I don’t have a lot of experience with DJs, their business is still a mystery to me as I don’t really understand their constant button pushing, knob turning to decompose and distort the songs, but it was a complete different story with James Lavelle who was Amoeba guest DJ last night.
After UNKLE’s show at the El Rey the previous night, he spent an hour spinning his favorite tunes, equalizing them at times, reinforcing the rhythms of some, making them louder and more danceable, but overall enjoying himself, inviting people to clap while sipping champagne during the whole thing (was that a real bottle of champagne?).
I did not recognize a lot of the music played, but James knew all the lyrics when there were some. There were big swirls of electronic symphonies, majestic keyboards among desolation and vocal chorus, percussion and distortion, violent guitars and plaintive voices, then strong techno beats, plunging underwater at time.
I’ve just recognized a track from Junip ‘Without you’, and of course I could not miss Radiohead’s ‘Everything in its right place’ which concluded the set.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRn8EAf8u2Q