Sarah Favouritizm, publicist and performer, is still in Miami on Monday afternoon – the 25th anniversary Winter Music Conference ended last Saturday, two days earlier: “It’s raining here now, but you can still feel the buzz; there are still people here. It’s been another great conference.”
Such is the attraction of one of dance music’s most important annual fixtures…. Apart from PR work, Favouritizm has been in town to DJ, playing last Wednesday’s Jellybean Soul party at Aerobar on Miami Beach. “There was a great crowd all night,” Favouritizm explains, “and much love for the Favouritizm label’s new Bah Samba single Don’t Let Them Get You Down. Miami is such an acid test for new records.”
Jellybean Soul meant a set from legendary Madonna producer John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez, who offered a slick, highly accomplished mix of soulful house and afro-beat. One of his guests, Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez, upped the percussive ante with a series of rapturously received tribal grooves, and Favouritizm held down a sweatin’ backroom alongside fellow female spinner Jen Blaze.
Over at the Shelborne Miami Beach Hotel, on the same evening, pioneering Philly label Ovum Recordings was celebrating its 15th anniversary alongside DJ Magazine. The hotel’s nightclub Shine was utterly rammed and quickly earned its status as one of the parties of the Conference.
Matt Brookman, Ovum’s General Manager, was quite literally bowled over: “We’ve been doing parties at Miami for some time, but this one was really special. I was working the door, as I wanted to make sure everything was under control, and the surge of people nearly had me off my feet. You know it’s a great Miami party when the fire marshals are already scoping the building at just after midnight….”
Josh Wink
Ovum founder, legendary DJ and producer Josh Wink concurs: “We’re blessed to have so many loyal supporters. I mean, our party had Carl Cox popping in and chilling with Carl Craig; we had David Guetta in the DJ booth to say hi; people like Tiesto, Sasha, Luciano and Harry Romero all dropping in. It was a huge compliment.”
Ovum’s music policy was one of Miami’s most varied this year. Davide Squillace and D’Julz dropped nu-skool funky house, whilst Joris Voorn and Nic Fanciulli went back-to-back with some sharp and contemporary tech-house. And what of Wink’s set? “It’s a colourful blur” he chuckles, “but, no, I was mixing some classic Ovum productions with newer sounds. A lot of planning went into the party’s overall music program; a lot of Miami parties cram as many big name DJs in as they can, and end up with a string of disappointing 45 minute sets. We were able to give a wide variety of performers two hours each and really build atmosphere over the night. It was crazy.”
Indeed, the backroom had another (deeper) house vibe altogether - Doc Martin, Sneak and new Ovum signing MANIK absolutely slamming the crowd. “We had a truly international crowd” Wink reflects, “an infectious mix of our musical contemporaries, of promoters and label bosses, of clubbers and journalists. Miami has changed; the businessmen don’t come so much any more, it’s all focused on the parties now and, as such, the musical scope has widened. A lot of American clubbers, in particular, are being exposed to new sounds, which is great. The purists might moan about how the Conference has changed, but variety is the spice right? I think this year’s event was amazing.”
Strictly Defected @ Cameo
Every conference has its anthem and this year’s, judging by popular blogosphere reaction, was Dennis Ferrer’s towering Hey Hey. Not many parties missed it off; it even scooped Best Underground Track at Miami’s prestigious International Dance Music Awards. It was one of the tracks of the night at the Strictly Defected party at Cameo on the Tuesday night - a great crowd paired with some awesome DJ’s – with an incredible B2B set from Spen & Karizma’s – pretty damn incredible both visually and musically. A shifty Scarface-sampling electro-house number, Scarcube, from Italians The Cube Guys (playing at Chus & Ceballos’ Stereo Recordings party) also hit big. Commentators are already touting both tunes as potential summer explosions.
Hey Hey was rinsed fairly strenuously at the Eden Roc Spa Resort during Friday’s Circo Loco-hosted official WMC Pool Party; a party which dazzled only after Francois K turned up and mixed fiesty four-to-the-floor from the likes of KiNK (Rachel) and Joris Voorn (Sweep The Floor.) Not to mention Ferrer.
Thursday’s Cadenza vs Desolat pool party, at Shelborne, was another conference highlight, with Luciano squeezing a dizzying, delighting array of miminal house and tech goodies into his mammoth six-hour set. So too, Sasha and Digweed’s ‘traditional’ sunset Bedrock cruise. The invitation-only bash aboard swish yacht the Lady Windridge saw Sasha on top ambient, deep prog-house form and Digweed truly rocking proceedings thanks to a fiery mix of New Wave-edged tech. Clubbers were clapping for more long after her Lady had re-docked and the speakers shut down….
The Shelbourne Hotel
There’s been a lot of positive post-Conference chatter about Friday’s hugely over-subscribed MN2S 15th anniversary shindig at Klutch (formerly Opium) on Nikki Beach; a shindig which overcame faulty smoke machines with blistering sets from Armand Van Helden, Martin Solveig and deep tech-house fusionists Dzeta N Basile – arguably the standouts. “It was just a sea of bodies” Van Helden reports, “one of my favourite sets in quite a while.”
In terms of vocalists, India’s Wednesday night turn at the Jellybean party was quite something as indeed, on the same night, was Barbara Tucker’s at her own tonsil talent-focused And Let The Singer Be Heard event. Tucker freestyled effortlessly with her group, The B Crew at Ocean Ten, South Beach – all over funky jams provided by Spen; on Friday, she jammed with Jay-J Hernandez at NextAid’s fabulously soulful fundraiser, Beats Build Hope – a Shore Club affair also featuring Mark Farina and Jazzanova.
“I disagree with those that say Miami is losing its spark” Tucker says. “It’s certainly more segregated now but the spark, I think, is still there. I’m just thrilled my own night And Let The Singer… earned such a warm response this year. It’s the only conference night promoting and supporting singers rather than DJs and producers.”
A Happy Punter
Miami wrapped up with some amusing shenanigans at Danny Tenaglia’s Shelborne pool party – men in shark costumes pulling transvestites under the water is the least of it, trust us, but a vivid reminder all the same that there’s nothing in clubland quite like the Winter Music Conference. It’s been a blast, roll on 2011….
Words: Ben Lovett
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