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WORLDWIDE REPORT DAY 1

Beautiful sunny day here in Brussels right before leaving to the airport, I heard it was a bit overcast in Sète but wasn’t too worried about that, knowing the weather is coming good in that part of France.  Arrived 2 hours late in Sète, yeah my plane had a flat tire, can you believe that sh*t?  Finally arrived in this fishing town, so many memories here from last year and nothing has really changed…  On our way to the “phare du mole” I saw homeboy Franck from the Worldwide Festival, I told him we were starving so he showed us a nice restaurant called “Bistrot du Port”, got nice food and I paid him a “pint”… a word they’re not really familiar with here, ain’t that right Franck? You owe me one, I mean a drink, not a beer…!  Man, I was so excited to see my Worldwide family I almost ran after dinner, happy to see some faces I haven’t seen in a minute, reminding me of a good time in Singapore.  Stereotyp was there, some WF Singapore crew members, bPm, Gui & Boris, Jonathan, of course “le patron” Gilles, my brother Simbad, I mean…so many familiar faces.

   

I arrived late though, couldn’t witness the talent search winners, Beatspoke but catched a few minutes of Principles of Geometry which was good, especially for that time of the night.  Sundae took over, throwing some nice gems until Gilles came on stage to introduce the next artist.  Theo Parrish brought his own mixer, which wasn’t the best thing to do I think; first, it took time to set up; second, no soundcheck for that mixer which was actually the main reason why you had a bad sound by moments during his set, (but it didn’t seem to bother the bPm as he was dancing right in front of that main speaker for an hour, man watch out for them ears).  As the festival has a very good technical team we knew the mixer was the reason, we trust them boys behind the consoles.  Anyway, I really liked Theo Parrish’s set.  He went deep but then again, it was all good, I know there’s people out there really loving that deep shit, yeah you know who you are .  Theo is really a cool guy, after his set and while listening to Diplo’s set we talked about the similar sound the B-more sound has with old rave music.

Talking about Diplo, his set woke up everybody out of their deepeness; you know the style and you know how hard that sound goes… incredible vibe at that time, the crowd really enjoyed that sound; that Lynn Collins break man… I’ve had enough of that.  Stereotyp was up next, too bad my camera died, wanted to film him badly… He started with his hard sound, nice bass, was dope.  Diplo stayed on stage drinking a beer on stage with Stereotyp.  That’s the true Worldwide spirit, drinking with the other boys while playing beautiful records for the crowd, a festival made by deejays and music lovers and I’m sure the crowd can feel that.  If you know my blog, you know I can’t leave you without a video, so here it is ladies & gentlemen:




WORLDWIDE REPORT DAY 2

Woke up at 1pm and went to sleep around 8am after a good breakfast at the hotel with Simbad; it was really necessary.  Was the first awake as usual, the other one still dreaming and me ichatting with the bPm who was definitely not ready to bounce to the beach.  Finally, 2 hours later we arrive at the Acd beach where Son Of Kick is playing heavy tunes for the crowd, chilled with my Italian buddies for a minute, cool guys. I heard Fuzati (isn’t he from Le Klub des 7?) did a great job playing jazz and related stuff, too bad I didn’t see his set.  I think it’s better to play it smooth at the beach, let the people breath for a minute…  Everybody was in the water, muscles, hot sun and nice bodies laying on the sand.  Acd beach, a nice spot where we all playing on sunday on a bigger soundsystem, should be nice.

   

At night it was all about food and nice music.  Went to le “Grand Bleu” restaurant with my girl, for the suggestion of the day,grilled fish, grilled potato and a salad…delicious!  Soil & Pimp was about the start at the “Theatre de la Mer” and I didn’t want to miss that because I knew it would be something legendary in there, an amphitheater by the beach where other artists like Fela Kuti performed back in the days.  I saw the last song of Sebastien Schuller, that song was nice, dunno about the rest, where you there?  Then Soil & Pimp, it was time for a mad session; after two songs the band asked the crowd to show them how they dance, damn, the whole place started dancing in front of the stage, a pretty crazy view but oh so beautiful.  Like I told Gilles, we need Japanese people around us, they are so special and different, you gotta love ‘em. Soil & Pimp Ichiban.



At the lighthouse it was Grfld warming-up the crowd with a nice set, right before Dorian Concept’s set.  A set that would become one of the craziest sets Dorian ever did.  It all began smoothly, but then came the lightning and then the rain started falling down the sky.  It would’ve been a horrible thing if we hadn’t those plastic things to put over the gear and Dorian’s computer.  Me & Franck were keeping that plastic over Dorian’s gear for 30 minutes, Simbad came to help too, we were dancing in the rain and Dorian tried to keep his shit dry, a computer, microkorg etc… shit’s no joke!  I’m sure we’ll remember this for a long time.  If that wasn’t not bad enough, boom! no electricity anymore.  Try to explain a crowd without mic that it will take 5 minutes haha, but Gilles had it under control, check it out in the video.  Then came Martyn, cool guy with a very nice album and dutchman, feels good to speak dutch with that cat, he did a splendid set, probably one of the best sets so far, big up!  Then, finally, the master arrived, el maestro, Carl Craig… what can I say, he’s a big man in the world of music, always something to see someone with his status, he ripped it, raving like the love parade in Berlin, I think the bPm is still dancing on his music right now haha.  That was the perfect time for me to leave the building, in the car with Martyn back to the hotel and here I am, writing at 6am.  Goodnight.




WORLDWIDE REPORT DAY 3

It all started at the “acd beach”; Da Vince & Aline were killin’ it with a nice blend of afrobeats, hiphop and funky music.  I was happy to hear that kind of music at the beach, really.  The bPm took over for another 30 minutes of beautiful music, someone was playing congas and flute, a deadly combination when used over a beat.  Alex Barck came in, was happy to see the man again, he told me half of his stuff didn’t arrive and that it could be a problem for his set tonite…wow;  Strange, I heard the same thing about Laurent Garnier’s gear, his music should come in around 10.30pm by plane, let’s hope it will all come to a good end.

   

Time to go to the beautiul Théâtre de la Mer where Mocky and Jimi Tenor had to perform.  Had a nice dinner with some Sète traditional food, was pretty good, don’t ask me what it was though and met the guy from Fulgeance, a dope act on two Akai Mpc’s, this guy rocks, if you don’t know the music make sure to check it out.  Mocky Live was very entertaining, funny dudes on stage, beautiful music, all that in a beautiful environment, what else do you need? A couch….  The whistle song was very nice and I definitely have to check out this album.  Then came Jimi Tenor, always dressed up, reminding me Sun Ra, and his drummer reminded me of Rick James (biiiiitch!); a nice set, better than the one I saw couple of months ago, going uptempo all the way, you could see Jimi loved it and so did the crowd, again standing right in the front like yesterday.  Let’s go to the lighthouse…

Went to the lighthouse with Fulgeance and Simbad, beautiful Mpc set up, I really wanted to play for a minute on the samplers with such a soundsystem, aah next time maybe…  Son of Kick was on the decks right before while the whole Laurent Garnier crew got in, telling us the gear, actually the cables for the gear didn’t make it at all.  Can you feel the kind of stress it is for an organisation? Knowing there’s a crowd of 2200 people in the front expecting Laurent to come on stage and kill it… Daaamn!  Meanwhile, Fulgeance was killin’ it on the samplers and also using the effects of the Pioneer mixer.  Using the effects so much that at a certain point he just lost it… thinking that the mixer was tripping…haha, he had to start it all over again.  While the crew was calling everybody in Sète for cables it was Alex Barck’s moment of shine.  He ripped it, I don’t even know if he had all his music with him in the end but he did a superb set, the crowd enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, it wasn’t too deep, just the way I love it.  Alex, merci!



Finally, after a thousand calls, asking artists backstage, the crew, all sweaty, found every single cable necessary to connect Laurent Garnier’s music, what a relief!  Gilles explained the whole situation to the crowd, I love that, it gives the show another dimension…  2200 people into it, for some it was a really crazy show, for others it wasn’t that great, I dunno, I just think it wasn’t my thing but good for what it is… can’t really judge.  But what I’m sure about is that a majority in the crowd really loved his set, and his greatest hits at the end of the show (which I liked better haha&hellip.  Anyway, props to the whole crew for finding those cables, you guys did a hell of a job.  I’m going to bed now…  Tomorrow it’s a whole dj line-up at the beach. Word!




WORLDWIDE REPORT DAY 4

Wow, is this the end ? Is it the final day of the 2009 edition of the Worldwide Festival in Sète ? That’s the feeling I woke up with this morning… on my way back to Belgium on a Tgv from Montpellier, it should take another 5 hours to get home…

Yesterday was super nice.  I left the hotel around 2pm and met the drum&bass legend that is DJ Suv outside, he’s amazing and a super friendly guy.  Heading towards the beach where I had to deejay at 6.30pm.  Enjoying the beautiful but too hot weather in the afternoon (chilled with Fulgeance, funny cat), had a crazy good steak at a crazy price (that’s when you know you’re in southern France) ; then checked out Shuya’s set of Kyoto Jazz Massive, very gentle guy I met a couple days ago, I love the jazz vibe he brings.  Yanna and Eddy were next, from Croatia, she’s singing and he mixes, very interesting, at first I didn’t know she was singing, it sounded like a record, excellent.

Then came DJ Suv, expected him to play drum & bass but actually played more house and broken beat stuff, a nice set with a MJ tribute in the beginning… I had to tell him to slow it down a bit because he was going nuts on the beats haha…Gilles, luckily, introduced me so I could start from scratch.  You know the deal, from hiphop and beats to soul, brazil, broken beat, house and more, in 60 minutes.  Michael Rutten from Soulpatrol, Frankfurt Germany was up next and did a great set, really enjoyed his set. Too bad I wasn’t around for DJ Oil’s set… how was it ?

I was happy Gilles slowed it all down a bit, good downtempo music, heard the “Gentle Smilles” edit by DJ Day,  Jill Scott, a beautiful Joey Negro record (tu me l’envoies patron?), you know, it feels good to hear something different than the usual boom boom of uptempo music haha.  I mean, it’s not bad but diversity is cool sometimes.  Earl Zinger was doing a hell of a job, on the mic (especially on that Jose x Joy Orbison track), he killed it…period !  Then Simbad took over and did a splendid set and gave the night another dimension by playing MJ’s “Thriller” as it was full moon last night, incredible.  Next? Ow yeah we did a back to back session with Eddy, Michael, Shuya, Simbad and myself, very pleasant set, short but rich in music, different genres, different styles of mixing, interesting…

Homeboy Todd Terje was up next, you know how that goes, disco and what not, excellent.  We had D.O.P. from France doing a live set, very nice band, uptempo, singing, going wild on stage… the guys are actually a bunch of friends who know each other for more than 15 years, all have the same tattoo on their arm, cool guys, a bit crazy though…  Finally met the guy called Trus’Me, he makes very nice music and the label is going well (Prime Numbers), expect some good music coming your way in september and october, looking forward.  I didn’t even hear his set, shame on me.  And fuck my camera, it died after Gilles‘ set…



After him it was all family on the turntables, Suv killed it with a monumental drum&bass set, very very dope, mixing acappella’s from Kanye over the beats, man you killed it.  Passed the headphones to The bPm who ripped it with that Babylon record, one of the only times I heard raggamuffin on the festival, I need that record Thristian.
It all ended with Simbad and myself, and the crowd singing to the vibes of Laos’ “something beautiful” ; the crowd was fantastic during the festival, big up, we need you guys to spread the message, spread the music and the good vibes.  Worldwide Festival baby, Freshly Cut crew, GP until next time… Merci !