room had returned to its usual look. But it still had that warm sound and cosy vibe, notwithstanding a couple of weirdo blokes doing the rounds. Unfortunately I had missed Morey Cillar from Noods Radio due to another, vital, disco nap, but Zoe Pea was playing sick tunes, including a couple of Code Industry bangers. I took over at 2am and was playing through till 6. The party wasn’t empty but it also wasn’t full, and I was briefly concerned I’d end up playing to myself for the last couple of hours. But the crowd that was there proved to be resilient, dancing away pretty much continuously except for one wonkier stretch where I played ‘Knife Edge’ by Simulant into ‘Bridges’ by Kübler Ross into ‘ME’ by Sketch Artist. I can’t really blame anyone for taking a breather during all that.
I had two favourite parts of the set. The first was early on when I decided to do a bit of testing for my gig at Pumping Velvet this coming Friday. Over the past few weeks I’d got it into my head to play some fun and lairy tech house so I gave it a bit of a go in Flucc, and it went down a treat. I do this quite often: intercalating my selections for a series of gigs so that I can see how things sound and feel in advance. Testing tunes in this way can also help avoid the nasty surprise of when something sounds completely different in a club to how it sounds at home. For example, on Saturday I also tried out ‘The Hands That Reached’ off this recent EP my friend Sam recommended to me, and what I thought sounded like a deep and wavey tune at home turned out to be far darker and harder over a sound system.
The second favourite part of the set turned out to be the final hour. Playing for four hours to a committed crowd really does create the opportunity for something unexpected and generative to take place. That’s part of why it’s so rewarding to play at Panoramabar. At Flucc I could see that the dancers who were still there at 5am were with me, and that meant I could reach for some of those deep records I’d brought for the afters and really do the soft landing properly this time. After a short palate cleanser of Dawn Richard (thanks again, Sam) I went through Dean DeCosta ‘Paper Hat’, Herbert’s remix of ‘How Jazz It’, Son.Sine ‘Upekah’, Fingers Inc ‘Distant Planet’ and, finally, DFA ‘3/5 Human’. Most of these records I bought after hearing my friend Andrew play them at house-party-after-afters in Oxford and London around 12 years ago and, although it is a rare occurrence, I get immense pleasure playing them in the right setting today. The last hour on Saturday was one of those settings and it gave me a warm feeling to see people on the dancefloor lose themselves in these timeless pieces of late night/early morning magic.
I haven’t even mentioned the fact that, much like Helsinki, Vienna has a theme park in the city, right next to Flucc in fact, yet I failed to give it a go because I was too busy eating schnitzel. It’ll have to wait till next visit.
This weekend I’m playing at Pumping Velvet in London on Friday, alongside Sofie K and Nick Kagame, and Blitz Club in Munich on Saturday, alongside Stella!
yeah any guy who doesn't only want to see you laughing in the purple rain isn't worth your time pal!