5 Days. 9 Labels. 2 Stages. 1 Giant Pool. 15th-19th June.
Global dance brand and acclaimed party people FACT are once again excited to unveil some mouth-watering events for OFF Week 2016. FACT is back once again for a series of landmark parties already set to surpass last year’s editions of the FACT Music Pool Series during 5 consecutive days in collaboration with 9 Labels and agencies such as Cocoon, Mobilee, Watergate, Lola ED vs Half Baked, WetYourself, Cocobeach, Warung Beach Club, Checkpoint and YAKAZI on 2 Stages around their infamous giant pool. Each party will take place at a poolside venue in Hospitalet de Llobregat, a beautiful spot with outdoor space for dancing in the sun, a lush pool, great light, sound, production and new architectural accommodations to help set each party off right.
78 DJs are performing across FACT’s five pool parties this summer and we compiled the essential deep cuts, career definers and unexpected hits from ten of the performers to get you excited for the festivities ahead!
10. Jimi Jules: “Earl”
Jules infiltrated deep house compilations with the Tchami remix of “Pushing On” around two years ago, yet what he was brewing before is arguably much more essential. “Earl”, a 7 minute faux-introduction to Jules is the perfect precursor to international success. There’s the chanting soul vocals, presumably lifted from Motown’s back cabinet that drive a spinning beat on even when the bass, drums and melody are stripped away urgently. It’s a battle march to the very end, even after the last second has played, a kinetic rhythm continues.
9. Cristi Cons: “You Know”
The closing track from 2014’s Basorelief, “You Know” is one track in Cristi Cons’ arsenal that denies any sort of definition. There’s clicks, echoes, a morphing bass and handclaps. Eventually, dissonance starts replacing the thin melody hiding in the sounds, and Cons forms an unexpected dance hit. Sleeper hit “Anatrack” may have made Cristi waves with a sharper, more direct approach to pacing a crowd, but “You Know” remains the far more beguiling spectacle.
8. Apollonia: “Visa Amercain”
“Visa Amercain” shares many tricks and techniques with its A-Side “Trinidad”. A liberal fill of hi-hats feature in both records. Hazy field recordings and vocal samples spiral into the respective drums. What differentiates “Visa Amercain” is a lapping play with bit crushing software and a charming, measured set of sounds. How the French house-trio gave the tune its title is unknown, but it spins nicely with “Trinidad”s similarly sunny groove.
7. Magda: “48 Hour Crack In Your Bass”
https://soundcloud.com/magda-official/magda-stop-01-48-hour-crack-in
If there’s a track on this list that forces your attention, it’s “Crack”. Poland-hailing Magda’s most popular track online doesn’t earn its title through cheap tricks and ploys though. The energy here is organic, a timely engineered monster, with a staying power that makes it just as listenable 11 summers after its debut. Tracking the impact of Detroit techno here isn’t too easy, as Magda learns to blur influences whilst serving a razor sharp attention to detail. Every sound is sequenced just at the right moment: hardware hiccups, lo-fi snares and a bass clef so vicious it can be heard loud and clear blaring out of laptop speakers. It’s hard to believe this was her debut.
6. Rodriguez Jr.: “Nausicaa”
https://soundcloud.com/rodriguezjr/rodriguez-jr-nausicaa
Lifting its title from either Studio Ghibli’s early 80’s epic or the Homeric character from Odyssey, Rodriguez Jr. crafted a standout with “Nausicaa”. The producer spends most of the runtime laying down the essential floor-operating tools, then fills the rest of the space with the spacious gestures that kickstarts the tune. Like Odyssey and Nausicaa, the tune takes its time, but the reward here is a cascading wash of hardware tinkering; pulling the track from the dancefloor into the aquatic ocean bed.
5. Dana Ruh: “If You Don’t Know a Name”
It’s amusing how German songstress Dana Ruh sequenced her best recorded moment onto a label compilation. Past tracks that found their placement in similar circumstance have had enough musicality to stand out in a set, and “If You Don’t Know a Name” is no exception. What the title refers to is left unknown, there’s a rattling of snares and hi-hats, and an uneasy melody that finds the track fading in and out of itself. Ruh spins plates and moods, keeping enough space vacant to ensure enthrallment.
4. Ilario Alicante: “Barcelona’s Lover” (Twentyonetwenty)
Ilario Alicante further justifies the claim that a producer’s best beat can come from the most unexpected places. Dropped as the b-side to “In Deep Tunes”, “Lover” guides the paranoid mood that precedes it into summertime tranquility. For much of the track’s runtime the drums are light, like they were strummed on sandy surfaces. A saxophone line runs through several bars, even until the beat drops back in and the track reclaims itself as a dance track. Warmup filler jokes aside, expect to keep hearing this at every rooftop party in the city,
3. La Fleur: “Nightflow” (Watergate)
“Nightflow” stomps with conviction. Swedish producer and head label manager for Power Plant Records La Fleur knowingly pulls together every component for crowd pleasing; spinning synths, bouncing percussion and a muffled vocal loop. But there’s enough distance in the background measurements to make the tune not just an easy floor filling standard. The ideas on “Nightflow” come so thick and fast you’ll end up with a completely different sound and impression at the close from when you hit play.
2. Kevin Over: “Jodye” (Noir Music)
https://soundcloud.com/kevin-over/kevin-over-jodye
Kevin Over claimed he got his start “sitting in front of the radio, recording live mixes on tapes, and then listening to it a hundred times”. “Jodye” sounds meticulous enough to justify this, with a hundred sounds swapping over each other over the track’s six minutes. It’s almost too nice for it’s own good, if Over didn’t have the knack to bring a rolling rhythm to the forefront whenever his serene outside sounds take up the mix. The balance makes “Jodye” not just the perfect EP opener, but a score for a producer hitting his stride.
1. Matthew Dear: “Her Fantasy” (Ghostly International)
There are few house pacemakers with a millennium as eclectic as Matthew Dear’s. Fedde le Grand flipped his sleeper hit “Hands Up for Detroit” into European blockbuster success. He got behind the boards with Seth Troxler and sharply closed out the 2000’s with critically admired Black City. By the time the dust settled and Dear had put a microscopic lens to his work on wax, he dropped late career highlight Beams. “Her Fantasy”, the LP’s introduction is an expansive demonstration of Matthew the producer, bandleader, vocalist and entertainer. Inspirations David Bowie and Talking Heads, acts that forayed into the dance floor with a thirst for the idiosyncratic, can be traced in soul and deep synthetics. The arrangement is ambitious: whistling samples, cool vocal delivery and a harrowing 80s throwback of a drumline. The slow burning tempo allow for a lot of time to study just how a producer can latch on to enduring relevance with ease.
Hear these tracks and many (many) more at the FACT Pool Party Series during Off Week in Barcelona, June 15th – 19th.One thing is for certain, each of these pool parties is sure to be a roadblock so get your tickets early to avoid disappointment!