Designer Drugs
Monday, September 8, 2008
White Room, Miami
Better than: A mouthful of actual designer drugs.
Electro, blog house, nu rave -- whatever, you call it, has been on the rise since 2006 when Justice declared that they were our friends, everyone began to worship Daft Punk's light show, and MSTRKRFT taught us that vowels were useless. Two years later, the genre has been oversaturated with amateur DJs/producers that it's no surprise that detractors argue these so-called DJs are nothing more than an iPod plugged into a sound system.
Designer Drugs, a name which seems more gimmicky than smart, is part of this new generation of blog house DJs/producers that hope to be the next Boys Noize or Digitalism. Are they there yet? Not quite, but they do know how to tear up a dancefloor, which isn't all that surprising, since they have already taken over the decks at New York's Ruff Club party and Philadelphia's Live Forever.
Last night, only Michael Vincent Patrick of Designer Drugs was present; his other half Theodore Nelson, unfortunately, had school commitments. Still, that didn't mean the party was any less intense than expected. Patrick banged out, well, banger after banger, mixing the duos own mixes with plenty of familiar tracks. His set was loud, hard and bass heavy -- just the way I liked it. Drinks placed on speakers quickly succumbed to the invisible force, dropping to the ground in a matter of seconds.
But Patrick's most admirable quality is his pacing. He takes his time to introduce a track into the dancefloor, instead of spinning to what amounts to sound bites made for the attention span of the MTV generation -- a tactic many DJs resort to when they lack the technical skill to handle the decks.
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: When you spin like you came straight out of Berlin's underground, you've already won me over.
Random Detail: When is White Room going to realize A/C is a good thing?
By The Way: The duo are currently in third place in a contest to remix Mariah Carey's "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time." You can listen and vote for the track here.
