Lasermagnetic Easter Sunday
Lasermagnetic present Danser Avec Moi
Words: Bianca Mitchell
Shoreditch venue CAMP heats up this Easter weekend as The Hackney Players Association join the long-standing Bank Holiday party specialists of London, Lasermagnetic, as well as Italo Collective Pearl Flash to bring you Danser Avec Moi - a 12-hour-long Easter Sunday session of culture and downright debauchery.
Head along for the late afternoon kick-off, complete with film screenings, food and cocktails. The evening then transforms into a warehouse-style disco which guarantees you’ll be throwing shapes right up until 6am. The Hackney Players Association will be pairing their 1973 Bozak rotary mixer with a state of the art Martin Audio sound system to ensure delivering that extra warm fuzzy sound. The film screening is not to be missed and features an exclusive music documentary preview on downtown New York City in the late 70s, narrated by Debbie Harry.
For a taster of those warm disco vibes, Blackjoy has put out the following mixes to get us all in the mood for the big night out:
“The story behind the 3 mixes is simple," says Jerome Caron aka Blackjoy. "When I got back from LA in spring 2008 I wanted to record the vibe I got there, the records I bought but the ambience I got in the clubs there got me recording the 3 of them in one day. It was fun to give 3 volumes in a row, something you can fill your ipod with before the summer. I wanted to do the same last year but live mixes at home aren't so easy for me to do, I prefer to bring the music in the clubs and see what happens. So here you go..."
We caught up with The Super Sound High Fidelity party trio The Hackney Players Association consisting of Leon Mayes, Andy Newcombe and Toru. They can be found most weekends riding their Bozak system on a wave of higher modulation through London's underground party scene playing their 100% vinyl tag team sets. Here Andy tells us a little about their sound set-up and the ideas behind their upcoming Bank Holiday celebration...
The night starts with food and film, which reminds us of The Lofts vibe. Why have you chosen to add this extra element?
The reason we're doing this is to add a different twist to the event so it is not just another carry-on event for Easter Weekend. Once the film is over around 8pm will be turning up the sound system slowly and easing into the dancing.
Explain the set-up you’re playing on. It sounds like you’re proud audiophiles.
The Bozak is a really rare model that is pre the more well known CMA 10-2DL that Larry Levan made famous. We've been in touch with the engineer who designed it around 1968, chap called Bob Betts, he was amazed to hear we are still using this model as it is the last model where the components were handpicked for low run production as the Levan CMA 10-2DL was the first commercially produced Bozak. For The HPA the DJ booth and sound is first priority. We aim to give a DJ experience second to none and thus make the DJ's performance more interesting, exciting and entertaining for all.
"The Bozak CMA 10-2D mixer is our pride and joy," adds Leon AKA The Off-Kwy Hat. "I was looking for one of these and kind of got caught in a bidding war on Ebay. I pulled out, but the guy who beat me did not buy it. I should think he saw a bit of sense. It was the equivalent of a rust bucket.
I was doing nights with Cocadisco and it wasn't earthed properly. Everyone was getting shocked pretty badly. But they are built to last and I took it down to a guy I know in Twickenham called John Duncan and we sat there for hours talking it through working out what was wrong and he fixed it. Now all that we needed was a bottom end. We used a lot of systems with it, lots of different Function Ones, My own JBL-Klipsch bastard but the surprise was this tasty little Martin system from the Hackney Empire. So beautiful, so warm.
We'll be using an upgraded version of this for Easter Sunday. No processors, just jack the Bozak straight in. We tried a new Bozak isolator with it which has divided the HPA camp. But my point of view is, whilst one of those things can improve say a Numark or an Allen and Heath, for a 1973 Bozak mixer with components hand picked by Rudi himself, I don't think so. Let the vinyl do the talking. Go drop the bass out on your Vestax and let the Bozak bass thrill you..."
Danser Avec Moi
Room 1
Cosmo Vitelli (I’m a Cliché)
Tim Paris (Kill the DJ/It’s a fine line)
Pearl Flash (Casey, Fred Gazebo & Bergas)
Johnny Chingas (Lasermagnetic)
Room 2
Blackjoy (Paris)
Kelvin Brown (Electric Chair, Manchester)
Mr. Shiver (SDM/Aphrodisiacs)
The Hackney Players Association (Leon Mayes/The Off Key Hat, Andy Newcombe/Discobox & Toru/B.H.I.B)
THE CAMP
70-74 City Road
London EC1Y 2BJ
6pm –6am
£6- £8
Concessions available