My intention this year for Winter Music Conference was to be a big, fat sponge. I wanted to watch and listen to everything in Miami until I exploded, and then hopefully some kind soul would find my scattered pieces and glue or staple them back together.
The WMC puzzle is one of excesses – how much living can you smash into a single week; how much music can your brain hold, how many people can you meet, how many places can you go? To get to that end, I didn’t eat much, didn’t drink much, didn’t sleep much, and didn’t spend more money than I had. So in the end, my musical, philosophical, and budgetary prep work for this year allowed me to have the best time at Conference that I’ve had yet.
All the shows I went to were at least pretty good, and some were excellent, but the best show by far was Sunday School for Degenerates, same as for the last two years. I think one of the reasons that SS is always such fun for me is that there is no room for casual people in the crowd. It’s a 24-hour party on the last day of WMC. You have to be dedicated, hard core, or very patient to be able to make it there at all, and to stay for any length of time, you truly have to love the music and the culture.
As far as organization went, I was absolutely amazed by Ultra Music Festival this year. The sound was tighter and cleaner, the lighting systems were insane, there were several more stages than last year, and the music seemed to be better organized for public consumption, with genres and types of performances a little more balanced than in the past.
During the week, I was a little surprised at the types of music that I heard overall. There was a lot more house and techno than I remember from before, and a lot less electro-ish, minimal bleepy, or trance sounds. It felt a little as though the DJ’s and artists were getting back to basics – good, solid, well produced electronic music with punchy drums, solid basslines, and well-structured peaks and valleys. I didn’t hear a lot of epic breakdowns, screechy vocals, overdriven sawtooth synths, or dated let’s-all-sway-back-and-forth whooshy noises.
I just heard a lot of good, solid music through good solid sound systems, with good, solid intelligent lighting (except maybe for the pitch black room with a single lightbulb on).
I think the only thing I plan on doing differently next year is I’d really like to only go to one event per day, to really dig in and enjoy it, without feeling like a zombie because there’s only enough time for a two-hour disco nap between shows. I’d burned out by my third day of trying to make it to everything I’d scheduled, so I even ended up sleeping in the car for a few hours waiting to go from one place to another. There’s so much going on that it’s hard to pick what to do, but I think it would be better to choose carefully rather than being grumpy when I did get to places.
Stay tuned to this blog for more in-depth reviews of events, and I’ll be posting more videos and pics as I get them processed.
My WMC 2010 Exit Review Preview
My intention this year for Winter Music Conference was to be a big, fat sponge. I wanted to watch and listen to everything in Miami until I exploded, and then hopefully some kind soul would find my scattered pieces and glue or staple them back together.
The WMC puzzle is one of excesses – how much living can you smash into a single week; how much music can your brain hold, how many people can you meet, how many places can you go? To get to that end, I didn’t eat much, didn’t drink much, didn’t sleep much, and didn’t spend more money than I had. So in the end, my musical, philosophical, and budgetary prep work for this year allowed me to have the best time at Conference that I’ve had yet.
All the shows I went to were at least pretty good, and some were excellent, but the best show by far was Sunday School for Degenerates, same as for the last two years. I think one of the reasons that SS is always such fun for me is that there is no room for casual people in the crowd. It’s a 24-hour party on the last day of WMC. You have to be dedicated, hard core, or very patient to be able to make it there at all, and to stay for any length of time, you truly have to love the music and the culture.
As far as organization went, I was absolutely amazed by Ultra Music Festival this year. The sound was tighter and cleaner, the lighting systems were insane, there were several more stages than last year, and the music seemed to be better organized for public consumption, with genres and types of performances a little more balanced than in the past.
During the week, I was a little surprised at the types of music that I heard overall. There was a lot more house and techno than I remember from before, and a lot less electro-ish, minimal bleepy, or trance sounds. It felt a little as though the DJ’s and artists were getting back to basics – good, solid, well produced electronic music with punchy drums, solid basslines, and well-structured peaks and valleys. I didn’t hear a lot of epic breakdowns, screechy vocals, overdriven sawtooth synths, or dated let’s-all-sway-back-and-forth whooshy noises.
I just heard a lot of good, solid music through good solid sound systems, with good, solid intelligent lighting (except maybe for the pitch black room with a single lightbulb on).
I think the only thing I plan on doing differently next year is I’d really like to only go to one event per day, to really dig in and enjoy it, without feeling like a zombie because there’s only enough time for a two-hour disco nap between shows. I’d burned out by my third day of trying to make it to everything I’d scheduled, so I even ended up sleeping in the car for a few hours waiting to go from one place to another. There’s so much going on that it’s hard to pick what to do, but I think it would be better to choose carefully rather than being grumpy when I did get to places.
Stay tuned to this blog for more in-depth reviews of events, and I’ll be posting more videos and pics as I get them processed.
Cheers!
rx