Monday, June 15, 2009

JW / Electronica Classics 018: John Digweed Live At Massive



I must admit I'm quite excited about this week's selection. That's because while researching the track listing for this set, I stumbled upon a longer version of the performance than the one I added to my collection nearly a decade ago. I also learned that this set had been distributed under an incorrect name, so it's also refreshing to learn its true identity.

Most fanatical John Digweed set collectors are familiar with the recording that was widely shared on Napster back in late 2000 under the name "John Digweed - Live at Massive Germany". This performance has the somewhat unique distinction of blasting out of the gate at 100 MPH. Digweed's typical approach to constructing a set is to build slowly, until by about hour two or three he's warping your mind in an un-Earthly vortex of sound. Conversely, this Live at Massive set is like a 40 foot tidal wave that you see approaching on the horizon for only 54 seconds before it crashes on top of you & sends you deep into an abyss of sound. (Of note, the only other Digweed set from the past decade that I've run across to follow a similar "destroy you from the outset" pattern is his Live from Amnesia performance recorded last August in Ibiza.)

Similar to last week's Parks & Wilson classic set, this Digweed performance sits neatly between the trance sounds of the late 90s and the progressive house sounds of late 2000 and early 2001. You'll notice in the track listing below that there are a few tracks in this performance that also found their way onto Sasha & John Digweed's "Communicate" album that was released later in 2000 & very indicative of their style honed during their monthly residency at Twilo in Manhattan during this period.

As I mentioned earlier, this set is widely known as "Live at Massive Germany", but upon further investigation, it was actually recorded in Holland. Perhaps the foreign-language announcer in the recording or the name "Jaarbeurs" in the accurate title confused the original uploader in those heady, turn-of-the-millenium days. Whatever the reason for the mis-titled ID3 tags, the quality of this set remains. The second hour is a new treat for me, since the version I had until yesterday was only an hour long. Be sure to keep this one in a safe place. It is exceedingly worthy of the label "Electronica Classic".


John Digweed - Live at Massive Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, Holland 2000-02-26

Boyd Westerman - Loop Life (Escape Mix)
Novy v. Eniac - Pumpin? (Bluefish Mix)
Online - Automatic
POB - WAAH! (Seismix)
Killahurtz - West On 27th
DJ Gogo - Ajuna
Unknown
Unknown
Tsunami - Mode Confusion [System F Mix]
Salt Tank - The Energy
Bedrock - Voices (Dj Remy??/Slacker's Dumbstruck?? Mix) (unsure which)
Luzon - The Bagiou Track (Bedrock Mix)
Breeder - Tyrantanic (Slackers Kingdom Come Mix)
Berock - Heaven Scent (John Johnson Remix)
Timo Maas - Ubik (The Dance)
Unknown

2 comments:

Steph said...

Had to comment on this one....LOVE IT! Can't believe I've never heard them before. Thanks!

Juston Western said...

Glad you're enjoying it! That era was such a great time period for this style of electronic music.