MIAMI MUSIC WEEK BLOG: DAYS THREE & FOUR

Like the no mans land between Christmas and New Year, there comes a point in Miami when it’s hard to work out what day it is anymore. This discombobulating experience almost always arrives thanks to the sprawling nature of Get Lost, the ninth edition of Damian Lazarus’ party, which this year stretches to a 24-hour experience lasting from early Saturday to Sunday morning.

This, of course, presents the dilemma of when exactly to make an appearance and the challenge of how to catch as much as possible, with the party’s who’s who of talent, taking in the likes of Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson and Droog, bookended by two bonafide legends, Sasha kicking the fun off and DJ Harvey taking over for the last five hours. 

As it is, the lure of early morning shenanigans proves too much to resist.

Sometime on Friday afternoon it still seems a distant prospect, DJ Mag enjoying the grand white interior of the seafront W Hotel where we’re talking to Afrojack, who’s bounced back from the over exertions that had seen him declaring on Twitter that he was strategically taking himself to hospital. Dressed in his own new range from G-Star, another world-renowned Dutch brand, he’s instead jubilant at the first play of his debut album ‘Forget the World’ the day before.

It’s a short wander down Collins to the Surfcomber afterwards, where Pete Tong has gathered a collection of friends. Nervo’s set is a sign of the times, their EDM roots smoothed down into a deeper set that includes Catz ‘N Dogz’s remix of Thomas Schumacher’s ‘Hush’, while Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike stoke the summer vibes with Ninetoes’ ‘Finder’ and have us dancing on tables with Green Velvet’s ‘Flash’ before heading into more festival-sized territory. Pete Tong continues the deep house revolution, pumping out a poolside friendly set and laying the groundwork for MK, whose reinvention continues afresh.

Hotel drinks fill the void between day and late night, before it’s off downtown again to another wing of the sprawling Ice Palace for Richie Hawtin’s Enter. Building on the vibe of the ‘90s warehouse parties that he started out playing in Ontario and Detroit, the scale of the main room is as imposing as the sounds echoing around it. A distant figure just visible across a sea of people filling the giant film set, Hawtin’s stripped down techno sound booms out from speakers hidden in the darkness, lights exploding across our retina from a battery somewhere down the front. It’s a visceral sensory assault giving a glimpse back into an era that most here were too young to remember.

A few hours later we’re back on Collins, heading off the beaten track to the Room 207 Lounge, a tiny studio in the Marlin Hotel, where DJ Mag have been invited to spin a few tunes. Hidden away from the rising sun outside, the nighttime energy just keeps rolling and as eyes adjust to the mid-morning sun when we leave a decision is made to keep rolling through into Get Lost. Day three is heading well into day four.

So we’re back at another part of the Ice Palace, a venue seeing no shortage of action in 2014. Filled with smoke and hanging silver tinsel, we are initially lost, wandering around in vast almost empty rooms until a door lets in streaming sunshine and we’re outside where the real action has started. 

New York duo Bob Moses are playing live, their Scissor & Thread single ‘All I Want’ sounding even better than it does on record, while everyone from Jackmaster and Heidi to Subb-an and Seth Troxler is gathered backstage. In fact, if you want your fill of house and techno, then there’s nowhere with as much on offer as here. The Martinez Brothers have gathered a crowd in the now rapidly filling main room inside, playing sinewy tech-house grooves, while deeper inside the venue Mark Jenkyns and Rob James are playing a back-to-back set and Russ Yallop is waiting in the wings.

There’s plenty more to come, Fur Coat, Craig Richards and David Squillace to name just a few, but a tactical early evening retreat to get some food gives us a chance to regroup and rein ourselves back in for the final day of Miami Music Week. With Get Lost still going as we type, we’re sure there will be plenty of other tired eyes behind obligatory sunglasses at the final day of parties...