Happy New Year!  I feel like I've been away for the longest time!!  I was home in Ireland over the holidays and due to the bad weather not out that much. Came back Jan 8th but didn't get to go out til the following weekend where I caught Shit Robot at the Tribeca Grand. 

This was my first time to see Shit Robot and to go to Tribeca Grand and neither one disappointed. As I'm going to the WMC Miami in March, I'm trying to cut back on paying for big ticket gigs at the weekend and Tribeca Grand was free. Now its not a club more like a small disco/dance floor off the bar of the hotel. But the hotel itself is nice - busy but not insane and a nice mixed crowd.  There was a good opening act - I can't remember the name but they warmed up the crowd pretty well - playing a mix of disco and electro. Shit Robot came on around 1pm. It's interesting because I had one of his tracks on a Fabric CD compilation album but had not heard of him before and turns out he's originally from Dublin (interview coming soon here).  He played a really nice blend of current popular dance stuff (Hey Hey by Ferrer being one) and even broke out a remix of Funky Town.  Some of my friends who came with me that night who are not clubbers really enjoyed his set too.  Looking forward to catching him again very soon.

This past weekend I got to see Guy Gerber at LOVE. I caught Guy last year at Electric Zoo and interviewed him for RTE Pulse and he's such a nice person (I didn't want to say guy there - Guys a nice guy! Weird!) He played a fantastic set on Friday night til 6am!! And we stayed til the end!! Magic! The opener was Matthias Tanzmann who also did a great job behind the decks.  Its only January but I'm reckoning this is going to be a highlight gig of the year for me!!

The Digital Conundrum is a blog series, hopefully monthly, that discuss elements of digital DJing. This month we'll discuss an aspect of digital DJing software, the sync button.

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First up went to see Gui Boratto at LOVE weekend of Nov 21st. Didn't know much about Boratto but went on the recommendation of my friend Angie. He was awseome! Deep, dark, beautiful techno that kept me dancing all night. It turns out that he is a favorite of Sander Kleinenberg too among other things. Will definitely be on the lookout for future gigs of his.

Was all set to see Deadmau5 at Terminal 5 on Nov 25 but a cold/flu got the better of me. I sold my ticket for $30 - $10 less than what I paid for it but probably could've sold it for 3 times that much. Nevertheless the fevers had me and I let it go to a desperate young fella at the door!  Heard mixed reports from my meetup group who went.  Said he played a short set (one said he repeated tunes but I doubt that). Mostly it was to do with the vibe of the evening and the fact that it ended at 2am which is unusual for NYC clubs. But Terminal 5 seem to have that policy.  Simon Patterson and Sean Tyas were playing at Rebel that night and I love Simon.  That sounded like another good option.

Next up was Timo Maas at Santos Party House (a venue I hadn't been to before). I got there pretty early (11) and the stage was still being set up for the gig. A rock band had been playing earlier. Admission was free (although I had somehow purchased a ticket before I knew this - only $10) but if I had paid 5 times that it would have been worth it! From a fairly dead room, Sleepy and Boo basically opened a bag of instant party with their first track! They are sooo good! High energy techno, no muss no fuss just really good dancing music. Always happy to hear them even though they were only opening. They totally should have a set completely on their own somewhere!

VJ Technology : Part 1
Winamp : Milkdrop2

Each month(ish), I’ll look at an aspect of VJ’ing and VJ technology. I’ll start the ball rolling by looking at winamp.

This Weekend in the fair aul capital is a big one for anyone with an interest in bass/hip hop related tuneage, I'm not gonna harp on too much bit here's a quick run down ( Each of these is linked up to further info where possible) :

Fri 20th Nov : MUD : Twisted Pepper : DJ Godfather / Breakdown Label Launch / Tribe D'n'b sessions 11P.M. - 10e

Fri 20th Nov : POD : Crawdaddy : MALA w/ Safety boy on support 11.30 P.M. - 15e